Occupy Democrats Founder Defends Against Allegations Of Fraud By Insisting Making Viral Memes Takes Work

By Adam
1160 views
• Published 2 years ago

Published 2 years ago

Those in the political arena of the internet in recent years have likely come across Occupy Democrats, a liberal-leaning page focused on posting graphics and tweets designed to get Debra Messing to click "retweet." Its posts are often sensationalized takes on recent events along with a message supporting Democratic politicians or ideas and an ending that reads "RT IF YOU AGREE!"


Few would argue that the Occupy Democrats playbook once ran by the Krassenstein Brothers is all that complicated, but one person who would is apparently the page's founder, Omar Rivero.

On Sunday, Twitter user @H_MitchellPhoto discovered some allegedly shady goings-on at Occupy Democrats, writing that it had raised over $797,000 between 2021 and 2022 but donated none of that to political candidates. Instead, the vast majority went to "fundraising consultants." Furthermore, $250,000 of those dollars allegedly went to a company that Omar and his brother Rafael own called "Blue Deal LLC," which bills itself as a "woman-owned" company.


These tweets imply a serious allegation of fraud on behalf of Occupy Democrats if confirmed, though Rivero has insisted there's nothing untoward about his organization accepting donations to boost Democratic candidates and not donating to Democratic candidates. He claimed (and deleted) that because Occupy Democrats is a Super PAC, it is not allowed to donate to political candidates.


This is not entirely accurate, according to Open Secrets, which describes Occupy Democrats as a "Carey Committee," meaning, "a hybrid political action committee that is not affiliated with a candidate and has the ability to operate both as a traditional PAC, contributing funds to a candidate's committee, and as a super PAC, which makes independent expenditures. To do so, Carey committees must have a separate bank account for each purpose." In essence, Occupy Democrats could contribute to a political candidate from a separate bank account, if it so desired.

The most humorous part of the unfolding drama, however, came when Rivero, evidently displeased with the flack his organization was getting, snapped back at a critic with, "If you understood the time and effort that goes into making viral memes — and the impact they have — you may respect our work more." The now-deleted tweet was screenshot by @shoe0nhead.


To some, this read like an admission that Rivero and his employees were defrauding donors and living off their donations to "make memes" and shared that sensationalized take on the story with the general tenor of an Occupy Democrats post, asking its followers to "RT IF YOU AGREE!"


While Rivero has attempted to quash the growing controversy on Twitter, it seems many are not satisfied with his explanation, and he may be forced to make a more formal statement. Until then, it might be wise to not SHARE IF YOU AGREE with the memes posted by Occupy Democrats.

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