You Know The Occupy Movement Has Succeeded, Because The 1% Desperately Want To Join

Here's a movement that caters to the 99%, and so that means almost everyone is a member. But not everyone is a member, of course. But instead of waving their 1% status as a badge of honor, some members of the 1% are desperate to join the 99%. Even Rushbo is showing signs of wanting to join. Rushbo? Yeah! It's hilarious, and sad, at the same time!

What did Groucho Marx say?:

"PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER".

First, Jay-Z:

Just last week, the former Shawn Carter was photographed strutting around in a T-shirt with the phrase “Occupy Wall Street” selectively scrawled over to read “Occupy All Streets.” Stick it to the man! Rock and roll! That bold fashion statement was then followed by the inevitable business announcement that the shirts were a new creation from Jay-Z’s own Rocawear line, available for $22 — tax and shipping not included.

...So perhaps the prompt and near-universal retching that greeted the Rocawear shirt came as a surprise to Mr. Z. He is, after all, a kid who grew up in the Marcy Houses projects of Bed-Stuy, who gained his first hit bragging about being “from the school of the hard knocks.” Wasn’t he just doing what entrepreneurs with a stash of Hanes beefy tees and a dream have always done, every time an imperative to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” or “RELAX” enters the vernacular. Was he not merely reflecting a popular sentiment? It’s not as if the man’s going to go sleep in a tent downtown; it’s just a shirt, for God’s sake.

But “Occupy Wall Street” isn’t a demand for “More Cowbell.” As Styleite explained, the movement is “about money and the disadvantageous lack thereof,” thereby making profiting from it just “a supportive sentiment rendered pretty hollow.” Or, as Mogulite put it, that shirt is a gesture that “misses the whole point.” The Hollywood Reporter says this week that the shirts are being pulled, though the made-in-Mexico garb is still for sale as of today – and, hilariously – now described as “drawing inspiration from the ‘Watch The Throne’ Concert Tour.” Oh, so that’s where he got the idea. The tour.

...Like so many in his industry, Jay-Z has built his entire career on that braggadocio dualism, painting himself as the man who hangs with De Niro but will be “hood forever.” Right, and Madonna’s just a simple girl from the Midwest.

...But even the Sex Pistols knew that at a certain point, you can’t sell revolution. And while parks and streets teem with protesters, it seems pretty clear that if there’s one thing nobody much feels like occupying today, it’s a stupid shirt, sold by a millionaire, signifying nothing.

Then, Russell Simmons:

Simmons, co-founder of pioneering Def Jam Records label and chief of an entertainment business empire, insisted that Jay-Z’s loot from the now-canceled clothing deal would amount to “less than what it what it would cost him to buy one earring back for Beyonce.” Jay-Z, he said, “doesn’t even own the company. He sold it years ago. But just by wearing the shirt he’s inspired lots of kids who might not know about the movement.”

...Simmons did not shy away from questions about his own business achievements, which have landed him squarely in the 1 percent of the income bracket.

“I benefit off the tax code but I’m ready to pay more taxes,” he said, while sporting a 99 percent button on his hooded sweat shirt. “I don’t like it that my secretary pays more in taxes than me. I’d rather give my money to charity than the war machine.”

...At the same time, he defended a man’s right to swing a deal for his own corporation. To suggest otherwise, he said, was a diversion from the core issues of corporate greed and legalized bribery.

“To say it’s hypocrisy is an insensitive thought process,” Simmons said. ”If you think that one person who has resources cannot get involved, then that’s just sad.”

...Asked why his own corporation does not make clothes in America, Simmons said that as a competitive businessman he had no choice but to position himself in a global market where labor is cheap.

“Because my company would close and all the workers would lose their jobs,” he said flatly.

...Simmons said ridding the Hill of lobbyists makes more sense than beating up on Jay-Z for not realizing that an anti-corporate revolution cannot be easily merchandised.

“Everybody’s got a different role,” he said. “My role” — and Jay-Z’s presumably — “is to give money and act as a mouthpiece.”

And now, even Rush Limbaugh (talking about Chelsea Clinton's new gig on NBC News):

Now, that gets to the other point of this. Let’s go down to Occupy Wall Street or wherever else that there’s an Occupy, or go wherever there is a collection of liberals. What are they mad about? They’re mad about the 1 percent, and what are they mad about about the 1 percent? The 1 percent’s got it all. The 1 percent has everything and they’re not sharing it with anybody, and they didn’t work for it. There aren’t any jobs for anybody else because the 1 percent are making sure they’ve got all the jobs and they’ve got all the money.

So here we come with Mr. Democrat Party, the highest ranking, biggest star, most respected member of the Democrat Party, and with pure nepotism and nothing else his daughter, who is unqualified for this job, gets pushed ahead of everybody that works at NBC and gets this job. This is the quintessential thing the 99 percent are fed up with, that they don’t have a chance, that the game’s rules are rigged, that everything’s stacked against them…