Joshua Holland, AlterNet & Andy Kroll, TomDispatch joins Thom Hartmann. What's started in lower Manhattan is now spreading - and it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So the question is - how did we get here?

Ashley Sanders, writer/community organizer & Ariel Zevon, local activist in VT & Kristen Gwynne, Alternet all join Thom Hartmann. The Occupy Wall Street movement swelled to at least 20000 people yesterday - as demonstrators peaceably marched through Manhattan alongside throngs of unionized workers. But as the sun went down - and demonstrators attempted to take their march to Wall Street - another police crackdown ensued. Using pepper-spray and swinging batons - police prevented protestors from accessing Wall Street - and they also closed the Wall Street subway stop. I guess that's the what the banksters bought when JP Morgan's CEO Jamie Dimon order a $4.6 million donation to the New York police department. All in all - dozens were reportedly arrested - capping off a tumultuous 18th straight day of occupation in lower pepper-spray. And the movement marches on. Today - the nation's capitol hosted the next wave of the 99% movement - as thousands gathered in DC's Freedom Plaza and marched to the Capitol Building calling for an end to the wars and an end to Wall Street's dominance of our economy.

History is full of ironies - one of which is unfolding today. Consider this: 222 years ago this week - the Bill of Rights was introduced in Congress. And we all know that the very first guarantee in the Bill of Rights was, "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." But what most people don't know - is that this right - the most fundamental right that our democracy depends on - was birthed in the belly of what is today...the beast. That's right - in 1789 - the capital of the United States was not in Washington, DC - but instead in New York City. And Congress convened in a building called Federal Hall which was located at...26 WALL Street - right across the way from where the New York Stock Exchange stands today. And this afternoon - tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of New York City - exercising their first amendment rights against the hijacking of our economy by Wall Street

Thom Hartmann's crazy alert