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Posted by on Sep 29, 2011 in TG Roundup, USA

And so it Began: The Revolt on Financiers

What caused the French Revolution? Per Wikepedia (emphasis is mine):

Although France in 1785 faced economic difficulties, mostly concerning the equitability of taxation, it was one of the richest and most powerful nations of Europe. The French people also enjoyed more political freedom and a lower incidence of arbitrary punishment than any of their fellow Europeans. However, Louis XVI, his ministers, and the widespread French nobility had become immensely unpopular. This was a consequence of the fact that peasants and, to a lesser extent, the bourgeoisie, were burdened with ruinously-high taxes levied to support wealthy aristocrats and their sumptuous, often gluttonous, lifestyles.

The fall of the ancien régime in France may be blamed, in part, on its own rigidity. Aristocrats were confronted by the rising ambitions of the merchants, tradesmen and prosperous farmers, who were allied with aggrieved peasants, wage-earners and intellectuals influenced by the ideas of Enlightenment philosophers. As the revolution proceeded, power devolved from the monarchy and the privileged-by-birth to more-representative political bodies, like legislative assemblies, but conflicts among the formerly-allied republican groups became the source of considerable discord and bloodshed.

Now, try equating Louise the XIV and his ministers to the President, his cabinet and the Congress,  and the French nobility and the ‘aristocrats’ to the current day American elite: i.e. corporations, the financiers (gambling casinos called banks, ‘we earned our big fat bonuses’ execs at corporations and banks), the wealthy who fight no wars but claim that asking them to pay a bit more in taxes is ‘class warfare’ and the peasants with dwindling/decimated middle class. What do you see? I see conditions for a revolt or a revolution. that is what I have been calling as the time for “pitchforks and torches.”

In the next election I think a majority of the incumbent politicians will be thrown out by the electorate. Until then, people have to settle scores with the elite that caused economic ruin in this country – the Wall Street 9of course, only a symbol). the revolt started, albeit at a miniscule level. Last weekend, a group of peaceful protestors staged “Occupy Wall Street” rally in lower Manhattan. They got more than what they bargained for – a police force which brutalized the peaceful protestors. I’ll let this quote and the videos to explain the rest of the story.

Slow motion video analysis of NYPD mace deployment near Union Square on September 24, 2011. Alternate angle analysis seems to indicate retaliation for a just prior interaction between officer and some individual(s) on sidewalk. More information about this and other incidents related to Occupy Wall Street protests will be updated at US Law website:
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Here is Lawrence O’Donnel’s take on the story

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