Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
To my mind the greatest movie satire on the idiocy of the Cold War and the fear it inspired in humanity, was Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove, or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”, released in 1964. The plot in brief was, “An insane general starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of politicians and generals frantically try to stop”. For those unfamiliar with one of the best American movies of all time check this link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/
Rent the movie if you haven’t seen it, for it will bring you dark laughter and present you with much to ponder. At the time of its release, some disparaged the movie as being un-credible in its characterizations and not believable in it premises. I hadn’t thought of the movie in years until I came across this article at the website Buzzflash.com titled “The Theology of Armageddon” by Robert Koehler. http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13024 . The article is relatively brief, but well worth your time.
The article deals with a course titled “Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare” at Vandenberg Air Force Base, given under Air Force auspices. As the Robert Koehler states:
“(I)t turns out that the point of the mandatory course, which was recently canceled by the Air Force after officers of numerous faiths complained to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation about it and Truthout published an exposé in July, was to give officers in the first week of missile-launch training a Bible-verse-studded indoctrination in faux-Just War Theory (cynically known in the ranks as the “Jesus Loves Nukes” training)”.
What got me thinking of the movie Dr. Strangelove was a quote in the article from Dr. Wehrner Von Braun, which makes credible the satiric reality of the movies title character, Dr. Strangelove, hysterically portrayed as a heavily accented former NAZI, by Peter Sellers. Seller’s character was widely denounced as being unfair to Von Braun, at the time, but seeing this quote from him makes me wonder:
“We knew that we had created a new means of warfare and the question as to what nation . . . we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else,” von Braun is quoted as saying. “We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured.”
To me this is post facto justification by von Braun of his choice of the comfort of an honored life in the U.S. mirroring his NAZI lifestyle and providing a sop to detract from the truth that he was an enthusiastic war criminal. Von Braun had developed the V (I & II) guided missiles for the NAZI’s and became the head of the United States Ballistic Missile Program. Von Braun was a NAZI Party member of distinction and it seems dedication. His missiles fell upon Great Britain in the closing days of WW II as an attempt to cause terror within the British people and were random in their destruction. That he then became an honored man in the U.S., rather than a defendant at Nuremburg, is a tribute to our own hypocrisy in prosecuting the Cold War. A similar mindset seems to have infected some in our Air Force as I will show.
The Air Force Academy is located inColorado Springs, Colorado. Not only is this a bustling city, whose primary industry is the Military/Industrial Complex, but it is also the center of a tremendous amount of Evangelical Christian activity.
Although houses of worship of almost every major religion can be found in the city, Colorado Springs has attracted a large influx of Evangelical Christians and Christian organizations in recent years. At one time Colorado Springs was counted to be the national headquarters for 81 different religious organizations, earning the city the tongue-in-cheek nickname “the Evangelical Vatican” and “The Christian Mecca.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Springs,_Colorado
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4287106
In the past decade, the Air Force Academy was shaken by implications that it favors Evangelical Christianity in its institutions, trampling on religious freedoms of non-believers in Evangelical Christianity. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-03-13-Air_Force_Academy_13_ST_N.htm
To me the idea of a military dominated by a particular religious belief is antithetical to the U.S. Constitution and dangerous to the operation of a democratic republic. This becomes especially dicey when that particular religious belief proposes that we are in the “End Times” and feels that Armageddon will be the salvation of humanity. This has nothing to do with the religious beliefs of our troops, which I imagine are overwhelmingly Christian, but with the manipulation of their beliefs by fanatical fundamentalists, given license by some of their Commanders.
The old saying, which I concede has some validity, is that “there are no atheists in foxholes”. When one’s occupation puts a responsibility for the lives of your fellow citizens upon you and concomitantly leads one into life threatening situations, many humans have the need to know that if death comes, there will be rewards in an afterlife. Then in addition, all Americans are constitutionally entitled to be free to practice their religious beliefs. At what point though does the religious beliefs of ones superiors begin to supersede the soldiers own values and become indoctrination? There is evidence as shown above in the links, that this is taking place. Beyond the unconstitutionality of this religious indoctrination, lies the reality that the religion pushed upon the troops is one longing for and that would welcome the quick arrival of Armageddon. That our nuclear arsenal lies within the purview of this branch of our Armed Forces, escalates the possibilities that “Dr. Strangelove” was less a satire and more a prescient prophecy.
My personal position is that I feel strongly that religious belief can be uplifting and positive, but I consider Fundamentalists of any religion, including my own, to be dangerous to humanity. This is because the hubris of being convinced of your own correctness of belief, leads to intolerance of differing beliefs, which ultimately leads to repression and violence. There is much in the varied religious beliefs of our fellow humans that is uplifting to us all, but once those beliefs become stultified, unquestioned by fanatical followers of narrow vision, danger ensues. It is easy to question Islamic Fanaticism in the wake of 911, but how many would put that same spotlight on their own religious leanings?
If the injection of Fundamentalism is a trend in our Armed Forces, I personally find that frightening and disturbing. What do you think?
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
I have heard this before…You don’t find atheist in foxholes….But you must admit….using a bomb… makes using a shovel unnecessary….
Just Google “foxhole atheists” and you will find that there are, indeed, many of them.
militaryatheists.org
foxholeatheism.com
foxholeatheist.wordpress.com
many humans have the need to know that if death comes, there will be rewards in an afterlife.
I am an atheist that served in the military. Here is how one atheist thinks of this: My life is finite, and is going to be spent anyway. As a result losing my life is a finite loss, and if a circumstance appears that makes me believe I would accomplish far more by losing it than by living it, that is a fair trade.
The “rewards” are in real life, preventing fellow soldiers from dying, protecting citizens or innocents from crime or enslavement or annihilation. If I sacrifice myself to prevent the death of a child I love, the reward isn’t in the afterlife, it is in the continued life of the child, who by my intervention will hopefully live more years than I gave up to save them.
I do not need an afterlife to justify anything, I just need to believe that after my life ends, reality and other lives go on.
The recent oil war with Libya should enlighten this discussion.
Not to mention Professor Turley’s great post concerning Presidents Preaching The War of Peace which I like to cite.
Hey, no offense Dredd, but when you create a link titled Professor Turley’s great post, you should link directly to Professor Turley’s great post, not to your own blog.
That way be blog whoring.
If you want, link directly to Turley’s post and then to your comments. I understand that might run you afoul of the spam filter, so you could include the link to your post in your signature, or rewrite your link title to make it clear it goes to your analysis of it.
Sigh. Stupid dumb poorly implemented spam filter.
Report: Bush Told French President Jacques Chirac That Iraq War Was Biblically Ordained With Story of Gog and Magog
“Vampire movies and television programmes may be all the rage right now, but not one of them has anything on a good old-fashioned audience of Republican debate watchers.”
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2011/09/24/cliff-notes-republican-partys-base-a-gallery-of-ghouls/
I think my last post got sent to spamland …
I’m going to paste the link in the next post and hope it makes it.
The link supports Mike’s concerns and simply adds another dimension to be considered. It’s entitled “‘Who Teacheth My Hands To War’ – Christian Fundamentalism in the American Military” so if the link does post, copy the title and plug it into your search engine.
WordPress won’t accept it I guess … it’s a good article
Tony C.:
excellent post
Mike,
Great article.
Elaine,
Fantastic clip from one of my favorite movies!
I agree, too. Very nice post.
**Change subject**
Over 80 people arrested in NYC for peacefully protesting.
Occupy Wall Street continues and the police are becoming scared and violent.
https://occupywallst.org/
I hope one of the guest posters will consider writing a post on the subject tomorrow, since major news outlets have a near blackout on the topic. Twitter and blogs like this may be the only means of getting the word out.
Blind Faithiness,
Did you hear about Yahoo blocking emails about Occupy Wall Street?
Yahoo Appears To Be Censoring Email Messages About Wall Street Protests (Updated)
by Lee Fang
Think Progress, 9/20/2011
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/09/20/323856/yahoo-censoring-occupy-wall-street-protests/
*****
Yahoo Apologizes for Blocking E-Mails on Wall Street Protest
By Laura Marcinek and Brian Womack – Sep 21, 2011
Bloomberg, 9/21/2011
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-21/yahoo-apologizes-for-blocking-e-mails-on-wall-street-protest.html
A Tom Lehrer song seems appropriate here….
Thanks for the links Elaine
The heavy-handed police action is to be expected but the lack of news coverage is truly appalling.
Shame on our nation’s press. More can be read from foreign news outlets than our own, many based in NYC.
Censoring email and the like should be a wake up call to many individuals about American corporations and government views on rights and freedoms.
Is this still our country or have we, as a people, already signed over the deed?
http://www.nydailynews.com//ny_local/2011/09/24/2011-09-24_police_clashes_with_protestors_calling_for_greater_financial_reform_at_union_squ.html Here’s some coverage my daughter sent last night. She has a friend in one of the pictures. Have to run, now.
OS,
Thank you. Tom Lehrer was a genius.
YouTube has apparently been censoring or suppressing some of the videos. One person on a blog said that to get his videos to appear, he had to use a deceptive tag. He chose, “Pumpkin Carving,” and the videos appeared.
Here is a story with videos from user ‘Ministry of Truth’ at DKos that also talks about some of the problems with YouTube:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/25/1020012/-NYPD-pepper-spray-women-behind-barricade-at-OccupyWallStreet-goes-viral-DESPITE-Youtube-suppression?via=siderec
Today’s NY Times online posts a story attempting to paint the protests as simply unorganized frustration and hippies with nothing better to do.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/nyregion/protesters-are-gunning-for-wall-street-with-faulty-aim.html?hp
A closer look doesn’t support those claims.
“Is this still our country or have we, as a people, already signed over the deed?” -Blind Faithiness
From my perspective we’re in the process of signing, if the ink isn’t already dry… I agree with the entirety of your comment, Blind Faithiness. As you rightly say, “Shame on our nation’s press.”
——————-
On “60 Minutes” (CBS) tonight, I believe…“a lead story on the police department’s methods and an interview with Commissioner Ray Kelly.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/23/ap-keeps-investigating-nypd-spying_n_978128.html
Good Americans are being surveilled and harassed in communities all across this county. What’s transpiring is a sort of COINTELPRO on steroids. The whole truth is unbelievably ugly. The press is aware and does little to nothing. The police are aware and participate. The intelligence “community” is running the show. Informants and snitches are being used in unprecedented numbers and ways…
(Another great article, Mike S. Regarding your question, I agree.)
Yahoo is dirty and censorship has become a corporate process as normal as getting coffee and doughnuts in the morning. The main stream media have to report this truth or it will get worse.
raff, the only reason I can see anymore to watch the MSM “newscasts” or to read the newspaper is to see what is happening in sports or check the classified ads. For the most part, they still do that competently. Hard news reporting? Not so much.
If you want to find out what is going on is to read the blogs–a lot of them, because to read only one or two is also limiting. I worry that the big ISP are now getting into the act of protecting their turf by shutting down users. Yahoo, Twitter, YouTube and others appear to be getting into the censorship business as well.
The “liberal” media would prefer to cover Tea Party gatherings of twenty or thirty people. There weren’t that many folks protesting on Wall Street!
Otteray Scribe, you’re telling me that in New York, NEW FREAKING YORK of all places. Home of Silicon Alley and its many Internet media startups, home of the Gray Lady, home of Improv Everywhere, home of many many many many many Internet videos and films presented on YouTube and Vimeo and many other sites, New York, with a trillion blogs and bloggers, that in NYC, YouTube has any chance of suppressing coverage?
YouTube is censoring the wall street riots? You mean Google? WHY?
Do you have any other evidence of YouTube suppression than some dude at Kos complaining the counts on the video are not being updated in realtime?
In fact, he’s not complaining the video has been taken down, his grief is that the counts are inaccurate.
THAT’S SUPPRESSION!?
http://www.google.com/search?q=+site:google.com+youtube+video+view+count+wrong
YouTube cannot truly suppress coverage because of competition from other video outlets, but for a while users found their ability to upload stuff directly related to the protests being blocked or slowed down The workaround was to use bogus tags and then blog the links so people could find the videos (who would think to look for protest videos with searches for pumpkin carving).
It seems that YouTube is now letting stuff through, but the views counters appear to be under-counting.
I have a comment in moderation right now, perhaps someone will let that through.
It’s basically an expansion of the below:
I sent an email from a brand new yahoo account to one of the participants at this forum, as well as to occupywallstreeet@mailinator.com.
http://www.mailinator.com/maildir.jsp?email=occupywallstreet
Mailinator will delete the above email in an hour or so, but it’s there.
@OS: How is a bad view count, which is also a well known and long complained of bug (see my google search above), how is a bad view count suppression?
What actual evidence do you have, not just complaints, that YouTube or anyone was slowing uploading of these videos?
As you say, how likely is it that would succeed in NEW YORK CITY!?
How could such do anything but backfire?
What is Occam’s Razor’s suggestion regarding this!?
@Elaine, that second video you posted was interesting up until the technogarble and conspirobabble explanation of how this bad spam filter was actually suppression now and could be exploited in the future to suppress the people.
!Los email, vencido, jamas sera vencido!
!Los email, unido, jamas sera vencido!
I enjoy this explanation from JeanneNYC:
http://gothamist.com/2011/09/20/adbusters_accuses_yahoo_of_censorin.php
JeanneNYC
It’s not too difficult to see what happened: idiot protesters spammed everyone they knew with a deluge of protest garbage. The recipients were annoyed and marked the e-mails as spam. Google filters are set up to filter e-mails that numerous recipients have marked as spam. Protesters can’t accept that people don’t find them fascinating and complain that there must be a conspiracy.
In this case, s/Google/Yahoo/
We are 99 per cent! We are 99 percent!
Sunday, Sep 25, 2011 10:01 ET
What no-drama Obama could learn from no-hysterics Eric
With mild manners, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman takes a hard line
By Nina Burleigh
http://www.salon.com/news/wall_street/index.html?story=/politics/feature/2011/09/25/schneiderman
“In pursuing his own investigation, Schneiderman has irritated the administration and the bankers, but he hasn’t buckled. He says that to believe there is any other possible way to resolve things is misguided.
“Look, this [the AG's deal] is fraying at the edges. I don’t know at what point this thing actually ends.” He admits pressure from the Obama administration to get on board: “There were sort of calls made to friends,” he said without naming names. “But my take is people who are concerned about this, borrowers, unions whose members’ pension funds got some of the bad paper, they are all very supportive.”
Since Schneiderman left Tom Miller’s pack, he has garnered the support of other AGs. Delaware’s Beau Biden (in whose state, like New York, most of the trusts were registered), Massachusetts’ Martha Coakley, Minnesota’s Lisa Swanson and Kentucky’s Jack Conway have indicated they support his tack of investigate first, negotiate later.” (end of excerpt)
PEACEFUL FEMALE PROTESTORS PENNED IN THE STREET AND
MACED!
While on a peaceful march near Union Square in downtown Manhattan, multiple female protestors were penned up in the street by orange mesh baricade, then maliciously maced.
The women were peaceful and unarmed. They were secured by barricade with an overwhelming police presence. And they were then sprayed directly in the face with pressurized mace…
WeAreTheOther99 continues to peacefully occupy Lower Manhattan to begin a dialogue with the Top 1% with the goal of a peaceful transition of power back to the People.
This can no longer be stopped. But be advised, this will not be televised… comment/upload by theother99%
Then there’s this from a couple of days ago. Maybe putting weapons developed for the military in the hands of local cops isn’t such a good idea:
Woman claims police device damaged hearing during G-20
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Missouri woman sued the city of Pittsburgh today, claiming that she suffered hearing loss due to police use of the Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, during the G-20 Summit.
The LRAD was mounted on a police truck that deployed to encounter protests during the two-day summit of world leaders in September 2009. It emitted disorienting noises and orders to disperse.
“Police departments should not be using weapons built for the military on civilian protesters,” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the Pennsylvania ACLU, which is representing Karen Piper. “As this case shows, the LRAD cannot be controlled to prevent serious harm to innocent bystanders.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11264/1176410-100.stm
Thanks for the video, lottakatz. We’re a crisis-oriented lot… A few protesters will probably have to die at the hands of the police before the NYC protests get MSM coverage.
I read about the G-20 lawsuit last night. I agree that local cops are probably not the best candidates for military grade weapons. Again, once there are some serious and/or obvious injuries which translate into lawsuits…, this issue may get some real attention.
“New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman takes a hard line”
AN,
I met Eric years ago and someone I’m very close to works for him. Eric Schneiderman is what you would call the real deal. He believes in what he fights for and principle is more important to him than just getting elected. A terrific, idealistic man, who is adept politically. I know I’m gushing but his stance on this issue has made me very proud of him.
Lotta,
That is a disgusting video. This country is in trouble if this abuse of civil liberties is allowed to continue.
“YouTube cannot truly suppress coverage because of competition from other video outlets”
You mean market mechanics actually make people freer and better off? You dont say…
Also just to get back on the topic of the article for a second, you guys dont really think the army will somehow become less violent or aggressive simply because they eliminate the christian fundamentalism? The goal is obedience and unquestioning loyalty. The fact that christian fundamentalism achieves this goal is incidental. If scientology were the predominant religion, I garuntee you the army will be indoctrinating with xenu’s thoughts on nuclear warfare.
Besides all that, if they actually taught christian just war theory, noone would ever launch a nuke.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_War
It must be in retaliation
It must be proportional.
It must be a last option.
Those are only a few of the criteria, but even in the context of those three, what circumstances could possibly justify launching a nuclear attack?
ekeyra, Those are only a few of the criteria, but even in the context of those three, what circumstances could possibly justify launching a nuclear attack?
The correct answer is LIES. Remember Georgie-Porgie?
oh ignore that last post please….
Well yes jo, lies would work, but that was kind of my point.
Jo, the government lied to get into wars long before “Georgie Porgie” was around.
And since.
ekeyra,
yes in some cases but it is a shrinking universe as the pool of owners/masters gets smaller.
ekeyra, i wasn’t trying to sound like a smart ass. I got distracted and didnt make my comment like I wanted to.
Puzzling, The sad thing is that it always will. As natural as drinkin’ water.
Well said OS.
Otteray,
Why wouldnt less masters be better? Isnt the goal zero? I would consider that progress.
Hunting People for Jesus:
Army Maneuvers: Military Officials Should Leave Proselytizing To Civilians
by Rob Boston
The Wall of Separation
SEPTEMBER 27TH, 2010
http://blog.au.org/2010/09/27/army-maneuvers-military-officials-should-leave-proselytizing-to-civilians/
Excerpt:
Last week, Americans United urged Army officials to cancel an evangelistic event at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
Unfortunately, we found out about this rather late. The complaint came in on Thursday, and “Rock The Fort” was scheduled for Saturday. AU’s Legal Department swung into gear with a strong letter to military officials, but it was not enough; they refused to cancel the event.
Lt. Gen. Frank G. Helmick, commander of Fort Bragg, insisted that the evangelical Christian concert was legal because no one was forced to attend.
Helmick misses the point. In its letter, AU asserted that the military has no business sponsoring a rally that is clearly designed to convert people to evangelical Christianity – or any other religion, for that matter. A base chaplain pitched the “Rock the Fort” to some local churches as a vehicle for helping them win new members. It’s not the job of any arm of the government to help houses of worship increase their ranks.
I tried to make these points on the Fox News Channel Saturday morning. It was a brief segment, and the hosts weren’t exactly in sympathy. You can see it here.
I have to wonder how the progressive or moderate churches in the area (not to mention the Roman Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, etc.) felt about this Army-sponsored effort to funnel people into evangelical Protestant churches. Worse yet, the event was open to the surrounding community. So the U.S. Army was aiding and abetting efforts by conservative Christian churches to engage in what some pastors call “sheep stealing” – raiding someone else’s congregation for members.
(Just to be clear: Churches have the right to reach out to anyone to spread their religious messages – but the government is not allowed to help them do it.)
And, as I pointed out on Fox, had this been a Muslim-themed event with imams preaching and rock bands singing the praises of Allah to convert soldiers and members of the community to Islam with the aid and support of the U.S. Army, we would not be having this discussion. Tilt your head and you can almost hear the deafening roar from the Islamaphobia chorus that would have shouted the event down in record time.
It’s also disturbing that this event was sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, whose CEO is Franklin Graham, bombastic son of the namesake evangelist. Franklin Graham is a highly controversial figure who has attacked Islam and other religions in negative and rude terms. (Here’s Graham on Hinduism: “No elephant with 100 arms can do anything for me. None of their 9,000 gods is going to lead me to salvation. We are fooling ourselves if we think we can have some big ‘Kumbaya’ service and all hold hands and it’s all going to get better in this world. It’s not going to get better.”)
Why is the Army working hand in glove with someone this intolerant? What sort of message does that send to the Muslims overseas (and those of other faith perspectives) whose hearts and minds we are trying to reach?
So let me get this straight. Franklin graham calls muslim some bad names and thats outrageous, but the military can bomb, shoot, irradiate, detain, and torture muslim, and they have to be protected from the guy who wants to call them bad names? I completely agree with the notion of seperation of church and state, but lets not be delusional about who is doing more damage.
Excellent post, Mike S. I know this has been going on for some time at the Air Force Academy. Colorado Springs is a hotbed of religious fundamentalism.
Mike A,
Oddly enough, my brother-in-law got kicked out of the AFA for witnessing too much to the other cadets.
Gyges:
That is surprising, unless his attendance predated the current evangelical movement in the military.
Mike,
Nah, he really is that annoying about it.
LOL.
Correcting the Abysmal ‘New York Times’ Coverage of Occupy Wall Street
Allison Kilkenny on September 26, 2011
The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/blog/163626/correcting-abysmal-new-york-times-coverage-occupy-wall-street
Excerpt:
Over the weekend, my inbox exploded with angry messages from people who had just read this New York Times article (though it reads more like an op-ed) about the Occupy Wall Street protest. Ginia Bellafante gives a devastating account of the event’s attendees, depicting them as scatterbrained, sometimes borderline-psychotic transients.
Bellafante, who is not a reporter but a critic for the Times, offered a representation of the protesters that is as muddled as the amalgam of activists’ motives she presents in the span of the article. She first claims a Joni Mitchell lookalike named Zuni Tikka is a “default ambassador” of the movement. In one of the following paragraphs, she then describes the protest as “leaderless.” Either the people at Zuccotti Park have official leadership or they don’t (they don’t, by the way). So either Tikka is an official spokesperson who warrants first-paragraph favorability, or Bellafante’s own biases persuaded her to put the kooky girl dancing around in her underwear in the spotlight.
The more serious aspect of the protest—the “scores of arrests” that occurred over the weekend including the arrests of more than eighty people, several of whom the police first penned and then maced—is offered as an aside in Bellafante’s article (she doesn’t mention the macing at all). By the way, none of the young women in the following video are in their underwear.
Elaine,
Great link. The lack of main stream media attention to this protest is disgusting.
Lawrence O’Donnell had it on tonight.
Swarthmore mom,
Lawrence O’Donnell on Police Brutality at Occupy Wall Street
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/27/occupy-wall-street-anthony-bologna This same police officer was involved in the 2004 Bush protest claim.
raff….Because they are owned by the Corporate Sows….
Great link Elaine….
Olbermann calls out media hypocrisy on ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest
9.21.11
http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/09/olbermann-calls-out-media-hypocrisy-on-occupy-wall-street-protest/
Keith Olbermann pointed out Wednesday night on Countdown that the major newspapers had been ignoring the five-day-long “Occupy Wall Street” protests, but would have scrambled to cover a similar-sized tea party protest.
“Why isn’t any major news outlet covering this?” he asked. “If that’s a tea party protest in front of Wall Street about Ben Bernanke putting stimulus funds into it, it’s the lead story on every network news cast. How is that disconnect possible in this country today with so many different outlets and so many different ways of transmitting news?”
INTERNATIONAL TRADER: ‘I GO TO BED EVERY NIGHT AND I DREAM OF ANOTHER RECESSION’
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/26/329102/wall-street-trader-recession-dream/
While European government and financial leaders are scrambling to prevent a financial crisis in the Eurozone that would likely throw the global economy into even more turmoil, stock trader Alessio Rastani took to BBC today to tell the world that traders were looking forward to the possibility of a second big recession. “For most traders, it’s not about – we don’t really care that much how they’re going to fix the economy, how they’re going to fix the whole situation,” he said. “Our job is to make money from it.” Rastani, who also claimed “Goldman Sachs rules the world,” said, “Personally, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for three years…I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession. When the market crashes… if you know what to do, if you have the right plan set up, you can make a lot of money from this.”
Wall Street bankers like Rastani, meanwhile, are large donors to the GOP’s presidential frontrunners, who want to repeal the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that was aimed at preventing another financial crisis like the one that wrecked the American economy in 2008.
*****
Check out the link above to watch the BBC video.
Councilman Peter Vallone (D): Wall Street Occupiers Need To Get A Job
http://gothamist.com/2011/09/25/peter_vallone_doesnt_support_wall_s.php
After nearly a week of muted coverage, it seems that the violent arrest of 80 protestors this weekend has finally forced major news organizations to spill ink for the ongoing occupation of Wall Street. NY1′s coverage reveals that Queens councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. is no fan of what’s going on in Lower Manhattan. “You certainly cannot take over a New York City street…We have emergency vehicles to get through, people actually have jobs to get to, unlike these protestors, apparently,” Vallone said, without a trace of irony.
I found the BBC video:
Since when are we all watching the same videos? I must be doing something wrong…