Written By:
weka - Date published:
2:09 pm, November 10th, 2016 - 24 comments
Categories: us politics -
Tags: activism, michael moore
In trying times, it’s good to have something to do.
1. Take over the Democratic Party and return it to the people. They have failed us miserably.
2. Fire all pundits, predictors, pollsters and anyone else in the media who had a narrative they wouldn’t let go of and refused to listen to or acknowledge what was really going on. Those same bloviators will now tell us we must “heal the divide” and “come together.” They will pull more hooey like that out of their ass in the days to come. Turn them off.
3. Any Democratic member of Congress who didn’t wake up this morning ready to fight, resist and obstruct in the way Republicans did against President Obama every day for eight full years must step out of the way and let those of us who know the score lead the way in stopping the meanness and the madness that’s about to begin.
4. Everyone must stop saying they are “stunned” and “shocked.” What you mean to say is that you were in a bubble and weren’t paying attention to your fellow Americans and their despair. YEARS of being neglected by both parties, the anger and the need for revenge against the system only grew. Along came a TV star they liked whose plan was to destroy both parties and tell them all “You’re fired!”
Trump’s victory is no surprise. He was never a joke. Treating him as one only strengthened him. He is both a creature and a creation of the media and the media will never own that.
5. You must say this sentence to everyone you meet today: “HILLARY CLINTON WON THE POPULAR VOTE!” The MAJORITY of our fellow Americans preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Period. Fact. If you woke up this morning thinking you live in an effed-up country, you don’t. The majority of your fellow Americans wanted Hillary, not Trump. The only reason he’s president is because of an arcane, insane, 18th-century idea called the Electoral College. Until we change that, we’ll continue to have presidents we didn’t elect and didn’t want.
You live in a country where a majority of citizens have said they believe there’s climate change, they believe women should be paid the same as men, they want a debt-free college education, they don’t want us invading countries, they want a raise in the minimum wage and they want a single-payer true universal health care system. None of that has changed. We live in a country where the majority agree with the “liberal” position. We just lack the liberal leadership to make that happen (see: #1 above).
Let’s try to get this all done by noon today.
Hat tip Puckish Rogue (!).
To which I would add two from Bill,
Handwringers need to put their hands to better use.
Fence sitters need to take a walk.
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Same in NZ – our left ‘representatives’ don’t represent us. They still think that neo-liberalism works. It’s why Labour are still talking about putting restrictions on foreign house buyers rather than talking about a complete ban on foreign ownership.
Agreed,
“Labour are still talking about putting restrictions on foreign house buyers rather than talking about a complete ban on foreign ownership”
The Muldoon National Government (through ANZCERTA), and the Helen Clark Labour Government (through the China FTA) have both taken that ability away from us, that is potentially why Labour aren’t talking about outright bans now.
Interestingly though, Winston First had a ban on foreign ownership as a bottom line at the last election (https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/ban-foreign-ownership-farms-homes-bottom-line-peters-ck-154346). It would have been interest times if he ended up being kingmaker.
No, we still have that capability – we just have to drop out of those and other FTAs.
WTF kind of FTA is it that requires you to give up your sovereign territories in order to sell some fucken milk
Certainly not one that’s about ‘free’ trade.
The secret kind that Labour negotiated. That’s why Hellen and Phill wouldn’t disclose any information to the media at the time. But Labour supporters thought that was perfectly ok. Then when National kept negotiations secret all bloody hell broke loose.
So you can thank your beloved Labour for that fucking mess.
People learn and change from that learning. It was the previous secrecy about trade deals that taught people that such secrecy was a Bad Idea.
( Same in NZ – our left ‘representatives’ don’t represent us. They still think that neo-liberalism works.)
Can not argue with that comment.
I said it better, he’s plagiarized me, thanks MM for stealing my whole speech.
Moore makes some good points until he begins to characterise the opinion of all Americans based on who they voted for. This was a election between two seriously flawed individuals who both polarised and repulsed voters in varying degrees. It simply cannot be argued that everyone who voted for Clinton is a progressive liberal, or that everyone who voted for Trump is a protectionist isolationist. This result goes way beyond traditional political lines, and it is likely this result will be analysed for decades to come.
Simplistic i know but Thatcher taught us when it aint working for you, its okay to ignore the cnsequences, aka mining communities and just destroy. Thatcher got away with it because cheap heavy density oil started flowing out of the middle east and he financial sector grew there in year on year. Our growth was never down to leave markets alone, it was inevitable just govt hands off the tiller meant more pollution, worse outcomes for workers and lots of misopportunities to expand that growth to the third world. We collective would have been much richer,more proftable, and better placed if Thatcher had never won, and of cource no replacement neolib idiot.
Thank you Well Fed Weta. The truth is we don’t fucking know at this point. We’ll just have to wait and see. I can’t imagine the deficit in essential character is going to turn out well……we’ll just have to wait and see. We’d have had to do the same thing if Clinton had been elected.
Be thankful that we have MMP . Even with its faults its better than most systems. Let’s all work to make it better still.
Let’s be thankful that we have MMP.Not perfect but the best so fare ,
its up to us all to improve it.
I think Michael Moore was thinking of bits of Alice through the Looking Glass. He took a long breath, shut then opened his eyes and looked at Trump on tv.
“I’m just one hundred and one, five months and a day.”
“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.
“Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Lets just be thankful that we have MMP. not perfect but better than first past the post .It’s up to us all to improve it perhaps by raising the threshold.
Michael’s ideas above resonate with me.
And maybe someone like Gareth might be an agent of change in NZ for the same reasons. Gareth has gathered credibility because National have rubbished him. Interesting times.
The ‘Morning After’ in the US is looking quite unsettled:
Guardian: DT’s win “marks tense protests across major US cities:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2016/nov/09/donald-trump-us-election-2016-live-reactio
CNN: Thousands take to the streets to protest Trump win:
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/09/politics/election-results-reaction-streets/
NBC: “He is not my President. Thousands protest in streets across US”
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/he-not-my-president-donald-trump-inspires-thousands-protest-streets-n681696
many more online
I’ve heard that the popular vote went to Clinton. Perhaps the USians need to wake up and get their electoral system changed if they’re so incensed as to claim that the person in the office of president isn’t their president. The rich will fight tooth and nail to prevent it of course as they get to buy the government that they want but it needs to be done.
Yes, she won the popular vote: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/09/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-electoral-college-donald-trump
There’s a breakdown here of who voted for each, by age, race, gender, incomes:
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37922587
For HC:
54% of women, 41% of men
88% of black voters, 65% of Hispanics, 37% of whites, 65% of Asian, 56% other
55% of 18 – 29 yr olds, 50% of 30 to 44 yr olds, 44 and 45% of the rest
52% of those w/ incomes under $50,000 p/a, 53% of below $30,000
59% of urban vote
It’s not like she won the popular vote by millions.
What’s 200,000 out of 119,000,000?
Fk all.
MM’s To Do list for Day Two:
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/prepare-to-impeach-trump-michael-moore-reveals-his-plan-to-take-down-the-gop/
oh please. M.Moore typical soothing pleas it was going to be okay if Trump supporters would listen to reason. Same old same old. Instead of embracing the left behind anger, we got another deomcratic go back to sleeper.