Thank you for decades and decades of writing and talking and informing and film making, telling the truth, risk taking, and giving a good God damn, not only about Flint, Michigan, the danger of guns in Colorado, the corrupt health care system, Bernie Sanders and democracy, but for sounding the alarm after January 6, 2021.
I am grateful for your podcasts. Often I listen to them late at night when I can't sleep, wrought with anxiety about the fate of our country and the entire beautiful planet earth. Most of the time I can't get through even one of them without crying. I remember sitting in the dark listening to what you were saying once, about our country, how dearly you love it, and how mad you get regarding blatant stupidity, and you were gasping for air. I was also gasping for air, choking on my emotions that railed to break free. Journalism as therapy during lock down.
Finally, your (new) heading image looked to me like rows of corn, in a corn field. I looked at it and thought how wonderful that is, for me, with generations behind me settling the northern part of Iowa. I thought about the mid west, in terms of literature that has come out of it, the food that was grown there before Monsanto choked the farming families, and what the values are among Americans there. I considered that even though my family farm was ripped away from me when I was a girl, the land is gone, but I carry everything else inside of me, much like many Haitians and Afghanis may feel later, when the cushion of numbness and shock wears off.
Of course, it isn't a cornfield, at all.
Congratulations on starting bold. We love you. We support you into success. Thank you.
In 1974 back when I was in the 7th grade my Geography teacher assigned us the task of writing a report of a country of our choice. I wrote mine on Afganistan. Thought I did a pretty good job. Mentioned all the empires that marched through it only to fail, the silk road and Marco Polos travel through the country, even the hashish and heroin trade. My teacher gave me an F. Said I was lazy and picked a minor country of little significance that was one of the first listed in the encyclopedia (remember those?). I stand vindicated.
Watching/listening to media this past week has been an infuriating experience. I have waited to hear mention of the names Bush-Cheney, the two un-investigated war criminals who orchestrated the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, who established American concentration camps, some secret and one infamous at Guantanamo, who lied every which way to get that invasion accomplished, who enriched themselves and their ilk endlessly through profiteering and war-mongering, jingoism and false patriotism, who set up the vile Patriot Act - and then slunk away to enjoy their riches and retirement. Bush now a "painter," first of portraits of veterans (!!), more recently of dogs. Good God.
Thank you, Michael Moore, for noting - as I keep doing at every opportunity - that it was never Afghanistan or Afghan pilots who flew into the World Trade Center; they were from Saudi Arabia and they did their flight training in Florida! And today we learn that Qatar is declining to take more Afghan refugees; is that under orders of Saudi Arabia? Is it to exacerbate the problems for Biden in order to help *Rump and associated crime syndicate, exacerbating chaos that can be blamed on Biden over and over again in the media? Blaming Biden while virtually never mentioning the debased "negotiations" that *Rump, Pompeo, et al did with the Taliban, the release of 5,000 Taliban from prisons out of those "negotiations"? Never mentioning *Rump's pardon of someone the Navy itself had convicted as a war criminal in Afghanistan?
Reports post-*Rump and the daily drama and (literally) Orwellian *Rump & cult lies given endless air time on OUR airways, have been that media viewership is down and, if true, that must explain this melodramatic, purple-prose blaming of Joe Biden for leaving Afghanistan - for ENDING this evil debacle in Afghanistan at long last - while virtually not even mentioning how it began, not even mentioning how the selling of merchandise with "support our troops" was rampant while the ACTUAL and true support for troops was non-existent, even to the extent of bad or lacking equipment for those same troops, for treating them badly when they returned maimed and wounded in so many different ways!
The lies and distortions that shape public opinion and feed mindless stupidity are beyond sickening. The YEARS of labeling the good and decent Jimmy Carter as "the worst President" have now morphed into "he's a good old guy" when, in FACT, he WAS always a good President; he just wasn't the military-industrial-corporate-corrupt President. He didn't war-monger. He didn't lie. He didn't profiteer. He wasn't corrupt. Therefore, he must be belittled, mocked and marginalized. It is a sickening, debauched system that doesn't even recognize basic right from wrong, however nuanced it might be.
The problems in this country are so wide and deep, so filthy, that it is hard to see how we will ever work our way out. This blaming of Biden, while juxtaposing his decision to comments from the *Rump cult, has tremendous risk for 2022 and 2024. Does any sane, decent human being really want to even temporarily consider that *Rump or his flying monkey cult will be back in office? The Democrats are from from great, but compared to what the past administration inflicted on us and the world, compared to what Bush-Cheney inflicted upon us and the world? Those comparisons brings into sharp relief the fact that Democrats are a far cry from what Republic operative Rick Wilson said of *Rump, that "everything Trump touches dies." It could be said of all Republicans when you consider the history including Reagan, Bush-Cheney, *Rump.
I have greatly appreciated Rachel Maddow over her years on-air, but she is treating Biden's decision and the withdrawal from Afghanistan like it is WWII and the most monumental event in history - and it is melodrama for ratings and is nauseating!! Lawrence O'Donnell and Brian Williams have been much more honest and realistic in their coverage; Lawrence O'Donnell especially has been a well-reasoned defender of the truth about what is going on.
By the way, there are excellent archival news articles from the New York Times (2015, for example) about the horrific and reportedly all too common practice of sexual abuse of children by Afghan "commanders" and tribal (later "political") leaders and the reaction of US military personnel upon discovery of these abuses, but met with the despicable reaction of US military officials when those US military members who complained!! The NYT articles are excellent reporting about horrific behavior - and it is the behavior of Afghan "allies" that was tolerated by "military brass" who are now criticizing Biden for getting us OUT of that quagmire of degradation!! The media are reporting only about the Taliban's treatment of women and girls. What about the systemic sexual abuse and reported practice of "sexual enslavement" of BOYS by these "warlords, commanders, and tribal leaders"??!!
When so many in media are demanding that the US take in ALL and ANY Afghan "refugees", and are being highly critical of American processing being so slow, are they even considering that there are absolutely vile Afghan pedophiles among them??!! Where is the reporting on that? Where is the New York Times NOW and why aren't those reporters on TV nightly to discuss their own investigations of those issues?
An aquaintance who served there shared with me that he felt used. He felt that Afganistan was all about the poppy fields and defending the production of opiates to feed the LEGAL drug needs of the world. I had never heard that perspective before, and wonder if you've connected those dots or if his experience was not the norm???
I agree with everything you write; X100. I must add that gringos are genetic sadists and have been ever since they were kicked out of sick sadistic Europe. The current state of discord in Gringolandia is evolution unfolding automatically as it always does. In the case of gringos it is devolution or degeneration/decay of any social order. One cannot expect a racist nation born of genocide, rape, murder, land theft, slavery, sadism, lynching, women hating, ignorance as a science, and an absolute denial of truth, avoid forever facing the consequences of their morally degenerate past and present. What goes around comes around. The chickens are coming home to roost. Ralph Waldo Emerson stated that one or a group of men can take what they want from life, but pay for it they will and if not now; pay later with compound interest.
Not only the countries you mentioned have been trashed by the gringos; all of Latin America has been royally fornicated by the gringo corporate government.
Cuba is a perfect example of gringo hatred being directed at a tiny nation who never harmed Gringolandia.
The Palestinian humans in occupied Palestine have been living in an open air concentration camp as bad as any Nazi concentration camp; with the encouragement and support of the gringos.
I am a Mexican immigrant who has lived here 80 years. I have been a school dropout, farm hand, US MARINE. Honorable discharge, underground copper miner, garbage collector, telephone installer, and night school student. I, AA BA JD degrees and am a member of Ca. Bar 55858.
I am intimately familiar with the pernicious evil woven into the tapestry of every gringo institution that exists.
What is repulsive is that fact that sadists and moral perverts are never identified as such. These degenerates are clothed in fancy titles such as; your honor, Senator, Congressman, Police Officer,
and other titles of social nobility.
CEOs are never sent to prison for their crimes in the millions or hundreds of thousands of humans.
I know this opinion is long because gringos like to be told how wonderful they are; and when I have spoken truth to power, I have been told to go back to Mexico. Even by a federal judge while I was trying a civil rights case. I am glad the piece of shit racist is dead.
The Napoleonic code states that a person is guilty until proven innocent. Every women, minority, foreign born, immigrant, must adopt that rule. Every gringo is a low life son-of-male whore until proven otherwise by a mountain of credible evidence.
I hope you life is long and filled with joy and good health.
It's my theory that the Taliban had no intention of hindering our exit in any way. They know if they attack and/or kill Americans on the way out, at best we retaliate, and at worst we reverse course and stay. No one wants us out of Afghanistan MORE than the Taliban. So they will let us leave peacefully. My operating question right now is: is this incarnation of the Taliban more religious (back to the barbarism of the 90s)? Or is it more political, willing to moderate in return for control and at least some cooperation from Afghanis?
I have no idea what the answer is. The only think I know is that it's literally NOOFB. It never was. It never is.
Robert Vandemeulebroucke (Afghanistan-whatcher, former diplomat and author of Donald J. Trump - Four Toxic Years at the White House).
The Afghanistan war in four short stages.
1) Shortly after 9/11: the US demanded Osama bin-Ladin extradition. It was denied by the Taliban. The invasion of Afghanistan in early October 2001 followed.
2) May 2011: Osama bin-Laden killed in Pakistan, thereby achieving the main objective of the US invasion. Possibility of peaceful exit squandered. The US reacted with a surge, deploying circa 140,000 personnel.
3) February 2020: peace treaty with Taliban signed in Doha (Qatar), and US troops would leave by 1 May 2021.
4) Troop retreat delayed to 9/11, then brought forward to August, 31 2021. A blitz advance by the Taliban sealed the US fate; Washington lost the far too long war.
Conclusion: four US presidents were involved in the conflict. G.W. Bush invasion was ill-inspired, and his successors, by not corrected the mistakes of their predecessors, aggravated the situation.
Oh my gosh, Mr. Moore, Thank You sooo Dearly for the Free Podcast sent to me as a member. It’s the first time I have listened because my IPad is outdated and I need a new one with 128 memory, but I live on $1,080 a month and can’t afford a new one and can’t get the newest apps, etc. Such Kindness. This made my Day. I can’t wait to get these every week now. You are definitely going to keep me out of the hospital and alive sooo much longer. This brings me to 😭 tears. I am eternally grateful. Love you more than you know. You are the KINDEST and Definitely SMARTEST person I know. 💜💜💜💜🥰🥰🤗🤗. Sending Big Thankful Hugs !
Hello Michael Moore, I'm so happy you do this work. Thank you. Please continue with it.
The US needs to change. We have so many problems here. The US does not need more wars or invasions to poor countries, this needs to stop. US needs to focus in the big real problems: Covid-19 and its variants, Poverty, Climate Change, Racism, make good education available for the poor, etc.
Thank you for decades and decades of writing and talking and informing and film making, telling the truth, risk taking, and giving a good God damn, not only about Flint, Michigan, the danger of guns in Colorado, the corrupt health care system, Bernie Sanders and democracy, but for sounding the alarm after January 6, 2021.
I am grateful for your podcasts. Often I listen to them late at night when I can't sleep, wrought with anxiety about the fate of our country and the entire beautiful planet earth. Most of the time I can't get through even one of them without crying. I remember sitting in the dark listening to what you were saying once, about our country, how dearly you love it, and how mad you get regarding blatant stupidity, and you were gasping for air. I was also gasping for air, choking on my emotions that railed to break free. Journalism as therapy during lock down.
Finally, your (new) heading image looked to me like rows of corn, in a corn field. I looked at it and thought how wonderful that is, for me, with generations behind me settling the northern part of Iowa. I thought about the mid west, in terms of literature that has come out of it, the food that was grown there before Monsanto choked the farming families, and what the values are among Americans there. I considered that even though my family farm was ripped away from me when I was a girl, the land is gone, but I carry everything else inside of me, much like many Haitians and Afghanis may feel later, when the cushion of numbness and shock wears off.
Of course, it isn't a cornfield, at all.
Congratulations on starting bold. We love you. We support you into success. Thank you.
I do not consider leaving Afghanistan a defeat
Love you Michael!
I swear Michael is psychic , and can read minds.
everything I’ve been thinking about the past week and wanting to say on Twitter he explained perfectly is in this article.
I’m proud and grateful to you
For whatever its worth THANK YOU
Brilliant Mike. 100% accurate. Full stop.
In 1974 back when I was in the 7th grade my Geography teacher assigned us the task of writing a report of a country of our choice. I wrote mine on Afganistan. Thought I did a pretty good job. Mentioned all the empires that marched through it only to fail, the silk road and Marco Polos travel through the country, even the hashish and heroin trade. My teacher gave me an F. Said I was lazy and picked a minor country of little significance that was one of the first listed in the encyclopedia (remember those?). I stand vindicated.
Watching/listening to media this past week has been an infuriating experience. I have waited to hear mention of the names Bush-Cheney, the two un-investigated war criminals who orchestrated the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, who established American concentration camps, some secret and one infamous at Guantanamo, who lied every which way to get that invasion accomplished, who enriched themselves and their ilk endlessly through profiteering and war-mongering, jingoism and false patriotism, who set up the vile Patriot Act - and then slunk away to enjoy their riches and retirement. Bush now a "painter," first of portraits of veterans (!!), more recently of dogs. Good God.
Thank you, Michael Moore, for noting - as I keep doing at every opportunity - that it was never Afghanistan or Afghan pilots who flew into the World Trade Center; they were from Saudi Arabia and they did their flight training in Florida! And today we learn that Qatar is declining to take more Afghan refugees; is that under orders of Saudi Arabia? Is it to exacerbate the problems for Biden in order to help *Rump and associated crime syndicate, exacerbating chaos that can be blamed on Biden over and over again in the media? Blaming Biden while virtually never mentioning the debased "negotiations" that *Rump, Pompeo, et al did with the Taliban, the release of 5,000 Taliban from prisons out of those "negotiations"? Never mentioning *Rump's pardon of someone the Navy itself had convicted as a war criminal in Afghanistan?
Reports post-*Rump and the daily drama and (literally) Orwellian *Rump & cult lies given endless air time on OUR airways, have been that media viewership is down and, if true, that must explain this melodramatic, purple-prose blaming of Joe Biden for leaving Afghanistan - for ENDING this evil debacle in Afghanistan at long last - while virtually not even mentioning how it began, not even mentioning how the selling of merchandise with "support our troops" was rampant while the ACTUAL and true support for troops was non-existent, even to the extent of bad or lacking equipment for those same troops, for treating them badly when they returned maimed and wounded in so many different ways!
The lies and distortions that shape public opinion and feed mindless stupidity are beyond sickening. The YEARS of labeling the good and decent Jimmy Carter as "the worst President" have now morphed into "he's a good old guy" when, in FACT, he WAS always a good President; he just wasn't the military-industrial-corporate-corrupt President. He didn't war-monger. He didn't lie. He didn't profiteer. He wasn't corrupt. Therefore, he must be belittled, mocked and marginalized. It is a sickening, debauched system that doesn't even recognize basic right from wrong, however nuanced it might be.
The problems in this country are so wide and deep, so filthy, that it is hard to see how we will ever work our way out. This blaming of Biden, while juxtaposing his decision to comments from the *Rump cult, has tremendous risk for 2022 and 2024. Does any sane, decent human being really want to even temporarily consider that *Rump or his flying monkey cult will be back in office? The Democrats are from from great, but compared to what the past administration inflicted on us and the world, compared to what Bush-Cheney inflicted upon us and the world? Those comparisons brings into sharp relief the fact that Democrats are a far cry from what Republic operative Rick Wilson said of *Rump, that "everything Trump touches dies." It could be said of all Republicans when you consider the history including Reagan, Bush-Cheney, *Rump.
I have greatly appreciated Rachel Maddow over her years on-air, but she is treating Biden's decision and the withdrawal from Afghanistan like it is WWII and the most monumental event in history - and it is melodrama for ratings and is nauseating!! Lawrence O'Donnell and Brian Williams have been much more honest and realistic in their coverage; Lawrence O'Donnell especially has been a well-reasoned defender of the truth about what is going on.
By the way, there are excellent archival news articles from the New York Times (2015, for example) about the horrific and reportedly all too common practice of sexual abuse of children by Afghan "commanders" and tribal (later "political") leaders and the reaction of US military personnel upon discovery of these abuses, but met with the despicable reaction of US military officials when those US military members who complained!! The NYT articles are excellent reporting about horrific behavior - and it is the behavior of Afghan "allies" that was tolerated by "military brass" who are now criticizing Biden for getting us OUT of that quagmire of degradation!! The media are reporting only about the Taliban's treatment of women and girls. What about the systemic sexual abuse and reported practice of "sexual enslavement" of BOYS by these "warlords, commanders, and tribal leaders"??!!
When so many in media are demanding that the US take in ALL and ANY Afghan "refugees", and are being highly critical of American processing being so slow, are they even considering that there are absolutely vile Afghan pedophiles among them??!! Where is the reporting on that? Where is the New York Times NOW and why aren't those reporters on TV nightly to discuss their own investigations of those issues?
An aquaintance who served there shared with me that he felt used. He felt that Afganistan was all about the poppy fields and defending the production of opiates to feed the LEGAL drug needs of the world. I had never heard that perspective before, and wonder if you've connected those dots or if his experience was not the norm???
You make so much sense! Thank you for offering your stuff for free. You're the real deal!
I agree with everything you write; X100. I must add that gringos are genetic sadists and have been ever since they were kicked out of sick sadistic Europe. The current state of discord in Gringolandia is evolution unfolding automatically as it always does. In the case of gringos it is devolution or degeneration/decay of any social order. One cannot expect a racist nation born of genocide, rape, murder, land theft, slavery, sadism, lynching, women hating, ignorance as a science, and an absolute denial of truth, avoid forever facing the consequences of their morally degenerate past and present. What goes around comes around. The chickens are coming home to roost. Ralph Waldo Emerson stated that one or a group of men can take what they want from life, but pay for it they will and if not now; pay later with compound interest.
Not only the countries you mentioned have been trashed by the gringos; all of Latin America has been royally fornicated by the gringo corporate government.
Cuba is a perfect example of gringo hatred being directed at a tiny nation who never harmed Gringolandia.
The Palestinian humans in occupied Palestine have been living in an open air concentration camp as bad as any Nazi concentration camp; with the encouragement and support of the gringos.
I am a Mexican immigrant who has lived here 80 years. I have been a school dropout, farm hand, US MARINE. Honorable discharge, underground copper miner, garbage collector, telephone installer, and night school student. I, AA BA JD degrees and am a member of Ca. Bar 55858.
I am intimately familiar with the pernicious evil woven into the tapestry of every gringo institution that exists.
What is repulsive is that fact that sadists and moral perverts are never identified as such. These degenerates are clothed in fancy titles such as; your honor, Senator, Congressman, Police Officer,
and other titles of social nobility.
CEOs are never sent to prison for their crimes in the millions or hundreds of thousands of humans.
I know this opinion is long because gringos like to be told how wonderful they are; and when I have spoken truth to power, I have been told to go back to Mexico. Even by a federal judge while I was trying a civil rights case. I am glad the piece of shit racist is dead.
The Napoleonic code states that a person is guilty until proven innocent. Every women, minority, foreign born, immigrant, must adopt that rule. Every gringo is a low life son-of-male whore until proven otherwise by a mountain of credible evidence.
I hope you life is long and filled with joy and good health.
It's my theory that the Taliban had no intention of hindering our exit in any way. They know if they attack and/or kill Americans on the way out, at best we retaliate, and at worst we reverse course and stay. No one wants us out of Afghanistan MORE than the Taliban. So they will let us leave peacefully. My operating question right now is: is this incarnation of the Taliban more religious (back to the barbarism of the 90s)? Or is it more political, willing to moderate in return for control and at least some cooperation from Afghanis?
I have no idea what the answer is. The only think I know is that it's literally NOOFB. It never was. It never is.
Thank you, Michael, for always speaking the truth.
This was 100% spot on! Thank you Michael!!
Robert Vandemeulebroucke (Afghanistan-whatcher, former diplomat and author of Donald J. Trump - Four Toxic Years at the White House).
The Afghanistan war in four short stages.
1) Shortly after 9/11: the US demanded Osama bin-Ladin extradition. It was denied by the Taliban. The invasion of Afghanistan in early October 2001 followed.
2) May 2011: Osama bin-Laden killed in Pakistan, thereby achieving the main objective of the US invasion. Possibility of peaceful exit squandered. The US reacted with a surge, deploying circa 140,000 personnel.
3) February 2020: peace treaty with Taliban signed in Doha (Qatar), and US troops would leave by 1 May 2021.
4) Troop retreat delayed to 9/11, then brought forward to August, 31 2021. A blitz advance by the Taliban sealed the US fate; Washington lost the far too long war.
Conclusion: four US presidents were involved in the conflict. G.W. Bush invasion was ill-inspired, and his successors, by not corrected the mistakes of their predecessors, aggravated the situation.
Oh my gosh, Mr. Moore, Thank You sooo Dearly for the Free Podcast sent to me as a member. It’s the first time I have listened because my IPad is outdated and I need a new one with 128 memory, but I live on $1,080 a month and can’t afford a new one and can’t get the newest apps, etc. Such Kindness. This made my Day. I can’t wait to get these every week now. You are definitely going to keep me out of the hospital and alive sooo much longer. This brings me to 😭 tears. I am eternally grateful. Love you more than you know. You are the KINDEST and Definitely SMARTEST person I know. 💜💜💜💜🥰🥰🤗🤗. Sending Big Thankful Hugs !
Hello Michael Moore, I'm so happy you do this work. Thank you. Please continue with it.
The US needs to change. We have so many problems here. The US does not need more wars or invasions to poor countries, this needs to stop. US needs to focus in the big real problems: Covid-19 and its variants, Poverty, Climate Change, Racism, make good education available for the poor, etc.