How the 1% Buys and Owns Our Government

[second_pancake]

Zissou and Faye, you guys are both right.  Based on the information posted on the OWS official website of Shared Documents, they ARE indeed rallying against all of the occupations in which Zissou named.  They are also, probably unbeknownst to them since they haven't walked-the-dog through the process, rallying against small-business owners by proposing such things as envoking the EEOC policies for any "...business with 2 or more employees."  Can you imagine being a business owner with 3 employees and having one of them file an EEOC complaint?  You'd go out of business dealing with all of the legal costs just to defend yourself.

What started as a group of folks against the true 1% has turned into a group of people against anyone that has more or makes more than them.  It's sad really and takes away from the importance of the much-needed reform of certain practices taking place within our government.

[second_pancake]

Zissou and Faye, you guys are both right.  Based on the information posted on the OWS official website of Shared Documents, they ARE indeed rallying against all of the occupations in which Zissou named.  They are also, probably unbeknownst to them since they haven't walked-the-dog through the process, rallying against small-business owners by proposing such things as envoking the EEOC policies for any "...business with 2 or more employees."  Can you imagine being a business owner with 3 employees and having one of them file an EEOC complaint?  You'd go out of business dealing with all of the legal costs just to defend yourself.

What started as a group of folks against the true 1% has turned into a group of people against anyone that has more or makes more than them.  It's sad really and takes away from the importance of the much-needed reform of certain practices taking place within our government.

What is it about you that keeps you from comprehending that the group is protesting the policies that are BAD for the 99%, rather than good for the 1%?

This is silly.

I can be against policies which are bad for me without being against policies that are good for you cant i?

The response is to Zissou stating a falicy in that the 1% includes those making $250k which it does not as Faye has shown. However, based upon what they are publicly posting as being their demands, they are NOT protesting policies that are "bad for the 99%" and "good for the 1%", as they are indeed proposing policy changes that would impact the 5% and the 8% and the 10%, etc.  What is it with you that prevents you from going to their website and reading their documents?

[second_pancake]

Oh, my dear, Stephen, you really do need to take a breath and take your time before you post these things.  In exactly 10 seconds I found the New Economic Charter from the very links you posted:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjnECehlgV69dHdzUUJVV19nYkM4NjFubHV3bjI1Snc&hl=en_US#gid=0

Now click on "Documents"

Now click on "New Economic Charter"

You should get the exact same message stating that the documents have been moved to the www.tapnec.wikispaces.com address which is the one that I posted.

Nice try...NEXT....

[second_pancake]

And from the "official" site, http://www.occupytogether.org/, validation of my "claims" that they moved to a new server:  "Shortly after the launch of our site, we began experiencing massive amounts of traffic during the daytime hours which caused the servers to crash regularly due to inadequate bandwidth.  We had a private individual contribute towards our first $1000 of hosting in order to maintain a functional site to provide the information on the growing movement. We moved to MayFirst on a virtual dedicated server and pay a membership fee of $300 a month to belong to the co-operative hosting organization."

[Captain Zissou]

Wow Capt Zissou, looks like what you call are the "lazy people" are better informed than you are.

The top 1% makes an average of more than $878,000

I may not be smart, but I can still read my own reference material.  You do see where it says in bold font on YOUR graphic that the top 1% make $368,268.  That is also the AVERAGE income of the top 1%, meaning that some people in that bracket would make less than that. I know for a fact that there are people who make in excess of a billion a year, so it wouldn't seem like much of a stretch to believe that some of the members of the 1% make $250,000.  Gee, looks like i may not be so stupid after all.

BTW, according to your post, it is your belief that nearly 1% of our country makes almost $1M in INCOME  Robin Leech would be so overworked if that were the case.  Well Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams to you too.

[FayeforCure]

Wow Capt Zissou, looks like what you call are the "lazy people" are better informed than you are.

The top 1% makes an average of more than $878,000

I may not be smart, but I can still read my own reference material.  You do see where it says in bold font on YOUR graphic that the top 1% make $368,268.  That is also the AVERAGE income of the top 1%, meaning that some people in that bracket would make less than that. I know for a fact that there are people who make in excess of a billion a year, so it wouldn't seem like much of a stretch to believe that some of the members of the 1% make $250,000.  Gee, looks like i may not be so stupid after all.

BTW, according to your post, it is your belief that nearly 1% of our country makes almost $1M in INCOME  Robin Leech would be so overworked if that were the case.  Well Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams to you too.

Ok, Capt Zissou, lets have a word about average vs cut-off.

The top 1% makes an average of $878,000, and the cut-off for belonging to the 1% is at $368,000.

The "less fortunate" 1% may make $368,000, but for the group to have an average income of $878,000, many, many make far more than $878,000 to be able to average out at $878,000.

But your point is well-taken:

Almost half of the top 1 percent, or 1.4 million taxpayers, make $344,000 to $500,000. More than 1.1 million make $999,999 or less.

The bottom half of the top 1 percent rely on salaries for about two-thirds of their income. They get modest income from capital but rely mostly on their labor, giving them more in common with Joe Sixpack than Warren Buffett.

http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-johnston/2011/10/25/beyond-the-1-percent/

More accurately we should rail against the .5%, but that doesn't make as great of a sound bite............and we all know who we mean anyway: those who make around $1 million a year or more.

[FayeforCure]

In my opinion, this whole 1% vitriol is just another way for lazy people to absolve themselves of their daily responsibilities.  Have these people ever tried to accomplish something with the odds stacked against them?? 

This is really incredible! How dare you call people working 3 jobs to keep their head above water lazy!

[second_pancake]

In my opinion, this whole 1% vitriol is just another way for lazy people to absolve themselves of their daily responsibilities.  Have these people ever tried to accomplish something with the odds stacked against them?? 

This is really incredible! How dare you call people working 3 jobs to keep their head above water lazy!

Faye, with all due respect, if these folks are working 3 jobs at once, where in the world do they find the time to camp out 24-7 in a public park?

[second_pancake]

And from the "official" site, http://www.occupytogether.org/, validation of my "claims" that they moved to a new server:  "Shortly after the launch of our site, we began experiencing massive amounts of traffic during the daytime hours which caused the servers to crash regularly due to inadequate bandwidth.  We had a private individual contribute towards our first $1000 of hosting in order to maintain a functional site to provide the information on the growing movement. We moved to MayFirst on a virtual dedicated server and pay a membership fee of $300 a month to belong to the co-operative hosting organization."

And to make the point even further, here is the rest of that passage, which explains how other individuals who did not reflect the viewpoints of this one small group with a much larger movement had been conflated with them.

Thanks for only printing a snippet that completely overlooked the main point which disproved your absurd posts.

http://www.occupytogether.org/2011/11/05/statement-regarding-recent-tv-spots/

There has been some confusion over a recent ad campaign that was organized by a group of individual supporters of the Occupy Movement. A few weeks ago, David Sauvage independently produced a 30 second spot and posted it to YouTube. Sauvage and the others involved started a Loudsauce campaign on the same day in order to get funding for the ads to be aired nationally.

Loudsauce, similar to Kickstarter, is a crowd funding website where individual supporters can donate money to have ads they support aired on television. David reported on the Loudsauce site that his intentions were to “break through the media barrier and keep spreading the movement.” According to LoudSauce, when a campaign raises enough funds, they negotiate discounted media space with select partners who are interested in supporting their vision.

Occupy Together was emailed by David on October 10th with a link to a previous version of the video with OccupyWallSt.org at the end of the spot. Due to the large amount of emails we receive daily linking to videos, music, articles, etc. we were unable to respond to David’s question about our opinion to the linkage of the ad to OccupyTogether.org.

It was aired on Lawrence O’Donnell on October 14th which was the first time that we were made aware of the ad’s existence with the ad directing to our website at the end.

We have placed our name, identity, and the content of this website under a Creative Commons License, which allows others to share and remix these materials. While these ads did not use our logo, it did direct viewers to our site. We, the creators and volunteers at Occupy Together, had no input or affiliation prior to the airing of this spot.

Occupy Together is supportive of individuals stepping up and making contributions that support the movement. In fact, this is how Occupy Together began, by independently taking it upon ourselves to add whatever support we could which resulted in our small contribution to the movement. We believe in keeping our name and our materials open for public use because we feel that they belong to the movement and those people that support it.

The Loudsauce campaign for the TV spots recently reached its funding goal and negotiated ads to be aired over the weekend. We are in no position to tell ANYONE what to do with their money and if these individuals wanted to use their funds for these spots, that is their prerogative.

The confusion came when people began inquiring about “our” ads and questioning “our” funding and motives for these ads. To clarify, we never had anything to do with the production or funding of these ads, so the inquiries caught us off guard.

Occupy Together has no access to who contributed money for these ads or how much they cost to run because we were not involved in the organizing, production, or funding of this project in any way. Any questions regarding these spots should be directed towards the individuals who produced and promoted them or to Loudsauce. Again, we have no access to any of these records because we have not been involved in their creation.

Occupy Together has never solicited any donations or monetary contributions. Shortly after the launch of our site, we began experiencing massive amounts of traffic during the daytime hours which caused the servers to crash regularly due to inadequate bandwidth.  We had a private individual contribute towards our first $1000 of hosting in order to maintain a functional site to provide the information on the growing movement. We moved to MayFirst on a virtual dedicated server and pay a membership fee of $300 a month to belong to the co-operative hosting organization. Beyond this, our time and other expenses have been completely funded out of our own pockets.

and also for linking to a page which directly states that not all material represents the views of the organization.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjnECehlgV69dHdzUUJVV19nYkM4NjFubHV3bjI1Snc&hl=en_US#gid=0

you might notice that.  Its in red after all.

Why are you going out of your way to make up bogus claims and tell bizarre stories about this subject?

Again, Stephen, I can't answer the questions you have because I did not write this material, nor do I host the website, nor am I a contributor to the documents.  Call into the conference next week with a list of your questions and ask the folks that posted this information, provided the links from the official pages to the information, and who state that while they are not representing the movement, they are writing a document that they have documented in several areas, are preparing to present as their demands in the month of July. 

I know it's easier to believe that someone is lying rather than believe something you support could possibly have flaws, but THAT is the truth.  Yes, there are valid points to many of the things that the Occupy movement represents, however when the group can not work together, come up with a concise plan, agree on the grievances, and ALLOW folks who they say don't represent them, appear on links from their official sites which give the only one perception that they actually DO represent them, then there is a problem.  First rule of creating an organization:  BE ORGANIZED!

[second_pancake]

"...here is the rest of that passage, which explains how other individuals who did not reflect the viewpoints of this one small group with a much larger movement had been conflated with them.

Thanks for only printing a snippet that completely overlooked the main point which disproved your absurd posts."

Stephen, you really don't understand how to back up statements, do you?  When someone asks you to provide something, you provide it.  I included only the information that was relevant to your disbelief in my report that the link showed the docments residing in a different location due to server upgrades.  Why in the hell would I post something about some guy's YouTube video??  It had absolutely nothing to do with server upgrades.

[second_pancake]

And from the "official" site, http://www.occupytogether.org/, validation of my "claims" that they moved to a new server:  "Shortly after the launch of our site, we began experiencing massive amounts of traffic during the daytime hours which caused the servers to crash regularly due to inadequate bandwidth.  We had a private individual contribute towards our first $1000 of hosting in order to maintain a functional site to provide the information on the growing movement. We moved to MayFirst on a virtual dedicated server and pay a membership fee of $300 a month to belong to the co-operative hosting organization."

Second Pancake, you have told so many half truths on this subject and published so many scurrilous links that it appears that you have no interest in either knowing or telling the truth on the matter.

If you cannot read the actual material printed on the main websites of the organizations and must instead depend on cooperative worksheets that ended up not being included in the final project, then you are either hopelessly misguided or you are being deliberately dishonest.

This was YOUR link Stephen, not mine.  Check your facts, man.

[FayeforCure]

In my opinion, this whole 1% vitriol is just another way for lazy people to absolve themselves of their daily responsibilities.  Have these people ever tried to accomplish something with the odds stacked against them?? 

This is really incredible! How dare you call people working 3 jobs to keep their head above water lazy!

Faye, with all due respect, if these folks are working 3 jobs at once, where in the world do they find the time to camp out 24-7 in a public park?

Zissou is talking about "the vitriol" against the 1 %, claiming the 99 percenters are being lazy.

The 99 perceneters are generally speaking much harder workers that the 1% or better yet the .5 % who can party all day.

[second_pancake]

"The 99 perceneters are generally speaking much harder workers that the 1% or better yet the .5 % who can party all day"

See, now these are the kind of statements that make no sense to me at all.  What facts do you have that indicates the .5% can "party all day" or that the 1% are "harder workers"?  Those are subjective and do nothing to further the cause nor do they help in trying to make people like me understand what it is you stand for.  It just comes across as being hateful and frankly, jealous.

I can personally tell you both my husband and I (in the top 5%, not half percent, 5%), work our asses off.  My husband went to work this morning, in the dark, at 4:50am.  He is still not home yet.  I just logged off my work computer after a full day of work, yes even working from home after leaving the office.  We got here BECAUSE we worked our asses off.  I also work daily with CEOs and they are the hardest workers I've encountered.  People who have never worked in the corporate world and only have knowledge of blue-collar work severely underestimate the amount of mental work involved with running a company.  Every day I've worked in corporate has been significantly more difficult than all my years cleaning houses, flipping burgers, and wielding a shovel.

[FayeforCure]

"The 99 perceneters are generally speaking much harder workers that the 1% or better yet the .5 % who can party all day"

See, now these are the kind of statements that make no sense to me at all.  What facts do you have that indicates the .5% can "party all day" or that the 1% are "harder workers"?  Those are subjective and do nothing to further the cause nor do they help in trying to make people like me understand what it is you stand for.  It just comes across as being hateful and frankly, jealous.

I can personally tell you both my husband and I (in the top 5%, not half percent, 5%), work our asses off.  My husband went to work this morning, in the dark, at 4:50am.  He is still not home yet.  I just logged off my work computer after a full day of work, yes even working from home after leaving the office.  We got here BECAUSE we worked our asses off.  I also work daily with CEOs and they are the hardest workers I've encountered.  People who have never worked in the corporate world and only have knowledge of blue-collar work severely underestimate the amount of mental work involved with running a company.  Every day I've worked in corporate has been significantly more difficult than all my years cleaning houses, flipping burgers, and wielding a shovel.

You just proved my point. You are the 99%.

[Lunican]

So is that top 5% with really hard work from two incomes?