| Author
|
Post |
 
|
|
Ryan Eashoo
F L I N T O I D
|
The Green They Steal, The Greed They Wear ...a St. Patrick's Day lament by Michael Moore
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Friends,
It was amazing. Every story on the front page of Tuesday's New York Times told the story of the Age of Greed during which a system known as capitalism is slowly, but surely, killing us:
Insurance company greed: "Millions Spent to Sway Democrats on Health Care"
War profiteers: "Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants"
There's no profit in repairing our infrastructure: "Repair Costs Daunting as Water Lines Crumble"
China, the bank: "China Uses Rules on Global Trade to Its Advantage"
You mean NAFTA didn't improve life in Mexico: "Two Drug Slayings in Mexico Rock US Consulate"
What happens when Big Food profits from hurting kids: "Forget Goofing Around: Recess Has New Boss"
There's now a daily parade of news like this -- well, not really "news," more like the media division of large corporations shoving your face into the dirt that is your life. You already know the schools are a disaster and the war is a boon for the Halliburtons and a bust for you. You don't need a newspaper to tell you the roads and electrical lines and the local sewage plant is in miserable disrepair.
And by now you've figured out that you don't really have any say in this, that what we call the "democratic process" is mostly a sham, pretty words that get repeated in the hopes we will all still fall for it. But the fix is in and we don't fall for it anymore. Admit it: Wall Street owns "our" Congress lock, stock and big barrel o' campaign cash. You want a say in this? Well, I don't see you on the Forbes 400, so shut the f@*& up and go fetch me another bottle of bubbly.
Within days, the House of Representatives will vote to pass the Senate health care "reform" bill. This bill is a joke. It has NOTHING to do with "health care reform." It has EVERYTHING to do with lining the pockets of the health insurance industry. It forces, by law, every American who isn't old or destitute to buy health insurance if their boss doesn't provide it. What company wouldn't love the government forcing the public to buy that company's product?! Imagine a bill that ordered every citizen to buy the extended warranty on all their appliances? Imagine a law that made it illegal not to own an iPhone? Or how 'bout I get a law passed that makes it compulsory for every American to go see my next movie? Woo-hoo! Who wouldn't love a sweet set-up like this windfall?
Well, the insurance companies -- get this -- don't like the Democrats' bill! That alone should be reason enough to vote for it.
Now, you would think these thieves would love this bill -- but they are actually fighting it. Why? Because it doesn't give them ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the what they want. It only gives them... 90%! YOU SEE, pure greed demands all or nothing.
The insurance industry hates this bill because it puts a few minor restrictions on them. Six months after its passage they won't be able to deny children coverage if they have a pre-existing condition. How awful! Government interference! SOCIALISM!
But, hey, they'll still be able to deny these children's parents coverage until 2014! So if a parent gets sick and dies in the next four years, I'm sure someone will step in and raise these already-insured orphans.
And how big will the fines be if the insurance companies do deny someone coverage for having a pre-existing condition? Are you sitting down? A hundred dollars a day! That's it! So if you're the insurance company, and Judy is a customer of yours, and Judy needs an operation that will cost $100,000, what do you do? You take the fine! Let's say Judy lives another year after you've sentenced her to death, your $100-a-day fine will only cost you $36,500! That's a savings of $63,500! And trust me, my friends, that's EXACTLY what's going to happen.
There are some good things in this bill. Parents will be able to keep their children on their policy until the kids turn 26. A few things like that. So, yes, pass that.
But don't insult me and 300 million Americans by calling this "health care reform." At least you've stopped calling it "universal health care." We will not have universal health care or anything close to it. I wish the president and the Democratic leadership would just stand up and say, "We're sorry, America. We didn't get the job done you sent us here to do. We're weak and scared and unable to communicate the simplest of messages to the American people. Therefore, our bill will guarantee that 12 million of you will still have NO health insurance. And that's because we have decided to leave the greedy, private insurance industry in charge of our system. Forgive us for this and for continuing to allow profit to be the determining factor as to whether a patient gets the help she or he needs."
Please, Democrats -- just say that -- then pass this poor excuse of a bill. Pass it because, if President Obama takes a fall on this one, I don't know if he'll be able to get back up. And then NOTHING will get done. We can't have that. (And thank you Dennis Kucinich for hanging in there right up to the end and being the only one out of the 435 members to speak the awful truth.)
On the front page of yesterday's New York Times, the dateline was, sadly, once again, "Flint, Michigan." The story was about how doctors are no longer accepting Medicaid patients. Which means tens of thousands of poor can no longer go to the doctor. Last year, the State of Michigan also prohibited doctors from accepting Medicaid patients who had anything wrong with their vision, their hearing, their feet or their teeth. In a 16-county area northwest of Flint, there will soon be not one single hospital that will allow you to give birth there if you're on Medicaid. The official unemployment rate in Flint is 27% (unofficially, closer to 40%).
This is an American tragedy. And, as I've warned you for years, this tsunami is heading your way -- if it's not there already.
I've just turned on my new iPhone and it informs me that it has "apps" it would like to suggest I buy. One is called "Scanner." It will allow me to listen in on police scanners anywhere across the country. I buy the app. I see that the Flint police scanner is part of this. I turn it on out of curiosity. And this is what I hear, at one in the morning: A woman is being beaten by her husband... A home invasion is taking place ("16-year-old black male, wearing a white skull cap")... A child has been missing since noon today... Another woman is being beaten by her boyfriend... A diabetic, obese man is having trouble breathing and needs to be rushed to the hospital (there will be three more of these obese diabetics in the hours to come; the entire town is ill)... One more woman calling, screaming for help, "officers urged to use caution..."
...And on and on and on. This is what I have listened to before going to bed. I am filled with despair and helplessness as I hear my former neighbors crying out for help. I hate it. I have to turn it off. I start to cry. Thank you, iPhone. Thank you, Democrats. I'll sleep better knowing that you're looking out for all of us.
Bastards.
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
P.S. I'll continue my jihad today on Dylan Ratigan (MSNBC, 4pm ET) and, for the first time together in the same studio since our, um, 2007 debate, I'll join Wolf Blitzer live in his CNN Studio (5-8pm, ET). I'll also be on live for the entire 11am hour this morning on the wonderful Diane Rehm Show on NPR. You can listen live online here.
The rest of the day I'll spend wandering the halls of Congress with my shillelagh and shamrocks, doing my best impersonation of St. Patrick as I try to drive the snakes out of Capitol Hill. Wish me luck...
|
_________________
Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
|
Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:02 am |
|
|
Derrick1965
F L I N T O I D
|
| Eashoo stop defending Michael Moore, he is a fat ass |
|
|
|
Thu Mar 18, 2010 1:32 pm |
|
|
Ryan Eashoo
F L I N T O I D
|
Hey I stick up for my friends Derrick!
|
_________________
Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
|
|
Thu Mar 18, 2010 10:46 pm |
|
|
Elias12
F L I N T O I D
|
| So what is the venerable Moore's solution to the job loss here in Flint? More short lived ,goverment sponsored programs? He hates capitalism, what does he offer in it's place? Like it has been said, Moore is great at stating the obvious, sorely lacking on coming up with alternatives. This health care 'reform" is ill concieved, going to be a failure and going to cost WAY too much. And for a man who allegdley advocated for transparency in what the government does Obama and his party sure want to conceal the facts from the payers of their "idealism". |
_________________
You fool all the people all the time,if you control the press. By pass the "offical channels" and see what is really going. |
|
|
Sat Mar 20, 2010 12:26 pm |
|
|
munnbreslin
F L I N T O I D
|
| The average healthcare corp. makes a 2.2% profit margin. When your in a business with billions and billions of dollars being spent, your profit will be larger because your expenses are larger. Whoever came up with the idea that the group that has negative twelve trillion dollars should run healthcare has never had a formal economics class. Insurance companies aren't evil. Michael Moore is just an idiot. |
|
|
|
Sat Mar 20, 2010 10:33 pm |
|
|
ConcernedCitizen
F L I N T O I D
|
quote:
munnbreslin schreef:
The average healthcare corp. makes a 2.2% profit margin. When your in a business with billions and billions of dollars being spent, your profit will be larger because your expenses are larger. Whoever came up with the idea that the group that has negative twelve trillion dollars should run healthcare has never had a formal economics class. Insurance companies aren't evil. Michael Moore is just an idiot.
You don't know how it pains me to have to agree with you. Many people don't understand the concept of ROI (return on investment). If your figure of 2.2% is correct, that is not a sizable ROI. And as you stated, our government is not a very good example of how to run a business. Matter of fact, if it were a business, it would have been bankrupt long, long ago.
As for Michael Moore, I quit caring what he had to say years ago, just like many other American. |
_________________
"When people fear their government, there is TYRANNY.
When the government fears the people, there is Liberty"
Thomas Jefferson |
|
|
Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:09 pm |
|
|
twotap
F L I N T O I D
|
I wonder what hygeine challanged Mikes ROI is on those so called documentrays he feeds to the brain dead every couple of years.
If you read lardasses bio below you can see he uses that evil capitalism when ever its convenient to help bolster his quest to stuff more of those evil American greenbacks into his account at some evil bank. Now it appears that Mikey and his beloved democrats are having a falling out. Not commie enough for old Mike??
"The Flint Voice" (Michael Moore)
At 22, Moore started up "The Flint Voice" (which later
expanded into_The Michigan Voice_). He served as editor of "The
Michigan Voice" for ten years, taking on issues that no other local
publications would print about. He attacked Flint's police force,
criticized the policies of its conservative mayor and, of course,
chided General Motors at every opportunity. In the process, he
brought on acrimonious attacks by "The Flint Journal_, itself a
buffer for General Motors. "The Voice" rose in paid circulation to
5,000 and Moore triumphantly continued, until he got a phone call
from San Francisco
2.2. The "Mother Jones" Fiasco (Michael Moore)
Moore was offered the editorship of "Mother Jones" magazine,
an opportunity to bring his voice to a national level.
Immediately, he took the bait. He sold "The Michigan Voice" and
moved to San Francisco. His girlfriend, Kathleen Glynn, gave up
her graphic design business to join him.
When Moore took over the editorial rein of "Mother Jones_
magazine, he felt that the publication had taken "a slide into safe
mediocrity." He wanted to evolve "Mother Jones" from what was
essentially a harmless yuppie publication into something
revitalizing the magazine's old working class ties and exposing the
social ills of the nation.
He met with the editorial staff the first day he was hired and
Moore took the liberty to bash the magazine, telling everybody that
he wouldn't print anything in the last three issues and asking if
anybody in the room could defend themselves against this claim. He
brought in several new writers, including Ben Hamper, Hugh Drummond
and Alexander Cockburn. The September 1986 issue of "Mother Jones_
featured Ben Hamper on the cover and an excerpt from his book,
_Rivithead_.
But, he found conflict. Richard Schaufler, an ad rep, was
fired for being associated with a Marxist group, the Democratic
Workers Party, and the "Mother Jones" managers had fired him after
two days, much to Moore's chagrin.
The tension culminated when Moore refused to print an article
written by Paul Berman against the Sandanistas in Nicaragua. It
claimed that the Sandanistas were Leninist souvenirs of the New
Left and that they had betrayed the promise of the revolution.
Moore claimed, "Reagan could easily hold it up, saying, 'See, even
_Mother Jones" agrees with me.' The article was flatly wrong and
the worst kind of patronizing bullshit. You would scarcely know
from it that the United States had been at war with Nicaragua for
the last five years." Needless to say, Adam Hochschild, the owner
and publisher of "Mother Jones" didn't like Moore's style and
promptly fired him.
Polemicist Alexander Cockburn put his reputation on the line
by writing a scathing article on the affair, getting his column
pulled from several major liberal weeklies.
Moore filed a $2 million lawsuit against Hochschild, suing for
unlawful dismissal and, after a well-publicized blowup, Hochschild
agreed to settle out of court. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
|
|
Sun Mar 21, 2010 7:58 am |
|
|
Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
|
I remember the flyers he used to put up around Buick demanding GM convert all production to farm equipment and give to farmers free.
Naw, he's not a socialist, or anything. /sarc |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
|
|
Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:34 am |
|
|
Derrick1965
F L I N T O I D
|
quote:
munnbreslin schreef:
The average healthcare corp. makes a 2.2% profit margin. When your in a business with billions and billions of dollars being spent, your profit will be larger because your expenses are larger. Whoever came up with the idea that the group that has negative twelve trillion dollars should run healthcare has never had a formal economics class. Insurance companies aren't evil. Michael Moore is just an idiot.
Munnbreslin you simply are the most stupidest person on FlintTalk. |
|
|
|
Sun Mar 21, 2010 10:27 pm |
|
|
1pissedoffguy
F L I N T O I D
|
quote:
Derrick1965 schreef:
quote:
munnbreslin schreef:
The average healthcare corp. makes a 2.2% profit margin. When your in a business with billions and billions of dollars being spent, your profit will be larger because your expenses are larger. Whoever came up with the idea that the group that has negative twelve trillion dollars should run healthcare has never had a formal economics class. Insurance companies aren't evil. Michael Moore is just an idiot.
I may not be the brightest bulb in the drawer Derrick1965, but "the most stupidest person on FlintTalk " isn't exactly proper grammar. But hey,I would say that you writing that indicates you are a fine product of the Flint school system. I know I don't use proper grammar, but I was always told you have to speak to people in their own language and at the level they best understand. I agree with Munnbreslin , he knows what he talking about, I doubt if you do. And I know for certain that Left Wing puss bag Michael Moore doesn't know either. I think insurace agencies and the people who run them are far more desireable people than "artistic" people who spew crap out of both ends and want to be adored and venerated like Moore wants to be. Other than helping himself who has Moore helped? Mikey loves only himself, his ego is legendary. He could walk down Lover's Lane alone.
Munnbreslin you simply are the most stupidest person on FlintTalk.
|
|
|
|
Mon Mar 22, 2010 8:47 pm |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Register
Profile
FlintTalk.com Forum Index
> Political Talk
