"For the United States, spring came in autumn. Who says miracles don't happen?"

[madfloridian]

From R. J. Eskow a Thanksgiving sentiment for Occupy.

Giving Thanks -- For the Occupation, For the Intensity, For the Innocence

Like so many others, I had grieved and raged over the lack of commitment displayed by good people. Cynics, robber barons, and American warlords are hard at work degrading - and downgrading -- this country. In a strange set of parallels, we were reenacting the stories of the Third World countries we'd invaded. Like them, we were becoming a nation where servile or fearful politicians served a cynical oligarchy while the people's way of life died all around them.

..."But whatever you call it, the forces of hate and greed were running wild. The "two-party" system seemed to offer nothing in response except posturing, surrender, and a politics of compromise that seemed to amount to little more than... well, see above. Good people were fighting for better policies, and I tried to play my part. But too many of us focused on the prose of politics and not its poetry.

Meanwhile, too many politicians got lazy quoting Bill Clinton's hack line: Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It can be, of course. But before our eyes, the "good" became the enemy of the "perfect" and the mediocre became the enemy of the good. Then the cynical became the enemy of the mediocre, and democracy began to die.

Pat phrases, trite phrases...we hear too much of them.

Another blogger at Campaign for America's Future tells about the differences between the 1% and the 99%.

Meet the One Percent ... And the 99 Percent

Being in the 99 percent, and living in Washington, DC, is to live and work in close proximity to the 1 percent. (Especially if you work in Capitol Hill.) When you do so on a daily basis, it's easy to forget that — as F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote — "The rich are different from you and me."

Today, I came across two web campaigns that serve as a reminder of just how different we're talking about here.

Samples from those websites:

Being in the 99 percent, and living in Washington, DC, is to live and work in close proximity to the 1 percent. (Especially if you work in Capitol Hill.) When you do so on a daily basis, it's easy to forget that — as F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote — "The rich are different from you and me."

What changes are going to be made?

Another: blogger about Occupy movement means....

In just the last generation, the richest 1% almost quadrupled their incomes. The average wealth of the 1% is 225 times bigger than the wealth of the typical household the highest its ever been.

Three decades ago, CEOs made about 40 times as much as an average worker now CEOs make almost 200 times as much as regular employees.

Last year, half of Americans earned less than $26,000 while CEOs at top 500 companies raked in an average of $11 million.

Over the past decade, earnings for middle-class Americans actually fell. In fact, working Americans wages are now a lower percentage of our economy than theyve ever been.

The divide between the richest and the poorest is worse in America than it is in nearly all of Europe and Asia and much of Africa. Its about as bad as in Rwanda and Serbia and its bad for our economy.

The 1% is not an accident it is the result of policies our government chose to pursue.

We have compromised ourselves in a very bad situation. It does not have to be that way.

[FreakinDJ]

1. "and it is bad for our economy"

kind of like iceburgs are bad for the Titanic

[madfloridian]

2. Indeed...

an understatement. :hi: