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Michael Moore [00:00:15] This is Rumble with Michael Moore. I’m Michael Moore. Welcome, everyone. Thanks for listening. Thanks for all the wonderful comments and things you wrote about President Carter. The fact that he’s entered hospice, I wrote my Substack column this week as an open letter to President Carter if you had a chance to read it. If you haven’t, you can go on my Substack at MichaelMoore.com and read it.
[00:00:39] I would just like to talk about a few things that are on my mind today and kind of get them out of the way. First of all, I might as well start with some good news. The victories against the Trumpsters, against the insurrectionists, against the haters, just continue to roll forward in the month of February, which just ended. Some of you may have missed some of this because there’s so many other things in the news every day that a lot of things just don’t make it online. They don’t make it on the TV news. So before they pass us by, I want us all to take a moment and I guess pat ourselves on the back a little bit.
[00:01:12] Now, I know a lot of you have a hard time listening to my podcast and reading my Substacks when I try to tell you that the Republicans are toast, that they are in their final days, that the people who stand for democracy are winning and they’re going to win, that while the thing we call the Democratic Party oftentimes leaves a lot to be desired because the people running it don’t know what they’re doing, they have no idea sometimes who this country is and so their finger isn’t quite on the pulse and they, you know, don’t do the job they should be doing. They don’t find the right candidates the winner or maybe some of us should be running and we don’t. And that’s part of the problem, too, because if we want better candidates, we may need to look amongst ourselves and not just waiting for the party hacks at the top to pick people for us to vote for. It doesn’t really work that well, does it? Look, I did 44 Substacks that I wrote, 44 essays in the 44 days leading up to the November election, countering all the B.S. that we were being told that there was going to be this red wave, that the Republicans were going to kick the Democrats ass and we were going to lose the Senate, we were going to lose the House, we were going to lose all this stuff around the country. And again, I’m not really not a contrarian. I don’t look for ways to just sort of say, “no, I disagree. I’m over here on the other limb. I’m away from all of you who are telling us how things are going to be and I don’t believe it’s going to be that way.” But I really again, just as I tried to warn people that Trump was going to win in 2016, I gave the reasons why. I wasn’t just saying stuff to be provocative or whatever, I just live in the Midwest. I feel like I listen to people — especially I listen to people that are not like me or that I disagree with. I don’t spend a lot of my time actually wanting them to listen to me because that’s kind of a waste of time. They’re locked in on what they believe in terms of a whole host of things that there’s no way I could ever get them to change their minds. So I don’t waste my time doing that. What I do is I believe that the majority of our fellow Americans actually believe in all the good things that we believe in, but they don’t vote or they’ve given up for good reasons sometimes, or they suffer because of the color of their skin — the voter suppression and the gerrymandering and everything that goes on. And so sometimes we lose these elections, but when we make up the majority of this country. You know, we who believe that our environment should be protected, we who don’t believe in the death penalty, we who believe that we need to do something about guns in this country, a whole bunch of categories, whether it’s our schools, whether it’s our water systems. I mean, you just go down the whole list. The country is pretty much divided between those people who believe that we need to stand up against the moneyed interests, against capitalism, against greed — whatever you want to call it. It’s cost us a lot of harm. So when a train goes off the tracks, the hilarity of watching Republicans try to attack Biden for a train, the train president himself, you know, when Trump and the Republicans and the wealthy donors for years have fought every issue when it comes to safety. Whether it’s trains, whether it’s cars, whether it’s the air we’re breathing or whatever, the fat cats fight us. They get the poor people, especially poor white people, believing that they’re on their side and that they’re going to be on their side with God and guns and they’re going to fight the gays and all this rigamarole that we are finally winning. We’re winning all these battles. And I know a lot of you want to believe, “oh, we’re in trouble. Oh, Trump’s coming back. Oh, Mike, no, you don’t understand. I live with these people. I work with them. Oh they’re crazy! MAGA crazy!” Yes, you’re right. They are crazy. Stop listening to them. Stop worrying about them. A majority of this country doesn’t agree with them. They’ve lost seven of the last eight presidential elections — since George Daddy Bush in 1988. Okay? Do you know how long ago that was? A lot of people on this list weren’t even born yet. Seven of the eight presidential elections since Daddy Bush in ’88 have been won by the Democrats, not the Republicans. The popular vote has been won by the Democrats. Now, sadly, a couple of Republicans got into the Oval Office because we have people that are corrupt and we have election laws that aren’t followed or we have legal gerrymandering and legal voter suppression. And until we change that, the corrupt minority party, the party of the rich — they’re the minority, everybody else. The 99% are the majority. So shouldn’t their candidates win every time? Because in seven of the last eight presidential elections, the majority vote went to them, went to the people that were fighting the Bushes and the Trumps. And yet… And yet here we are.
[00:06:33] And a lot of you are still depressed and are still worried. Even after we had this great, great victory — victories — in November, there was no red wave. I told you we’d stop it. We not only didn’t lose the Senate, we picked up a vote in the Senate. We now have a stronger slight majority in the Senate. Millions of us showed up to vote. Millions of us got millions of others to come to the polls. We won governorships. We won statehouses, state Senates all over the country. We destroyed these Republicans. And now the Republicans only hold a nine seat majority in the House, which means any vote could flip by five votes and we would have the majority of votes to pass whatever we want in the House, in Congress right now, even with their so-called Republican majority. So I’m going to I wanted to just kick off today by giving you some more good news. And again, remember, I do not belong to the Democratic Party. I don’t pay dues. The Democratic Party. You know, if you follow me for years, I’ve been highly critical of the Democrats. And there’s a long ways to go. But we’ve been using them as a way to beat back the Trumps and the Bushes and these so-called Republicans who have destroyed their own party. And now it’s just a matter of doing crime scene cleanup, essentially. Bringing in Servpro to wipe up the mess they’ve created of themselves for themselves.
[00:08:12] So we have more work to do. Great. We can do it. We’re citizens of a democracy. We still have the vote. The billionaire has the same number of votes as you or me. One. That’s it. That’s like the greatest news. The billionaire — yeah, they got a ton more money than we have. Yeah, they own a lot of property and they own factories and they own the economy and they own this and that, whatever. But when that voting day comes and that curtain closes or you send in your ballot and you seal it, you put the stamp on it. By the way, when I’m president, there will be no stamps needed for your mail in ballot. All free. It’s already that way in a couple of places. We need that anyway. Sorry, I didn’t mean to get off on that. What I’m telling you here is that the wealthy, each of them have only one vote. And so because there’s more of us than there are of them, we win every time. Or we should. The only way we never win is because they rig it with gerrymandering and voter suppression. They try to stop black and brown people from voting and they make it very difficult. Everybody is on to them now. The majority is on to them. We’re on to them and bit by bit we stop them. And bit by bit, there is no red wave. There are no more red waves coming, my friends. This is it. It’s over. “I know, Mike, but I don’t know if Biden can win. He’s so old and I just —” Shut up. Stop it. Stop it, please. Come on. Oh, I almost did a Biden impersonation. [Impersonating Biden] “Stop it. Stop it.” [laughs] You got to love the guy, come on. Yes. He’s not me. He’s not you. We would do things a little differently. But right now he’s the club we have in our hand to beat back the haters, the bigots, the white supremacists, the misogynist, the gun lovers. And we are going to continue to win over and over and over again. And I am not an optimist. Have you seen my movies? I am telling you this as a person who is very aware of the predicament and the predicaments that we’ve been in and will be in. And it’s not guaranteed anywhere that we’re going to win. I’m just saying that we hold the power in our hands and it’s up to us whether we choose to use it. More of us than them. More of us in a democracy means they lose. Simple as that. Except that’s so simple, right? Because we have to get out there and we have to do the work. I just. I’m sorry I got off on a tangent here, but I just…
[00:11:04] I just want to give you some good news. I want to tell you some incredible things that happened in the last month. In the last four weeks, in the last 28 days of February. Now we’re in March. But I think I didn’t see a lot of this on the news. I don’t think you did either. And so I want to… We’re still in the the doldrums of winter here, and I want to give you some good news to lift your spirits. But first of all, why don’t I thank our first underwriter tonight for this podcast episode?
[00:11:39] First up is a huge thank you to Netflix and their brilliant, Oscar-nominated film, All Quiet on the Western Front. Frankly, you know, there were a lot of great movies that were made this past year. But like every year, really, if you’re lucky, there’s maybe one, maybe two where you would use the word “masterpiece.” My friends, this movie, All Quiet on the Western Front, was a masterpiece of 2022. Written and directed by Oscar nominee Edward Berger, this powerful anti-war film is based on the bestselling novel of the same name. You all know it. You probably have read it. You probably read it back in high school. All Quiet on the Western Front presents an unflinching and stunning portrayal of trench warfare. These young university students, these are German students, they enter the war thinking it’s an adventure only to be faced with a soul crushing reality of violence and death. This film is a timeless reminder of the brutality and the absurdity of war. It took Berger 16 years to get this movie made. Last week, it won a record breaking seven BAFTA Awards — that’s the British Academy Awards — including Best Film of the Year. Now it’s up for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. And the best part is that you don’t have to wait for it to come to your town or whatever. It’s available right now, tonight, right on Netflix. So please check it out. You won’t regret it. And thank you, Netflix, for supporting not just this podcast and my voice, but by bringing to the world this incredible and incredibly relevant anti-war film, All Quiet on the Western Front.
[00:13:21] Okay, so just listen to what I’m going to say. This is what’s happened with — and we’ll call them Democrats, because they have to run as Democrats, because in a country of 330 million people, we only have two political parties to represent the complete spectrum of thought and ideas amongst 330 million people. Two parties. All right? So that’s what we have now. It won’t be that way. In my lifetime that will change. There should be five or six political parties to cover the broad range of political thinking that we all have as Americans. And I believe that will happen. But not tonight and not in March. So just listen to what has happened against the MAGA crowd in just the month of February. So on February 7th, Pennsylvania, the Democrats swept all three seats in three special elections that were held for the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives. They had three open seats, three different districts in the state. They won them all. And now the Democrats control the Pennsylvania State House for the first time in 12 years, which now will allow them to block legislation from the Republican controlled state Senate, including the restrictions that the Republicans want to place on abortion and their support of voter suppression. They will be unable to pass these laws because the Dems now control the state House. That happened in just the last month.
[00:15:01] And then February 21st, the state of Virginia. Jennifer McClellan, a Democrat, won a special election for the U.S. Congress. The fourth District in Virginia. She did so well that she scored 13 more points than Biden did in the 2020 election when he got elected. She outperformed Biden by 13 points, and became the new Democrat that will represent Virginia’s fourth district. That happened on February 21st. And she replaced the wonderful Don McEachin, who died. Democratic Representative, House of Representatives. He died shortly after winning his reelection just this past November. And as I told you, between 2020 and 2022, 16 members of Congress died or resigned or disappeared or were arrested or were caught in a scandal, whatever it was, they left or were removed from Congress. 16 special elections had to be held. Shit happens. And special elections are held. And that’s why we have to be ready to win these special elections.
[00:16:21] Let me just read this from CNN. This is this is good. I like this. “So far in 2023, besides McClellan’s victory in the Virginia fourth District, the Democrat, there already just since New Year’s Day, there have been 12 special elections for state legislative seats in which at least one Democrat was running against one Republican. And in those 12 races since New Year’s Day, Democrats have been outperforming Biden’s 2020 margins by an average of four points.” I… Doesn’t do me any good to say “I told you so” because all I’m doing is quoting data that not all of these representatives that are elected in these elections make it to the end of their term for whatever reason — God bless them if they’ve passed on. The others scandal, sometimes they actually they want to run for a higher seat, they want to run for a Senate seat or something else. But they’re gone. Special elections are held. We pick up more seats. You know, I don’t like to make predictions and I really don’t want to make promises. But I told you that when we lost the House to the Republicans by just a few seats a few months ago, that by the end of this term in 2024, the Republicans will not be in control of the House of Representatives. Now, I don’t like going out on a limb and saying things like this, but what I really am trying to do is give you some belief in ourselves. The bastards now are on a tear on a losing streak that has lasted since 1988. And they only win when they lose. Trump lost the popular vote. Bush lost the popular vote. So they got a special key to let their white asses in because we have gerrymandering and voter suppression. That’s the only reason they’re there or were there. They’re not going to be there anymore. We’re fixing us.
[00:18:33] So also in February, Wisconsin had a primary for their state Supreme Court. Very important, their Supreme Court, because they’re just one vote off from giving women their rights back. So there’s going to be a runoff in April in the state of Wisconsin. So basically the top two vote getters were a very liberal justice and a very conservative justice. So this is a big election in April for Supreme Court in Wisconsin. It will determine whether or not women get their rights back to control their own bodies. Anything you can do to be supportive of the groups in Wisconsin to win in April, just like we’ve been winning, let’s win this one, too.
[00:19:20] Okay. On February 21st, what happened? New Hampshire! The New Hampshire incumbent Democrat Chuck Grassie, not Grassley, not the guy out in the Midwest. Chuck Grassie was reelected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in a special election after the 2022 midterm race back in November ended in a tie vote. A tie vote! For a state House seat. So thousands voted and it ended up in a tie. So if you think your vote doesn’t count, a single vote doesn’t count, he wouldn’t have had to go through the special election, Chuck Grassie. But he did and he won on February 21st, another Democratic victory.
[00:20:05] Also on February 21st, in Kentucky, one of our favorite red states, the Democrat, Cassie Armstrong, she won a special election to fill a vacant Senate seat in Louisville’s district 19. Another Democratic win in a red state. If you remember from our our podcast series that we started over the holidays, Blue Dots in a Red Sea, 12 episodes I gave you how we are going to start winning in red towns, red counties, red states. And it started with the November election. It started with the ballot proposals in Kansas, in Kentucky and Montana. I don’t need to explain those three states to you, do I? I mean, Burning Man, you know, Woodstock, Summer of Love — doesn’t have anything to do with those three states. [laughs] They’re all red states. And they all voted to support in some way or another a woman’s right to choose, a woman’s right to control her own body. Right to life — they kicked their ass. They don’t believe in a “right to life.” They believe in a right to misery and a right to force God down your throat, their God. And I could tell you their God, whatever it is that they’ve created, the God of Hate… What would a God of Hate be called? Who is the God of Hate? Where does the God of Hate reside? Ooo it’s feeling a little warm… I’m gonna just leave it there.
[00:22:08] And then finally, on the last day of February here this week, February 28th, in Connecticut, Democrats swept all three state House seats in a special election. So there’s three special elections, Democrats won all three state House seats in Connecticut. You’re getting the gist of this, right? It’s win after win after win after win after win. That’s what’s going on, folks. That’s what’s been happening. That’s the news you probably haven’t heard of. It’s important for those in power to keep your spirits down, to not have you get excited about thinking that you, we, can win. They actually like the fact that we know that it’s rigged with gerrymandering and voter suppression, hoping that we’ll just go, “Oh, what’s the use? The rich always win.” No, they don’t. They want you to believe they do. They don’t.
[00:23:14] Let me take a minute here just to also thank a couple of our other underwriters for today’s episode. And the first one up is Stamps.com. Thank you, Stamps.com, for being a longtime underwriter of this podcast. Thank you for your continued support. Stamps.com, in case you don’t know by now, it lets you print your own postage and shipping labels right from your home or office. It’s ready to go in minutes. There’s no lines. You don’t have to go through any traffic. No waiting. Easy peasy right there on your computer so you can get back to your life or whatever you’re doing. All you need is a computer and a printer. They even send you a free digital scale, so you’ll have everything you need to get started. Plus, they have rates that you literally can’t find anywhere else, like up to 84% off both the Postal Service and UPS rates. For 25 years, Stamps.com has been indispensable for over 1 million businesses. So set up your business for success when you get started with Stamps.com today. You just sign up with the promo code MOORE, that’s my name, MOORE, for a special offer that includes a four week trial plus free postage, plus a free digital scale. There’s no long term commitments or contracts or anything like that. All you have to do is go to Stamps.com and then click the little microphone that’s at the top of the page, and then you enter the code MOORE. Thank you, Stamps.com for, again, supporting this podcast.
[00:24:42] We have one more underwriter in today’s episode that I want to thank, and that is Rocket Money. Over 80% of people right now in this country have subscriptions that they have forgotten about, online subscriptions — all kinds of various streaming services, newspapers, digital magazines. You signed up for it and maybe only watched one show on the streaming service and then you forgot to cancel it. Or you thought, “Oh, I’ve got a free trial period.” And then before you know it, suddenly they’re charging you. I mean, it’s easy to do. I’ve been one of those 80%, and I’m telling you, this is what’s cool about Rocket Money, and this is where they come in. Now, they were formerly known as True Bill, it’s a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions, it monitors your spending, and it puts all of this in one place, all with Rocket Money. So all you have to do is find a subscription you don’t want any longer and press “cancel” and Rocket Money will cancel it for you. No more long hold times on the phone with customer service or the tedious back and forth of emailing to somebody where they are still charging you, they’re still sending you stuff you don’t want. Rocket Money makes canceling subscriptions as easy as a click of a button. Over 3 million people have used Rocket Money, saving the average person up to $720 a year. So stop throwing your money away. Cancel unwanted subscriptions and manage your expenses the easy way by going to RocketMoney.com/rumble. That’s RocketMoney.com/rumble. And thank you Rocket Money for being a supporter of my podcast. RocketMoney.com/rumble.
[00:26:21] Okay. Welcome back here. I want to play you something. It was on American Idol this past Sunday. Maybe you’ve seen this, it’s getting passed around, but this be an audio podcast, if you want to watch the clip, I’ll put the link to it on my podcast page here. But in the meantime, I just want you to hear this. So this is American Idol. And, you know, they have people come in, amateurs perform, and they hope to get selected and eventually be voted by the American public, who watch the show as the American Idol. They get a record deal and whatever. Anyways, there’s three judges. They are Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan. So after the kid, I think after he performed his song, they asked him, you know, why he decided to try out for American Idol. I just want to play this for you. This is Lionel Richie and Katy Perry and Luke talking to this young contestant, just a young kid. I want you to hear what he had to say and their response. If you just listen to the audio of this, you’re not going to be able to see Katy Perry. But she essentially loses it and collapses. Her head just goes down on the desk. She can’t look. She can’t look up. It was so riveting and so moving. And it’s just a small moment, but very indicative of the time in which we live. And I hope 50 or 100 years from now, if the planet is still around and they still have the digital tape, that they can watch, and try to understand how messed up we were. Let’s just let’s play this right now from this Sunday’s American Idol.
[ AUDIO CLIP FROM AMERICAN IDOL ]
(Audio clip) Luke Bryan [00:28:13] Why are you doing Idol?
(Audio clip) Contestant Trey Louis [00:28:15] Man, so… American Idol number one is kind of where people that I enjoy make it. Number two is, as I said before, I’m from Santa Fe, Texas. In May 2018, a gunman walked into my school. I was in Art Room 1. He shot up Art Room 2 before he made his way to Art Room 1. Lost a lot of friends. Eight students were killed. Two teachers were killed. And so it’s really been negative, man. Santa Fe has had a bad rap here since 2018.
(Audio clip) Luke Bryan [00:29:04] Man. You just got the perfect voice. You sang from the right spot. You just. You let it come out of your heart. And that’s what we love around here.
(Audio clip) Contestant Trey Louis [00:29:22] What you doing, Katie?
(Audio clip) Katy Perry [00:29:24] Our country has f***ing failed us.
(Audio clip) Contestant Trey Louis [00:29:27] Facts.
(Audio clip) Katy Perry [00:29:29] This is not okay. You should be singing here because you love music.
(Audio clip) Contestant Trey Louis [00:29:36] That’s true.
(Audio clip) Katy Perry [00:29:38] Not because you had to go through that [bleeped expletives].
(Audio clip) Contestant Trey Louis [00:29:41] I agree.
(Audio clip) Katy Perry [00:29:43] You don’t have to lose eight friends. I hope that you remind people that we have to change, because you know, I’m scared too.
(Audio clip) Contestant Trey Louis [00:29:58] It’s terrible, Katie. It’s horrible.
(Audio clip) Lionel Richie [00:30:06] We have tolerated this for so long. For too long. It’s become a norm.
(Audio clip) Katy Perry [00:30:11] That we’ve got to change.
(Audio clip) Contestant Trey Louis [00:30:12] True. I agree.
(Audio clip) Katy Perry [00:30:14] And I hope you can just lead. Can you do me that favor?
(Audio clip) Contestant Trey Louis [00:30:17] For myself, for my school, for you.
(Audio clip) Katy Perry [00:30:19] Thank you.
(Audio clip) Contestant Trey Louis [00:30:20] Yes, ma’am.
(Audio clip) Katy Perry [00:30:20] Thank you.
(Audio clip) Contestant Trey Louis [00:30:21] Yes, ma’am.
Michael Moore [00:30:28] I know we began the episode with all my good news here about how the Republicans, the MAGA heads, the Trumpsters are getting crushed in all these special elections that have started to be held here and will continue to be held every month between now and the end of 2024. Elections that we’re going to win and keep winning. And I know to end this with that clip from American Idol was probably difficult for some people to listen to, but I’m not going to shut up about this issue. I spent the last couple of weeks here, more than a couple of weeks maybe now, but since the shooting at Michigan State, the killings, I’ve been writing a Substack column. I’ve written it and rewritten it, trying to figure out what it is I need to say now after dealing with this issue for so many years.
[00:31:25] 20 years ago I made Bowling for Columbine. And in fact, the 20th anniversary of us winning the Oscar for best documentary for Bowling for Columbine is coming up here in about three weeks, March 23rd. And we’ve got a little surprise. I think we’re going to I’ll tell you about it in the next podcast. But maybe keep that date open, the night of March 23rd, the 20th anniversary of the Oscar being presented to Bowling for Columbine.
[00:32:02] Anyway, that’s what I’ve got for you for now. Do not despair. Work to do. We can do it. I’m really honored to be doing this with all of you. It feels good for once in our lives to be in a big, vast majority. Our fellow Americans agree with us, not with the haters. They’ve chosen sides and they’ve chosen us. Hats off to all of you for everything you’ve done to make this change occur in our society. I love you for it. My thanks to my producer and editor Angela Vargos, to everybody who’s had anything to do with this podcast. I’ll talk to you again here in the next few days. This is Michael Moore. The podcast is called Rumble. See you soon.