Karen Matts is a licensed practical nurse and a proud member of Teamsters Local 332.
April 12th, 2010
When Did "Pray" Become a 4-Letter Word?
I'm writing to you with an update on my 300 sisters and brothers in Flint, Michigan who work for the largest Catholic hospital chain in the country. They're still fighting for a new contract and fighting the cuts Ascension Health wants to make at Genesys Medical Center (see www.StopAscensionAbuses.com for ...
Social and Psychological Well-Being: Alternative Health and Healing in Haiti (Part II)
Lenz Jean-Francois is a social psychologist. He is also a professor and provisional head of the psychology department of the School of Social Sciences of the State University of Haiti. He talks about how local organizations and institutions are using social psychology in Haiti’s post-earthquake context to help survivors heal. ...
If you watch “Collateral Murder” and are shocked, this is a perfectly natural reaction. How the discussion about it is framed however, makes a world of difference. Speaking as a former soldier who was in the company on the ground in the video, who would have been in this video ...
Code Pink Tries to Handcuff Karl Rove Once Again
I arrived at the Vegas airport at 11am with my sister Cindy waiting at the curb for me. We caught up on our kids and grandkids while walking into the Office Depot to pick up the pink copies of the Arrest Complaint. There were 2 cops parked out front when ...
Collateral Murder? Wikileaks, Soldiers Speak
Bravo Company 2-16, the company I was deployed with to New Baghdad felt isolated from the fanfare that other soldiers experienced in Iraq. While major celebrities visited the safer bases, FOB Rustimiyah was lucky to get the third-string of the Buffalo Bills’ cheerleading squad.Several years later, and 2-16 has more ...
Last night our group of over 50 “Minnesotans for Peace” asked Al Franken “What Would Wellstone Do?” The response was extremely disappointing. To be clear, Franken’s staff and the St. Paul police officers are to be commended for their patience, professionalism and willingness to listen. Al Franken is to be ...
Conner Gorry is Senior Editor of 'MEDICC Review: The International Journal of Cuban Health & Medicine'
April 8th, 2010
Interview with Dr Patrick Dely: Part I
Haitian Graduate of the Latin American Medical School“I want to see a Haiti where the kids go to school, where the adults have a job and when they leave their house they know they´ll come back and there will be food…People talk about the reconstruction of Haiti. But for me ...
Why We Must Break Up the Big Banks
It's not often that I disagree with Paul Krugman, but there are occasions where at least one of us is wrong. And the treatment of too big to fail (TBTF) banks is one of them.Krugman argued in a column last week that breaking up the TBTF banks is not a ...
Has a Nurse Ever Helped You? Time to Step Up
PHILADELPHIA – Nurses at Temple University Hospital are on strike. They have been on strike since March 31, when after months of working without a contract, they had finally had enough. More than 1,500 members of the Pennsylvania Staff Nurses and Allied Health Professionals (PASNAP) who work at the busy ...
Take This Empire and Shove It!
“Listen, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate it. But there's nothing I can do about it right now... It's all such a long way from here.” Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Dear Reader—raise your hand if you don’t ...
Temple Strike Day Four: In Your Easter Bonnet
PHILADELPHIA -- Well, it wasn’t an Easter parade coming through Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, but it was a march by striking registered nurses and other Temple University Hospital health professionals that included lots of kids and family members deferring the activities that usually mark the spring holiday weekend. On the ...
RNs on Strike at Temple: Snapshots from Day Three on the Line
A transplant doctor steps into the crowd of picketing nurses and other health professionals at Temple and says how much he hopes this is all over soon. “I just cannot transplant anyone this way,” he shares. No one takes any pleasure in his statement, but another RN asks him about ...
90 is the new 60 these days, it seems, as so impressively demonstrated by several nonagenarians of my acquaintance. In 2003, I founded a peace group in New York City, Grandmothers Against the War, and gradually grannies from all over the Big Apple started gravitating to the group, among them ...
Karen Matts is a licensed practical nurse and a proud member of Teamsters Local 332.
April 3rd, 2010
A Catholic Hospital's Fall From Grace
My name is Karen Matts. I am a licensed practical nurse and a proud member of Teamsters Local 332. I loved my job providing care to patients at Genesys Regional Medical Center near Flint, Michigan.I was laid off last year - well, I actually chose to leave. I could have ...
Did We Make a Profit on Citigroup?
The Washington Post (aka Fox on 15th Street) once again proclaimed TARP a success. The cause for the latest revelry is the fact that the government appears to be in a position to make an $8 billion gain on the stock it holds in Citigroup. Before we join the Post ...
SOS for the Crawford Peace House
Dear Friends, On August 3, 2005, fourteen Marines from a reserve unit in Ohio were killed in Iraq--then president, George Bush, said that they, and all of the war dead, died for a "Noble Cause." I was sitting in my home in Vacaville, California watching the press conference where George ...
Healing Body and Heart, Cuban-Style: Alternative Health Care in Haiti (Part I)
(Written with Tory Field)The governments of Cuba, Brazil, and Haiti signed a trilateral accord on March 27 to rebuild the public health system in Haiti. Brazil committed $US80 million toward the effort and pledged to create a national epidemiologic surveillance network. The Cuban contribution includes more than 1,600 doctors, a ...
Why I Tried to Put the Cuffs on Karl Rove
"He wanted to do a book signing and she wanted to arrest him," was the lead on KCBS TV in Los Angeles. Dozens of activists attended the book signing in Beverly Hills of Karl Rove and his new book, Courage and Consequence. After almost an hour of his lies I ...
Undaunted: Movement for Improved Medicare for All Grows in Illinois and Across the Nation
Just blocks from President Obama's Hyde Park home south of the Loop in Chicago, more than 70 activists gathered on Saturday, March 27, 2010, to plan strategy for advancing an improved and expanded Medicare for all system as the law of the land. Activists across the nation are undaunted by the ...
If you know the Upper West Side of Manhattan, you know there are probably more progressives per square inch here than in all the 50 states. So, it's no surprise that a big bunch of people showed up this evening at my small one-bedroom apartment in this highly liberal neighborhood ...
We Won a Robust Public Option ... on College Loans
We won!When President Obama signs the health care reconciliation bill on Tuesday, we can crow about a robust public option -- en route perhaps to a more inclusive, cost-effective single-payer system. Soon, private profiteers (and subsidies to them) will be sidelined, and the government will save taxpayers billions by providing ...
Diary of a Wimpy Health Care Bill
Passage of President Obama's healthcare bill proves that Congress can enact comprehensive social legislation in the face of virulent rightwing opposition. Now that we have an insurance bill, can we move on to healthcare reform?As an organization of registered nurses, we have an obligation to provide an honest assessment, as ...
"Our Bodies Are Shaking Now": Rape Follows Earthquake in Haiti
“The way you saw the earth shake, that’s how our bodies are shaking now,” said a member of the grassroots anti-violence group Commission of Women Victim-to-Victim (KOFAVIV by its Creole acronym). She was speaking at a meeting about violence against women and children since the earthquake January 12. The venue ...
Entitlement Reform: The Real Language of Hatred
While we might want to get angry about language and ugliness surfacing during the national discussion of the health insurance reform bill just signed into law, the real nasty language dripping with contempt and loathing for the unwashed masses of America is the language of “entitlement reform.” Just as supposedly ...
Whose Streets? (Our Streets between One and Four When we have a Permit)
On the 7th commemoration of the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq, there was a rally and march in DC sponsored by the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition that was attended by about eight thousand people. For quite awhile, I have been having problems with marches on Saturday, anyway. It seems like we ...
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March 23rd, 2013
This evening is going be a big moment in turning our country around on the issue of gun violence. That's why I desperately want you ...
March 21st, 2013
I am hosting a nationwide series of house parties this Saturday night where tens of thousands of people will gather together in living rooms to ...
March 15th, 2013
The response to my Newtown letter this week has been overwhelming. It is so very clear to everyone that the majority of Americans have had ...
March 13th, 2013
America, You Must Not Look Away (How to Finish Off the NRA)
The year was 1955. Emmett Till was a young African American boy from Chicago visiting relatives in Mississippi. One day Emmett was seen "flirting" with ...
February 26th, 2013
My Final Word on Buzzfeed and Emad Burnat's Detention at LAX
Thanks to everyone for bearing with me as I spend so much time on what happened to Emad Burnat. It's important to me because he's ...
February 26th, 2013
Michael Moore Responds to Buzzfeed Story on '5 Broken Cameras' Co-Director Emad Burnat
On Tuesday, February 19th, Emad Burnat, the Palestianian co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary '5 Broken Cameras,' was detained with his wife and son at Los ...
February 20th, 2013
Last night was the Motion Picture Academy-sponsored dinner in Beverly Hills honoring the directors and producers of this year's five nominated films for Best Documentary. ...
September 11th, 2010
If the 'Mosque' Isn't Built, This Is No Longer America
OpenMike 9/11/10 Michael Moore's daily blog I am opposed to the building of the "mosque" two blocks from Ground Zero. I want it built on ...
December 14th, 2010
Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange
Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that ...
May 12th, 2011
Some Final Thoughts on the Death of Osama bin Laden
"The Nazis killed tens of MILLIONS. They got a trial. Why? Because we're not like them. We're Americans. We roll different." – Michael Moore in ...
November 22nd, 2011
Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?
This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and ...
September 22nd, 2011
A STATEMENT FROM MICHAEL MOORE ON THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS
I encourage everyone I know to never travel to Georgia, never buy anything made in Georgia, to never do business in Georgia. I will ask ...
December 16th, 2010
Dear Swedish Government: Hi there -- or as you all say, Hallå! You know, all of us here in the U.S. love your country. Your ...
November 2nd, 2010
This letter contains (almost) no criticisms of how the Democrats have brought this day of reckoning upon themselves. That -- and where to go from ...
'Dirty Wars' by Jeremy Scahill
Why have you started a comedy festival in northern Michigan in the middle of winter?
Because if you were here in the dead of winter in the middle of nowhere (which is actually somewhere to us), you'd need a few laughs too ... Continue Reading
Michael Moore on MSNBC with Michael Eric Dyson, 3/22/13
Michael Moore on Democracy Now!, 6/28/12
Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddow Show, 5/11/12
Michael Moore on MSNBC, Super Tuesday, 3/6/12
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Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddow Show, 2/27/12
