Matt Stoller: Standard & Poor’s Predatory Policy Agenda
While it’s useful to think of the ratings agencies as incompetent, or as greedy, it’s important to remember that they have an actual policy agenda. They weren’t just wrong in rating subprime tranches of toxic dreck AAA. They were also pivotal in actively creating the policies that led to the ...
Yoko Ono pays tribute and lays flowers at the Hiroshima Memorial, August 2011. Trust in the power of human intellect and the super ability sleeping in our subconscious. The 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a tragedy of the greatest magnitude. Even now, sixty six years later, many ...
Wake Up, America! Your House Is on Fire!
What else do we need to make it clearThat Doomsday is getting perilously nearOur safety net is torn to shredsTax breaks are given to corporate headsWhile we on the bottom and in the middleLose more each day while the leaders fiddleWe're making war all over the planetThough our citizens daily ...
Stop Sacrificing US Soldiers for Afghan Debacle
The 38 deaths in Saturday’s helicopter crash in Afghanistan include 31 Americans, making this the deadliest day for U.S. forces since the war began. The tragic loss of American lives might be worth the sacrifice if it was making America safer, or if our presence was significantly improving the well-being ...
How to Think About Standard and Poor's Downgrade
Standard and Poor's downgrade of U.S. government debt captured headlines across the country and around the world. It is a newsworthy event, but primarily as another colossal failure by a major credit rating agency. First, it is worth mentioning the important background here. S&P, along with the other credit rating ...
Obama Blows a Judas Kiss to the Poor
The unconscionable result of the manufactured crisis over the debt ceiling shows that the political Right knows how to play hardball, and that President Obama and his hapless party know how to get rolled. There are other options; and we, the people, need to press them home. The Obama-brokered deal ...
Obama Promises New Opportunities For Veterans Seeking Jobs
Today at a press conference, President Obama took to a podium and finally spoke on an issue that I am sure has been sticking in the side of many veterans. He said that the government was going to start giving tax incentives to employers that hire unemployed veterans and disabled ...
30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died
From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California ...
Cross posted from thebloodycrossroadsLike many, I was extremely hopeful when Obama won in 2008. And like many I’ve become totally disillusioned with the president and the political process. The debt ceiling fiasco is yet another illustration of Obama’s failures, not just because it’s a betrayal of his base and the ...
Health Insurers Sacrifice Americans for Profit
Three of the biggest health insurers have announced quarterly earnings in the past few days. If Americans were able to eavesdrop on what executives from those firms tell their Wall Street masters every three months, they would have a better understanding of why premiums keep going up while the number ...
Will Workplace Safety Become a Casualty of the Debt Deal?
WASHINGTON D.C.—This week, Congress passed a debt-ceiling deal that is expected to reduce the deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over the next 10 years. The debt deal sets up a “supercommitee,” which will identify $1.5 trillion in additional cuts by Thanksgiving. Congress will then vote on the recommendations in ...
Outfoxed vs. Rupert Murdoch: Seven Years On
Seven years ago, Outfoxed exposed Rupert Murdoch's top down journalism at FOX News, and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know. In the wake of Murdoch's NewsCorp scandal, and as we witness the widening impact of corporate dominance on media practices, it is even ...
Enormous Cuts in Military Spending? Read the Fine Print
Written by Medea Benjamin and Charles DavisIn this age of austerity, all the politicians are talking about the need for spending cuts. But when it comes to shared burdens and slashed budgets, don't expect the Pentagon to start holding bake sales, despite what you may have heard about reductions to ...
The Tyranny of American Healthcare
Cross posted from thebloodycrossroads:Do you realize how badly you’re being screwed by the health insurance corporations? Let me give you an idea. While the average American family pays $13,770 a year in premiums, in France premiums are dirt cheap, with a single person making $20,000 a year paying only $12.25 a month ...
US debt deal: how Washington lost the plot
President Obama and the Republicans in Congress have finally worked out a deal over the debt ceiling. It appears as though the Republicans got most of what they wanted: big cuts to domestic spending and no tax increases. On the plus side, social security and Medicaid appear to be largely ...
Lowering America’s War Ceiling?
By now, it seems as if everybody and his brother has joined the debt-ceiling imbroglio in Washington, perhaps the strangest homespun drama of our time. It’s as if Washington’s leading political players, aided and abetted by the media’s love of the horserace, had eaten LSD-laced brownies, then gone on stage ...
"Until the Day I Die": Gerta Louisama on Haitian Women Winning Their Rights
Gerta Louisama is a member of the Executive Committee and the National Women’s Committee of Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen, Heads Together Small Producers of Haiti, Haiti’s largest and oldest peasant group. She is also head of the local Tèt Kole Women’s Committee in her village of Savanette. Here she ...
Will the US Credit Rating Be Downgraded?
As we get the final details of the debt ceiling deal between President Obama and Congress, we still have to wait for the verdict of the credit rating agencies. Will they give us the thumbs up or will they tell Congress that it has to take even more money from ...
Federal Medical Malpractice Bill Gets Hilarious Treatment
Here's a repost from our blog, ThePopTort: We love finding folks who share our irreverent approach to life. Not easy when it comes to civil justice issues! But here's one, about H.R. 5 - the medical negligence, nursing home and drug company immunity bill - that fortunately has somewhat stalled ...
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March 23rd, 2013
This evening is going be a big moment in turning our country around on the issue of gun violence. That's why I desperately want you ...
March 21st, 2013
I am hosting a nationwide series of house parties this Saturday night where tens of thousands of people will gather together in living rooms to ...
March 15th, 2013
The response to my Newtown letter this week has been overwhelming. It is so very clear to everyone that the majority of Americans have had ...
March 13th, 2013
America, You Must Not Look Away (How to Finish Off the NRA)
The year was 1955. Emmett Till was a young African American boy from Chicago visiting relatives in Mississippi. One day Emmett was seen "flirting" with ...
February 26th, 2013
My Final Word on Buzzfeed and Emad Burnat's Detention at LAX
Thanks to everyone for bearing with me as I spend so much time on what happened to Emad Burnat. It's important to me because he's ...
February 26th, 2013
Michael Moore Responds to Buzzfeed Story on '5 Broken Cameras' Co-Director Emad Burnat
On Tuesday, February 19th, Emad Burnat, the Palestianian co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary '5 Broken Cameras,' was detained with his wife and son at Los ...
February 20th, 2013
Last night was the Motion Picture Academy-sponsored dinner in Beverly Hills honoring the directors and producers of this year's five nominated films for Best Documentary. ...
September 11th, 2010
If the 'Mosque' Isn't Built, This Is No Longer America
OpenMike 9/11/10 Michael Moore's daily blog I am opposed to the building of the "mosque" two blocks from Ground Zero. I want it built on ...
December 14th, 2010
Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange
Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that ...
May 12th, 2011
Some Final Thoughts on the Death of Osama bin Laden
"The Nazis killed tens of MILLIONS. They got a trial. Why? Because we're not like them. We're Americans. We roll different." – Michael Moore in ...
November 22nd, 2011
Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?
This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and ...
September 22nd, 2011
A STATEMENT FROM MICHAEL MOORE ON THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS
I encourage everyone I know to never travel to Georgia, never buy anything made in Georgia, to never do business in Georgia. I will ask ...
December 16th, 2010
Dear Swedish Government: Hi there -- or as you all say, Hallå! You know, all of us here in the U.S. love your country. Your ...
November 2nd, 2010
This letter contains (almost) no criticisms of how the Democrats have brought this day of reckoning upon themselves. That -- and where to go from ...