Oaxaca: Graffiti, Broken Glass and Federales

img 4227 is in spanish so what does it say?
Great shot

It's a bank, or some other plaque with Lopez Obrador's name scrawled on it. Obrador was the progressive presidential candidate who lost Mexico's most recent election.

Thanks for the photos -- and the articles.

Thanks for the photos. I'm glad you are out of there. It's not safe.

SPK, thanks for the series on Oaxaca. My grandmother was born in a Mormon colony in Oaxaca, in 1903; it is such a shame to see this town or any place in the world so ruined by crime, especially police and government brutality, and graffiti.

DMP,

It's a free site, but please pay me and the other readers/contributors a little respect here and avoid foul language, ok?

So you are refusing to abide by a very courteous request to avoid foul language? I believe that might be a violation of the Gather Terms of Service Agreement. You might ought to rethink your position.

One last thing, DMP: I don't mind you commenting. It's just the foul language that I dislike. But your comments, no matter how much I disagree with them are certainly welcome, as I get paid for every comment you make in one of my threads. Your comments make me a little bit of money. So, if you want to keep giving me money, by all means, please continue to comment in my threads.

I'll look at the pictures later, Sean-Paul. I am just very thrilled that you are back! Salud,

Mariana, yeah, it's good to be home. Always good to be home.

Sean
Before the rise to Nazi power in Germany the same tactics were used to get attention and power by having the socialist youth obstruct, shout down, and impede any semblence of rational debate. It worked.....Hilter was elected. You are an advocate for the thugs who will do the same in Mexico. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Jeff,

Where in my posts on Oaxaca do I advocate any such thing? Show me the words? Give me the proof? Until then, you should be ashamed at yourself. Beware, as you should know by now, when you point the finger, Jeff, there are three point right back at you.

Sean-Paul,
People are reading into your pictures things that just aren't there. I am glad you shared these because the media here is not telling us anything. I do hope you will do an article about your experiences.

thanks for those photos.. it is good to remind us that we are lucky to live in America.

DMP, I don't think any reader is so stupid to think the Federales broke the windows and painted the graffiti. If they are that stupid, well, they really shouldn't be reading Gather. Also, the fact that you don't know what started the protests in Oaxaca signifies a serious lack of rigor on your part. The protests in Oaxaca didn't start because the leftists lost the election. Try knowing your subject before you shoot your mouth--err, I mean typepad off.

Glad you know how to google, but your previous comment betrays that you didn't know what you were talking about. It's already there. Of course, you can delete it if you want. But like I said earlier, the more comments the more I get paid. So, please, keep them coming.

Vicky, I went to Mexico to write about the aftermath of the protests that had seized Oaxaca these last several months, to see for myself what had happened and might likely happen in the future. I felt like the coverage that Oaxaca was getting in the American press was not enough and wanted to know (and write about what I learned) for myself. The situation, as I will write on it a bit later, is much more complicated than the usual Left versus Right dichotomy. It's more than just Poor versus Rich too. A lot of moving parts to the story and I'll write about them soon.

DMP: In your delusions. I'm not spinning anything. I haven't even had the chance to write about the teachers union. LOL. Seriously, your ignorance is staggering, mate, did you even know that the teachers settled with the government a few months ago? Wow, you need to get back on your meds. You have put more words into my mouth than my wife does. Now that's a trick, I tell you. LOL.

Man, seriously, if you want to remain hypersensitive to any kind of wording and language that doesn't remotely fit into your world view that's fine. But people are laughing at you. Not with you, they are laughing at you. LOL.

Your the one that should be concerned, not me. I claim to be nothing more than what I am-a regular guy, traveling around, who certainly has inherent biases that is trying to figure out the world, in spite of his own biases. That's me: not perfect, but trying.

You, on the other, are the one who comes into my threads with insults, calling me a trust fund baby, shouting obscenities at me and the readers herein, and accusing me of having a bias about something before I've even had a chance to write about it. But, keep the comments coming, as I have said before, I'm looking at a nice check from Gather.com this month. And thank you very much for it.

Aye, Vicky, my motto in life is this: "I'll regret the things I didn't do, more than the things I did." An older friend of the family told me that when I was in my late teens. It was the best advice anyone ever gave me.

I appreciate the kind words as well.

DMP: I don't have to defend my argument to you or anyone--at least not until I defend my Doctoral Disseration. Until then, until then, you can agree, disagree or whatever. Just please, be polite and don't put words into my mouth. I don't think that's not too much to ask.

Meanwhile, Flavio Sosa's brother Horacio--and good riddance to them both, I say, as they've done their people no good--was arrested in the Oaxaca airport three days ago and caused a boatload of trouble for the air traveleres that day and the next.

I wasn't talking about you--I was talking about the punditocracy and the conservatives I was on the radio with that night. There was a context to my post that you were hypersensitive to. Go back, read the post. You overreacted. And you took what I wrote out of context.

If you want me to post the podcast of the radio show I was on to prove that 'conservatives' agree that some income redistribution needs to happen n Mexico I will do my best to get it. But then again, you doubt I was actually in Iran, so why bother.

But it is true--while maybe not all conservatives agree that Mexico needs to change its wealth gap, a great deal of them do and income redistribution is a fancy way of saying the wealth gap needs to be narrated. I'm sure you took basic Macro-economics, right?

And why do conservatives support this idea--not including you here--? Again, not out of altruism, but because they don't want a bunch of immigrants here. There's nothing outrageous about this statement. It's fact. And there is nothing wrong with it from a moral or ethical point of view. It's simply another viewpoint to be considered in the whole Mexico/immigration/NAFTA/USA debate.

Here's my question. You write:

Those are the clowns who hijacked the momentum of the teachers union for their own purposes

So, what are you saying: it's ok for teachers to strike, but no one else?

Or that it's not ok for others to support the teachers when they go on strike?

Is that what you are saying?

Yer off yer meds again, DMP. Remember what I said last night about pointing fingers and all that? Basically what you've just shown us all in this thread is this: when my opnion and yours are close to being in alignment, I'm basically a good person who believes in free speech and all that good democratic stuff, like Apple Pie, baseball and mom. But, when I disagree with you or share an opinion with other readers that you disagree with or point out the logical inconsistencies of your argument or happen to point out where you are wrong you call me as Nazi.

Now, tell me DMP: who's the radical here?

But again, keep the comments coming. The check Gather is sending me gets bigger with every one you post.

Oh yeah, one last thing DMP. You accused me of lying in the emails we sent back and forth to each other. You said you didn't believe I had been to Iran. Well, take a look at this photo here. There is literally only one place it could have been taken, at Naqsh-i-rustam, outside Persepolis, in Iran. The older skinny guy is my Dad; I'm the heavy one with the beard. If you would like me to email you the original just to make sure it hasn't been photoshopped, send me your email and I will do so.

Sad to hear you are actually are supporting those tactics DMP, when it seemed you where against them in an earlier post. It seemed you wanted to actually have a debate, not end it.

It is important to note, DMP, that the tactics you use are those the Nazis (and the neocons) used to gain power and are the same ones they used to eventually segregate the Jews and begin their extermination program. Is this what you support DMP?

The people of Mexico who elected their government are in a fight with rightist thugs, called borras in Oaxaca (and Jalisco from time to time too), who would force their will on the people, and thrown them in jail without the presumption of innocence. You support that?

Your repeated attempts to suppress debate on the issue, DMP, are, as I am pointing out to you, the same tactics neocons and Nazis use.

As long as you distort the truth, DMP, and put words in my mouth and then try to squelch debate you can expect me, like a good hockey player, to check you.

But really, clear the way folks, DMP needs to take a spin again.

I wrote to you and asked one question and it was this:

Have you actually been to Iran?

Your reply to me was:

I am not convinced you have.

That's calling me a liar. Spin that.

You also wrote:

I said, "I do not understand why you would waste your time and risk your life going to Iran, Sean, only to leave with the same pre-conceived ideas you arrived there with.

How do you know what I believed and didn't believe before I left for Iran? Can you read my mind? You may assume because I am a Democrat and Progressive that I would have certain pre-conceptions, but you cannot know that. So, there again, is more falsehoods you are putting into my mouth.

And where in God's name did you get the idea that I said Iranians even remotely support their government? DMP, you need glasses, I said just the opposite: that the youth of the country despise and loath the government and that we should be supporting them, but bombing the Iranians isn't going to work. You really, really need to work on your reading comprehension.

By the way, why do you hide behind an anonymous login name, if you are so courageous and what not?

But let me ask you again, have you been to Iran? Do you know first hand what the country is like? And can you prove it? Until you can "your arguments regarding Iran are a distortion at best, and show a lack of political insight and a basic (overly simplistic) view of the region."

But again, keep the comments coming. The check Gather is sending me gets bigger with every one you post. This thread alone is up to 40. Sweet. Check gets bigger every comment you make.

Your spin Mr. "I'm Too Afraid To Be Myself So I Hide Behind the Pseudonym Delete My Profile." LOL

Regarding your last post, DMP, if you are against democracy for Mexico, just say so. The more you try to make this about me, and attempt to avoid the issue, the more pathetic, and less informed your opinion appears.

Also regarding your last post DMP, what grade are you in?

Again, keep the comments coming. The check Gather is sending me gets bigger with every one you post. This thread alone is up to 42. Sweet. Check gets bigger every comment you make.