Filmmaker Michael Moore encouraged people to fight back against the ongoing partial government shutdown during a Thursday night appearance on “The Late Show.”
Moore’s strategy for pushing back? Don’t pay taxes.
“Federal workers, don’t go to work without pay,” the director declared. “And we the people shouldn’t be supporting anything that requires someone who is not paid working for us. We should not fly. Don’t fill out your tax return.”
“Now hold on,” host Stephen Colbert interjected. “I don’t want my audience to go to jail!”
“No, don’t go to jail. You don’t need to,” Moore responded. “Go online to the IRS. Every American has the right to file a one-page form that lets you file on August 15th. Everybody has a right for an extension. All you got to do is ask for it. And that way, you don’t have unpaid IRS workers doing work for you.”
“Consult a lawyer first,” added Colbert — who, in spite of that statement, was still giving Moore a platform to share his views.
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Moore also asked that criminals not commit crimes during the shutdown because “the FBI is not being paid.”
For good measure, Moore also went on to say that President Donald Trump is out of control.
“If this were any other country, if this were Turkey or the Philippines or Russia and they had an election and the ruler’s party somehow lost half their legislative branch like [Trump] did in November, and then that ruler declared a month later, ‘I’m shutting down the government,’ what would we call that if it were another country doing that? This guy doesn’t want the government to be reopened. He certainly doesn’t want the Department of Justice to be opened.”
“Nothing will stop a bully unless you stand up to the bully in the schoolyard.”
Moore continued his tirade: “If he tries to pull a national emergency, we the people have to declare a national emergency.”
“We have to non-violently rise up, we have to take to the streets, we have to build our own wall, a human wall around the White House,” he said. “Nothing will stop a bully unless you stand up to the bully in the schoolyard.”
Check out a trailer for Michael Moore’s latest anti-Trump film, “Fahrenheit 11/9,” below:
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