From: Michael
Moore [mailto:maillist@michaelmoore.com ]
Sent: Tuesday,
February 21, 2017 14:06
To:
Subject: Do These 10 Things, and Trump
Will Be Toast
Friends,
I welcome you to "The Michael Moore Easy-to-Follow 10-Point Plan to Stop
Trump."
First,
let's acknowledge what we all know to be true: Trump is in deep, deep trouble
-- in the pocket of Russians, surrounded by alt.right
idiots, alone in his bathrobe in a mostly-empty White House -- and caught
inside a disgusting "shit-sandwich", so said his supporter who turned
down the NSA job.
Only
one month into his So-Called Presidency -- and yet there is good news, as this
is what the American landscape looks like:
•
Tens
of thousands of citizens across the country have stormed Congressional district
offices and town hall meetings to express their rage at the Trump agenda (a
dejected Republican congressman, after a 3-hour verbal assault from his angry
constituents, said on TV last night, "let's face it - they [the Obamacare
supporters] have won.").
•
A
federal court halted Trump's first Muslim Ban -- actually, make that FOUR
federal courts have ruled against him! He's conceded defeat and will not appeal
to the Supreme Court (though he will try a new ban - and good luck with that,
you son of a Scottish immigrant).
•
Progressive
Democrat Congressman Keith Ellison appears to be the front-runner for this
Saturday's vote to head the Democratic Party -- and to FIX the whole damn mess!
Also, a recruitment drive has begun across the country to find the best local
candidates to run for state and federal offices in 2018. Millions are committed
to never letting the Debacle of ‘16 happen again.
•
Our
beautiful Army of Comedy - with its Platoon of Satirists led by Alec Baldwin
and Melissa McCarthy - is killing it! The devastating impersonation of White
House spokesman Sean Spicer by McCarthy has Trump fuming to the point where he
has considered getting rid of Spicer. Politico says he simply can't watch one
of his top aides being portrayed by...a woman!
So
the momentum is with us right now -- and if we all just take a little time to
do the Action Plan below, I'm convinced we'll succeed in halting the dark force
that is Trump. We can tie him up in knots at every turn, and eventually, we can
bring him down.
So
let's get started with our...
10-POINT ACTION PLAN TO STOP TRUMP
You
must call Congress every day. Yes - YOU! 202-225-3121. It will take just TWO
MINUTES! Make it part of your daily routine, one of those five things you do
every morning without even thinking about it:
1.
Wake up.
2.
Brush teeth.
3.
Walk dog (or stare at cat).
4.
Make coffee.
5.
Call Congress.
It
is impossible to overstate just how much power you have by making this simple,
quick DAILY CALL. I know from firsthand experience the impact it has. These
politicians freak out if they get just 10 calls on an issue. Imagine them
getting 10,000! Holy crap - the dome will pop off that building!
NOTE:
if you're saying to yourself, "I don't need to call because my rep is a
Democrat!" -- that is NOT true. They need to hear from you. They need to
know they have your support. Don't believe it? Our beloved Sen. Elizabeth
Warren voted in favor of Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development! I'm sure no one in Massachusetts thought they had to call her. YOU
DO! She and the other Dems need to hear from the boss -- YOU! They work for us
- and what boss doesn't have daily contact with his or her employees?
It's
easy to make The Daily Call. To call your U.S. member of Congress or Senators
in D.C., dial 202-225-3121 (or 202-224-3121 if busy). It's even better to call
their direct line. For Senators, find each of their numbers here:
http://bit.ly/2kko0Ao. For the direct line to your member in the House of
Representatives: http://house.gov/representatives.
Here's
some great news: Someone has created an app to make this very easy: Go to the
App Store and get "5 Calls". The app will dial the friggin' phone for you and give you talking points for when
you speak to your reps!
Here's
what a sample week of your DAILY CALL can look like:
On
Monday, call your Congressman/woman and tell them you do not want them to
repeal Obamacare. In fact, you want them to improve it so that we have
single-payer universal health care like all other "civilized"
countries.
On
Tuesday, call the first of your two U.S. Senators and tell him to vote NO on
Rick Perry for Secretary of Energy. He couldn't even remember there was a
Department of Energy - or what it did!
On
Wednesday, call your other U.S. Senator. Demand she do everything in her power
to block the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On
Thursday, call your local State House/Assembly representative in your state capital.
Tell her you want the House to vote for legislation that prohibits the
incarceration of nonviolent drug users.
On
Friday, call your State Senator. Tell him you want him to support all efforts
to reduce those activities which cause climate change.
If
you'd rather to write to your reps, you can find the best way to do that for
each of them here by typing in your address on: democracy.io.
I
will post updates on the actions we're fighting for each day and week on my
Twitter and Facebook pages. If you want to know what to call your reps about, I
encourage you to follow me right now on Facebook at facebook.com/MMFlint and on Twitter at @MMFlint.
All my social media sites are at my website www.michaelmoore.com.
Remember
-- A call a day keeps the Trump away.
To
add even more pressure, SHOW UP! Your member of Congress has a local office in
your town or somewhere nearby. So do both of your U.S. Senators (often in the
nearest federal building). Go there and ask to speak to their aide about the
issues we're facing (again, I will continually post them on my social media
sites).
Also,
don't forget to visit the local office (or the state capitol office) of your
State Representative/Assemblyperson, and your State Senator.
And,
if you're lucky to live within driving distance of Washington, DC, show up on
Capitol Hill and pay an unannounced (it's legal!) in-person visit to your U.S.
Senators and your Congressman/woman. They pay serious attention to this. It
blows their mind that you'd drive that far to see them. Do it!
I
know not everyone has the time to do THE MONTHLY VISIT -- but if you can,
please do!
You
and 5 to 20 friends and family members must become your personal RAPID RESPONSE
TEAM. Sign everybody up so that when we need to leap into action (like we did
at the airports the hour after Trump signed his Muslim Ban), you can email and
text each other and make an instant plan. On other days, you'll share links to
good investigative stories and TV news items. Come up with a name for your
RAPID RESPONSE TEAM -- mine is called "The V for Vendetta Rapid Response
Team" and it consists of myself, my daughter and son-in-law (and their new
baby!); my two sisters, their spouses and adult children; my cousin; 8 friends;
6 co-workers; and my next door neighbor. That's 27 of us and we live from
Seattle to Michigan to Maryland. And each of them are forming their own local
Rapid Response Teams. So that means the 27 on my team are so far responsible
405 new Rapid Responders overnight! And each of those 405 are doing the same -
they're recruiting their own 5-20 people - and BOOM! 4,050 more Rapid
Responders tomorrow -- and growing!
We
all know it's time for all of us to be part of a greater whole, so let's
actually physically sign up online and JOIN some of our great national groups.
I've joined Planned Parenthood, ACLU, Black Lives Matter, Democratic Socialists
of America, and ERA Action. Some charge money to join, so if you don't have
much, pick the lowest amount ($5 for ACLU for example) -- or join groups that
don't charge anything (but if you can help them financially, please do). They
will keep you informed of national actions and fight for us in court.
The
historical, record-breaking January 21st Women's March on Washington -- and the
hundreds of other Marches that day across the US and the world, with over 4
million in attendance! -- brought massive numbers of people out who had never
protested in their lives. It inspired millions of others and ignited so many
local movements we still can't count them all. The day after the Women's March,
another two dozen protests took place. The day after that, 2,000 Utahans jammed
into their state capitol in Salt Lake City. Then, on the following Saturday,
tens of thousands of Americans occupied their local airports to oppose Trump's
Muslim ban. And on and on and on. Every day -- still! -- dozens of actions
continue to take place as if the Women's March never ended. It hasn't. Join it!
I
and a group of friends have set up THE RESISTANCE CALENDAR
(www.resistancecalendar.com) that is updated daily, where you can find out what
actions are taking place near where you live. All you have to do is type in
your city or state in the search bar.
It's
critical that large numbers of us continue to march, protest, sit-in, and be
very visible -- to Trump, so he knows we are the majority; to put the Dems on
notice that we expect them to grow a spine; to our fellow Americans who live in
Boise or Tulsa or Grand Rapids and have been feeling alone and afraid since the
election. Our mass presence reminds them the people didn't elect Trump. And it
is good for each of us to operate in concert with each other, to feel the
solidarity and the hope.
And
the official Women's March on Washington -- they've called for a national
Women's Strike on March 8th. Let's join them!
The
old guard of the Party has twice in 16 years presided over the majority of Americans
electing the Democrat to the White House -- only for us all to see the losing
Republican inaugurated as President. How is it that we have won the popular
vote in SIX OF THE LAST SEVEN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS -- the Republicans have
only won ONCE since 1988 -- and yet, we hold NO power in any branch of
government?! That, plus losing 1,000 local seats in this election that the Dems
use to hold -- plus watching many Dems in Congress unwilling to stand up to
Trump -- PLEASE, the old leadership has to go. God love 'em
for their contributions in the past, but if we don't enact a radical overhaul
right now, we are doomed as far as having a true opposition party during the
Trump era. And that, more than anything, will help to usher in the vice-grip of
a totalitarian culture.
You
must do two things:
•
Let
the DNC know that THIS SATURDAY, February 25th, the Democratic National
Committee MUST elect reform and progressive candidate, Congressman Keith
Ellison, as the new DNC chair. Keith is a former community organizer, the first
Muslim elected to Congress, and a key backer of Bernie Sanders. He not only has
Bernie's support -and mine-but he's also backed by Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid,
Gloria Steinem, John Lewis and many others. Sign his petition of support at
www.keithfordnc.org/howyoucanhelp. Let the DNC know how you feel.
•
And
locally, you need to start attending your county Democratic meetings. If
possible, organize your friends and others and take over your local Dem
organization. More on this at a later date.
People
keep saying to me, "Mike - I live in a Blue State - what can I do?"
If you live in a Blue State, you have one of the MOST important tasks to
complete: Show the rest of America what it looks like when Trump isn't in
charge! Blue States and Blue Cities must do an end-run around Trump and create
the America we want to live in. That means New York goes ahead and offers Free
College for All. California can create its own Universal Health Care. Oregon
can stop mass incarceration of African Americans. Hawaii can enact its own
climate change laws. Blue States can show the rest of country how much better
life can be. Important historical note: Before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal,
California and New York passed their own state laws to make it legal. This
greatly helped pave the way for CHOICE being the new normal -- and the
enactment of Row v. Wade.
8.
YOU MUST RUN FOR OFFICE: I know, that's the LAST thing you want to do. But if
we keep leaving the job up to the dismal, lame, pathetic political hacks who
have sold us all down the river, then what right do we have to complain? This
is only going to get fixed when you and I decide we are willing to put in our
time -- even if it is a brief time -- and run for office. I ran when I was 18
and got elected. You can, too. We need good candidates for the 2018 elections
-- and not just Congress and State Houses, but also school boards, city
councils and county commissions. Why not take out a petition today and run next
year? Heck, I'll bet I'll even support you!
I
realize most of you can't do this -- but there is one office every one of us
can and SHOULD run for next year: PRECINCT DELEGATE. Every precinct, every
neighborhood can elect x-number of Dems to the county Democratic Convention.
It's on the ballot and it's usually blank - no one runs for it. So the precinct
delegates end up being appointed by the party hacks. And that's who ends up
eventually at the national convention to pick the next presidential candidate.
So this is an important position to run for. The time commitment is just 3
hours a year! You attend the county convention -- that's it. Call your city or
county clerk and find out how to get on the ballot. If you'll do it, I'll do
it. It's the first step to making sure we put a candidate on the ballot who can
win.
Stop
complaining about the media, stop wishing they were something they're not, find
the ones who are doing a good job and then start your own "media
empire" by sharing their work and your work on the internet. Use Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media sites to spread news and
information. Make sure all your friends and family are signed up. Yes, I'm
talking to you, Baby Boomers. Get over it, put down your postage stamps and
your "TV clicker" and find a six-year old to show you how to start
tweeting. You can be your own reporter, your own editor. You can curate the
news for your friends. And now Facebook lets you have your own network with
Facebook Live! It's all free. Get on social media now. Imagine, your own CNN is
in the palm of your hand...
Trump's
Achilles heel is his massively thin skin. He can't take mockery. So we all need
to MOCK HIM UP! Not just the brilliant people at SNL or Colbert, Seth Myers or
Samantha Bee -- but YOU. Use your sense of humor and share it with people. Get
them to do the same. Keep sending around the SNL links spoofing Sean Spicer,
Trump and Kellyanne -- there's no such thing as
watching them too many times! Hahaha. I truly believe the final tipping point
for Trump will be when he implodes from all the laughter -- the mocking, the
unbearable ridicule of tens of millions of Americans that will discombobulate
him and force him out of the White House. I know this seems like Mike's fever
dream, but I believe it can work. I don't know what happened to Trump in
boarding school at 13 and I don't care. Whatever it was, let's use it. He's
used all the other things he picked up over the years - misogyny, bigotry, greed
- against the powerless and the unfortunate. It's time to laugh him outta town. And if there's one thing we all could use right
now is a good laugh -- AND the possibility of a much-shortened presidential
term.
So,
there you go! The 10-Point Action Plan to Thump Trump. Something for everyone.
And every one of us needs to do them. Please share this and spread the word. We
can stop him. We can nonviolently block and obstruct halt the damage he's
doing. But it's going to need -- and take -- ALL HANDS ON DECK!
Let's
make Trump toast again.
--
Michael Moore