The Occupy movement had it right in 2011 - It IS the 1% causing ALL the pain.

[Tommymac]

It is so obvious now.

50 Billionaires giving to Sinema.

The Koch family and Big Energy supporting Manchin with $$$.

Big Pharmacy. Big Energy. Big Tech.

Bezos. The Facebook Jerk. Musk.

Putin with all his stolen $$$ spreading ii globally to support 1% Authoritarian movements and suppress Democracy.

The cards are stacked against those of us who want to make the world a less hurtful place.

But we CANNOT give up.

So take a break if needed - several weeks or months. We The People are going to need all of us in the Summer and Fall, healthy, loud and ready to fight back.

[Sherman A1]

1. Yup 👍

They did indeed.

[RKP5637]

2. The Occupy movement was certainly squashed by the 1% Authoritarian suppression of Democracy. n/t

[Tommymac]

3. Yes, but the Occupy movement failed because it had no long term goal.

It did get the whole 99% meme embedding in the Public awareness.

But Unfortunately it didn't do enough.

[Probatim]

13. They weren't given enough time to work on it.

They were put down with force, infiltrated by agitators, and disregarded by the press.

Unlike our friends on 1/6/21.

[RKP5637]

25. Absolutely correct!!! There is so much bullshit that goes on in the US while many people

wave their little flags and clutch their bibles. And many yelling FreeDumb.

[Blues Heron]

4. In my minds eye I can still see the bulldozers and hazmat suits they wore to clear out the occupiers

It was right out of some dystopian sci fi flick

[Tommymac]

6. Yup.

I saw the camps in LA and Pittsburgh.

And watched them all being torn down in the end.

Sigh.

[kimbutgar]

24. Same here in SF but then it became a homeless encampment with drug dealing out in the open

Everyday I passed this encampment on my way to work and saw the degradation. I was originally rooting for them but then it got out of control.

[brooklynite]

5. No, they didn't...

They identified a problem; and then decided the solution was to ignore the entire political process and create their own communal structure with twinkle fingers and "mike checks". Meanwhile the Tea Party movement went about the business of the getting their preferred choices elected. Add to which, their "99%" mantra never convinced more than a handful of people to get angry at the "1%".

[oldsoftie]

8. +1000

[doubleplusgood]

14. You're forgetting the drum circles, too nt

[brooklynite]

15. I'd put it out of my mind; they were right outside my wife's office.

[RKP5637]

26. Yep, this is the bottom line of what happened. K&R!!! n/t

[anti stupid]

7. the problem is

That the apparatus of democracy is being systematically deconstructed through state legislatures and the republicans at the federal level. The first thing the GOP did starting with Regan, was sow distrust in government and nurture it with fear. Then almost simultaneously Rig our federal tax system in order to enrich the wealthy. They also attacked the middle class in a multitude of ways, not the least of which was weakening unions. The whole aim was to concentrate power and wealth at the top and create a poor uneducated and politically powerless workforce that has little choice but to slave away for the wealthy. The wealthy have succeeded in their goals and are currently frosting their gilded cake.

[Tommymac]

10. Good post but it started in 1770.

Tories are today's conservatives.

Had many many episodes in the 1800's - including a Civil War and a botched reconstruction. Then the Robber Barons took over.

In the 1950's the John Birch Society was started by Movement Conservatives to achieve the goal of continuing Jim Crow and keeping Women barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen.

The Birth Control Act in the 1960's really got them motivated, and repealing Roe is simply their way to get rid of the Birth Control Act so women stay pregnant and helpless.

In the 1970's Nixon continued down that path. He got caught for other things so set them back decades.

Raygun was their Saviour.

Gingrich cemented their power in the House.

The election ( or coup) of 2000 established that the Supremes were also complicit - Roberts pretty much sealed the deal with Citizen United.

McConnell then did the dirty in the Senate.

Trump was the culmination, plus his 3 illegitimate SC picks.

It is going to take a lot of time, blood and money to make things good again. I don't anticipate that happening in my lifetime.

But damn if I quit fighting.

[YP_Yooper]

22. Not at all Reagan wrt the ownership class

read the true, secret conspiracy around the creation of the Federal Reserve over 100 yrs ago. That's when the 1% took over. The Great Red Dragon - The Foreign Money Power in the United States spoke of this in the late 1880's.

It's both political sides. They both force everyone to look left and right instead of looking up and seeing both sides sit on the same thrown.

[oldsoftie]

9. They jumped the shark when they insulted John Lewis in Atlanta.

They were shown to be a bunch of sideshow extras in a comedy movie

[oldsoftie]

31. LOLLLLL

[malaise]

11. Correct

Rec

[Magoo48]

12. Yes indeed

They had just about everything right.

[Escurumbele]

16. No, don't take months off, we need you now...a two-week vacation is all we can afford

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. More rotten binary thinking in OP, as if racists, misogynists, and corruption have no role. . . . nt

[Lonestarblue]

18. It is the billionaires' dollars that stoke that racism, misogyny, and corruption.

Billionaires like Rupert Murdoch and the Kochs have done great damage to our society and our country. It was the wealthiest Republicans of the time who tried a coup against FDR because they feared losing any of their wealth to help poor people. And it is the billionaires who have been trying to dismantle the New Deal ever since.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. Binary thinking, again. As if the racism would go away if the billionaires did. Nonsense. . . . nt

[YP_Yooper]

23. Rotten binary thinking?

"as if racists, misogynists, and corruption have no role"

they do (among others like the war hawks) and are empowered by the top as we clearly see today - to keep everyone focused on anything but the power of the oligarchs and the worsening of our quality of life.

[gab13by13]

20. American oligarchs, no doubt, funded the coup.

[yaesu]

21. And citizens united gave the 1% their ultimate weapon to destroy democracy. nt

[IronLionZion]

27. Tax the shit out of them

and use the money to hire more teachers, healthcare workers, infrastructure, and so on.

There are reasons why big money is paying off Sinema/Manchin to block voting rights and filibuster reform.

[minstrel76]

29. The Occupy Movement destroyed itself from within. The 1% made sure of it.

I was briefly involved in my local chapter of the Occupy Movement in late 2011. Just prior to this I had seen coverage of the main Occupy Wall Street protest at Zucchotti Park in NYC and saw that Occupy was protesting that the 99% got the shaft in the recent economic meltdown, whereas the 1% not only got away unscathed, they got help from the government, because some of the big banks and corporations were deemed "too big to fail". Also, there was an expression of hostility toward Wall Street investment bankers and brokers, who were ostensibly able to make enough money to be set for life without really doing anything that would be considered work, whereas everyone else now had to take whatever work they could get to scrape by. I suppose it was this, as well as the general protest of economic inequality, and my hope that the Occupy Movement would be a counter to the Tea Party Movement, which had just used its momentum to bring the House of Representatives, many state governments, and almost the Senate under GOP control, that convinced me to march with Occupy.

Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed fairly quickly. What started off as an apparent protest of economic inequality (a stark contrast to the Tea Party movement, which had strong anti-government, racist, and anti-LGBT overtones-the veritable precursor to our present Trumpist-rabble nightmare) ended up being infiltrated and taken over by the Right-Wing, Libertarian followers of Ron Paul (at least, my local chapter was). I was at the encampment helping out with processing some of the received donations of food and water for the "full-time" protesters, when I was shown a copy of a list of proposed demands that the Occupy Movement was going to present. I was excited to finally see the movement reach this point, since it had developed some momentum of it's own and now had the possibility to try to use it somehow. I was dismayed, however, when I looked at the list. To be sure, I agreed with 99% of it, but when I saw the demands that we get rid of the Federal Reserve Bank and bring the U.S. Dollar back to the Gold Standard, I saw Ron Paul's name written all over it. I am no economist by any stretch of the imagination, but from what little I do understand, going to the Gold Standard, while it would be one way to address the "too big to fail" conundrum, would also make it, so that the "too big to fail" would most likely be allowed to fail, because any newly-printed currency would have to be backed by actual gold reserves, meaning that whatever economic relief packages passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, could only include gold-backed funds. As much as "too big to fail" sucks, and as much as it sucks that everything that happens on Wall Street affects the lives of so many people around the world, without any sort of viable economic stimulus packages being available, the Great Recession could have been a lot worse. For this reason, and also because the Ron Paul people were being given more of a platform at the protests, as well as the devolution of some of the later protests into rowdiness and violence, I quietly backed away from Occupy. When I heard that the protesters finally broke camp and the movement had fizzled, (which could have been for other reasons that I have not mentioned, according to my experiences) I was not surprised in the least.

Divide and conquer, however, are the oldest tricks in the book.

[Tommymac]

30. The 1% meme was a huge positive legacy.

More then a lot of movements have left us.

Today's young folks have got to build on it. It is really up to this new generation, whether they want it or not.

Or we are truly doomed to a hate filled dog eat dog world facing the ultimate Crisis of the species' existence - Climate Change.

Us old folk can rant and rail on blogs all we want. I try to be active but honestly I am old, in pain most of the time and just plain exhausted spiritually and mentally after a lifetime fighting these evil people and getting scraps.

I'd say what I believe needs to be done but it is against site rules.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

32. I hate the 1%

They are the reason we cant have nice things

They are the reason the poor are poor.

They made global warming.

They support coups and authoritarianism


They hoard anything of value

They have an entitlement mentality.

They are the cause of a lot of suffering and problems in this world.

Wealth must be capped so these fuckers cant ruin the world,buy the government,hoard resources,sell lies,
Abuse people and get away with it..etc .etc.

[Tommymac]

33. That's why they are being so aggressively Anti-Biden. He wants to tax them just a tiny bit more.

But their fucking egos and sociopathic need of being in control of everything can't have that, oh no.

And since they control 90% of the M$M disinformation outlets they are having their way more and more.

It's going to be a hardfought war once again.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

34. Well they started the war

I hope we finish it and the one percent.