I watched "Where to Invade Next" last night.

[HughBeaumont]

Much of it was viewed in utter disgust, particularly during the Italy and Germany segments on how they work to live (2 hour lunches, off at 2:00 PM, 5-7 weeks mandatory vacation, "13th month salary", 5 months maternity leave, workers and unions have a say in a Democratic workplace, etc, etc) while America is drowning in overwork, under-wage and little & less to show for their efforts.

Don't even get me started on the segments revolved around children and teens.

Anyway, I read something MM said in an interview for the film that got me thinking:

I’m not trying to inflame people by saying everybody should have health care, or that we need to stop school shootings. What are my political positions in my films? That G.M shouldn’t be moving jobs to third-world countries and exploiting them while destroying the middle class of this country? If that’s inflammatory, we’re in deep trouble, yet for so long I was considered a radical. Things are getting better. I love this country, I can’t stand what I see, and I ain’t going anywhere.

When is America going to stop politicizing things that should just BE?

When is America going to get out of the Reagan 1980$, out of the plantation hierarchies, away from the Protestant Work Ethic and concentrate on labor, human and civil rights and restore human dignity?

[global1]

1. It's Going To Take A "Political Revolution".....nt

[HughBeaumont]

19. It's going to take a revolution . . .

. . . . it's going to take a massive deprogramming of suburban and rural voters . . . it's going to take getting money out of politics . . . it's going to take an America who revisits it's sins (rather than sweep them under the rug) so they don't keep committing them over and over again . . . it's going to take an overhaul of our educational system . . . it's going to take a miracle.

SICK of this "No We Can't" shit. We have the tax base to make this happen, we just don't have the political will or spine.

[abelenkpe]

22. +1000 nt

[Baobab]

77. Hillary will bring in lots of guest workers to work for low pay, its already almost done

Thats her plan for everything. Throwing US workers in those fields out of work so they can be made more profitable, using the excuse of a crisis, which will be a fake, unnecessary manufactured "crisis".


And that is terrifying how they have been working on this huge plan since 1995, havent told us, used it to hijack healthcare and education too, havent told us, and now its almost done, another one started in 2006 is almost done and Hillary is pretending to be against trade deals.


Countries don't spend millions of man hours negotiating every detail of these huge job and market trading deals for nothing.

Also, the deals make public health care and education impossible, intentionally. Because thats where they intend to trade the workers from. So they need to be able to privatize them first, so they can become pawns in the globalisation game

With foreigners working for a quarter of what somebody here makes, workers hereare going to need at least a PhD before they can even think about getting a job, these deals will hollow out the middle.

Will they be able to get that college? no because the same deals make expanding public education FTA illegal.

[Duval]

111. Her "pretense" isn't fooling a lot of us. nt

[Baobab]

116. Yes it is

nt

[Fantastic Anarchist]

44. But Hillary must be president!

Because ... well, just because!

[Jackie Wilson Said]

55. I have a hundred dollar bill that says Michael Moore is voting for her if she is the nominee

game?

[LittleGirl]

61. he said he would, what's wrong with that? n/t

[Jackie Wilson Said]

62. Nothing, that is my point

That MM is not new at this, he knows how important voting for her will be even though like me he is a Bernie voter.

[LittleGirl]

67. yep, me too. n/t

[Plucketeer]

72. Yeah, just WHAT WERE those 1770s progressives thinking???

How's come they didn't realize they all shoulda "just got along"? By golly...... I hope we never find the gumpshion to throw off the yokes of the Establishment ever again.

C'mon everybody! Big Kumbai-ya moment. If we're just nice enough to our "leaders", They'll bring our jobs back for us (just be wary of that pie-inna-sky stuff about 12 bucks an hour!), we'll get reduced health insurance premiums (to go with the reduced coverage, you see) and many more "grab-your-ankles" bennies that billionaires know you love and deserve!

[Jackie Wilson Said]

73. And MM and other liberals who have been at this forever will vote for whoever the Democratic

nominee is.

Every time, till they or I die.

What was your point again?


(yes, even democratic socialists like myself)

[Plucketeer]

75. My point is

I have to look in the mirror from time to time. And I know how to spell and write Bernie Sanders' name.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

85. So your point is it is about you. And you dont care about the millions of lives

which will be harmed.


If you can see that, you might change your mind.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

94. It's not about "him" ...

... and that's a low blow to anyone who votes on principle. You don't have to agree or like their choice, but it's not about "them" if they think their vote is for the common good, despite what everyone else may vote.

[Plucketeer]

107. Kinda short-sighted, ain't ya?

My point is that I have to weigh my responsibility as a fellow human. As a sentient and caring being, I feel compelled to hold principle above fear as a motivator. Fear - or your knee-jerk response to it - will get you little more than temporary relief. I want my descendants - indeed, all fellow humans - to have it better off than me. I don't know that that's possible, but to tweak the levers of life's course out of fear is not likely to yield the results I envision for them.

Of course, if I lack the sorta comprehension you'd ideally color me with, it might just boil down to me being "thick-headed" as your sig line intimates.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

108. Again you are going on about you, I dont do politics about me. My politics are never about me.

My politics are like that Star Trek Spock thing, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, the one"

I cant help you if you keep making it about you, in that case you will never understand why people like me spend so much time trying to help the many.

[Plucketeer]

109. Obviously

you are WELL QUALIFIED to identify thick heads.

[Fast Walker 52]

82. and is that wrong?

I have to think at this point in time, *any* Dem is better than a Republican.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

84. Any dem is better, yes

[LanternWaste]

88. The 1770s progressive thinkers that owned slaves and rationalized it?

The same 1770s progressive thinkers that owned slaves and rationalized it? No doubt, those very slaves simply loved the political revolution which did nothing at all for them... as the ankles they grabbed were yet still chained-- both before and after. Revolution, indeed.

Evolution however, being more stolid yet less trendy, simply moves forward-- regardless of cool t-shirt slogans and hysterical melodrama about ankles.

[Plucketeer]

102. Aha!

So the revolution that birthed this nation should NEVER have happened because the instigators were hypocrites! What a perfect world we'd have if they'd first convinced one another that they daresn't throw off the Crown until they'd gotten their own house in order.

There's history and there's theory - which is the better basis to build on?

[Fantastic Anarchist]

63. That's his right ...

... so?

[LanternWaste]

90. Is your implication that any choice made by any person be denied criticism simply because...

"That's his right... so?"

Is your implication that any choice made by any person be denied criticism simply because it's a right? Your observational prowess, being rather vague in this instance, leaves your statement open to rather a lot of interpretation.

No doubt, the undisciplined mind finds the simplicity of bumper-sticker convenient, yet is still so lacking in substance.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

93. You definitely misunderstood me.

I'm not a fan of Hillary. My comment was in response to another poster indicating that he will vote for Clinton. Despite my disgust with Clinton, I simply responded that that's his right, and to express the fact that I'm unconcerned with his vote.

Everyone can criticize; it is their right? So?

[larkrake]

48. AMEN

[jtuck004]

53. It's going to take a tragedy. Along the lines of millions of lives - perhaps the baby boomers

get killed by the millennials, since they are the largest cohort now, and will have to sacrifice to keep the rest alive.

We shall see.

But I don't think it is gonna happen like most people hope.

[Dont call me Shirley]

106. Massive deprogramming of the intentional propaganda forced upon us by the Cult Of Psychopaths

So many are so unaware of the intentional brainwashing of the "procariat" (precarious proletariat), or the 99%. When people in mass wake up out of this brainwashed state they are gonna be pissed! The Masters of the World are going to need a good hiding spot.

[LanternWaste]

87. Or Rational Evolution.

Or Rational Evolution. But no doubt, we all pretend to support the absolute solution to problems we cannot begin to define.

[Merryland]

2. A great film.

[Fast Walker 52]

3. that movie made me and a lot of other people very angry

I wish everyone could see it.

I have an idiot rightwing friend on Facebook who says we should deport Michael Moore. What can you do with someone like that?

[lagomorph777]

7. What can you do with (an idiot rightwinger) like that?

Deport 'em?

[Fast Walker 52]

10. yeah, turnabout is fair play

[tom_kelly]

80. People like that usually don't leave their town, let alone the country n/t

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

35. Unfortunately it's very hard to get people to change their minds

once they are exposed to, what they think is the truth.

[jknudsen]

42. Deport them

Why should a sane country allow them in. We are the laughing stock of the rest of the world.

[liberal from boston]

26. Michael Moore

Lawrence interviewed Michael Moore on his movie "Where To In Invade Next".

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/michael-moore-donald-trump-s-playing-on-fear-685398595951?playlist=480881&cid=sm_fb_lastword

[avebury]

76. I found it amazing that an American could go to Germany and

get a free college education. Michael Moore indicated that there are enough classes in English to put together a degree program.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

45. Laugh at them.

That's what I do. Shame them for their idiocy.

[ChiciB1]

51. I Saw It When It First Came Out At The Only "Little" Theater

here where I live... it made me cry.

[Fast Walker 52]

79. I cried at the part on education when the teacher was amazed that US schools

might not teach poetry or music. Still makes me upset.

[ProfessorPlum]

4. when indeed

No profit in any of those things at the end. Therefore, they are non-starters.

Sarcasm, obviously, but also sadly true.

[Omaha Steve]

5. Single-payer healthcare will 'never, ever come to pass

[Fast Walker 52]

11. ughhh

[FighttheFuture]

12. Speaking Truth to People... if only she would speak Truth to Power...

[HughBeaumont]

15. Color ME enthused.

Absolutely disgraceful.

And this is the presumptive Democratic nominee . . . let's continue the bake-sale-to-bankruptcy bullshit known as 'Merican InsuranceCare.

[floriduck]

29. Sort of like her presidency will never, ever come to pass.

[arikara]

97. One can only hope.

Miracles can and do happen, maybe she isn't as inevitable as she thinks.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

56. She shouldnt have said that, but MM will vote for her, we do have to remember that.

MM understands the system

[arikara]

98. MM isn't a guru

He's only a film maker. In the end, people will vote for who they want, or not vote if they feel they have no other choice. Her nibs warmongering ways are a real turnoff to many, as is her "no we can't". She is a deeply flawed candidate and a poor choice to become the inevitable one.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

99. Where is that bus, gonna need to be kinda big, MM is overweight

[arikara]

118. Did I say anything against him?

No I did not. So don't start with the baloney assumptions.

As a matter of fact, you're the only one passing any insults here, getting it on about his size.

[IronLionZion]

114. She claims to support the public option

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/health-care/

[rhett o rick]

121. She also claimed that Iraq had WMD. Both her and Bush. The MIC was very appreciative and

now she is worth $150,000,000. Now that's a capitalist. No empathy.

[ViseGrip]

6. And Bill who signed NAFTA could be our new economic czar?????????

[lagomorph777]

8. That's what she's promising!

[FighttheFuture]

17. Credit to Bill; he actually balanced the budget w/surpluses and had a plan to pay the national debt

by 20009 or 2010.

The U.S. is on track to eliminate the publicly held debt this decade. Under OMB's new baseline projection, the public debt would be eliminated in FY 2009. ... A fiscally responsible budget that includes new investments in moderate tax relief, a Medicare prescription drugs proposal, and key domestic priorities could eliminate the public debt by FY 2010.

This was accomplished by a booming 90's, and a slight tax increase on the upper brackets in '93. Now, whether we will have something similar I cannot say, nor would I hold my breath.

As for NAFTA, it is a mark of shame on him, but these Trade agreements were not as well known then, although some (Perot) saw them for what they were. That cannot be said today which is why I am so disappointed in Obama and his pushing TPP and TPIP or Hillary helping negotiate them. Although she has said she is not for it as it stands, now, I would not take that to the bank!

[JDPriestly]

20. If you read his book, Bernie also has plans to improve our budget situation greatly and still fund

his proposals.

He serves on the Budget Committee in the Senate and lists in his book numerous programs that could and should be cut or abolished. And of course, he is suggesting specific tax increases on specific transactions and income levels.

Bernie is the one I trust to balance the budget. He appears to live a frugal, normal life.

I do not trust the Clintons on this issue because they seem to rely on gifts from friends or unrealistic pay for speeches (which are like gifts) to live at their extremely high standard of living. That is neither a good example nor a realistic model for the United States.

Bernie is the right person to lead the country when it comes to handling our economy and especially the expenditures and income of our government -- our budget.

Neither Bill nor Hillary is line-item familiar with our budget. Bernie is.

[FighttheFuture]

59. I also support Bernie. I was just giving Bill his due. Not all of it is bad. But the Clintons

given their station, have other things on their mind than "We the People". I would this is the same for Obama, as well. Power corrupts and it takes a rare person, like Bernie, to resist its touch.

[JDPriestly]

64. Thank you. We are on the same page.

[Mr Maru]

9. Were you able to see it in a theatre?

We got an email asking if we would be willing to screen it in our home.

[TryLogic]

13. I bought the DVD at Amazon.

It is astonishing what the advanced nations of Europe and elsewhere are doing compared to the profiteer based activities of this country.

[Zen Democrat]

16. It's the definition of Democratic Socialism.

[HughBeaumont]

14. Watched it on BluRay at my house.

Not really a whole lot political going on. That's what he was going for . . . that these concepts (many of them, believe it or not, originating in America) should just be viewed and practiced as human rights and not thrown about like carrot-on-a-stick "ponies" or "wedge issues".

[HughBeaumont]

41. I had a chance to see it at the AFI in Silver Spring MD.

Didn't get the chance to, so it was at the library.

Think I'm going to be buying this one, though.

[shanti]

78. Netflix

Just saw it last week, excellent documentary!

[JDPriestly]

18. K&R. Working people should claim the rights that are inherent in their humanness.

At-will employment is wrong from the get-go.

If you work, you should work hard, and you should have the right to respect for your work in the workplace.

We need a more cooperative, "in it together," ethic in our workplaces. If you work for a company or a boss, you and the boss are on the same side, and that should be clear from day one.

The adversarial nature of our workplace is harming all of us. It causes unnecessary despair, infects our political sphere, distracts us, destroys our lives and makes our economy balky and inefficient.

When people work in harmony, when employees feel free to express themselves and believe that they are contributors and not just automatons, then our economy will work better.

Until then --- we will continue to be far less efficient than we could be.

Germany is an example of a country in which workplaces are more efficient than here. I am not particularly pro-German, but I lived there as well as in France, Austria and the UK. Relationships in the workplace in Germany and training for future employees are the best that I experienced in any country. That German workers have the right to excellent training (an apprenticeship system when I worked there as well as free university tuition today) and are well prepared for the workplace when they start to work makes a great difference in terms of the quality of products and work the people do.

As I saw it, German workers felt proud of their skills and worked hard but were rewarded with lots of paid time off, more security in their work than we have, universal healthcare, the training I mentioned plus excellent child-care far superior in some ways to ours. (The teachers were perhaps not as well trained at the elementary level in terms of learning psychology and techniques as ours at the time I was there. That was some time ago.)

Anyway, I agree with the OP completely.

I dearly love America, but we can do much better.

[HughBeaumont]

24. +1000

Spending more than half of your waking day preparing for, performing or commuting to/from your job isn't living. It's a slow and depressing death. It's not so much the people or the job, but the idea.

I really do not see the point of being physically present at a workplace for 10 hours a day. My place is a trainwreck because I have no time to organize or do anything to it.

Protestant Work Ethic is a concept that really needs to get to steppin'. It's an anachronism in 2016. We're burnt from the time we step in a classroom . . . did you know Finnish kids go to school 20-25 hours a week, have little to no homework and their kids perform ridiculously well in testing over ours?

Then there's the debt-to-diploma track, another useless by-the-balls scam likely designed by the MIC to funnel broke kids into their war machine.

Killing ourselves in the name of for-profit racketeering. What a life.

[JDPriestly]

30. My children started school in Austria. They were home before 1 p.m.

And they had homework starting in the first grade.

Caveat: It is easier to learn to read German than it is to read English. German is a phonetic language.

But the math education my children received was excellent. It was just old-fashioned repeat, recycle, remember and think. But it seemed to work well. Maybe my children just had that ability, but they were way ahead of the American children in math when they started school here.

At the time I was there, the Austrian (and German) schools emphasized that a child should not read before the age of 6. Children were supposed to play and learn about life that way rather than pushing themselves to read and focus on the printed page. That was a tough concept for me because I read early. But my children learned a lot of pre-reading skills like telling stories, listening to a lot of stories, singing a lot, putting pictures in order, moving the eyes from left to right, relating to reality and not just a printed page. That, I think, was wiser than our emphasis on the alphabet, but then again, German is easier to learn to read than is English. It is possible to learn to read German with the phonetic method. That gets complicated in English.

I think there was less recess time there. Also, I do not know what working mothers do now in Europe. I was a stay-at-home mother most of the time when we lived there because my husband did not have to worry about a work permit, but I did. I was not a citizen. I am only an American citizen.

[LittleGirl]

70. Austria and Switzerland

have similar lifestyles.

I know many UK expats here in Basel and they struggle with the attitude of working mothers. The local schools let out around noon and the mothers have to be home or make arrangements for childcare if they work. The International schools run most of the day and let out like US schools later in the day but man, they are expensive! 20k francs for one child and they get a break for a second one in school. Most work contracts allow for school fees if you are only here for a temporary assignment.

I don't have any children but most of the expats I know do. Some choose the local schools and really struggle with the attitude of working mothers, the expectations of the mothers to be available for volunteering at the schools and activities. An american expat friend of mine isn't married and her boyfriend is Swiss. They didn't tell his mother she worked for 2 yrs! What? I was shocked. This boyfriend's mother is my age so I was very surprised that she had that attitude about women working.

But then my spouse reminded me that Swiss women weren't allowed to vote in federal elections until 1971.

I don't work now because I don't know swiss German, french or Italian and most of the jobs around expect you to know all three or at least Swiss german. ugh.

[JDPriestly]

74. Thanks. Interesting.

[Moostache]

21. We are well and truly fucked...

The problem is that too much of America has become zero-sum game territory. The rich do not see any use in increasing the size of the pie without a corresponding increase in the % of that pie that they keep. When you factor in inflation and cost of living increases and look at them versus wages, it is much easier to see this concept laid bare. They "win" in terms of the share of national wealth retained in fewer hands, and the rest of us "lose" by that exact amount extra being horded.

It did not have to be this way, which is the truly tragic part of our future ruination.

From the 1940's to the 1970's, US worker output and wages tracked on a parallel trajectory. As productivity rose, so too did wages and benefits. Enter Reaganomics and "trickle down"... the wages and benefits flatlined and the % taken and retained by the very top exploded.

This is not new.
There is a reason that all empires crumble and fall.
Empire USA is no different.

Greed.
Pure and simple.
When men take more than they need and horde it away from productive use - money, resources, time...you name it - the entire society is lessened a bit more each time.
Do it enough and things fall apart. The center does not hold.

I hope the rich realize that when enough people are pushed into 'nothing-left-to-lose' status, the heads being placed on the parapet won't be the 99% or even the 99.9%...a man with nothing left to lose is the most dangerous weapon of mass destruction ever seen. Creating hundreds of millions of them is suicide.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

49. Bravo!

Very well said, especially the last paragraph.

[Octafish]

23. We need a New Feudalism.

Plantations mean we have to feed the slaves. Did I say, "We?" LOL. The Lord of the Castle can decide who gets chow and who gets tossed over the wall.

Here are a couple of modern day slavemasters, I mean, bankers...



Baron de Rothschild and Prescott Bush, sharing a moment and a bit o' information in this small world.

Rothschild and Freshfields founders’ had links to slavery, papers reveal

By Carola Hoyos
Financial Times

Two of the biggest names in the City of London had previously undisclosed links to slavery in the British colonies, documents seen by the Financial Times have revealed.

Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the banking family’s 19th-century patriarch, and James William Freshfield, founder of Freshfields, the top City law firm, benefited financially from slavery, records from the National Archives show, even though both have often been portrayed as opponents of slavery.

Far from being a matter of distant history, slavery remains a highly contentious issue in the US, where Rothschild and Freshfields are both active.

Companies alleged to have links to past slave injustices have come under pressure to make restitution.

JPMorgan, the investment bank, set up a $5m scholarship fund for black students studying in Louisiana after apologising in 2005 for the company’s historic links to slavery.

CONTINUED (with registration, etc) ...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7c0f5014-628c-11de-b1c9-00144feabdc0.html

The back of the object they are examining shows typing in a box, a standard on US government images used for identifying content on the front of a photograph. Or map to some far-off region of the Empire.

[zentrum]

33. Thanks for this information. nt

[lark]

25. When Fascists stop running our country.

In other words, don't hold your breath. Not feeling very hopeful today.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

27. I can't watch it.

Just can't bring myself to watch it.

It would be too depressing and at the same time enrage me (and I have plenty of rage about what is happening to us).

It is a brilliant concept, I have heard MM talk about it on podcasts and just last week on Bill Mahar's show. On one podcast - Maron's WTF, I think - he went into some detail about it (great thing about WTF and several podcasts is that they are bringing back long form interviews, with followup questions, detail, side tracks, etc.).

On that podcast, Moore talked about how he was in Europe as a young man - late teens or early 20s, *I* think - and he broke an ankle hiking. Among his first thoughts was ... how to pay for it? Would his insurance cover this in another country? Did he even have his insurance card with him?

No problem. He was in a country with universal health. They fixed him up and sent him on his way. And that experience has stuck with him since then.

So, I cannot watch it yet. Not sure if my insurance will cover a Michael Moore Movie-induced panic attack/depressive episode/blood pressure spike. Perhaps, since I have seen most/all of his other movies (and two TV series), the ACA covers that under the pre-existing clause. Perhaps.

[Mira]

36. You heard Bill Maher say it:

"I think this is your best movie yet"
So did Lawrence O'Donnell.
We may have another Oscar in the making. He won it for Fahrenheit 9/11.
Put a thick turban on your head for when you want to step aside and
but watch the movie.
Not many are saying it, but it is also a glorious tribute to women.

[floriduck]

28. The irony in that movie is that most of their culture originated in the US. They say that

in the movie. While they've focused on healthy eating and worker benefits, we've gone the opposite direction. I'm not suggesting that we completely mirror their policies, but the vast wasteland between our situation and theirs is bewildering.

[Mira]

31. I'm handing home made copies of the movie out like popcorn

I don't think MMoore would mind.
The fourth time I saw it I cried, a lot. I came to the States from Germany as a 20 year old on a coal freighter with 40 bucks in my pocket. I emigrated because I thought, as the oldest of 7 in a struggling post war Germany my chances in America were better. And I immediately fit in and felt at home.
Now, not so much. I have a cousin who is 30 and is a doctor, and has NO student debt. Only had to pay for his books. Another who has the 5 months maternity leave at this very moment.
I could go on, but just watch the movie.

While I'm already rambling:
I took my one remaining Republican friend to see "Where to invade next". Her comment on this documentary film, made almost exclusively with interviews of foreign residents of Europe, was: "He wrote this, right? Well then it's just his opinion".
It proved to me conclusively how the brain washing of the deliberately ignorant has taken a hold.

[zentrum]

32. Donate $27

….to Moveon.org and MM will send you a copy of the DVD.

I think that fundraiser is on-going.

Michael is a true patriot. That movie is brilliant on every level. The audience staggered afterwards. Have never seen that before.

Loved too, how he showed how Germany tries to admit and atone for its Nazi past and for the holocaust.

Nothing will go right in this country until we deal with our history of slavery, Jim Crow and racism. As much as reparations we need a true telling of history. MM showed how the prison-industrial complex is still a slave system. Horrifying and never in the media.

[HughBeaumont]

38. Not to mention our corporate crimes.

Or crimes against women, or LGBTQI citizens, or crimes against union leaders by corporate magnates, against students, teachers, etc. etc. etc.

We don't revisit our sins because corporations want to keep committing them over and over and over again. There's an entire segment in that movie on the drug-war-to-prison-labor pipeline, essentially reinstituting slavery.

The more things change . . ..

[zentrum]

46. Yup. It's an oligarchy.

Check out this link about the Koch's and their take over of the education system, overtly teaching sociopathy, beginning in kindergarten.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/charles-kochs-disturbing-high-school-economics-project-teaches-sacrificing-lives-for-profits/

[HughBeaumont]

50. I shared this one recently.

This sick freak is on the wrong side of his seventies and doesn't look youthful either, yet still wants to make life miserable for everyone except the well-monied. That'd be the day any grandkid of mine gets the pure capitalist indoctrination when he should be playing and being a kid.

[Carolina]

120. Not to mention the original sin,

the crime against the native peoples of this land going back to the 15th century

[ReRe]

113. I did the same thing...

... don't have the film yet, since it was only Monday night when I ordered it.
Will be round-robinning it to family and friends as soon as I have received and viewed it.

[TrappedInUtah]

40. Amazing movie

I saw it in my film course and It really shocked me. I didn't agree with EVERYTHING, but Moore still brought up a LOT of really good points. Everything in America really started to deteriorate with Reagan I feel. He killed the middle class with trickle down economics, reversed carter's renewable energy plans, ramped up the WoD etc. We live in a country where human beings seem to have no real value outside of how much money they can make for their employer. Also, the WoD really is almost like a form of modern slavery. Lock young black males up for drug offenses and put them to work in the prison industry. The Klan would be proud.

[HughBeaumont]

43. So much long term modern domestic damage started with his regime.

Runaway income inequality, runaway CEO pay, middle/working/poor wage stagnation, job offshoring, union defanging, corporate malfeasance, Wall Street as a law unto themselves, defunding of colleges, defunding of HUD (which led to the giant homelessness problem we have today), ravaging of military benefits and VA hospitals, widespread loss of job security, news reporting traded for opinion and constructed narrative, demonization of everything progressive, merging of church and state, demonization of poor people, racism made fashionable, demonization of the LGBTQI community, rampant military spending, reliance on fossil fuels, destruction of the environment, making ignorance fashionable, etc, etc, etc . . .

[FlaGranny]

100. I don't understand

what you do not agree with. Those people in those countries were being interviewed. Do you mean you do not agree with all that those countries are doing? All Moore did was ask them questions and then wonder why the US couldn't do those things too since most of them were our ideas to begin with. Just a Michael Moore style documentary (an excellent one). What did you not agree with?

[cantbeserious]

47. Never - As Long As The 1% Remain In Conttol

eom

[camelfan]

52. The parts that affected me most...

were the German children learning about the Nazis (made me weep) and all the languages the Finnish children know. Truly amazing what lessons we refuse to learn because we feel no one can teach us anything. Sigh.

[HughBeaumont]

57. I barely detected an accent in their English.

Likely because they learned these languages early. The earlier you learn them, the more fluent you'll be.

My generation didn't have formal language courses until freshman year in HS, and by then, I was only interested in 3:00 PM. I hated everything about high school . . . just a bunch of Bocephus hilljacks, rich snobs and bastard burnouts (not the cool kind, the asshole kind) terrorizing others in a pecking order . . . I'm not interested in a second language, I'm interested in escaping.

There's another problem with American schools . . . they're either like jails or corporate farm clubs. Who the hell can learn ANYthing in them?

[Jackie Wilson Said]

54. We have been conditioned to believe we dont really deserve healthcare and must

pay through the nose for it, education as well.

The very rich , most of them, are greedy assholes who dont care if you live or die.

MM is an American hero.

[HughBeaumont]

58. The success of an American is almost completely tethered by how gainfully they're employed.

That's something we need to seriously get away from. If health care via Big Insurance is not going to go down in cost, then something really horrible is eventually going to happen in the form of defaults or debt arrests. We cannot continue this barbaric path.

We have the tax base to do it, we just don't have the political will.

[yeoman6987]

60. I was stationed in Italy

Their work schedule is 9-1 and then back to work 4-8. I like the break but that 8 o'clock can get old quick. The dinner is usually 9. The days off are true and maternity is true.

[HughBeaumont]

68. Beats the hell out of 5:30 AM - 5:30 PM.

That's over half of my waking hours spent preparing for, commuting to and doing the job; physically present, of course . . . our telecommuting policies are utterly ridiculous in 2016. And then you come home to a house you're barely conscious in and by the time you're able to stop doing various chores and dinner, it's time to go to bed and do it all over again the next morning.

Oh, and you don't get 7 mandatory weeks off (I don't know of any company that even allows 4 weeks unless you've miraculously worked there for 10-15 years; usually it's 2-3 weeks), holidays or the "13th month".

This isn't a life, it's a sentence.

[Triana]

65. So did I! He even addressed free prison labor (modern-day slavery)

I will watch it again and show it to anyone who will watch.

[LittleGirl]

66. I watched it in Zurich

in February with the locals at a small theatre that features foreign films and English ones too.

It was interesting to watch with Swiss locals who laughed and laughed and yet, I was the one that was nearly in tears when I left. I was depressed for days after watching it because it made me homesick and sad and happy that I chose to leave my home and come here to live. At least for now.

If Trump becomes President, my home country is doomed. Doomed I tell you. Doomed.

[LittleGirl]

95. It's the most expensive place

to live in Europe and it's not pleasant but the view is nice.

[CrispyQ]

69. Excellent movie!

I loved the expression on the Italian woman's face when Michael told her the number of weeks of vacation American companies are required to give their employees. At first, she did not believe him when he said zero.

I wish HRC would watch this film & tell us why we can't do these things in our country. Oh yeah, cuz we're bigger & have more people. That's what I'm always told. But that means we also have more resources. So what it really gets down to is TPTB don't want us to have nice things. They want it all for themselves. The Icelandic woman nailed it when she said, "I wouldn't want to live in America. You don't care for each other."

I don't see how we'll ever get change when the electoral system is so corrupt & compromised. The primaries were a mess. Voter turnout will be low this year, so TPTB will get who they want, compliments of electronic voting.

The system isn't broken; the system is fixed.

[HughBeaumont]

83. The Italian woman: "This is the only life you have."

Unfortunately, that "life" belongs to the corporations until they gurney you out of your fabric-covered box.

Not only don't we care for each other, but we refute science and math to believe stories. Like, for example, the Earth is 6,000 years old. Or that Capitalism is going to solve the problems it's creating.

[Blue_In_AK]

71. That was a very educational film.

I was blown away.

[Arugula Latte]

81. We're going to get stuck with Trump or Hillary, so

I don't see these things improving any time soon. In fact, it's likely to get much worse.

[HughBeaumont]

86. America needs to get MORE right wing. THAT'll cure what ails us!

This country is disappointing to the point of despair. I really thought we would grow up by now.

Our problem is that we're run by a bunch of rich mostly white male third-basers who come from entire lineages of rich third-basers. They'll never see the perspective of PoC, women, the LGBTQI community or the middle/working/poor, because 99% of the time, they never WERE from any of these groups. That's why these groups are either imprisoned or left to "rugged individualize" their own futures; they almost never get a voice or a say in how things work . . . you know, unless they're Republican.

I recently responded to a thread on billionaire estates . . . to the shock of little, almost no one listed made their fortune completely on their own. They either married into wealth, inherited it from their parents or got it through screwing a group of people over or linked to crime.

[Arugula Latte]

92. Yeah. It's so depressing. The money allowed in

politics means our system is little more than rich people legally bribing politicians to get what they want and to consolidate wealth ever more amongst the very wealthy and powerful. We are screwn.

[valerief]

96. It's a wonderful film--except for the U.S. parts. nt

[FlatBaroque]

101. The world became a darker place when

The word "welfare" was intentionally demonized.

[Pakid]

103. As long as the Republicans have any power

NEVER!!!!

[Cassiopeia]

115. Democrats have worked hand in hand with Republicans

To cause the realities we face today.

[treestar]

104. We live to work

For some reason, we insist that working "hard" proves the best character. People brag about doing OT. They brag about 80 hours weeks. Not as bad now, but in the 80s it was.

[Dont call me Shirley]

105. Watch Requiem For The American Dream starring Noam Chomsky next.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/noam-chomsky-wants-you-wake-american-dream

[AtomicKitten]

110. K&R

Loved the film. It illustrated that compared to Europe, America is a corporate-driven shit show.

[Bonhomme Richard]

112. Because the country was set up with the monied elite running things.....

and dammit! they are going to keep it that way.

[Hamlette]

117. It is against the law to make or allow your employees to work more than 45 hrs a week in Switzerland

My sister is a computer type person who kept odd hours. The police in Switzerland did a stake out of her office building's parking lot and arrested the CEO for allowing employees to work more than 45 hours per week. He was fined 500,000 (US). If you know (and love) computer types you know when they are on to something, they can work days on end. My sister was not required to work long hours and was paid overtime for anything over 35 hours per week. She wanted to. So the employees started carpooling so no one car was in the lot more than 45 hours per week.

Seems a more productive use of cop time than busting pot smokers.

Other strange Swiss law? They unplug vending machines on Sunday. Can only buy groceries at the grocery store in the airport in Zurich. You can eat in a restaurant or rent a movie (but not buy a video) but the Coke vending machine is unplugged.

They are an odd, and in many ways, superior culture. But I'd leave the Coke machines plugged in.

[babylonsister]

119. Amen and recommend! nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

122. Easy, when the poor stop worshiping the rich as royalty.

[HughBeaumont]

123. The Stockholm is strong here.

That, and it's far more important for some middle/working/poor people to feel that they're better than someone. It's also far important to them that the moat be closed and the drawbridge raised when it comes to universal education and health care than for even one person they deem lesser than themselves to "just be given it withouts earnin' it!"

After all, they're merely . . . "temporarily inconvenienced".

[Spitfire of ATJ]

124. There is also fear on behalf of many of them of a hippy takeover....

They are still living in the "tax and spend liberals" bubble and they believe the rich really don't make enough to pay for all this stuff.

And yes, they have bought into the "Why should they? Get a JOB!" idiocy.