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To read more about Episode 288, visit the main episode page.
[ EXCERPT from “The Wizard of Oz” — “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” ]
Michael Moore [00:00:25] This is Rumble with Michael Moore. I’m Michael Moore. Welcome, everyone. There were two things that happened this week, on Thursday of this past week. And these two events to me spoke volumes about where the country is at. And actually, I mean this in a good way. It also indicates that while we have a lot of work ahead of us, those that seek to stop progress, those who seek to take away the rights of women, of young people — they have lost. And they know they’ve lost. This is why I want to talk about what happened on Thursday.
[00:01:17] On Thursday afternoon, the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, decided to have a signing ceremony for a bill that had passed both houses of the Michigan legislature. The Michigan legislature, as you know from me talking about this, passed a constitutional amendment in Michigan in 2018, passed by the voters at the voting booths in the state of Michigan, to outlaw gerrymandering. To essentially make it a crime and to demand that the maps of where we vote and how we vote are to be drawn not by politicians, not by parties, but by an independent group of nonpartizan citizens with certain things built into how it’s done so that no one group can carve up a map to benefit their party, especially — and we’re talking about the Republicans — a party that has fewer and fewer people voting for them. And for some time in the state of Michigan, when people go to vote, they have been voting for the Democrats. The majority of Michiganders vote for the Democrat. And yet, the Republicans have controlled our House and our Senate. They’ve controlled the majority of our congressional delegation that we send to D.C. So any election that has to do with a carved up, gerrymandered map, the Republicans generally win those elections in states like Michigan. In elections that are not about redistricting or carving up districts like, say, for instance, the election for governor of the state. Everybody votes for governor. And you can’t rig it by carving up a map so that you carve up the black community into three white districts so that it dilutes the majority of black voters who may live in a particular city or area. That’s how it’s worked for, you know, a long time. Long after the Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act, we still have a party hell bent on making sure that black people and Hispanic people to a large extent, people who are not white, to make sure that they don’t hold much power. And they’ve succeeded at it. And there’s really no better tell than in states like Michigan where, you know, we have a Democratic governor. Why, since 2018, have the Republicans been in charge of one or both Houses in the capital in Michigan? Well, it’s because of these gerrymandered maps. Yet when the majority of Michiganders vote for the governor, the governor is a Democrat. The attorney general is a Democrat. The Secretary of State is a Democrat. Lieutenant Governor is a Democrat. When they vote for the U.S. Senate, again, a gerrymandered map can’t affect a Senate race because the entire state votes for their two Senators. So when the whole state votes in Michigan, we have two Democrats that we send to the United States Senate because the majority of people want the Democrat in office. When we vote for president, we usually vote for the Democrat — Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden. The exception to this rule was that Trump was able to win the state of Michigan in 2016 because, well, of a number of reasons. People in Michigan were not excited by the candidate that was on the ballot for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton. And so people stayed home. Democrats didn’t vote. Bernie Sanders had won the Democratic primary in Michigan. That’s who the people of Michigan, at least the Democrats, that’s who they wanted. And when that didn’t happen, and then when Hillary made the decision to not visit the state of Michigan and campaign there, just as she did with Wisconsin, Trump was able to win these states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — by a grand total of 77,000 votes. So anyways, once we passed this constitutional amendment outlawing gerrymandering, and making sure that the map actually represented the will of the people, then all of a sudden, starting in 2022, after the new census from 2020, all of a sudden, look what happened. The majority of the congressional delegation from Michigan in Washington, D.C. are Democrats. And the Democrats not only now have taken over the governor’s chair and the secretary of state’s office and the attorney general, the majority of the House of Representatives of Michigan and the majority of the Michigan Senate were Democrats. Because that’s who the people wanted.
[00:06:35] I’m not a paid spokesman for the Democratic Party. And as you know, if you’ve listened to me or watched my movies over the years, if you come to Flint, Michigan, and fake-drink a glass of water and tell people that the water’s okay there and you’re the Democrat and you’re the president, I’m going to call you out on it no matter how much I have voted for you, love you, support everything else you’re doing. I will not be silent when Democrats are messing things up. You know this about me.
[00:07:08] And so we’ve now, since the beginning of the year, have well over 160 mass shootings that have occurred in a little over 100 days. And the people of this country are fed up with it. And yet we can’t get any gun legislation passed, can’t get anybody to focus on what the real causes of this are. Except Michigan this week, the House and the Senate approve a couple of bills to finally pass some serious, not token, serious gun legislation. And what does the governor of Michigan, the Democratic governor of Michigan, what does she decide to do? And you would think, “Oh, how did they get this passed? Why would people risk their political lives voting for gun control when Michigan’s a big hunting state? Lots of guns, you know, lots of dangerous areas, Detroit, Flint, Saginaw. You know, people need their guns for protection. Why they would never support this gun legislation.”.
[00:08:24] “Well they do support it. Just like the majority of Americans. Vast majority of Americans want more gun control and can’t get it passed. But it got passed in Michigan. And so the governor decided for the signing ceremony to hold it at the stadium, about three miles from the state Capitol, of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. A huge signing ceremony. Signing ceremonies aren’t huge. You know, they’ll do it like in the Oval Office or the governor’s office or whatever. This happens on the very campus where a mass shooting took place a couple of months ago. People were killed. And the NRA still demanding that nothing change, threatening politicians who dare to vote for any gun control.
[00:09:20] The House of the Senate in Michigan not only vote for it, the governor signs the bill, not in her office. Where does she do it? She does it at Spartan Stadium on the Michigan State University campus. 50,000 students go to this college. And they’re all in some form of PTSD because this mass shooting was just a couple of months ago. And she takes it. She takes these bills. To the scene of the crime. No fear. Sticking it right to the NRA. Sticking it right to all the gun nuts and the Republicans who don’t want to do anything about this. Why? Why did she do that? Because it’s what the people of Michigan want. It’s what the people of this country want. I was proud of their vote. All the Democrat, they show up, The governor’s there. She signs it. People cheer. Because it’s what the people want. They’re sick of this. They’re sick of these mass shootings. They’re sick of all kinds of shootings.
[00:10:40] I’ve said it before. We are not a nation of gun nuts. I know it looks like we are. And we have this incredible tens of thousands of people that die every year via homicide, manslaughter, accidents, suicide. Huge suicide with guns. Because the gun is in the house. You’re depressed. The thought goes through your mind of just, “I can just escape this right now…” If the gun wasn’t in the house, you’d have to try another method which isn’t as successful. The gun method — that’s successful. Slitting your wrist, taking an overdose are sometimes successful, but not always. A gun – what is it, 98, 99% of the time – you’re going to die. 40,000-50,000, depending on the year of gun deaths in this country. And politicians, especially Democrats –lame weak, afraid for years – to take on the NRA, to take on this issue, leaving it out of their national platform when they go to their convention. How many years was that? Afraid to put it in there, afraid that they would lose their seats. And now no more.
[00:12:08] Let’s sign a bill or two. Let’s flaunt it right in the face of the National Rifle Association. In the week before, they’re going to have their big ass national annual convention just down the road, actually on the same road that Lansing, the capital of Michigan, is on. Just down the road. This weekend that we’re in right now as I’m recording this in Indianapolis, the NRA holding their convention, trying to proclaim that they still have some relevancy.
[00:12:47] Later that night, this past Thursday, after Governor Whitmer in Michigan signs this anti-gun legislation. Another bill signing takes place. Also on a “right-down-the-road” from Michigan, the I-75 road, but a little further than Indianapolis — Indianapolis on I-69 comes through Flint and Lansing, I-75 comes through Flint and Detroit — and I-75 ends up near Fort Lauderdale, in Florida. Fort Lauderdale, Miami area. And down in Florida, on that same day this past Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis decides to sign a bill that passed the Florida legislature. And that bill said that essentially most abortion, all abortion, most abortion is banned unless the abortion takes place in the first six weeks of the pregnancy. Now I’m of a gender that does not and cannot get pregnant, but those who have been pregnant, do get pregnant, can get pregnant, can pretty much tell you that oftentimes in your third or fourth week of having a fertilized egg inside of you, your fifth week or six week, you don’t really know you’re pregnant sometimes. A lot of times actually. In fact, you may not discover that you’re pregnant until the 8th, the 10th, the 12th week of being pregnant, sometimes later. So what Florida’s trying to do and what many states are doing is to try and cut off abortion before the woman would even know that she’s pregnant.
[00:14:59] So DeSantis decides he’s going to sign this bill that, according to one poll I saw, said that 75% of Floridians were opposed to the six-week bill because it’s ridiculous. Six weeks. 75% of the people in Florida were opposed to it. And here’s a great number: 61% of people who call themselves Republicans were opposed to it. And yet he decided he was going to go ahead and sign it anyways. But he’s not stupid. He knows he’s signing something the American people don’t want. Somewhere between 65 and 70% of Americans do not support these bills that ban abortion. And certainly not banning it like you have to know you’re pregnant before you’re six weeks pregnant. He knows that. Abortion was a losing proposition for Republicans at the polls last November. It’s what prevented the red wave from happening. It created a blue tsunami of just enough voters to stop them from completely taking over everything in D.C.. In fact, the Democrats gained a seat in the Senate last November. They were supposed to have lost five, six or seven seats. The Republicans were supposed to have gained 50 or 60 seats. They gained six or seven. I’m not quite sure what the number is today because there’s already been a couple of deaths. But, you know, it was supposed to be a huge, huge slaughter of the Democratic Party. And just the opposite happened. And more governors, Democratic governors, got elected throughout the country. Democratic legislatures. All of that took place in a November election.
[00:17:10] And now we know that one of the top reasons people gave for why they voted and why they voted for the Democrats is because of abortion, because the Supreme Court got rid of Roe v Wade last summer. And you know what? The people, the American people and American women don’t like being told what they can do with their bodies. It’s their bodies. It doesn’t affect anybody else. And here’s the government imposing itself on telling you what you can do. I mean, men just seriously think about it. If the Supreme Court ordered all of us that we had to birth at least three babies in our lifetime, or we’d be put in prison or we’d be fined or something like that happen, or the opposite of that: forced sterilization of men. I know some of you guys would probably like that, but you know what I’m saying. How would we respond if the Supreme Court started noodling around with our reproductive systems? It’s, well, we just know it’s not going to happen. I’m making up a hypothetical here, and as I’m saying it, I don’t find myself shaking in fear because at least for the time being, as long as men, mostly white men, are running the show, something like that isn’t going to happen.
[00:18:51] But DeSantis knows that time is running out and he wants to sign this bill last Thursday. But he also knows it will be very unpopular. How can he get elected president of United States when two thirds or more of the American people support the right to abortion? Can’t happen. He will not be president. They will vote against him just the way they voted against so many Republicans last November. They’re going to vote against him the same way the people of Wisconsin a week or so ago voted against the Republican conservative right winger that was running for Supreme Court. You know, Wisconsin generally has been like a close to a 50/50 state. Sometimes they have a Republican governor. Sometimes they have a Democratic governor. They have a Democratic governor now because now a small majority of people in Wisconsin vote for the Democrat. But in this election, it wasn’t the Democrat winning by a point or two, which is what often happens in Wisconsin. The Democrats supported the liberal justice, the woman running, wins by 11 points. It blew the minds of Republicans all over the country. And it was a great sign to the rest of us that these Republicans who decide to make abortion and taking the right of abortion away from American women, if they are going to make that their issue, if that’s the hill they want to die on, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. They’re going to die on that political hill. They are going to lose next year and they’re going to lose in even bigger numbers. And Ron DeSantis is not going to win and Trump’s not going to win. Unless they run a Republican that’s pro-choice, they have no chance of winning and they know it. DeSantis knew it, and so that’s why when he decided that he still had to sign — because he can’t lose the primary, he’s got to placate the evangelicals and the, you know, the white men who want to keep women in their place, he’s got to sign this bill — how does he do it now? He’s got to placate the base, but he can’t lose the general election because the American people aren’t going to vote for him if he’s anti-abortion. What to do? What to do last Thursday? He’s thinking, “Ah, hmm, err.”.
[00:21:19] And then he comes up with a brilliant idea. He decides to sign the bill, the anti-abortion six week bill —you have to know you’re pregnant in your first six weeks — he decides to sign this bill at 11:00 at night in his office. 11 p.m. Have you ever heard of a signing ceremony at 11 p.m. in the office? The rest of the building is dark. Nobody’s there in the state capitol. He’s there and he’s brought his evangelical friends and all his right wing nutcases in there who want to control women’s bodies. I mean, they’re there with him. It’s not just him there with a, you know, a shot of bourbon. He’s got a few of his his crazy-right backers there. But like the press, you know, the press, the poor press is so diluted and, you know, so many people laid off and not being able to do their job and there’s no overtime. How do you pay over time? “Oh, yeah. We need to send the camera crew and the reporters and everybody there at 11:00 at night.” Doesn’t happen anymore, friends. And so he thought that by trying to do it in the middle of the night, in the dark of the night, and it’s almost Friday, maybe people won’t notice. It’s Easter week. A lot of people have off spring break, whatever. Maybe nobody will notice. That’s his thinking because he knows he’s doing the wrong thing. He knows it. So he has to run and hide. He has to hide at 11:00 at night and quickly sign this bill. You don’t need to know anything more than that, because if he was proud of it, if he thought he was on the side of the American people and that the American people would cheer him on signing the six week bill to basically a ban abortion, he would have done it in the light of day. He would have done it in a big signing ceremony. He would have had every camera in Florida there.
[00:23:44] But he and the, we’ll call them the “smarter” Republicans, you know, smarter than what we’ve been dealing with in recent years, at least they have the political savvy to know that they’re cooked. Their goose is cooked. They are dead on arrival. And so they going to try and fool the American people to not knowing just how brutal they are. And they’ve got to do it in the middle of the night. Am I right? If you were proud of it, if you thought you had the majority on your side, you would make a huge deal of it. DeSantis spoke at a rally this weekend. Never once brought up that just 48 hours ago, he signed this important piece of legislation stopping women from having control over their own bodies. Never mentioned it in the whole speech. Why not? Why not, Ronnie? Because you know you’re cooked. You and all the people like you.
[00:24:56] And that was the difference. On the same day, the governor of Michigan knows that the majority of Americans are sick and tired of this gun violence, and she signs it in a football stadium. And unlike the governor of Michigan, he knows what he’s doing is wrong. So he has to do it in the dark of the night. He has to hide from the public to sign his bill. Like a thief in the night. Because that’s exactly what he is. He is signing a bill to steal the human rights, the reproductive rights away from an entire gender of citizens. And the only way he thinks he’s going to get away with it is to do it like a thief in the night. Because he is a thief. Because you can’t steal these rights from American citizens just because they’re women. Boom. You’re not going to be able to run a presidential campaign that way. Republicans, not just for president, but next year are going to have a very difficult time sticking to their positions of more guns, and less abortions. Not going to work.
[00:26:24] You know, my friends, I really I mean, I have felt for some time and I’ve told you how this is a party in… They’re the dying dinosaurs is what I’ve called them. And all the crazy sounds they make and the crazy things they say, whatever the dinosaurs sounded like as they were literally dying. We don’t have, you know, a tape recording of that. You can kind of imagine it. A beast that large probably let out quite a yell. And that’s what the Republicans have been doing by this behavior of trying to rig the voting map, of trying to sneak their anti-choice, anti-abortion legislation through, of trying to pretend these mass shootings aren’t occurring. “Thoughts and prayers,” and then move on quickly. They know their time is up. Not like I’ve thought — “Maybe well, it’s going to be up next year or five years from now or whatever — no their time is up right now. This is a dead party. Now, I’m hesitant to push this idea too far because I don’t want people to start thinking, “Oh, they’re dead. Okay, well, I don’t have to worry about voting next year.” Oh, no, no, no, no. Believe me, they’ve still got so many of these maps rigged. Everybody’s got to vote next year. And everybody’s got to bring five people to the polls with them. There’s no way around this. And if we let up even just a little we’ll end up like we did in Michigan in 2016, where Trump wins by two votes per precinct. An average of two votes per voting precinct Trump got over Hillary and that gave him Michigan and that gave him the White House. And I will feel the personal shame of this — just being a Michigander — that we let this happen. So. Let me be perfectly clear. We all have our work to do before the elections next year.
[00:28:39] But if it gives you any kind of inspiration, any kind of hope, knowing that if we just do our basic work — vote, make sure we vote, make sure we get five people that maybe aren’t going to vote to vote — we will have landslide after landslide like we did in Wisconsin over a week ago. Wouldn’t that feel great? It’s going to happen if we do our job. This party is dead. It stands for death. “Right to life” — what a joke. And it’s not just with their attitudes about women that’s killing them. Look what they did to those two young black statehouse members in Tennessee a week ago. Do they think that young people actually don’t pay attention to this? Just because a lot of young people don’t own a TV set anymore, do they think that they didn’t notice what the Republicans did to two 20-something state House members, both of them African-American? Do they think that nobody noticed that? Do they think black people didn’t notice that? Do they think any people of color didn’t notice that? And within days they’re put back in there by the people in their districts in Tennessee. And yes, they’ve got to go through a special election now, but I think we already know how that’s going to turn out. To remove from the state legislature people that were voted in there by the people in their districts in one fell swoop a couple of weeks ago, the Republicans in the Tennessee legislature took away the representation of over 175,000 Tennesseans who voted these two young men into office to represent them. And they were booted out onto the curb, saying to these people in these districts, one in Nashville, one in Memphis: “You don’t have a say anymore here. You don’t have a voice.” And then the way that they ridiculed and patronized these young people, talking down to them. Not just down to them as black men, but down to them because they were young. They “should have known better.”.
[00:31:25] How does the GOP, how do they — Republicans — how do they think they’re going to fare with young people next year? Because they haven’t won the young vote, the youth vote, in a very long time. And they’ve lost the white youth vote. They’ve lost the white youth vote for — I don’t know how far back. I know it goes back at least to 2008 where young white people, the majority of white people who are between 18 and 29, voted for Barack Obama. So the party of white people, that’s the Republican Party. Let’s just call it what it is. The White Party. The Republican Party has lost their own children for the last at least 15 years. That’s almost a full generation gone. And it’s not just to 29. To 39. It’s at this point now where it’s going to be two generations of kids that they’ve raised — their own kids — that no longer believe in what they believe in. Even the few, and I mean few young people, especially white young people that call themselves Republicans, they believe climate change is real. They are opposed to gun violence and want laws passed. They believe you don’t have the right to tell women what they can do with their bodies. Those are the white young Republicans. They’ve lost their own. The goose is cooked. They’re not just a dying party. They’re a dead party. Just nobody’s pronounced them dead yet. The American people do not want their values, their belief system running this country. So they’ve lost women. They’ve lost young people. They’ve lost a long time ago people of color.
[00:33:47] You know, and I have said this before, people of color, young adults and women, or a combination of those three groups, make up 70% — at least 70% — of the eligible voters in this country. How do you take stand after stand after stand against young people, against women, against black and Hispanic people, and expect to still be in office, especially as more and more states pass ballot measures like Michigan did and take away your gerrymandering scheme to carve up the map in favor of white people? Those days are over. Sometime in the 2040s, this country will not be majority white any longer. Get with the program. Understand you’re over. Might be a good time to join the rest of us. We’re all going to work together. Unity with your brothers and your sisters, your neighbors, your fellow Americans of all stripes, political stripes, color of skin, belief systems, non-beliefs, whatever it is, this is a diverse country.
[00:35:06] And by the way, let me just say it again. 72% of all Americans do not own a gun. We are the majority. And the people who serve us, that’s the people we elect, are going to start doing our will now. And we will sign our bills in football stadiums because we are the majority. We are America. You’ve got the rest of the world thinking, you know, this is just one crazy-ass country. And I will admit there are many things about us that are fairly crazy-ass and we still have to fix. Like being able to go to see a doctor when you get sick and not have to pull out a thick wallet to pay for it. And on and on and on. We won’t get into all the things today. But the change has been happening now for a decade or two. That’s why since Daddy Bush won in 1988, his one term, 1988, 35 years ago. Since that time, the Democrat on the ballot has won the popular vote in this country in seven of the last eight presidential elections. The Republicans have won only once the popular vote. And as we correct this thing called the Electoral College, that’ll be over too. The Republicans will have nowhere to go to try to claim power. That’s why they had to have a violent revolt on January 6, two years ago. Because what happens when all else fails? When the majority no longer support you, where you can’t have your way any longer, where the country is no longer going to be majority white. Where women, more and more women are in power. Well, you have to turn to violence. And that, as we saw, didn’t work. And it won’t work. That’s why when Trump showed up to be arrested in New York City and called for everybody to be there to support him. He called for death and destruction. And nobody showed up. Well, nobody, unless you count 75 to 100 people in the park across the street holding little signs, “Please. We love Trump.” Over. Goose cooked. It’s a dead party. They killed themselves. We didn’t do it. We didn’t really know how to get rid of them. So lame. They just decided to do it to themselves. Let’s piss all over young people. Let’s keep destroying the planet that — “well, we won’t be alive, so we won’t be living on it, but they’ll, well, they’ll deal with it.” Do you think young people haven’t noticed what we’re handing them? I mean, I don’t get it. The Republicans, “Let’s tell women we control their bodies. Let’s tell black people that your vote doesn’t count and we’re going to carve up your district three different ways so that you no longer hold a majority of votes in your district.” What made them think that was a winning proposition? Well, I guess because it worked for a long time. Until it didn’t. And now it hasn’t.
[00:39:05] Honest to God, I never thought I’d live to see the day where a Democratic governor would invite people to a football stadium to sign a bill to fight the NRA, a bill to fight the gun violence. It wasn’t everything we need because we are a violent people with a violent past. But my friends, it is a new day in America. Because tens of millions of our fellow Americans, fed up with all this gun violence, are collectively saying right now, “Drop the gun. I said drop the gun. Step away from the gun. Step away from the — step away from the gun. Hands. Hands behind your head GOP. The end of this has arrived.”.
[00:40:19] Wow. Spartan Stadium. I probably should pause for a minute here and thank the wonderful underwriters who help my voice be heard, allow this whole thing to come together, allow you the chance to hear this podcast. So why don’t we do that right now and then I’ve got one more thing I want to tell you that happened this week with me and the great Joan Baez.
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[00:42:24] This episode of Rumble with Michael Moore is also brought to you by BetterHelp. I believe that our mental health is just as important as our physical health, and that talking to a therapist can help — help us to navigate through times of crisis, help us to better understand ourselves and those around us. If you’re thinking of giving therapy a try, please check out BetterHelp, especially if you’re juggling a busy schedule. It’s entirely online and it’s designed to help make therapy more convenient and flexible around your schedule. When you sign up, you’ll fill out a brief questionnaire and they’ll match you with a licensed therapist. And if it’s not a good fit, you can switch therapists any time for no additional charge. Discover your potential with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/rumble today to get 10% off your first month. That’s betterhelp.com/rumble. And thank you, BetterHelp, for supporting me and this podcast it’s much appreciated.
[00:43:41] This last week began with I went to an event here. I was asked by Joan Baez, the great Joan Baez, now in her eighties, this incredible, beautiful singer, songwriter, activist, friend of Martin Luther King — so much good over the years. And she asked if I would interview her on this stage. She’s written a book, actually, it’s a lot of drawings and writings, it’s called “Am I Pretty When I Fly” by Joan Baez. It just came out this week and she asked if I would interview her on the stage at the event sponsored by the Strand Bookstore in Greenwich Village. And so I did that. And it was really a wonderful night. Great event. And we’d been talking beforehand about the new word from the U.N. that the Paris Climate Accords are already dead. That the idea of trying to not raise the temperature on this planet by more than 1.5 degrees centigrade by 2050, the U.N. has now announced in the last couple of weeks that that’s going to happen sometime in the 30s, the 2030s, maybe early 40s, but probably the 2030s. That we’re going to be up over two degrees centigrade by 2050. And this is with all the so-called “work” that’s been done, all the environmental stuff, all the things that other countries have done to try to reduce the carbon in the atmosphere. All of our environmental leaders who have had now — it’s Earth Day this coming Saturday — have had, what, 53 years to get the job done? What takes 53 years these days? What if it had taken us 53 years to end the Vietnam War? What if, since they got rid of Roe last summer, would you believe anybody had said, “You know, well, our pro-choice leaders — it’s going to take them about 53 years to make abortion legal and available again.” Could you believe that we would tolerate that? Yet we’ve tolerated a so-called environmental movement of leadership that has not accomplished the things that needed to happen. And you can blame the oil companies — I blame them. I blame all sorts of bad people. Wall Street. All of this. But the truth is, we went down the wrong path with the wrong leaders. And I guess one of the few people been willing to say this. They don’t like me saying it. I’m sorry. And then when you throw down with the Michael Bloomberg-s and the Branson-s and the, you know, all the green billionaires. Oh, my God. We have so screwed ourselves.
[00:46:56] I asked Joan at this event, Joan Baez, what she thought about it. She said, “I think we’re over. Not the planet, but the humans, the species. We have failed and there’s nothing that we’re doing that has a sense of urgency that’s going to correct this. We’re essentially burning in hell right now,” she said. Oh, God. The looks on people’s faces at this event. And I said to the audience, “Well. Not to bum you out further, but on some level, she’s speaking the truth. And I don’t want to say that out loud because I don’t want to give up hope and I don’t want anybody to stop doing the work that we need to do to fix this planet.”
[00:47:51] At the end of the event, you know, Joan went on her last concert tour three or four years ago, and she doesn’t sing in public anymore usually. I said to her, I said, “I’m not going to ask you if you’d sing a song or whatever. In fact, I was thinking that you’ve been singing us songs for almost 65 years now. And I don’t think we’ve ever sang a song for you.” And I just turned to the audience and I said, “I don’t know if there’s anybody here that would like to join me. But Joan, if you don’t mind sitting there, maybe it’s time that we did that. That we sing to you, to honor you, to thank you for all the work you’ve done to make this a better country, a better planet, to give us joy through music that you’ve given us over the years.” And I asked the audience, “Are you with me? I’ll start it. I think you’ll recognize the song.” And so I started singing and somebody in the audience, they turned their cell phone on quickly and captured, you know, I think most of this. And then they sent it to me. Somehow it got to me. Well, you know, I make my email address public here and I always encourage you to please feel free to write to me. I read all my email. And somebody sent this to me and I thought, after this, I hope this hasn’t been too depressing because we really are in the victory lane here. And next year at the elections, we can really toss them out. And we can get some good people elected. Let’s run more of those young people like that exist there in Tennessee. Let’s let’s elect more women. Let’s let’s stop the madness. We can do this. Let me just play this little bit here of what I and 500 other people performed for Joan Baez here the other night. Can we just run that?
[ EXCERPT: Michael Moore and audience sing “We Shall Overcome” to Joan Baez ]
Michael Moore [00:50:47] Oh, my God. I think she had tears in her eyes. She said to me, walking off the stage, she said, “Nobody’s ever done that for me before.” I said, “Oh, come on.” She goes, “No.” And then I thought. No, I guess. Yeah, I can see. I said, “Nobody’s ever made a little short film for me. That’s like, I guess that’s what we do. You know, I make movies and you sing songs, and we don’t expect anybody to sing to us or to make a movie for us or whatever.” But I don’t know. I am weirdly, strangely optimistic about things. As bad as the news is from the mass shootings to the collapse of this planet, I still know, I still know we have a fight in us and that we could do this even if we’re the last people standing. I’m going to leave you with a song from Joan Baez. I think it was on the last album that she produced a few years ago, probably her final album. It’s called “Last Leaf”. And I’m grateful to her. I’m grateful to all of you. I’m grateful to everybody who’s still in the fight. Thank God for those of you who have not given up. Don’t give up.
[00:52:14] My many thanks to all of you, to my producer and editor, Angela Vargos. To everybody who has anything to do with this podcast. Please share it with others. Please sign up on my Substack. It’s free. Be well. It’s spring. This is Michael Moore and this is Rumble.
[ MUSIC: “Last Leaf” — by Joan Baez ]