Just F***in' Do Your Bucket List, Joe
You Literally Have Nothing to Lose.
Dear President Joe Biden,
It’s been three months since I sent you my suggested list of Executive Actions that you could take in your last weeks in office. A “Bucket List” so-to-speak filled with legal declarations to make the lives of your fellow Americans just a little bit better.
I am happy you took some of my advice. Thank you.
And thank you for commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 prisoners on death row to life without parole. Thank you for pardoning 39 people and commuting the sentences of 1,500 others whose imprisonment would have been much shorter under today’s laws. I saw the news that medical debt will no longer affect the credit scores of at least 15 million Americans and their families. Though none of these are as far as I would’ve hoped you’d go, yes, it’s something.
But it’s not enough.
You are still president.
And you have nothing to lose. Literally, nothing.
So buck up, Joe, put your Scranton shit-kickin’ boots on and let’s get some good done in this, your final week.
Please start here:
PUT THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT FOR WOMEN INTO THE CONSTITUTION!
This is ridiculous that we even have to ask! The required 38th state ratified it in 2020 (Thanks, Virginia!). It’s the law of the land! But it can't be enforced until it’s published by the National Archives — an agency of the Executive Branch, the one you run for the next 7 days. WAKE UP! It’s the LAST STEP. Make this YOUR legacy. You can be the one who got it done. For the majority gender of this country.
If you don’t, well…
Its fate will be in the hands of America’s Feminist in Chief, Donald John Trump.
In Trump’s first administration he blocked the ERA from happening in 2020. He’s vowed to employ scores of people associated with Project 2025 whose plan for the future of American women includes banning medication abortion, denying federal funding to states who want to expand abortion access, and changing our federal Health and Human Services Department into the “Department of Life” that’s actively against abortion, spies on pregnant women, and allows any healthcare providers to deny service or care based on their personal beliefs — including doctors, nurses, and ambulance drivers. (That’s right. If you call 9-1-1 because you are actively miscarrying your pregnancy, the Project 2025 plan would legally allow the ambulance driver to refuse to drive you to the hospital if they suspect that by doing so, you will receive an abortion.) Trump appointed a Supreme Court that stripped women of the right to control their own bodies and granted permission to Christian fundamentalist state legislatures to enforce draconian anti-abortion laws in their states leading to the deaths of Amber Nicole Thurman, Candi Miller and others.
Trump is conniving and cruel. Ivanka will convince him that the way to “fix” his legacy regarding women will be to be known in history as the President who placed the Equal Rights Amendment in the United States Constitution. Joe, you’ve had four years to do what will take less than 3 minutes. Pretend I’m your priest. And the penance I’m handing you in order to make up for your sins against Anita Hill is to right now put down this Substack and take those 3 minutes to permanently enshrine the rights of all women into our Constitution. You’re not going to do it, are you? How do I know this? Let’s just say, I know your gender all too well. What a sad state of affairs it is.
PARDON LEONARD PELTIER.
What is the debate??? Seriously. The fact that Leonard Peltier has been held in prison by the DOJ and his parole board for 49 years is unforgivable. As HuffPost reports:
“There was never evidence that Peltier committed a crime, and the government never did figure out who shot those agents. But federal officials needed someone to take the fall and all of Peltier’s co-defendants were acquitted on grounds of self-defense. So, they settled on Peltier. His trial was riddled with misconduct: The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. Federal prosecutors hid evidence that exonerated Peltier. A juror admitted on the second day of the trial that she had “prejudice against Indians,” but she was kept on anyway. The U.S. government’s case fell apart after these revelations, so it just revised its charges against Peltier to aiding and abetting whoever did kill the agents ― based entirely on the fact that he was one of dozens of people present when the shoot-out took place.”
Even James Reynolds, one of the lead prosecutors in his case, has publicly apologized, calling the prosecution and incarceration of Peltier “unjust” and has asked for his immediate release.
Right this grave injustice TODAY. Before lunch.
And as your parting gift to the American people…
MAKE “ILLEGALS” AMERICANS.
Trump is less than one week away from enacting his mass exodus of Brown people from this country. Joe, do what you can to eliminate his opportunity, and throw up a shield: Anyone here illegally is forgiven! We have 9 million jobs that need to be filled and not enough Americans to fill them. Let them work. They will pay the taxes the rich aren’t paying. Potholes will be filled! New school buses will be purchased! Libraries will remain open on the weekends! Angry white men will hate you for this. Good. Maybe they’ll leave.
Millions and millions of Americans feel helpless to do anything about this, to save our friends and neighbors from what is coming — but YOU are not helpless, Joe. You have the power to DO SOMETHING — and the Supreme Court gave you immunity that was meant for Trump! USE IT! Before you lose it.
And as your parting gift to the world…
PULL THE PLUG ON ARMS AND MONEY TO ISRAEL.
Because it is the MORAL and RIGHTEOUS thing to do. Stop letting Netanyahu drive the out-of-control Ford F-150 down Gaza Blvd. He is not now, nor has he ever been, leading a crusade against Hamas. He is, and has been, enacting a plan prophesied by his Likud party charter (“Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty”) that he put into action over a year ago when he asked his top advisor to draft plans to “thin” the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip “to a minimum.” The latest independent estimate published by the British medical journal, The Lancet, puts the true death toll in Gaza at 70,000 people. And, Joe, three of your high ranking State Department officials are among the 19 in your administration who have resigned over your slaughter in Gaza and gone public with the evidence, appearing on 60 Minutes this past Sunday night to call attention to your and Bibi’s war crimes.
I don’t know what the people around you are telling you, but I want to make clear exactly what your real legacy is going to be when you leave office. Please watch this searing and unexpected clip from Chris Hayes:
Yes, Joe, disgraceful indeed. Disgusting. Deplorable. And it’s true that any action you take this week will be too little and too late — especially for the 70,000 Palestinian civilians who’ve already been killed, most of them women, children and the elderly. But do it anyway. Seek redemption and save lives. I can tell you personally, from the Pope himself, whom I haven’t spoken to in six years, that your soul has no choice but to do the only thing that only you on this entire planet can do: Pull the plug. Tear up the blank check. Beg for God’s mercy.
You sir, are done. Use your last days in office to tell Netanyahu that he, too, is done. If it helps to hear this from me, and if you still want to protect the Israeli people, you will immediately, without equivocation, end this madness once and for all.
I won’t take up any more of your time.
Just f***in’ do it, Joe. You’ve got nothing to lose.
** In order to have a troll-free, hate-free comments section — and because if there’s one thing I know about my crazy haters, they would rather spend an eternity in hell with Marjorie Taylor Greene than send me $5 if forced to become a paid subscriber — my Comments section here on my Substack is limited to paid subscribers. But, not to worry — anyone can send me their comments, opinions and thoughts by writing to me at mike@michaelmoore.com. I read every one of them, though obviously I can’t respond to all. The solution here is not optimal but it has worked and my Comments section has become a great meeting place for people wanting to discuss the ideas and issues I raise here. There is debate and disagreement, but it is refreshing to have it done with respect and civility, unfettered by the stench of bigotry and Q-anon insanity.
I’m 72, retired, and have more than paid the balance of my two children’s college loans. Still, I have nine years to go at $350 a month. Joe, when does your plan to forgive student loans circle around to me? We have four weekdays. I hope I am in that bucket list. Thank you.
Phenomenal, Michael. The fact Biden will not move on any of this, is the truth emerging about his huge faults as a human being. So sad…..