The current "leaders" can be certain they will NEVER RECEIVE ANOTHER VOTE FROM ME!!!!!!! They are the cancerous elements spreading the current destruction of America!!! It must be stopped by us! I wish I were young enough to physically join OWS!

Vast confusion is generated by the widespread notion that there's some sort of difference between government elites and corporate elites. There isn't -- they are the same people, tending to the same interests: corporate profits, global empire, and exploitation of the 99%. Consider the fact that most U.S. regulatory agencies are headed and staffed by people hired from the industries they are meant to regulate -- what we euphemistically call the "revolving door," between government and industry. Libertarians like Lew Rockwell call this "crony capitalism" and see the answer in a smaller state and less government regulation, but it's hard to imagine that this wouldn't lead to the final ascendancy of the Corporate State, what Mussolini called "fascism." Indeed, we may already be there.

The problem, as many people are beginning to see, is the so-called "limited-liability" corporation as a social-economic form -- that strange legal entity that was recently granted "personhood" by the Supreme Court. Smash the corporations!

"that values unsustainable growth over all else"

they are not growing anything except their own net worth, in terms of money

they are destroying plenty

their real worth, not net worth, is certainly in the negative

"President Obama’s re-election team just hired a senior adviser who formerly lobbied for TransCanada—the same company pushing the White House to approve their Keystone XL oil pipeline that would pillage the land for oil destined for other countries. Even Sen. Dick Durbin admits that banks "frankly own the place." Our government has become a subsidiary of industry."

I remember reading something like this:

"But as the animals look ..............from man to pig and from pig back to man, they find that they are unable to tell the difference."

George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

If they’re so smart, let’s see if they can grow their businesses without government help/subsidies/tax breaks. I don’t think they could do it anymore – they’ve come to rely on that power to increase profits. Most of these people don’t run productive businesses – they bet and swindle and trick the system to make money. And then throw their losses onto the backs of the rest of us. Any small-time crook can make money that way. The global elites play a giant, global shell game and call it brilliance. Llewellyn Rockwell, go get some help with your psychological problems. I’d focus on daddy issues.

Duh! It's a corporate built and programed voting machine. There's no remedy in the current structure. Civil Disobediance, General Strike, Occupy Everywhere! No! It's a new structure not a revision, this one is rotten to the core. These leaders are only going into exile not following the new way. USA was founded on Genocide and Slavery with sugar for wealthy white men.

The only way we will truly see a significant change in the system is if we abandon it- at least partially. We know that the Republicans will always be shills for the 1%. We also know, based on recent history, that the Democrats don't understand the idea of mandates, and that they too will always revert back to shilling for the 1% if they sense we've let our guard down. It's time to abandon both parties- they are one in the same anyway. VOTE GREEN! If there isn't someone running in your area, become the candidate yourself! The Green Party has been refusing corporate campaign donations since they began, because they've always recognized that when you allow corporations to buy campaigns, you get politicians that are beholden to their donors, not We the People.

No Carl, it's not, as you say, "the cancer eating America alive right now is a corporatocracy" (although I love your analogy to cancer, which I've been using for five years) --- its worse than that.

Yes, it's a metastasizing cancer, but ...

It's Empire! (which is far worse than mere corporatocracy, or oligarchy, or plutocracy, or any other words that few of the full 99% will rally to confront)

It's the disguised global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE that now has 'captured' and controls our former country, by hiding behind the facade of its 'bought and owned' TWO-Party "Vichy" sham of faux-democratic government --- as surely as the Nazi Empire, that 'captured' and occupied France in 1940 used a simpler one-party Vichy sham government.

But the good news is that the full 99% of Americans will rally to confront Empire --- since it's sort of an American patriotic tradition since 1776, and ...

another piece of good news is that when the Occupy movement starts saying that it is Occupying the Empire, instead of just Occupying Wall Street, DC, Boston, S.F., Oakland, Portland, etc. etc. the exposure of the Empire, the education of people about this hidden Empire, and the confrontation with the Empire will happen very very fast --- once the true nature of Empire is grasped.

Empire's most powerful and last weapon is the "state monopoly on violence", but once Empire is exposed and confronted it can not defend itself against the Occupy movement's most powerful non-violent weapon "Against Empire" --- which is the truth that this Empire is an Empire, and can no longer hide, disguise, or camouflage itself by posing as a legitimate government, nor a 'nation-state', nor even a corporate-state --- rather Empire will be exposed for the ultimate evil that it actually is; Empire.

Best luck and love to Occupy.

Liberty, democracy, justice, and the "Multitude"
over
violent/Vichy
empire,

Alan MacDonald

I'm confused.

"If Congress is so rife with corruption that they’ll even vote down creating 300,000 jobs for teachers and first responders to protect millionaires from even a .05% tax increase, then the system is beyond saving through conventional means." and
"Americans must surgically remove the corporate cancer from government through direct action and the voting booth".
I agree with the last statement, but both of those suggestions do seem to be "conventional means".

Is it possible that we, the 99%, started losing our financial power when the 1% started teaching us to live deep in debt?

I absolutely support Occupy Wall Street and the Move Your Money project. I’ve been to an Occupy Detroit general assembly meeting, I’ve donated supplies, and I’m going back.

But I believe each of us needs to take personal actions to fight the 1%. We need to take our money away from them.

Do you owe large balances on credit cards at high interest, or are you making mortgage payments? If yes, you're probably paying hundreds of dollars per month in interest.

Are you paying that interest to a giant bank?

If you have high interest debt AND at the same time you're investing for your future (perhaps in large cap mutual funds), are your investments growing by MORE than you’re paying out in interest? Did you know that an average person pays more than $200,000 in interest on a $200,000 mortgage? (Look at your mortgage stub...) If you pay $200,000 in mortgage interest while your investments grow by $200,000 – did you come out ahead?

I believe we, the 99%, must rethink the idea of living deep in debt AND investing at the same time. I believe we should consider stopping our monthly (401K, IRA, ROTH) investments (other than what our employers match) and instead using that money to pay down our credit cards and mortgages. Some people may even need to consider cashing in some investments to pay off really high interest debts.

Why?

(1) If you own your home free and clear you don't have to fear foreclosure.
(2) You'll save tons of money in interest by paying off debts early.
(3) You'll take some of your money (the interest) away from the 1%.
(4) When you're debt free you can pay cash and avoid paying interest in the future.

It seems logical to me that the 1% are more powerful when we, the 99%, have more debt.

If we're debt free but we still need a credit card for car rentals, plane tickets, or internet purchases, let’s get one from a small local bank or credit union.

Is it possible that we, the 99%, started losing our financial power when the 1% started teaching us to live deep in debt?

I absolutely support Occupy Wall Street and the Move Your Money project. I’ve been to an Occupy Detroit general assembly meeting, I’ve donated supplies, and I’m going back.

But I believe each of us needs to take personal actions to fight the 1%. We need to take our money away from them.

Do you owe large balances on credit cards at high interest, or are you making mortgage payments? If yes, you're probably paying hundreds of dollars per month in interest.

Are you paying that interest to a giant bank?

If you have high interest debt AND at the same time you're investing for your future (perhaps in large cap mutual funds), are your investments growing by MORE than you’re paying out in interest? Did you know that an average person pays more than $200,000 in interest on a $200,000 mortgage? (Look at your mortgage stub...) If you pay $200,000 in mortgage interest while your investments grow by $200,000 – did you come out ahead?

I believe we, the 99%, must rethink the idea of living deep in debt AND investing at the same time. I believe we should consider stopping our monthly (401K, IRA, ROTH) investments (other than what our employers match) and instead using that money to pay down our credit cards and mortgages. Some people may even need to consider cashing in some investments to pay off really high interest debts.

Why?

(1) If you own your home free and clear you don't have to fear foreclosure.
(2) You'll save tons of money in interest by paying off debts early.
(3) You'll take some of your money (the interest) away from the 1%.
(4) When you're debt free you can pay cash and avoid paying interest in the future.

It seems logical to me that the 1% are more powerful when we, the 99%, have more debt.

If we're debt free but we still need a credit card for car rentals, plane tickets, or internet purchases, let’s get one from a small local bank or credit union.

"Obama’s support for Occupy Wall Street seems hollow"
Hollow? Try infinitely vacuous!
___________________________________
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Richard Buckminster Fuller

"Americans must surgically remove the corporate cancer from government through direct action and the voting booth, and cultivate new leaders from within the movement. "

Gibson is another in a long list of those who do not get it. Occupiers know that the current system to too corrupt to change. Thay instead are building a 21st Century system to replace it.
___________________________________
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Richard Buckminster Fuller

Sustainable systemic change cannot occur as long as corporations are afforded the rights and privileges of natural persons. No amount of voting, concensus-building or other action will be effective until corporate personhood is repealed.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFA50FBC214A6CE87

With my response (and mostly agreement) to arkay ; and also to notbuyingit :
Decisions for personhood of corporations -- and attendant privileges -- has a
long and devious history, which was foisted upon our nation by many rosters of
Supreme Court justices over the years. The present Court is comprised of
[at least four] servants of big wealth and corporations with a personality. You
can say "smash the corporations". Better to "squash" the Supreme Court in
its present constitution and membership. Anything that is attempted against
the corporate purpose now would merely be struck down by the Court as being
"unconstitutional".

It is most likely the case that the only way to change the Supreme Court is
through a new constitutional convention -- to be convened upon petition by
two-thirds of the states. A drastic move you may say? Well, yes. But no
more drastic than the problem. The corporate purpose has been seen to
be inimical to human and spiritual life on planet earth. In its present gigantic
scale it has to be stopped. If it cannot be stopped under the purview of
the present Supreme Court, then the present Court has to be stopped.

"leave the other 1 percent alone—CEOs and bankers— as they are “Some of the smartest, most innovative people in the country.”

Innovative in ways to bilk people and not smart enough to realize that they are destroying themselves along with the rest of the planet.