Velcro Ripper On The Occupy Wall Street Movement

A young black man named Hero, who had just been released from jail after being arrested at the September 24th march, shared his experience with me, "Someone pushed a little red button and the police turned into adrenaline packed zombies. I found myself in the middle, I saw my friend go down, and when I tried to help her a cop punched me in the face, then dragged me over the barrier and threw me to the ground and told me to stop resisting arrest, as I lay there. It was a crazy experience. But I'm here today, and I'm blessed. And I'm back, stronger than ever."

So writes well-known Canadian documentary filmmaker Velcro Ripper as he describes one man's experience of police violence which included the use of mace last Saturday during the ongoing Wall Street Occupation. In an article entitled The revolution will be tweeted, written for rabble.ca, Ripper offers his impressions of the movement and includes a short video, which can be seen below, following the video of the apparently unprovoked macing of young women BEHIND a barricade:

TruthDig For A Different Kind Of Truth

I recently wrote a couple of blog posts on Warren Buffett and the need for higher taxation of the very wealthy, an idea that is gaining currency in a number of countries, including France and Spain, the latter actually recently imposing a new tax on the wealthy. While conventional news formats are reluctant to pursue the issue in any depth, alternative sites for news and opinions like our own rabble.ca and Truthdig, an American-based site, are not shying away from this contentious topic.

A Truthdig article entitled Why They Hate Warren Buffett examines the backlash from the right provoked by Buffett's plea for higher taxation of people like him, and is well worth perusal.

The Guardian Writes About The Occupy Wall Street Movement

For those interested, there is a thoughtful article on the implications of the Occupy Wall Street Protest found, not in an American newspaper, but in The Guardian. Entitled Occupy Wall Street rediscovers the radical imagination, it provides both the context of the movement and its implications for the future.

For anyone fed up with the status quo and the fact that nothing substantive changed after the 2008 meltdown, it is well-worth reading.

Chris Hedges On The Wall Street Occupation

Chris Hedges, whose purity of vision and integrity I deeply admire, has an interview posted in a series of parts on You Tube regarding the Occupy Wall Street Protest and why he is part of it. Below is the first part of that interview:

The Occupy Wall Street Protest

The Occupy Wall Street Protest, now in its 12th day, has received very little coverage in the mainstream press, for reasons that seem too obvious to state. As usual, The Real News Network informs us where corporate media fears to tread. The following video offers a useful primer on the movement which, despite the fact that it is a demonstration against the excesses of American capitalism, has equal application to our country. Other video links will follow soon.

Goldman Sachs Rules The World

At least it does according to trader Alessio Rastani who, in an interview with the BBC, confesses that he dreams of recessions, [and]sees Goldman ruling the world. Remember this interview the next time someone tells you that business knows best, and that governmental regulation unfairly fetters it.



UPDATE: It has now been revealed that Rastani is not exactly who he claimed to be in the interview. According to a story carried in today's Star, he bills himself on his website as "an experienced stock market and forex trader," and later confesssed to being an "attention seeker" for whom "trading is like a hobby."

Nonetheless, his demeanour and professed beliefs seem to mirror another story entitled Traders outperform psychopaths in egocentrism and lying – but not in making money, which finds many similarities between the two, except that psychopaths seem less consistently ruthless!

One More Thought For Today.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on education, lamenting the fact that like just about everything else, it has become a commodity, measured almost exclusively by its ability to lead to a good-paying job. Last evening, while watching the local news, I once more had confirmation of this.

An economics professor from McMaster talked about how education gives you a much better return on the dollar than most 'financial instruments' such as stocks or RRSP's. The report went on to say that having a Masters will enhance your earning power 8 or 9% on top of a Bachelor's degree.

As I have written previously, there is nothing wrong with the idea of pursuing education for the economic benefits it can confer, but to have it considered purely in those terms, without any acknowledgement of the value of the critical thinking skills benefits than can also accrue, seems to me quite short-sighted and yet another indication of the shallowness of our times.

You can watch the full report here.