One of the first shots in Michael Moore's masterpiece SiCKO, is of an uninsured American with a large, gaping, bloody wound in his knee. He's calmly stitching it up. The poor guy with the wound is tending to himself. A doctor is a luxury he can't afford. But this is just how things are in the United States, the richest country on the planet.
Life in America as you and I know it, won't be the same once the SiCKO train leaves the station
Mark my words, all of America will be talking about SiCKO. This diary is just the beginning. To say that it shines a spotlight on our national catastrophe doesn't begin to describe the impact it will have. It is the most searing filmmaking I have ever seen, eclipsing even Farenheit 9/11 in its raw, gritty power.
The movie is opening on June 29th. If this flawless work of genius doesn't change the course of history, then as I said to someone this afternoon, I'm outta here, cause it will be all the proof I need, that the United States has terminal cancer. I'll know the great experiment is on life support. What will have killed it? In a word, greed.
I received an invitation to a screening of SiCKO. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity. I saw it earlier today in Los Angeles, that's the reason this diary is being posted late in the evening.
A disclaimer: I'm a fierce Michael Moore partisan.
When Farenheit 9/11 was released, I bought the first ticket to the first show on the first day--that's how much I wanted to see it.
Let me also say, that the forces of evil lined up against the American people, will do everything in their power to discredit Michael and the film. Fasten your seatbelts for an unprecedented swiftboat level smear campaign The swiftboaters this time, will come from AHIP, PhARMA, health insurance industry lobbyists, the corporate special interests, and many from the political class--their guns are loaded and ready.
Michael, we have your back. We've got you covered, brother.
I predict SiCKO will mark a turning point for the United States, if it doesn't we're doomed.
I believe this movie will become a seminal moment. A moment when the country took a collective gasp, said enough, rose up and demanded blood from the political class.
ENOUGH IS FUCKING ENOUGH.
Let me tell you a little about this masterpiece. Calling it powerful is an understatement. You will physically react to the seering image of a health insurance underwriter weeping as she describes the emotional toll of her work for an insurance company denying the applications of desperate Americans. Your body will shake with rage, but at the same time you will wet your pants with the sort of hysterical, nervous laughter that only a genius like Michael Moore, telling a horrible story can induce.
Let me also tell you a little about the part of the movie involving Cuba, which already is being badly misrepresented. The people Michael took to Cuba were volunteers who rushed to Ground Zero immediately after the attack of 9/11. I live in New York, I know what happened. Thousands and thousands of ordinary Americans descended on what came to be known as "the pile". In the days following the attack, we all hoped that people would be found alive.
So volunteers went to Ground Zero and dug for human beings without regard for themselves. Then many/some of them became sick. Several of these heroes of 9/11 are featured in SiCKO. These 9/11 heroes were denied healthcare by their insurance companies. Michael brought them to Guantanemo to contrast the healthcare being given the "evildoers" by the government of the United States, to the lack of healthcare for the 9/11 heroes. Naturally he was turned away, so he took them to Cuba where they received the healthcare they were denied by our for-profit--Murder by Spreadsheet--insurance industry.
As Michael says, you can measure a society by how it treats the most vulnerable among us, you can also measure a society by the way it treats its heroes. The United States fails miserably on both counts.
This is what the Cuba part of SiCKO is about. Not the bullshit you're hearing from the MSM.
After you've seen SiCKO, you'll say to yourself, "hey, I've been reading about these atrocities almost every day for three years on Daily Kos". You'll also walk out of the theater, depressed and deeply ashamed to call yourself a citizen of the United States.
I kept saying to myself, it's about time the entire world was invited into our revolting back yard. It's about time the entire world saw what life in America is really all about.
I also thought about being a citizen of another country, say Iraq, and seeing this movie? If I was a citizen of another country and I saw SiCKO, I'd say, "this is what these motherfuckers want to give us? This is how democracy works?" I'd say, "Keep your fucking "democracy". No. Fucking. Way."
Here, from the production notes is what Michael Moore has to say about our healthcare catastrophe. There's more which I'll share in another diary.
Who deserves the blame for the health care mess: the US government, the big drug companies or something else?
It’s the system itself. For the most part, the system is based on profits and greed. When it comes to people’s health, profit should be nowhere involved. If anyone suggested that, say, the school system should be making a profit, they’d be looked at as if they were from Mars. Nobody would ever say the city water department should be turning a profit—without water you don’t live. Health care should be the same way, and it is that way in other countries.
And who we must hold responsible:
After spending over a year making SiCKO, what are the three most important things you believe would improve the US health system?
We need to eliminate private health insurance companies—that’s the biggest single impediment to making sure everybody who needs to be taken care of receives the help they require. The pharmaceutical companies should also be highly regulated, like ConEd. A lot of people need medicine to survive, but to allow pharmaceutical companies to jack up prices and make it impossible for some people to get the drugs they need to live is criminal. Finally, there’s We the People. Health care needs to be in the hands of the people, just like the Fire Department and the Police Department are in the hands of the people instead of a private company like Halliburton. We all have to become more active in caring about these things, and start thinking of ourselves as part of a group larger than just me, myself and I.
And our presidential candidates:
Does any candidate have a solid health care plan at this point, or are they just making vague generalizations?
Yeah, they don’t seem to want to grapple with the real issue. It’s very sad. Even the well-intentioned people like John Edwards—his plan seems to be to take our tax dollars and put them into the pockets of the private insurance industry. That is not the solution. Obama hasn’t put together his plan yet, though I’m hoping he’ll come up with something good. And then, of course, there’s always the candidate who hasn’t entered the race yet, but who won the office back in 2000. What he's been saying on this issue since 2003 is the best.
Folks, talk about airing dirty laundry in public. The United States has finally been busted. Our depraved and murderous system has finally been outed.
Isn't this what we're warned never to do, from the time we learn our first words? Well SiCKO, is the finest two hours of dirty laundry airing I have ever had the privilege to witness. A million fucking cheers for Michael Moore!
Way to go Michael!
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