A Progressive Call to Action

I've not yet viewed "Capitalism - A Love Story" (I hope I have that title right), but want to. I'm w/o question the biggest fan/exponent of Michael Moore's agitator-provocateur "documentary" movies at this address. I know he offends or annoys some folks whose politics are pretty consonant with mine. I don't agree with everything he has done or said, or every aspect of his movies (duhh! - or is that "doh"?), but I greatly admire him as one of the few with chutzpah comparable to rush, o'liar, beck, and a nauseatingly long list of right-wing neocon ideologues, sadly including more than a few congressionmen (women). But in MM's case, this intensity of belief is leavened with a live, working conscience, a respect for being truthful (lying is of course an annoyingly repetitious - broken record - theme of the aforementioned), and empathy for others (which characteristics are, if I dare say it, a brief definition of being progressive/liberal).

So, despite the hour, and the multitude of other things calling to me, I could not resist, once I saw it, clicking on a title like "Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now" on CommonDreams (though doubtless also findable elsewhere, e.g. HuffPost, given MM's imprint).

And I'm glad I did. Michael sets the bar pretty high here, but justifiably so, given the amazing multiple Augean Stables left for our President by the last so-badly-behaved-not-house-trained tennant-swines, not to mention the long run of (briefly-interrupted) government-antagonistas bred by the reagan death-squads in the preceding couple decades.

Just in case you haven't grokked by now, I am not, to my shame, a proper civil disobedient a la H.D. Thoreau and income-tax-refusers, nor a proper agent provocateur, and certainly no taser-taking demonstrator (though I did manage a good whif of tear-gas in DC way back when), looking for my next lockup. Outright confrontation R not US, bowdlerizing from that giraffe. But, yes, indeed, I can both feel some satisfaction at things we have been doing around here (e.g., "We Demand" #2, "We Can Do" #5 and "We Should Do" #1, 1/2#2, and #5), and possibly others we should consider.

I will try to excerpt, but, as is pretty common, must recommend a click-over to the full original. This is good germinal material that deserves your attention:

Friends,

It's the #1 question I'm constantly asked after people see my movie: "OK -- so NOW what can I DO?!"

You want something to do? Well, you've come to the right place! 'Cause I got 15 things you and I can do right now to fight back and try to fix this very broken system.

Here they are:

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 called H.R. 3200. You must call AND write your members of Congress and demand its passage, 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.

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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.

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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.

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CCCL?

Climate-warming (i.e., warming-thwarting) activists (a motley group I generally support) have focused on this Saturday for some specific moves. Their meme is "350," a reference to the 350 parts-per-million carbon dioxide level that apparently represents a major threat to climate stability. I gather we are now at 390 ppm. I am excited at the international galvanizing apparently happening on this vital topic:

Let's say you occasionally despair for the future of the planet. In that case, the place you need to be this week is the website for 350.org.

Every few minutes, something new arrives at our headquarters, where young people hunched over laptops do their best to keep up with the pace. News that activists in Afghanistan—Afghanistan—have organized a rally for our big day of action on October 24. They'll assemble on a hillside 20 kilometers from Kabul to write a huge message in the sand: "Let Us Live: 350."

Or news that there's all of a sudden a 350 website in Farsi to help organize the rallies taking shape across Iran. Or maybe a short story exactly 350 words long from the great writer Barry Lopez. Or the news flash that the World Council of Churches has endorsed the 350 target, and is urging its 650 million members to ring their bells 350 times on October 24. Or...

But wait—what's 350? It's the most important number in the world, though no one knew it even 20 months ago. When Arctic ice melted so dramatically in the summer of 2007, scientists realized that global warming was no longer a future threat but a very present crisis. Within months our leading climatologists—especially the NASA team led by James Hansen—were giving us a stark new reality check. Above 350 parts per million carbon dioxide, they wrote, the atmosphere would begin to heat too much for us to have a planet "similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted."

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So here's the good news. The planet's immune system is finally kicking in. When we started organizing 350.org 18 months ago, the task seemed a little ludicrous—we were a small band, mostly recent college graduates, with little money. How we were going to get the world behind an arcane piece of scientific data?

But it turns out that everywhere around the world there are people deeply worried about the planet's fate, and given even a small platform to stand on they're willing to shout their loudest. At this writing, activists have scheduled events in about 170 nations, which is pretty much all the nations there are. (Nothing in North Korea yet). There will be thousands and thousands of rallies: bike rides that cover 350 kilometers, climbers high on the melting slopes of Mount Everest, even the cabinet of the government of the Maldives holding an official underwater meeting to send a 350 resolution to the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen.

Some of these actions are so beautiful they make you weep: around the dwindling Dead Sea, Israeli activists will form a giant human 3 on their shore, and Palestinians a 5 on their beach, and in Jordan a huge 0. The message: even in places with deep divisions, people understand that the crisis that faces us now calls for real unity.

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Redneck, White, and Bigotted

The pandemic of zany on the right just continues. Okay, that is probably being too kind, since much of this behavior is not comic but more on the fringe of certifiable in civilized company. Perhaps it is no wonder that the number of self-identified repubes has now dipped below 20% I believe I heard.

It's hard to fathom that the state of South Carolina allows any of their politicians out in public or especially near a microphone these days without large muscular handlers. (Okay, yes, that is a disturbing image, though, who knows, perhaps not far from the mark.) The "makeover" that state is going to need before nose-breathing folks with a post-elementary education and the ability to stand erect choose to move there goes beyond imagining. Do real people who I could get to know and become friends with actually elect representatives like this? The self-abasement is painful to observe.

Oh, South Carolina. As Ronald Reagan was fond of saying, “there you go again.”

After a South Carolinian Democrat accused Senator Jim DeMint of failing to bring home enough federal funding for the poverty-stricken state, two county GOP leaders rushed to the Senator’s defense, crafting an op-ed for for a local paper yesterday in which they fell back on this antiquated, but still very offensive, analogy:

There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves. By not using earmarks to fund projects for South Carolina and instead using actual bills, DeMint is watching our nation’s pennies and trying to preserve our country’s wealth and our economy’s viability to give all an opportunity to succeed.

The poor dears, bless their hearts. They just can’t help themselves, can they? Jews love money? No shit, Shylock! They also love charging usurious interest rates, diamonds, and global media empire-building! Wait, give me a few more minutes, and I’ll come up with more asinine stereotypes.

Every time the South Carolina GOP lets spill another racist or religious slur–and their well seems bottomless–they only serve to reinforce the negative stereotype the rest of the world harbors of Southern Republicans as inbred, chaw-spittin’, rusted out pickup-drivin’, “anybody not like them”-hatin’ crackers. I find it remarkable that the state manages to function at all, with so many pea-brained yokels in positions of power.

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But I admit to some misgivings about the original complaint from the Democrat, too. Not enough pork-barrel for you? (I'd love to be reassured that this was a genuine complaint at failure to attend to actual human needs.)

And I'll close with this, although the samples and examples go on and on these days. Here we have Oklahoma, with a good long rap-sheet when it comes to intolerance and bigotry, alas. This is US Senator Tom Coburn, with apt subtitle under his mug-shot of

Does it matter whether Dr. Tom is a pathological
liar or is just too stupid to know better?

And, just so you know, hidden in the "clip" below is mention of Jon Stewart. Not to be missed:

This has no doubt been reported but just reached my attention via this item from Al Kamen in today's Washington Post "In the Loop" column:

Waterboarding for kids?

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) must be feeling stressed these days over the travails of his pal, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.). For those who missed it, Coburn took to the Senate floor last week to decry federal deficits, which are not, for him, an abstraction.

"It is deeply personal with me," Coburn explained. "I have five grandchildren. I look in their eyes, and I see the potential of their lives and all of these other children who are out there. You know what? We are going to waterboard them. That is what we are going to do. We are going to waterboard them. We are going to flood them with debt. We are going to shackle their opportunities. We are going to limit their possibilities because we don't have the courage to make the difference for their future."

Wait a minute! It's just a dunk in the water.

The Constitution, of course, is notoriously sketchy about qualifications for the offices it established -- citizenship and age, and that's about it. And in the theoretical part of the brain, we all recognize that this is a good idea. The qualifications of candidates for public office should be judged by the voters, we always remind ourselves.

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Now we have our good friend Dr. Tom Coburn achieving the special feat of annihilating reason on two urgent and seemingly unrelated issues, the economy and U.S. government practice of torture. Sometimes I think it might be nice if an orator in such circumstances might be required to declare whether he knows better, and thus speaks for the Party of Liars, or truly doesn't, and thus speaks for the Party of Morons. There have been times in our history when the press felt some responsibility for at least sorting out fact from fiction, but those times seem safely past.

So we still depend on this imperfect instrument of letting voters set their own standards. A certain number of the liars and morons have indeed been shown the door in the last two national elections, but not necessarily on that particular ground. And I'm afraid the evidence continues to indicate an alarmingly high level of tolerance for the Dr. Toms and Joe Wilsons.

Sigh.