Michael Moore's craaaazzzzy 15 Point Plan!

TheHat

The Hat sees that portly Stalinist Michael Moore is at again. In lorder to publicise his new science fiction film, Moore has issued a 15 point action plan called...
Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now"


It goes a little something like this... (The Hat's robust alternatives are listed below this rather dull and far fetched shopping list so take heart).


FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DO IMMEDIATELY:
1. Declare a moratorium on all home evictions. Not one more family should be thrown out of their home. The banks must adjust their monthly mortgage payments to be in line with what people's homes are now truly worth -- and what they can afford. Also, it must be stated by law: If you lose your job, you cannot be tossed out of your home.
2. Congress must join the civilized world and expand Medicare For All Americans. A single, nonprofit source must run a universal health care system that covers everyone. Medical bills are now the #1 cause of bankruptcies and evictions in this country. Medicare For All will end this misery. The bill to make this happen is H.R. 3200 -- but this bill is worthless without the amendment from Rep. Anthony Weiner that will bring us closer to the real bill that should be passed: H.R. 676. You must call AND write your members of Congress and demand that they support this amendment, no compromises allowed.
3. Demand publicly-funded elections and a prohibition on elected officials leaving office and becoming lobbyists. Yes, those very members of Congress who solicit and receive millions of dollars from wealthy interests must vote to remove ALL money from our electoral and legislative process. Tell your members of Congress they must support campaign finance bill H.R.1826.
4. Each of the 50 states must create a state-owned public bank like they have in North Dakota. Then congress MUST reinstate all the strict pre-Reagan regulations on all commercial banks, investment firms, insurance companies -- and all the other industries that have been savaged by deregulation: Airlines, the food industry, pharmaceutical companies -- you name it. If a company's primary motive to exist is to make a profit, then it needs a set of stringent rules to live by -- and the first rule is "Do no harm." The second rule: The question must always be asked -- "Is this for the common good?" (Click here for some info about the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.)
5. Save this fragile planet and declare that all the energy resources above and beneath the ground are owned collectively by all of us. Just like they do it in Sarah Palin's socialist Alaska. We only have a few decades of oil left. The public must be the owners and landlords of the natural resources and energy that exists within our borders or we will descend further into corporate anarchy. And when it comes to burning fossil fuels to transport ourselves, we must cease using the internal combustion engine and instruct our auto/transportation companies to rehire our skilled workforce and build mass transit (clean buses, light rail, subways, bullet trains, etc.) and new cars that don't contribute to climate change. (For more on this, here's a proposal I wrote in December.) Demand that General Motors' de facto chairman, Barack Obama, issue a JFK man-on-the-moon-style challenge to turn our country into a nation of trains and buses and subways. For Pete's sake, people, we were the ones who invented (or perfected) these damn things in the first place!!
FIVE THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT LISTEN TO US:
1. Each of us must get into the daily habit of taking 5 minutes to make four brief calls: One to the President (202-456-1414), one to your Congressperson (202-224-3121) and one to each of your two Senators (202-224-3121). To find out who represents you, click here. Take just one minute on each of these calls to let them know how you expect them to vote on a particular issue. Let them know you will have no hesitation voting for a primary opponent -- or even a candidate from another party -- if they don't do our bidding. Trust me, they will listen. If you have another five minutes, click here to send them each an email. And if you really want to drop an anvil on them, send them a snail mail letter!
2. Take over your local Democratic Party. Remember how much fun you had with all those friends and neighbors working together to get Barack Obama elected? YOU DID THE IMPOSSIBLE. It's time to re-up! Get everyone back together and go to the monthly meeting of your town or county Democratic Party -- and become the majority that runs it! There will not be many in attendance and they will either be happy or in shock that you and the Obama Revolution have entered the room looking like you mean business. President Obama's agenda will never happen without mass grass roots action -- and he won't feel encouraged to do the right thing if no one has his back, whether it's to stand with him, or push him in the right direction. When you all become the local Democratic Party, send me a photo of the group and I'll post it on my website.
3. Recruit someone to run for office who can win in your local elections next year -- or, better yet, consider running for office yourself! You don't have to settle for the incumbent who always expects to win. You can be our next representative! Don't believe it can happen? Check out these examples of regular citizens who got elected: State Senator Deb Simpson, California State Assemblyman Isadore Hall, Tempe, Arizona City Councilman Corey Woods, Wisconsin State Assemblyman Chris Danou, and Washington State Representative Larry Seaquist. The list goes on and on -- and you should be on it!
4. Show up. Picket the local branch of a big bank that took the bailout money. Hold vigils and marches. Consider civil disobedience. Those town hall meetings are open to you, too (and there's more of us than there are of them!). Make some noise, have some fun, get on the local news. Place "Capitalism Did This" signs on empty foreclosed homes, closed down businesses, crumbling schools and infrastructure. (You can download them from my website.)
5. Start your own media. You. Just you (or you and a couple friends). The mainstream media is owned by corporate America and, with few exceptions, it will never tell the whole truth -- so you have to do it! Start a blog! Start a website of real local news (here's an example: The Michigan Messenger). Tweet your friends and use Facebook to let them know what they need to do politically. The daily papers are dying. If you don't fill that void, who will?
FIVE THINGS WE SHOULD DO TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND OUR LOVED ONES UNTIL WE GET THROUGH THIS MESS:
1. Take your money out of your bank if it took bailout money and place it in a locally-owned bank or, preferably, a credit union.
2. Get rid of all your credit cards but one -- the kind where you have to pay up at the end of the month or you lose your card.
3. Do not invest in the stock market. If you have any extra cash, put it away in a savings account or, if you can, pay down on your mortgage so you can own your home as soon as possible. You can also buy very safe government savings bonds or T-bills. Or just buy your mother some flowers.
4. Unionize your workplace so that you and your coworkers have a say in how your business is run. Here's how to do it (more info here). Nothing is more American than democracy, and democracy shouldn't be checked at the door when you enter your workplace. Another way to Americanize your workplace is to turn your business into a worker-owned cooperative. You are not a wage slave. You are a free person, and you giving up eight hours of your life every day to someone else is to be properly compensated and respected.
5. Take care of yourself and your family. Sorry to go all Oprah on you, but she's right: Find a place of peace in your life and make the choice to be around people who are not full of negativity and cynicism. Look for those who nurture and love. Turn off the TV and the Blackberry and go for a 30-minute walk every day. Eat fruits and vegetables and cut down on anything that has sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white flour or too much sodium (salt) in it (and, as Michael Pollan says, "Eat (real) food, not too much, mostly plants"). Get seven hours of sleep each night and take the time to read a book a month. I know this sounds like I've turned into your grandma, but, dammit, take a good hard look at Granny -- she's fit, she's rested and she knows the names of both of her U.S. Senators without having to Google them. We might do well to listen to her. If we don't put our own "oxygen mask" on first (as they say on the airplane), we will be of no use to the rest of the nation in enacting any of this action plan!
I'm sure there are many other ideas you can come up with on how we can build this movement. Get creative. Think outside the politics-as-usual box. BE SUBVERSIVE! Think of that local action no one else has tried. Behave as if your life depended on it. Be bold! Try doing something with reckless abandon. It may just liberate you and your community and your nation.
And when you act, send me your stories, your photos and your video -- and be sure to post your ideas in the comments beneath this letter on my site so they can be shared with millions.
C'mon people -- we can do this! I expect nothing less of all of you, my true and trusted fellow travelers!
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

The Hat would like to present a fiscally robust and less lilly livered alternative to Moore's madcap plans.

The Hat's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now"

They are thus:

FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DO IMMEDIATELY:
1. Increase home evictions. More families should be thrown out of their homes. People must amend their fiscally tardy ways to be in line with what banks feel they can afford. Also, it must be stated by law: If you don’t work hard and then lose your job, you will be tossed out of your home.
2. Congress must lead the civilized world and curb all aspirations re: free Medicare for any Americans. Health care isn’t a human right, it is a product (like Hershey bars, beer, porn, bibles, guns or tickets to Nascar). If you are too lazy to earn the money for that product you will die in pain.
3. Maintain privately-funded elections and replace elected officials with lobbyists. What’s good for big business is good for you. Unless you want to live in Sweden where they burn books and disappear people in the dead of night.
4. North Dakota? More like North Korea! North Dakota has defied Reagan deregulation of commercial banking, investment firms, insurance companies and all the other industries that have been empowered by aforementioned deregulation. If a company's primary motive is to make a profit, then: do it no harm, it is for the common good. Invade North Dakota!
5. Slap the planet about a bit more. We only have a few decades of left. Lets get what we can.
FIVE THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT LISTEN TO US:
1. Each of us must get into the daily habit of taking 5 minutes to make four brief calls: Once you are through to the President’s or Congress member’s answering service make crude noises and yell swear words. It helps if you have a few beers first.
2. Take over your local Democratic Party. For a reasonable price, The Hat will provide pods that can be placed under the beds of Democratic party members. As the party members sleep they will be replaced, body snatcher style, by a Republican. Then you can just sit back and enjoy the policy change. (If you order a pod from The Hat before December 1st you get free Sea Monkeys).
3. Force someone to run for office who can win in your local elections next year –then, as they gain support, shoot them! Then you blame it on the Democrats and see if you can start a civil war. (This is an emergency procedure only!)
4. Show up… in your local Democrat party member’s garden. Shout. Urinate on the rose bush. Flee when the cops come.
5. Watch more Fox News!
FIVE THINGS WE SHOULD DO TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND OUR LOVED ONES UNTIL WE GET THROUGH THIS MESS:
1. Ask your bank to invest your money in a portfolio of their choice. Let’s stop talking the economy down peoples!
2. Spend more on your credit card and then get more cards—see above for reasons.
3. Invest in the stock market. Demand that savings be taxed to ‘encouragize’ citizens to enjoy the joys of the great, post-modern, Daliesque, avant-garde roulette wheel we call investment.
4. Ununionize your workplace so that you and your co-workers don’t have to worry about how your business is run. Liberate yourself of responsibility. Drink beer. Enjoy the game. It’s all being taken care of.
5. Watch this informative film on the truth of public services:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9EUQnHGKoM


C'mon peoples -- we can do this! The Hat expects nothing less of all of you than to comply with The Hat’s recommendations to the best of your ability. Otherwise, I might have a little something under my hat for you too.
Yours,
Hat (The)

Lab_Mouse

couldnt give a **** what moore wants me to do, dont live in the states.

smellslikeshoes

Trolling much?

To be honest Michael Moore is a bit of a crackpot, but the main points there make plenty of sense.

TheHat

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Trolling much?

To be honest Michael Moore is a bit of a crackpot, but the main points there make plenty of sense.

Some call it trolling, The Hat calls it spreading the word of fiscal righteousness. Going forward.

The_Minister

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Trolling much?

To be honest Michael Moore is a bit of a crackpot, but the main points there make plenty of sense.

Actually most of them are retarded.

anonymous_joe

The_Minister wrote: »

Actually most of them are retarded.

I was disappointed actually. Thought they'd be sillier.

smellslikeshoes

The_Minister wrote: »

Actually most of them are retarded.

Yes great answer there :rolleyes:

Medicare for all etc. obviously I'm not talking about far left silliness that makes up the last two thirds of the post.

super_furry

Pighead already has that gimmick, try again.

Ostrom

Any grounds for default banning the 'third person' thing?

TheHat

efla wrote: »

Any grounds for default banning the 'third person' thing?

The Hat disagrees with this.

Ostrom

TheHat wrote: »

I disagree with this.

?

silverharp

TheHat wrote: »

The Hat disagrees with this.

The Silverharp thinks you should ease your way into boards, in your 7 posts to date you have managed to annoy the Economics forum and you seem to heading down the same route here.

TheHat

silverharp wrote: »

The Silverharp thinks you should ease your way into boards, in your 7 posts to date you have managed to annoy the Economics forum and you seem to heading down the same route here.

The Hat is merely spreading the word of fiscal righteousness. Drop your guard and accept the word of the market.

Lab_Mouse

super_furry wrote: »

Pighead already has that gimmick, try again.

unless Pighead got banned and rereg'd??

brianthebard

The_Minister wrote: »

Actually most of them are retarded.

Could you expand on this please? While trying to create a worker co-operative might be a long shot, the rest of the points seem fairly easy to implement and would have some influence if enough people did them. Not sure what's retarded about it really.

nesf

brianthebard wrote: »

Could you expand on this please? While trying to create a worker co-operative might be a long shot, the rest of the points seem fairly easy to implement and would have some influence if enough people did them. Not sure what's retarded about it really.

Declaring a moritorium on house evictions and a revaluing of mortgages down to present home price levels is effectively socialising the losses incurred by those who made poor choices. US mortgage law is set up so a bank can't come after someone for money if the current price of a house doesn't cover the mortgage. So the people are already protected! His idea means that banks will incur large losses and the State, i.e. the taxpayer, will end up covering much of the losses in order to keep the banks afloat. It's a really stupid idea that would just encourage people to fuel the next housing bubble with even less thought as to whether they could cover repayments. This is a really bad idea with little thought given to the long term consequences.

silverharp

alot of americans have non recourse loans, so if their houses are underwater enough , the sensible move (for the borrower) is to walk away. In many cases the banks are not repossessing as it would cost them more to hold the empty property. Its a monumental mess.

MrMicra

nesf wrote: »

Declaring a moritorium on house evictions and a revaluing of mortgages down to present home price levels is effectively socialising the losses incurred by those who made poor choices.

It's a really stupid idea that would just encourage people to fuel the next housing bubble with even less thought as to whether they could cover repayments. This is a really bad idea with little thought given to the long term consequences.

I think it is a really good idea that would just discourage banks from fuelling the next housing bubble by forcing them to be prudent in assessing asset values.

I think that banking bailouts are a really stupid idea that just encourage people to fuel the next housing bubble with even less thought as to whether those to whom they make loans can cover repayments.


And to be really snippy and pedantic (me not you) please distinguish :

nesf wrote: »

It's a really stupid idea that would just encourage people to fuel the next housing bubble with even less thought as to whether they could cover repayments.

nesf wrote: »

Declaring
This is a really bad idea with little thought given to the long term consequences.

Manic Moran

issue a JFK man-on-the-moon-style challenge to turn our country into a nation of trains and buses and subways. For Pete's sake, people, we were the ones who invented (or perfected) these damn things in the first place!!

Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson were Americans?

NTM