Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine, says the tragic destruction of Hurricane Sandy can also be the catalyst for the transformation of politics and our economy. She’s been in New York visiting the devastated areas — including those where “Occupy Sandy” volunteers are unfolding new models of relief — as part of her reporting for a new book and film on climate change and the future, and joins Bill Moyers to discuss hurricanes, climate change, and democracy.

“Let’s rebuild by actually getting at the root causes. Let’s respond by aiming for an economy that responds to the crisis both [through] inequality and climate change,” Klein tells Bill. “You know, dream big.”

Full transcript after the jump.

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On May 22, 2012, an ongoing student strike, involving hundreds of thousands of university students in Quebec, reached its 100th day. In New York, hundreds of students, teachers, and Occupy Wall Street participants marched in solidarity with the students of Quebec.

Occupy Wall Street continues to march every night at 8pm EST, in Montreal, in New York, and in dozens of other cities. Everyone welcome. Bang your pots at 8pm every night! "Show your indignation for corruption, undemocratic practices, and debt slavery!"

[Via]

An army of guitarists took to the streets of New York City as part of Occupy Wall Street’s May Day resurgence. Led by former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, the ‘guitarmy’ marched peacefully while strumming protest songs including Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land to Morello’s World Wide Rebel Song. The foot soldiers of the guitarmy ranged from seasoned activists and Zuccotti occupiers to high school students at their first protest march.

The full transcript of an excellent interview with Morello by Bill Moyers is after the jump.

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Officers from the New York City Police Department infiltrated liberal political groups and kept intelligence files on them and their members, The Associated Press reported Friday. Newspaper investigations in 2007 revealed that the NYPD used similar information-gathering methods before the 2004 Republican National Convention, and a lawsuit regarding those actions is currently pending. The NYPD’s monitoring of liberal organizations was carried out by the unsupervised Intelligence Division and ran counter to directives from the U.S. Homeland Security Department, which has asked police not to monitor individuals and groups that engage in legal forms of protest.

The documents are available here.

Somehow... *cough*... the barricades around the Wall Street bull came down last night during the Million Hoodie March in New York City. The bull was quickly Occupied. It was a fleeting moment, however, as the NYPD wasn't far behind. The occupier was arrested, however the crowd of protesters was so large that getting the cuffs on him certainly wasn't easy.

An Occupy Wall Street protester says police gave demonstrators little warning before kicking them out of a New York City park overnight and that officers beat many of them during the arrests.

After NYPD raided Zuccotti Park on March 17 2012, about 100 people were arrested. Among them a young girl suffering a seizure and panic attack as she was being brought to the bus. The cops not only handle the situation wrongly, carrying her by the head as she's seizing, it also takes 17 minutes until professional help arrives. Protester standing outside the barricades had to make the 911 call to get EMT to come .

The videos above apparently show occupy activist Cecily McMillian, who was once profiled in Rolling Stone Magazine. Initial reports from the scene indicate that police broke her ribs; and just as troublesome, were further reports that police denied McMillian access to the outside world while in the hospital early Sunday morning. She apparently was denied a phone call to her lawyer or doctor, as well as access to her friends who had followed her to the hospital.

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New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg has come to the defense of publicly shamed Goldman Sachs, and calls the attention given to the scathing resignation letter in the New York Times by a Goldman executive "ridiculous."

On his weekly appearance on WOR Radio Friday, Bloomberg said that he had visited the company to express his support for the Wall Street giant.

Bloomberg says people should keep in mind that most of the company's clients are sophisticated corporations and financial institutions.

That's right, keep in mind that they are the sophisticated and elite 1 percenters, and not 99 percenters like the muppets of New York City.

The mayor, who got his start on Wall Street, says Goldman is "a company that's here to make money. That's what they do."

He says it's his job to support companies that provide a tax base for the city and employ its residents.

I doubt the muppets are shocked to hear Bloomberg publicly admit that his job is to support the 1 percent. I just hope he doesn't sick his "personal army" on them if they happen to ridicule the Wall Street giant. Especially after Goldman lost over $2 billion of its market value since the NYTs hit the news stands yesterday.

There has been much discussion as to whether people of color have been adequately involved and represented in the Occupy Wall Street movement. However, the discussion needs to be not just focusing on if there is enough diversity in Occupy Wall Street, but also on if that diversity is leading to a shift toward racial justice and equity in the agenda and politics embraced by the movement.

This is the first in a two-part series from Colorlines. Read the full report here.

[NYPD arrests Occupy Wall Street protesters at the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1, 2011]

Only two weeks into the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Brooklyn Bridge march and the arrests that followed marked one of the high-profile moments of the Occupy protests.While many said they felt they had been escorted by officers into the roadway to march, police officials strongly disagreed and insisted that marchers were warned not to proceed.

Via:

A prosecutor for the Manhattan district attorney’s office told the judge that the man, Casey Diebold, had been among about 700 people who walked onto the Brooklyn Bridge roadway on Oct. 1 as part of an Occupy Wall Street protest.

Then the prosecutor, Michele Bayer, told Judge Ross that the district attorney’s office wanted to dismiss the summons issued to Mr. Diebold.

“We cannot prove this defendant’s specific conduct or location on the bridge beyond a reasonable doubt,” Ms. Bayer said. “Therefore, the people are moving to dismiss this case.”

Mr. Diebold shook the hand of his lawyer, Paul Keefe, and left the building a free man.

13 others saw their charges dropped and the judge ordered their records sealed. Of the 696 arrests that resulted in charges, so far 174 had their charges dismissed. Of those that resulted in summonses being issued, 155 dismissals out of 438 cases. Another 250 defendants agreed to conditional dismissals, with 33 cases not yet resolved.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Soundtrack: Naruto - Yamagasumi