Michael Moore

Michael Moore: My First Post-Trump Substack

by

What began on an escalator, ends on an escalator

By Michael Moore

When the escalator at the United Nations came to a wrenching and sudden stop this past Tuesday as soon as Trump stepped on it, I would like to believe that future historians will record that as the pivotal, split-second moment which marked the beginning of the end of the Trump Reign of Terror.

A Terror that began — and ended — on an escalator.

June 16, 2015, at Trump Tower — to September 23, 2025, at the United Nations.

When the escalator at the UN came to that sudden and unexpected halt, was that the sign we had been waiting for? The escalator! Is it possible that the escalator’s complete loss of power, its instant paralyzation, its seemingly abrupt and total collapse meant that this too was the end of the Reign of Donald J. Trump?

Go with me on this. I want us to imagine what life might look like in a Post-Escalator, Post-Trump World.

But you’re asking, how can I say we are in “Post-Trump” when right now you can turn on any TV and see him pouring the final load of concrete over the Rose Garden?

But what if from that instant forward on Tuesday, from the moment that escalator ground to a stop and he was frozen, stuck, unable to move, stripped of his strength and his powers to demolish the government, no more swinging that big black pen to sign hateful executive orders, incapacitated, emasculated, no idea what to do, immobilized, impotent, crippled, neutered — oh no, there goes Melania! — Trump’s deer-in-headlights look on his face — and all of a sudden millions of Americans everywhere took to the streets in a historic wave of protests and mass civil disobedience!

By the next week, a General Strike was called and the country was shut down!

Then a thousand “Mamdanis” across the nation took out petitions to run for office in the 2026 elections, many of them seeking to primary the Terror Reign’s chief enablers: the elected Democratic Party hacks who were incapable of fighting and representing the true will of the American people!

It didn’t stop there! More and more judges began ruling against fascist edicts. Out of work journalists in nearly every state announced they were starting worker-owned media outlets that would cover the real news. Numerous citizens from every region launched creative mass actions to disrupt the oligarchy, doing everything from cancelling their Disney+ and Paramount+ subscriptions, to offering car rides to women in red states in need of reproductive health care, to doing locally whatever the equivalent was to nonviolently sabotaging the teleprompters of a compliant media and shutting down the escalators of politicians on their climb to the top where they sought to crush our Democracy for good.

Yes, it was a new day in America! All it took was somebody hitting a panic button or pulling a plug. “You’re all going to hell!” he barked at the gathered nations on First Avenue.

But nobody heard him say anything as someone had cut the speaker system in the UN Assembly’s auditorium! The world had silenced him. 157 countries now recognize Palestine as an equal nation with full rights. The UN sent a strong message to the United States: We know who you are. You are the bank that funds and arms a horrific genocide. History will remember that about you.

Although this decrepit state we are in did not start with Trump — its origins can be traced back to the election of Ronald Reagan (and specifically, to August 5, 1981, when he fired all 11,345 striking air traffic controllers) — I, for now, will skip taking us further back to the founding fathers declaring that Black human beings were only 3/5 of a human being, and then, these wise old white men, they made sure women went entirely unmentioned in the Constitution as if they didn’t exist at all (which was essentially reaffirmed in 2022 by Alito, Kavanaugh & Co. in the Dobbs decision, stripping all women of their reproductive rights).

Yes. Imagine! The crash of a teleprompter, a sound system and an escalator, all within minutes of each other, brought an end to all the madness. Trump would never recover. As the great poet T. S. Eliot once wrote in his epic poem “The Hollow Men”:

“This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends:
Not with a bang
but a whimper.”

Photo by: Kylie Cooper/Reuters

Source: My First Post-Trump Substack – Michael Moore

Georgia, Jimmy, and the Confederacy of Dunces Ready to Steal This Election

by

Michael Moore with President Jimmy Carter

Real Bombs, F-Bombs, and President Carter’s Mission to Win Georgia

By Michael Moore

A little over a week ago, a few details from Bob Woodward’s new book conveniently leaked to the press, including some downright dirty words from our President, Joe Biden, to describe Benjamin Netanyahu, the thrice-criminally indicted (so far) Prime Minister of Israel.

According to Woodward, Joe Biden has a very low opinion of Netanyahu. In one section, Woodward explains that Biden believes Bibi has “no strategy” — a fair criticism when a country’s leader pulls back his army from a border where on the other side of the fence two million people are wallowing in an open air prison — and then said-leader feigns surprise when the people who escaped from that prison are able to freely slaughter 1200 of his people whom he was supposed to be protecting. Actually, that may imply that the leader did have a strategy, which was, it seemed, to sacrifice his own people to an almost certain death, leaving many Israelis to wonder was there something in it for him? Ouch. Too harsh? Too soon? Or just too Bibi? Whatever the pain and the sorrow we all feel, this madness was preventable, it doesn’t need to continue, and please, everyone, turn away from those who say this is a lost cause. If you believe that, then we all are doomed.

Elsewhere in the book, Woodward reports that at one point Biden was screaming at Netanyahu, “Bibi, what the fuck?” after Israel bombed Lebanon this summer. Boy, that must’ve had Netanyahu quakin’ in his boots.

Earlier in the year, Woodward writes that Biden groused to his top staff: “That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy. He’s a bad fucking guy!” 

President Biden also told his top aides, “18 of the 19 people who work for Netanyahu are liars.”

Some people immediately doubted Woodward’s accounts, as though the co-Watergate scribe just likes to make things up. But I didn’t. These quotes sounded exactly like a guy I know: Joe Biden, the man from Scranton.

The first time I met Joe Biden it was 20 years ago, at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston. My film, Fahrenheit 9/11, was a surprise summer blockbuster (it had beaten the previous opening weekend box office record held by Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi), and it had made the covers of Time magazine and Rolling Stone. I received a personal invitation to attend the Convention and sit in the presidential box with President Jimmy Carter. Sitting in that box with Mr. Carter — he told me to call him “Jimmy,” but I just couldn’t do it — and his wife Rosalynn (Mrs. Carter), the former President told me stories, spun yarns, made me laugh and critiqued the Democratic Party that was in the middle of helping our nation bumble itself into a disastrous and deadly decade-long war in Iraq, despite all the obvious lies the other party had used to sell it.

And during those hours in the convention hall, various people stopped by to say hello. One of them was Sen. Joe Biden. When he saw me, he greeted me heartily: “Michael Fucking Moore!” and shook my hand and gave me a big bear hug. Then he exclaimed, “FLINT MEETS SCRANTON! I was raised in the Flint of Pennsylvania!,” he said and then proceeded to drop a dozen F-bombs over the next 20 minutes. After all, this is the same guy who got caught on a hot mic just a few years later telling President Obama during the Obamacare signing, “This is a big fucking deal!”

So when I read the quotes from Woodward’s book, the F-ing attitude of Joe F-ing Biden rang very, very true. Maybe Joe should think about that now. Is Netanyahu “a bad fucking guy”? Fuck yes! Did Joe Biden call him that? You’re damn fucking right he did! I don’t know, maybe from now until January 20th, the only bombs Joe should be sending Bibi are more F-Bombs.

Back in February 2023, I wrote about my time with President Carter. This was when he and Rosalynn were first entering hospice care. I didn’t know if that was the last time I’d be able to get him a message. Sadly, Mrs. Carter passed away last November at the age of 96. But President Carter has pressed on — just like every moment of his life — on a mission.

Last month, President Carter’s grandson, Jason, told the press that his grandfather held a singular focus. President Carter would turn 100 years old on October 1st, 2024 (the first president in American history to live to 100), but that his grandfather was “more excited to cast his ballot for Vice President Harris.”

The younger Carter continued: “It would be an incredible story at the end of his hundred-year life, to have grown up in the segregated South, and for one of his last political acts to be helping elect a Black woman as the President of the United States, I do think it would be important.”

On October 1st, President Carter turned 100. And just this past Tuesday, October 15th, early voting in Georgia began, and one of the first people to cast his vote for President Kamala Harris was… President Jimmy Carter, fulfilling his wish to live long enough to do just that:

But Jimmy was not alone.

He was but one of 328,000 people who voted early in Georgia on Tuesday. This was a record number — more than doubling the previous record, set in 2020. And the next day, Wednesday the 16th, another 300,000 people voted in Georgia!

The Biden/Harris campaign won Georgia by 11,779 votes in 2020, and this year, a 100-year-old former President set his mind to staying alive long enough to vote again, just to be one more vote that couldn’t be denied. A man who dedicated much of his post-presidency to ensuring Democracy around the world, now willing himself to stay on Earth long enough to ensure it here at home.

What if we all had, in us, what Jimmy Carter has in himself? The absolute, unstoppable commitment to do whatever needs to be done in these next 18 days. I mean, if he could do that from a 20-month stay in a hospice (i.e., the place where you are supposed to go to die in the next week), what is our excuse? “Ohhhhh, knocking on all these doors is killing me!” No it’s not. He’s actually dying. You making 5 more calls to Pennsylvania or Georgia is only cutting into a few minutes of your NCIS: New Orleans time. Listen up! We are all in the French Resistance (non-violent battalion)! A Nazi division will be crossing the bridge entering our town at 1600 hours. I know you have couple’s therapy at 3pm, but that can wait. The fate of our country is at stake. We have to take out that bridge. The two of you should just try to get along until mid-November. Then seek help. But for now, we all have a job to do. And if a 100-year-old man can look into the face of God and say, “I’m just not ready to go yet, sorry, Bubba,” then the least we can do is make that list of the non-voters we’re taking to Early Voting this weekend — and then friggin’ do it.

We must defeat all fascists. Four years ago, Trump and his goons tried to overturn the vote in Georgia that Biden and Harris had legitimately won. But, like almost everything else Donald Trump does, it turned out he was really bad at committing treason. The worst. No one has ever been more bad at committing treason than Donald Trump.

Read more

Seriously, Folks, When’s the Last Time You Felt This Damn Good?!

by

Did it involve ice cream? Puppies? A pedicure? All three?

My Michael Moore

It was just 37 days ago when this meme pretty much summed up how we were all feeling in the weeks after the Trump-Biden Debate Debacle:

Within seconds after President Biden began to answer the first question from Jake Tapper, he could not get the words out of his mouth! A horrified nation grabbed its collective sofa seat cushion and shouted a simultaneous “OH NO!! SOMEONE HELP HIM OFF THE STAGE!!”

It was too late. Slurring his words, losing his place, freezing to regain his balance and the middle of the nonsensical sentence he was in, a sad shell of his former self, Biden imploded in less time (44 seconds) than the Challenger (73 seconds). And all of us, in that instant, knew that the election was over, there would be no recovery from this, Trump would now return to the White House, our Democracy was over.

For three long weeks of agony we hung our heads and sulked. “Why Lord, why us?” To make it worse, Trump was then shot in the eartip and another prayer went up hoping he was ok, not hurt, not martyred. He then had a boisterous, whackadoodle Convention presided over by Hulk Hogan — and his base ate it up. Millions were re-inspired, and Trump surged ahead of Biden in the polls by 9 points.

Joe tried to recover in various interviews and speeches. He introduced Ukrainian President Zelensky as “President Putin” at a NATO summit, and later, at a press conference, he referred to Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.” We turned off our TVs, we turned off all the lights, we sat in the dark, some of us guzzled wine out of a Costco box, and we saw the future of our country right there on the effing wall.

And then…

And then…

AND THENNNNNN…

A miracle.

After the worst three weeks of being an American since November of 2016, with all of us about to lose everything we hold dear, President Biden did something no unindicted politician ever does — voluntarily give up power! Step down for the good of the country! George Clooney, who had just raised $30 million for Biden’s campaign two weeks earlier, asked him very publicly to end his campaign. So did I, and I asked all of you to join us in this plea. A few dozen members of Congress joined in, too. And then, Pelosi.

At 1:46pm on July 21st — that’s just barely a month ago! — Joe Biden announced he was indeed putting the country ahead of himself and would end his campaign. He endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as his replacement to be our next President — and an already anxiety-ridden nation held its breath.

Was she the right one? Didn’t she already run four years ago — and dropped out before the first primary vote was even taken? What exactly has she done as Vice President? America will NOT elect its SECOND Black president in just eight years! And look what happened the last time a woman ran!

And… and… and…

Jeez! Why are Democrats and Liberals such scaredy cats?! Enough, I say! I’ve met Kamala on a few occasions. I instantly liked her. I met her husband Doug and her stepdaughter, Ella. Such good people.

Although my first thought on July 21st was for her to really shake things up and break from the past and name a woman as her running mate. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. People screamed “NO!” Talk about frightened Democrats! So my pick was another Midwestern hero Governor — Walz from Minnesota — and I asked all of you to send Harris a note and encourage her to not appoint another man who had compared pro-Palestinian protestors in Philly to the KKK, who paid hush money to silence sexual harassment allegations against one of his core cabinet members, and who was opposed by two dozen teachers’ groups for his support of private school vouchers — a key proposal from Project 2025.

The good news was I had also heard that behind the scenes in the White House, Kamala had made her feelings known that the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza was unacceptable. Of course, she’s not the president, she currently holds no power, but I think it’s clear what her moral values are. She refused to attend Bibi’s hateful, insane speech to Congress last month. Instead she went to a sorority meeting. Burn! Trust me, this guy will never forget that.

So this is a long way for me to get to saying how I’m feeling these days — and I think it’s the same way most of you are feeling (except the cynics — and please stay cynical, we need you!):

I HAVE BEEN FLYING SO HIGH OVER THE MOON FOR THE WHOLE MONTH OF AUGUST! Crazy! Ridiculous!! My smile muscles seem frozen in place! I have not been this happy since the day I got to vote for a man who decided to put his middle name on the Presidential ballot, showing just how fearless he was:

I haven’t been this surprised since the day I fit into a t-shirt I wore when I was 35!:

I haven’t been this thrilled since Ben & Jerry’s released Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream!:

I haven’t been this on fire since I first ran for public office at 18:

I haven’t been this certain that America still stands a chance since this day in 1974:

And now, I simply can’t believe how suddenly the fates have changed — and are doing a 180 right in front of my eyes!

Two months ago, the results of our upcoming 2024 presidential election seemed to be a foregone conclusion, and a second Trump presidency seemed inevitable. But now — just 69 days before the November 5th election — I feel so hopeful that we are going to elect not just our first woman president, but our most progressive! Dem Party operatives just got a nervous twitch from me saying that. That’s cause they are too often the party that loses by winning. They have no clue of what I’ve been saying for years:

In the days since the Convention, Vice President Harris has been announcing things I’ve not seen reported in much of the media. She is going to increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations by a significant amount. She’s going to bring back the child tax credit — but by a better margin than Biden’s. Over a week ago she said first-time home buyers are going to get a check from the federal government for $25,000 to help with the down payment. And that her administration will tell companies the price they can charge consumers if it appears they are gouging us. Whoa. Lovers of greed and extreme profits are not going to like that! Sounds un-American! Thank God.

On this past Saturday morning, in the small rural Michigan town where I’m now from (year-round population: 15,000), an unexpected march took place. Upwards of a thousand people showed up! Great signs, flags (even a Palestinian flag!), all kinds of neighbors and Midwesterners. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a crowd this large here unless it was for MAGAheads. A local women’s group quickly organized this “walk for Kamala“ through the three-block downtown, passing by my apartment and, a few doors down, the nonprofit art house I run (this week we’re showing “Godfather” I & II; the Irish masterpiece, “Once“; the Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness” [a brutal satire of the 1%] and “The Shawshank Redemption”. Popcorn and pop is just $2.)

Stay excited my friends! Let’s keep the momentum going! We are unstoppable now.

— Michael

Traverse City, Michigan, August 24, 2024, 72 days before the deluge.

P.S. Please listen to my podcast (here) about this euphoria, especially if you don’t listen to podcasts. It won’t bite! I want you to hear my voice these days!

P.P.S. We still have to address the one stain on an otherwise spotless Democratic Convention: The Party’s total disrespect of Palestinian-Americans by not letting a single one of them speak on the stage. Shame! We, their allies, will not be silent about the slaughter in Gaza.

Source: Seriously, Folks, When’s the Last Time You Felt This Damn Good?!