This week, the new ‘Mike & Friends Blog’ section will be added to MichaelMoore.com. In additional to my blog, I have asked a few people, like Rep. Marcy Kaptur (the Democrat from Toledo who has deservedly become the star of my movie!) and Leah Fried (who helped organize the sit-down strike at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago), to blog here on my site. Here’s a sneak peek of my first blog post. Enjoy! — MM

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Pilots on Food Stamps

By Michael Moore

We’re on the descent from 20,000 feet in the air when the flight attendant leans over the elderly woman next to me and taps me on the shoulder.

“I’m listening to Lady Gaga,” I say as I remove just one of the ear buds. I know not this Lady Gaga, but her performance last week on SNL was fascinating.

“The pilots would like to see you in the cockpit when we land,” she says with a southern drawl.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No. They have something to show you.” (The last time an employee of an airline wanted to show me something it was her written reprimand for eating an in-flight meal without paying for it. “Yes,” she said, “we have to pay for our own meals on board now.”)

The plane landed and I stepped into the cockpit. “Read this,” the first officer said. He handed me a letter from the airline to him. It was headlined “LETTER OF CONCERN.” It seems this poor fellow had taken three sick days in the past year. The letter was a warning not to take another one — or else.

“Great,” I said. “Just what I want — you coming to work sick, flying me up in the air and asking to borrow the barf bag from my seatback pocket.”

He then showed me his pay stub. He took home $405 this week. My life was completely and totally in his hands for the past hour and he’s paid less than the kid who delivers my pizza.

I told the guys that I have a whole section in my new movie about how pilots are treated (using pilots as only one example of how people’s wages have been slashed and the middle class decimated). In the movie I interview a pilot for a major airline who made $17,000 last year. For four months he was eligible — and received — food stamps. Another pilot in the film has a second job as a dog walker.

“I have a second job!,” the two pilots said in unison. One is a substitute teacher. The other works in a coffee shop. You know, maybe it’s just me, but the two occupations whose workers shouldn’t be humpin’ a second job are brain surgeons and airline pilots. Call me crazy.

I told them about how Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger (the pilot who safely landed the jet in the Hudson River) had testified in Congress that no pilot he knows wants any of their children to become a pilot. Pilots, he said, are completely demoralized. He spoke of how his pay has been cut 40% and his own pension eliminated. Most of the TV news didn’t cover his remarks and the congressmen quickly forgot them. They just wanted him to play the role of “HERO,” but he was on a more important mission. He’s in my movie.

“I hadn’t heard anywhere that this stuff about the airlines is in this new movie,” the pilot said.

“No, you wouldn’t,” I replied. “The press likes to talk about me, not the movie.”

And it’s true. I’ve been surprised (and slightly annoyed) that, with all that’s been written and talked about “Capitalism: A Love Story,” very little attention has been paid the mind-blowing stuff in the film: pilots on food stamps, companies secretly taking out life insurance policies on employees and hoping they die young so the company can collect, judges getting kickbacks from the private prison industry for sending innocent people (kids) to be locked up. The profit motive — it’s a killer.

Especially when your pilot started his day at 6am working at the local Starbucks.

October 9, 2009

Friends,

It’s your friendly webmaster from MichaelMoore.com here to remind you THIS is THE weekend to go see the movie so much of America is talking about: “Capitalism: A Love Story.” As you know, documentaries do not last long in theaters so don’t put off going to what many critics have called Mike’s “Best film yet!”

Did you happen to read this in the Huffington Post:

“Michael Moore has made the most important and urgent political film of our time. In fact, he might have made the most American of films since the populist cinema of Frank Capra.” (Read the rest of this excellent piece, “Michael Moore’s Grapes of Wrath,” by clicking here.)

Or this from the Los Angeles Times:

“It is Moore at his most passionate, most personal and most political, and that is something not to be missed.”

Or this from the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

“‘Capitalism’ is a Molotov cocktail thrown straight at the heart of the New York Stock Exchange. The impact is spectacular.”

And finally this gem from MacLeans the “Time magazine” of Canada:“… Moore is at the top of his game. ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ may be the best film of his career.”

But here’s what’s crazy: Some conservatives are also saying they love the film and are telling people to go see it:  E.D. Hill from Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Post. Even Jim Pinkerton, White House staffer under both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush said, “I’ve got to tell you, on this particular issue, I’m with Michael Moore.” This is amazing. Plus, having the mainstream support of people who speak to middle America, like Jay Leno and Merle Haggard — this has truly become a movie that has reached its hand out and said “please come in, I think you might appreciate knowing some of the things I’m going to show you.” If there was ever a time to take your Republican brother-in-law to a Michael Moore film, this would be it!

Last week, Mike had one of his best openings ever — second only to the once-in-a-lifetime “Fahrenheit 9/11.” It tied for 6th in the national box office (with Drew Barrymore’s “Whip It,” which was on nearly twice as many screens!) and had the #4 per-screen average. “Capitalism” earned more than Mike’s last film, “Sicko,” did on its opening weekend and is on track to be one of the top 5 grossing documentaries of all time (which will give Mike 4 of the top 7 all-time docs!). And “Capitalism” remains the highest grossing per-screen average for any film in limited release in 2009. And it’s a documentary! This never — very rarely — happens.

I can tell you that Mike is probably more proud of this film than anything he’s done since “Roger & Me.” That’s because “Capitalism: A Love Story” is what I would call the pinnacle of his life’s work — this is his manifesto.

And it’s damn funny! Or, rather, it’s damning and it’s funny. You will be transported watching this amazing movie — no one has ever made anything like it. If you want a great time at the movies this weekend, go see “Capitalism.” You will NOT be disappointed!

Click here to find where it’s playing near you. It’s rated “R,” like most of Mike’s films (why? why? why?), but that didn’t stop him from seeing “Woodstock” or “M*A*S*H” when he was a teenager — and it shouldn’t stop you under-17-year-olds from seeing “Capitalism: A Love Story!” You know what to do.

And check out our newly redesigned website that I manage for Mike.  There’s great new stuff every day. You can now post comments and participate in the discussion!

And you can stay in touch with Mike on Twitter at Twitter.com/MMFlint.

That’s it for now. Grab some friends and go see this great flick — it won’t be around forever! They gotta make room for “Saw VI!”

Webmaster
MichaelMoore.com

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Friends,

I’d like to have a word with those of you who call yourselves Christians (Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Bill Maherists, etc. can read along, too, as much of what I have to say, I’m sure, can be applied to your own spiritual/ethical values).

In my new film I speak for the first time in one of my movies about my own spiritual beliefs. I have always believed that one’s religious leanings are deeply personal and should be kept private. After all, we’ve heard enough yammerin’ in the past three decades about how one should “behave,” and I have to say I’m pretty burned out on pieties and platitudes considering we are a violent nation who invades other countries and punishes our own for having the audacity to fall on hard times.

I’m also against any proselytizing; I certainly don’t want you to join anything I belong to. Also, as a Catholic, I have much to say about the Church as an institution, but I’ll leave that for another day (or movie).

Amidst all the Wall Street bad guys and corrupt members of Congress exposed in “Capitalism: A Love Story,” I pose a simple question in the movie: “Is capitalism a sin?” I go on to ask, “Would Jesus be a capitalist?” Would he belong to a hedge fund? Would he sell short? Would he approve of a system that has allowed the richest 1% to have more financial wealth than the 95% under them combined?

I have come to believe that there is no getting around the fact that capitalism is opposite everything that Jesus (and Moses and Mohammed and Buddha) taught. All the great religions are clear about one thing: It is evil to take the majority of the pie and leave what’s left for everyone to fight over. Jesus said that the rich man would have a very hard time getting into heaven. He told us that we had to be our brother’s and sister’s keepers and that the riches that did exist were to be divided fairly. He said that if you failed to house the homeless and feed the hungry, you’d have a hard time finding the pin code to the pearly gates.

I guess that’s bad news for us Americans. Here’s how we define “Blessed Are the Poor”: We now have the highest unemployment rate since 1983. There’s a foreclosure filing once every 7.5 seconds. 14,000 people every day lose their health insurance.

At the same time, Wall Street bankers (“Blessed Are the Wealthy”?) are amassing more and more loot — and they do their best to pay little or no income tax (last year Goldman Sachs’ tax rate was a mere 1%!). Would Jesus approve of this? If not, why do we let such an evil system continue? It doesn’t seem you can call yourself a Capitalist AND a Christian — because you cannot love your money AND love your neighbor when you are denying your neighbor the ability to see a doctor just so you can have a better bottom line.  That’s called “immoral” — and you are committing a sin when you benefit at the expense of others.

When you are in church this morning, please think about this. I am asking you to allow your “better angels” to come forward. And if you are among the millions of Americans who are struggling to make it from week to week, please know that I promise to do what I can to stop this evil — and I hope you’ll join me in not giving up until everyone has a seat at the table.

Thanks for listening. I’m off to Mass in a few hours. I’ll be sure to ask the priest if he thinks J.C. deals in derivatives or credit default swaps. I mean, after all, he must’ve been good at math. How else did he divide up two loaves of bread and five pieces of fish equally amongst 5,000 people? Either he was the first socialist or his disciples were really bad at packing lunch. Or both.

Yours,

Michael Moore

MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

Friends,

Well, this is it!

Tonight, at the Venice Film Festival, I will premiere my new movie, “Capitalism: A Love Story.” After 16 months of production, I am proud to present this work of mine to you. It is unlike anything you’ll see on the silver screen this year.

Twenty years ago this week I premiered my first film, “Roger & Me.”  Tonight, my new film will premiere at the oldest film festival in the world, the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy. It is an incredible honor they’ve bestowed on us, and we feel very privileged to be able to present “Capitalism: A Love Story” tonight in Venice.

The director of the festival said that our movie was “incredibly symphonic” and that he was moved by its epic nature. Jeez, these Italians!

Everything’s an opera to them!

But seriously, I do believe we’ve made something that will knock your socks off. I showed it to a friend of mine last week and he said, “It’s your most dangerous film yet.” (But I assure you, you’ll be completely safe watching it in your local theater.)

I’ve kept a pretty tight lid on what we’ve been up to while making this movie and you’re about to see exactly what that means. It isn’t easy, in the age of YouTube and the internet, to keep something like this under wraps, but we’ve pulled it off and I can’t wait to show you this latest effort of mine.

So wish us well tonight. We’ll be home soon to open the movie all across the country (September 23rd in New York and L.A., October 2nd everywhere else).

I’ll leave you with a quote from Thomas Jefferson: “Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
P.S. If you haven’t seen the new trailer for the movie, check it out.