As much as we relish hating the evil corps, its Congress & the Pres we need to hold accountable.

[rhett o rick]

OWS is rightly trying to open the eyes of all Americans to the corruption of Wall Street, but it is Congress that is allowing these corporations to rape us and future generations. We must turn our attention to Congress. We must reestablish a government where we have representation.

[MrSlayer]

1. Agreed. We have to translate this into progressive votes.

Otherwise we're just pissing in the wind.

[Dover]

2. The curtain was pulled back and guess who was at the controls pulling the levers?

Our government has already been seized in a hostile takeover
by big oil, pharma, finance etc. They've been in the process of divvying up and redistributing
the assets/wealth and drowning the rest in a bathtub as promised. They use our military to do the same
to weaker, resource-rich countries.
So I think people have made the right choice in going to the source.
Representative government is dead for the 99%.

'Our' government has been compromised and expecting them to change the situation is a waste of time.
I'm sure the corporations would love for us to focus elsewhere.

[City Lights]

10. To me it looks more like a friendly giveaway than a hostile takeover,

which makes it all the more maddening.

:argh:

[rhett o rick]

23. I might agree with apathetic giveaway. nm

[TNLib]

13. +1

[ixion]

3. The issue is the corruption and collusion between big corps and the government

The REASON they're allowed to act as you describe is because they have gamed our government to their advantage. It can just be about corporations. It has to be about corporations and government collusion and corruption. Changing one or the other does not solve the problem.

[rhett o rick]

20. Corporations will always seek the easiest way to make a profit.

That's what a corporation is. We cant give corporations morality. We must keep them under control.

[ixion]

21. Neither does the government. Both must be kept under control

Not just one or the other. Both are institutions -- fictional entities -- we've created. Neither one is a person, neither is moral or ethical by default. Neither are people, for that matter. They are constructs made by the people, and both must be managed by the people, lest they become focused on giving power to a certain subset of the People, which is the source of our current problem.

[rhett o rick]

22. Absolutely. nm

[EFerrari]

4. Capital always seems to have more power than gvernments.

[backscatter712]

5. The problem is legalized bribery.

Citizens United blew the doors off of the ragged remains of campaign finance regulation, so now the corporations can throw as much money as they want at their pet politicians.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. They bailouts could not have occurred if the pols hadn't made it happen

The bankers didn't stick a gun to anybody's head, they held out campaign contributions. Apparently no one is immune from the taint of money, not even those elected for singing paeans to Change.

[teddy51]

7. Yep, but heres the real problem with Congress! Of course we already know this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSEVHHU9688

[Dover]

8. Hey rhett o rick, very interesting comment you have placed in your profile.

"In the land of gullible chuckleheads, a democracy may be the most dangerous thing to have." anon

Is that your take on the 99% and democracy?
It has just a hint of that corporate culture of arrogance, ridicule and distaste for humanity we've come to know so well.

[rhett o rick]

14. The statement is aimed at the T-Party type chuckle-heads that voted for Bush.

Just pointing out the dangers. We must fight the propaganda that influences the chuckle-heads.

[Lionessa]

9. And the USSC, they had a huge hand in the degradation of the separation

of corporations and politicians over the years and leading up to the Citizens United case.

[City Lights]

11. Thank you for saying this!

I wholeheartedly agree!

[TNLib]

12. disagree Individual Politician come and go and they always seemed to be replaced with a corporate

drones. Our political system is broke and corporations broke the system. Your not going to be able to fix this through the political system.

[rhett o rick]

16. I agree the system is broken and it looks near impossible to fix it within the system,

but without an alternative, that's what we got.

[TNLib]

17. No what we got is a Ghandi approach to make change happen.

The politicians aren't going to do crap. Other possibilities, and hopefully it won't come to that is the French Revolution approach.

[rhett o rick]

18. But Ghandi's goal was to get the British out of India. Our goal is to get a government

that represents us. I agree we need to use Ghandi's approach to convince our representatives to represent us, but we have to fix our system. I think the French Revolution is a good example of throwing out the scoundrels only to have another set of scoundrels take their place. Same with Russian Revolution. We have the foundation of one of the best governments ever developed. We just need to take back control.

[JDPriestly]

15. Actually, getting corporate money out of politics is the first priority.

[rhett o rick]

19. I agree. Until we do that, all other reforms will fail. nm