"While satirical activism has a long history, it remains clear that it is playing a greater role in raising public awareness for major social issues. As the media has become a circus and politicians seem like clowns, it is the comedians who appear to be the ones taking the issues in our nation seriously."
Michael Moore might save Flint: Moore, Jon Stewart, John Oliver keep proving satirists get more done than politicians
Jon Stewart got results for 9/11 responders. Moore got action over Flint's toxic water. Big wins for comic activism
(Credit: AP/Evan Agostini/Greg Allen)
Michael Moore’s new film, “Where to Invade Next,” suggests that Moore is better suited to protect our nation than our politicians. While the film poses the idea as a satirical farce, recent events in Flint, Michigan, suggest that it may well be true.
Nearly two years ago Flint started to get its water from a local river rather than Lake Huron in a scheme to save money. Almost immediately it became clear that the switch meant unhealthy water. Despite evidence that the water was contaminated, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and his appointed emergency manager ignored the health of Flint residents in favor of saving costs.
Now there is evidence that Flint residents are suffering from lead poison, higher rates of Legionnaires Disease, and a host of other health issues.
While the story got some media attention, especially from Rachel Maddow, it wasMichael Moore’s call to action via an online open letter to Snyder and a petition with the hashtag #ArrestGovSnyder that prompted real and swift action.
Moore launched his website on Jan. 6. One week later, Gov. Snyder sent in the National Guard to help with the disaster and had been hit with a class action lawsuit.
While it is clear that a host of people worked hard to get support for the residents of Flint, there is little question that Moore’s activism has been crucial. Snyder hasn’t been arrested yet and the town is still suffering, but Moore is still fighting for justice.
Moore’s involvement with raising national attention to this issue is indicative of a growing trend where political satirists are increasingly involved with direct political action. Recall when Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart held a Rally on the National Mall in 2010 to encourage midterm voting. Or when John Oliver motivated viewers to crash the FCC website over “net neutrality.” Or when the Yes Men posed as Dow Chemical representatives who had decided to take full responsibility for the tragedy Bhopal, India. And don’t forget that much of Occupy Wall Street had a satirical tone –including staging a bullfight. OWS also offered satirical interventions from comedians like Lee Camp. And those are just a few examples.
While satirical activism has a long history, it remains clear that it is playing a greater role in raising public awareness for major social issues. As the media has become a circus and politicians seem like clowns, it is the comedians who appear to be the ones taking the issues in our nation seriously.
Not only are comedians voted as more trusted journalists than actual journalists, but it’s comedians who are influencing politics rather than just making jokes about it.
And that brings us back to Flint. Because, it could be argued, that that’s where much of this all began. Flint was the location for Moore’s first film, “Roger and Me,” which focused on GM’s decision to close most of its plants in Flint and move those jobs outside of the country.
The key, though, is that the film was not a straight documentary. Rather than tell the story straight, it used irony and comedy. In fact it defined a new genre—the mockumentary. Unlike other “fake” documentaries, Moore’s was unique in its combination of humor and political insight. In 2013 it was selected for preservation by the United States Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Sure, shows like “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” were a major force for political action in the ’60s and, sure, our nation has a long history of blending satire and politics that goes back to Ben Franklin, but it is really Moore’s debut film that created a new genre that blended satire, silliness, politics, activism and public impact. Moore’s successful ability to entertain, enlighten and engage brought documentaries back to movie theaters and his films have broken a number of box office records.
“Roger and Me” was a truly innovative form. Its creative brilliance was its ability to blend a tragic story about the devastating effects of transnational capitalism on U.S. labor with a farcical tale of Moore’s efforts to interview GM chairman Roger Smith. Viewers learned about the real human cost to the greedy profit model of companies like GM, but they did so through the comedic release of satire and irony.
http://www.salon.com/2016/01/15/michael_moore_might_save_flint_moore_jon_stewart_john_oliver_keep_proving_satirists_get_more_done_than_politicians/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
President Barack Obama declared a federal state of emergency in Flint, Michigan on Saturday afternoon in response to the water crisis that led to elevated lead levels in children. The city switched its water supply in an effort to save money in 2014.
Obama Declares A Federal Emergency In Michigan Due To Lead Contaminated Water
President Obama has declared a federal state of emergency in Michigan that will allow FEMA and other agencies to provide aid and assistance to the people of Flint who were poisoned by their own Republican governor.
According to a release from The White House:
The President today, in response to a request from the Governor submitted on January 14, 2016, declared that an emergency exists in the State of Michigan and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions in the area affected by contaminated water.
The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Genesee County.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding. This emergency assistance is to provide water, water filters, water filter cartridges, water test kits, and other necessary related items for a period of no more than 90 days.
Additionally, the President offered assistance in identifying other Federal agency capabilities that could support the recovery effort but do not require an emergency declaration under the Stafford Act.
The disaster declaration means that FEMA can now come into Flint and assist with providing aid to a population that was poisoned by their own Republican governor. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called on Rick Snyder to resign today because the governor and his administration knowingly poisoned the people of the city of Flint by Snyder knowingly poisoned the children of Flint by decided to save money by drawing the city’s drinking water from the polluted Flint River instead of Lake Huron. The governor’s Department of Environmental Quality made the decision not to add chemicals to the water to prevent the corrosion of pipes. The state department of health knew about the elevated levels of lead in the blood of the city’s children but did not warn the public.
In typical Republican fashion, Gov. Snyder went crawling to Obama to clean up his mess after he poisoned an entire city in his state. The damage has already been done as hundreds of children have been sickened, and thousands have been exposed to chemicals that cause brain damage, but President Obama has immediately responded to Snyder’s request for federal aid, and the people of Flint are going to get the help that they need.
What happened in Flint was criminal, but before justice can be pursued, the people need water that is safe to use and drink. Unlike Gov. Snyder, President Obama is there for the people of Flint.
Allen West criticizes U.S. soldiers captured by Iran for not fighting
Former Rep. Allen West continues to show why he should not be in public office.
“The result of two U.S. Navy vessels being boarded and seized by an enemy — which is what the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Navy is — is disturbing,” he wrote on his blog.“The images and video they took depicting our soldiers on their knees in the position of surrender is damning,” West continued. “This, folks, is an act of war, and our soldiers were captured. Our honor calls upon us to fight, to resist, not surrender.“The ramifications of not doing so means our honor is now being mocked and we’re seen as nothing more than cowards on our knees. Say what you wish, but that’s the perception in the Middle East, especially to our enemies.”
http://www.alan.com/2016/01/14/allen-west-criticizes-u-s-soldiers-captured-by-iran-for-not-fighting/#
Furious Oregon Rancher Warns Mormon Rebel Bundy To Keep Off His Land
Earlier this week the federal government sat back and watched a video of Ammon Bundy and his armed insurgency using stolen federal equipment to tear down a stretch of fence on Bureau of Land Management land where the Malheur Wildlife Refuge is located. Like any fence, the section that the criminals tore down bordered another, private, property owned by a rancher that Ammon Bundy swore asked the insurgency to help him remove because he wanted his cattle to illegally graze on federal land. That was on Monday. However, on Wednesday the truth was revealed when the cattle rancher, Tim Puckett, told reporters that not only did he NOT want or ask Bundy to tear down the fence, he said “he is very upset” and repaired the fence.
Puckett went on to say that
“They’re not coming onto my place no more. If they do, I’m gonna have to do something about it. I don’t want them going across my ground. I work with the BLM. I have no problem with them. The fence has not nor will ever affect my cattle operation. I am a good steward of the land. In no way do I feel that I am entitled to the refuge for grazing.” Puckett is likely also aware that the BLM land has been a refuge for 100 years and is culturally significant to Native Americans, and that “keeping cattle from walking over burial sites is immensely important.”
Now, many people wonder why Ammon Bundy, a Mormon businessman from Arizona is leading an armed insurgency in Oregon intent on seizing federal land for, as he admits, cattle and logging interests. As it turns out, besides doing the bidding of the Koch brothers like his Mormon brethren in Utah, or following in his Mormon daddy, Cliven’s footsteps, Ammon Bundy is following the path of Mormon founder Joseph Smith. A path that includes commanding an armed militia, attempting to confiscate land for Mormon’s new Zion according to revelations from god, and towards a serious charge of treason against the United States. None of this is new information or not well-documented in history books, and it is likely why the Bundy clan and Utah Mormons are following their cult’s creator’s path; likely including beseeching the Mormon god for direction and counsel like Joseph Smith was wont to do. They are certainly not supplicating any semblance of the Christian god because he commands his followers to obey the government authorities without question.
The path that Ammon, like his daddy Cliven, took to lead a militia against the federal government to seize federal land is a nearly exact replication of Joseph Smith’s; including praying for ‘celestial guidance.’ Of course, the conservative media is silent on the religious aspects of these acts of sedition in the name of the lord like they are about the Koch’s support in any action to seize federal land for logging, mining, and oil; likely cattle are very low on the Koch brothers’ priority list as they are Cliven Bundy.
Bundy the Mormon had no reservations telling a gathering in 2014 that god inspired him to disarm the federal government and start a civil war. He said,
“The Lord told me … if the local sheriff doesn’t take away the arms from federal agents, we the people will have to face these arms in a civil war. This is your chance to straighten this thing up.'” Bundy also claimed that because he summoned an armed militia and conservative media and Republicans supported their little ‘civil war,’ they were spiritually touched and would not have won without Mormon god on their side.
"If the standoff with the Bundys was wrong, would the Lord have been with us? Could those people that stood with me without fear and went through that spiritual experience have done that without the Lord being there? No, they couldn’t.”
Bundy is delusional to think for a minute that the federal government’s restraint, and not his Mormon god prevented bloodshed and those people and their spiritual experience know it is true. They also know the federal government has adopted a “hands off” approach to white domestic terrorism and sedition because it saves law enforcement and judicial power for unarmed people of color. If America was not inherently racist, Ammon Bundy would never have lived to repeat his father’s actions in another state.
Still, about a year-and-a-half after the Bundy ranch standoff, like his father and like Joseph Smith, Ammon Bundy claims it Mormon god’s counsel inspired him to leave Arizona, summon unemployed armed malcontents, and seize and occupy federal government land in Oregon.
In a 20-minute video, Ammon Bundy said it was his “Supreme Commander the Good Lord Almighty” who inspired his “righteous cause” to take over the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. Bundy said,
“I got on my knees and asked the Lord, I said, Lord, if you want me to write something, please help me clear my mind, and show me what I should write. I began to understand what the Lord felt about Harney County, and about the country. I clearly understood that the Lord was not pleased about what was happening.”
According to Bundy, his Mormon god impressed on him that unless he acted against the government authorities immediately, there would be “tyranny for all Americans.”
“I did exactly what the Lord asked me to do. I did it the way he asked me, the best I could.” Bundy ends his appeal to strong arms “for the lord” with a faith-based clarion call for real religious Americans to “come to Harney County Oregon and participate in this wonderful thing that the Lord is about to accomplish.” See Romans 13:1-7 about exactly how wonderful “the lord” considers any kind of Christian’s accomplishment against the “governing authorities;” or an Oregon cattle rancher’s private property.
Invariably, there will be offense taken by some members of the LDS faith that anyone dare claim there is a connection between the Bundy seditions and the cult of Joseph Smith. Too bad. The historical literature is beyond refute and it is no more an indictment of the entire religion’s adherents than condemning the sheer hate of evangelical fanatics is an indictment of all Christians.
Ammon Bundy, like his father Cliven, is a Mormon. And like their prophet-god Mormon Joe Smith, they were sent a revelation from a “celestial” being to marshal an armed militia and take over federal land. It is also true that the Utah legislature and governor, predominately Mormons, did in fact actively pursue legislation their “lord” likely inspired to seize federal land to sell to the Koch brothers for mining, logging, and oil extraction.
None of this nonsense would continue if the federal government would take action against seditious Mormons like Missouri and Illinois did in the 1840s. Actions that held the bad religious actors to account for attempting to seize federal land because a charlatan said ‘the lord’ made him do it. The Bundy’s know it was not the lord speaking to them; it was the Kochsgetting them to do their dirty work.
Photo: Democratic Underground
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/01/16/furious-oregon-rancher-warns-mormon-bundy-insurgents-land.html
There used to be Republicans you were proud to VOTE for....
NO MORE!
Republicans are funded generously by:
VESTED INTERESTS,
the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex that THRIVES on ENDLESS WARS [ya wonder why JEB wants WAR?],
from carefully concealed campaign contributions from the likes of the Dirty Energy Koch Puppets, supporters and funded of Tea Baggers and multitudes of PACs that conceal their financial control.
The devolution of the Republican party.
Glenn Greenwald addressed the issue of Americans violating Iran's territory and raised serious questions about PROPAGANDA...Who's lying and WHY?
If Iran failed to released the Americans promptly as they did, WOW! What Fairy Tales we could tell!
Once the Americans were RELEASED....Ooops! TRUTH BE TOLD!
Why the lies?
Why were Americans in Iran's waters?
Was it to deliberately create an incident?
Was it to sabotage the IRAN AGREEMENT?
As informed Americans, we need to address the ENDLESS WAR PROPAGANDA that has purposes we may not see.
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