Why is this person on television?

Who the hell thinks it's a good idea to keep putting this little owl casting of a man on TV?




Who exactly does CNN think is interested in hearing anything this creepy shit-eating little racist has to say? This loathsome little worm couldn't even make a ripple in the Republican primary. And Republican primary voters are the only people nutty enough and racist enough and theocratic enough that they might possibly give a fuck about this guy. And even they had no interest in him. Maybe someone could look up how many delegates Santorum got, but if my calculations are correct. . .it was. . .multiply by the inverse. . . carry the one. . . uhhhh . . .ZERO. So why continue to give him a platform?

Is there just some producer at CNN asking "who can we get to say something really stupid and shitty about this issue?" and some pa goes "well, Santorum is hanging out in the lobby again."

Santorum: Instead of calling for gun laws, kids should take CPR classes

By Eli Watkins, CNN

You know, if it was anyone other than the frothy mixture, I would think "this must be taken out of context, because there's just no way. . ." but with Santorum, I can't really say I'm surprised.

"How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem. . ."

Oh, god damn it! Right off the bat! You're going to shit on these kids for wanting their government to do something? Making laws for the safety of the public is pretty much job number one for the government. And you got a problem with a bunch of kids not, what, taking the law into their own hands?  These kids are asking to not be murdered in school and your response is "lazy damn kids. Always wanting someone else to solve their problems for them?"

"How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that," Santorum said on CNN's "State of the Union."

So, how about instead of doing something to prevent school shootings, we do jack shit and you kids learn how to try and save your friends' lives as they bleed out in your arms? Because - since we are, in fact, doing jack shit about guns - these mass shootings are just an inevitable fact of life, so you might as well learn how to try and minimize the death count.

"They took action to ask someone to pass a law," Santorum said. "They didn't take action to say, 'How do I, as an individual, deal with this problem?

How do I, a high school student with zero power, take steps to deal with a nationwide epidemic visited on us by one of the wealthiest most powerful lobbying groups in the country and backed by Senators and Congressmen and state governments? Because clearly I, a high school student, should be solving this problem myself instead of asking the government to do the job they were fucking elected to do.

"They didn't take action to say, 'How do I, as an individual, deal with this problem? How am I going to do something about stopping bullying within my own community?

First of all, there doesn't seem to be any correlation between bullying and school shootings.
Secondly, whenever someone does try to do somehthng about bullying, you right-wing assholes start shouting about giving "safe spaces" to "snowflakes" or infringing on the First Amendment rights of Christian homophobes.

What am I going to do to actually help respond to a shooter?'... Those are the kind of things where you can take it internally, and say, 'Here's how I'm going to deal with this. Here's how I'm going to help the situation,' instead of going and protesting and saying, 'Oh, someone else needs to pass a law to protect me.'"

Jeezus, dude. What the hell is your problem? What upsets you so much about citizens petitioning their government for a redress of grievances? Are you seriously bothered that these kids are asking the government to take action on a serious public safety issue rather than figuring out ways that they could go Die Hard on a school shooter?

"I'm proud of them," he said. "But I think everyone should be responsible and deal with the problems that we have to confront in our lives.

No. No no no no no, you don't get to sit there and trash these kids and then say "I'm proud of them." Fuck that. Not that any of these kids would want an odious little rodent like you to be proud of them.
And how the hell do you trot out that Republican "personal responsibility" bullshit on this issue? I get that there a re a lot of issues where this trope could apply. There's a logic to saying  "if you don't have any monies, get a job. Don't ask the government to take care of you." It's nasty and dickish, but at least it makes sense and reasonable people could debate the idea. But are you seriously going to say "hey, if some psycho is going to come into your school with a military-grade assault weapon and spray a bunch of bullets at you, that's your problem. Don't go running to the 'naany state' to keep you safe." What the fuck is wrong with you?

"I'm proud of them," he said. "But I think everyone should be responsible and deal with the problems that we have to confront in our lives. And ignoring those problems and saying they're not going to come to me and saying some phony gun law is gonna solve it. Phony gun laws don't solve these problems."

Well, that is true. Phony gun laws don't solve problems. You know what do, though? Actual gun laws. Like they have in England. And Australia. And Europe. Amd everywhere else where these massacres aren't a regular part of life.

Crybaby of the Week

United States Congessman Mark Amodei




So last Wednesday, high school students in Rep. Amodei's district did what teens all over the country did. They walked out of class for 17 minutes to call attention to the government's complete inaction on the epidemic of senseless gun violence in this stupid country.
One student, a Noah Christensen, took the opportunity to call his congressman's office and siad, among other more innocuous things, that  Congress should "get off their f***ing asses" and take action. (CNN)

So the Congressman apparently did what any mature adult would do in this situation, he tattled!
And he didn't even do it himself, he had an aide call Christensen's school and report that the teen had used naughty words!

Amodei said his office received several hundred calls from students during the walkout and that Christensen was the only caller to use profanity.

 

Oh my stars! A middke-aged man heard a swear!

 

 

 

Amodei said his office did not seek to have the student reprimanded but was merely relaying to the school what had occurred.

"We did not retaliate -- we reported what the guy did," he said. "We did not ask for discipline or anything like that."

Riiiiiight. . . Obviously you had no intention of getting the kid in trouble when you called his school and reported him to the teacher for being a potty mouth you pissy little crybaby.

So I assume that after you calmed down from the shock of hearing a four-letter word, you realized that you had overreacted and apologized to the kid, right?

"I don't want him (Christensen) to apologize to my guy for dropping the F-bomb. So I'm certainly not going to apologize to him," he said. "What am I going to apologize for?"

Seriously?
Maybe because after your flunky snitched on him like a blue-nosed little priss, his school "gave him a two-day suspension for "disrespectful behavior/language" and barred him from fulfilling his role as class secretary/treasurer."

This should have been a no-brainer.

So Tennessee State Rep. John Ray Clemmons had what seemed like a pretty simple idea. He thought "hey, let's just get it on the record that the state of Tennessee doesn't approve of neo-Nazis."

So he introduced a resolution that, after a few "whereas"-es, stated simply:

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED TENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE SENATE CONCURRING, that we strongly denounce and oppose the totalitarian impulses, violent  terrorism, xenophobic biases, and bigoted ideologies that are promoted by white nationalists and neo-Nazis.

And it also said:

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we urge law enforcement to recognize these white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups as terrorist organizations and to pursue the criminal elements of these domestic terrorist organizations in the same manner and with the same fervor used to protect the United States from other manifestations of terrorism

So this seems like the sort of thing that would be an automatic pro-forma kind of easy passing bill, because who doesn't want to condemn Nazis? And it's not like it's going to cost anything.

Well, you'd think so, but. . .

It took all of 36 seconds to be shot down by the House State Government Subcommittee last week. The single Democrat on the committee, state Rep. Darren Jernigan, made a motion to discuss Clemmons’s resolution. After none of the four Republicans on the committee would second the motion, the chair, Bill Sanderson, gaveled the resolution to oblivion and the committee moved on to other business. No second, no further consideration, no vote
Read more at https://wonkette.com/631438/tennessee-republicans-pretty-sure-nazi-lives-matter-too#2uz9hyoogYFbq4FF.99

Well, surely they must have had a good reason, right? There must be a logical rationale for NOT voting to condemn fucking NAZIS, right?

. . .  state Rep. Bob Ramsey explained to local teevee station WZTV that the language of the resolution itself was simply too vague:

Ramsey says he and his fellow legislators “condemn white supremacy and other hate groups.” The issue, is “we have no real definition for a white nationalist or neo-Nazi group.”
“We have no expertise on it,” Ramsey says. “How could we determine these groups are terrorists? We don’t know the federal guidelines on terrorism.”

What? How was that going to be an issue?
Werte they worried that some racist pricks were going to come to their offices and ask "does this resolution apply to my group? 'Cuz, see, we're like totally racist and all, but we're not actually Nazis. We hate Germans too. So, are we under your condemnation or not?" And then they were just going to be in suuuuuch an awkward situation, just stammering and stuttering like Jerry lewis "condemnaaaation! Of the racist type people with the hating and the marching and the - oh but not you, sir. No, you're a nice fella heh heh. . . please to not hurt meeee. . . with the hitting and the shouting and the kicking in my tuuuchus!"

Look, I get it. You're a Republican in 2018, you can't afford to alienate the neo-Nazi constituency. Shit, just look at Illinois' 3rd district. But just own it. Just come out and say, we need the Nazi vote. Don't be pathetic and pretend that condemning white supremacists is just too confusing. It's ridiculous.

Let's not forget what a piece of shit Ralph Peters is

Please please please, let's not make Ralph Peters into some kind of hero for quitting FOX.

A Fox News contributor quit the network, calling it a 'propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration'

First of all. FOX has ALWAYS been a propoganda machine for the far right. They have always promoted a destructive and ethically ruinous agenda. This is not something that suddenly happened on Jan 20, 2017. The entire Time that Ralph Peters was there, FOX was spewing hatred and lies and racism and all the other -isms.


Here's an excerpt from Peters' open letter to his FOX colleagues. You can feel the smarmy, self-righteous hypocrisy just oozing from every keystroke:

In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration. When prime-time hosts--who have never served our country in any capacity--dismiss facts and empirical reality to launch profoundly dishonest assaults on the FBI, the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community (in which I served) and, not least, a model public servant and genuine war hero such as Robert Mueller--all the while scaremongering with lurid warnings of "deep-state" machinations-- I cannot be part of the same organization, even at a remove. To me, Fox News is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.

As if FOX hadn't been dismissing facts and empirical reality since the day it launched. One obvious example: climate change. FOX has been the leading source of the dangerously dishonest lies about the scientific fact of global warming.
And it's almost ironic that Peters is so upset about FOX hosts launching " profoundly dishonest assaults on the FBI, the Justice Department, the courts. . .  and, not least, a model public servant and genuine war hero such as Robert Mueller," when he had no such compunction about dishonest attacks on President Barack Obama - a "model public servant" if ever there was one.

Also, he's just an all-around terrible person:

And in his conclusion to his stupid open letter, he actually says this:

Also, I deeply respect the hard-news reporters at Fox, who continue to do their best as talented professionals in a poisoned environment. These are some of the best men and women in the business..

        .



                      -

Black Panther - sucess is a bad thing now?

Until today, I was naively thinking that the success of the Black Panther movie was a positive. A movie about a black hero, written and directed by black men with an almost entirely black cast doing boffo box office sounds like it would be a good thing. Fortunately, the clear thinkers at Forbes came along to set me straight.

Box Office: 'Black Panther' Has Become Hollywood's Worst Nightmare

    

  Scott Mendelson , Contributor

Oh, this should be good.

. Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole’s Black Panther is already the first movie since Avatar in 2009/2010 to top the weekend box office for five frames in a row. Heck, it’s only the 11th movie in 30 years to do so.

Imagine the pitch meeting at Forbes.
"Okay, staff, everyone's talking about this Black Panther movie. We need a fresh take on it. We need 5,000 words on why Black Panther is bad. Who's got an idea?"

"Um, gee, boss, I uh, saw Black panther last weekend and I thought it was pretty good."
"yeah, me too."
"I liked it."

"Arrrgh. . . this is FORBES people! It doesn't matter how good the movie is! It's a black movie! We're publishing an article about how it's bad. One of you creative types can come up with the reason why. Mendelson - whaddya got?!"

But here’s the terrifying part (for the competition, and potentially the industry as a whole): The MCU flick is doing this at the expense of other would-be event movies.

"Hmm. I like it. The black movie is doing so well that other, oh let's say "whiter" movies, are finding it hard to compete!"


You know, I remember when other big movies came out. Like Star Wars, or Jaws, or Titanic. And there were all these serious thinkers worried that the success of these blockbusters was going to be bad for the movie industry as a whole and wait, that didn't happen.

You know, Star Wars was a huge success and all the movie studios piggybacked on to it, churning out spaceship and laser guns films to cash in on the phenomenon.
Friday the 13th was a big success and every studio in Hollywood quickly put out a teens-getting-murdered- in-the-woods flick or two. Pixar's success led to Dreamworks, Sony and Warner churning out mostly forgettable animated fare. The success of the Hunger Games led to an explosion of distopic young-adult literature making its way onto theater screens - Maze Runner, the Divergent series, The Giver, etc.  The pattern has held for a long time. Some studio tries a new idea. If it succeeds, everyone else rips it off. Everyone makes a bunch of money and is fat and happy. the end. .

But this time. This time, for some reason, the successful film is a threat to the entire business model of Hollywood.

. . . one of the reasons Titanic sailed away with the first one-third of 1998 was the relative lack of “big” movies in the opening months of the year. But what we’ve seen thus far with Black Panther… this is different. This is an entire pre-summer slate of would-be event movies getting steamrolled by one very big tentpole.


Or. . . and I'm just spitballing here, maybe Black Panther is just a better movie than the films it is "steamrolling?"
I mean, I'm looking at the list of movies BP beat this week and I'm seeing Tomb Raider? A remake of a movie based on a video game that no one in the action-movie target market is old enough to remember?

A Wrinkle in Time? Which has not exactly been getting stellar reviews and I assume is probably not good because it has the Disney imprimatur and isn't Pixar.

Love, Simon which not only looks mediocre but seems really really dated. A coming-out story just isn't going to have the same impact as it would have even a decade ago.


Game Night? A good movie, very funny, but not one you'd expect to be a blockbuster. The humor is very dark, there's blood and violence and at least one person getting killed in a gruesome but humorous way. And it's rated R.


A  utterly unnecessary remake of Death Wish starring a geriatric Bruce Willis. Is this a movie that would be drawing crowds if not for the success of Black Panther?

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, a sequel to a movie most of the audience is too young to remember that has been in theatres since December.

Maybe there's a reason why these movies are getting "steamrolled" by the one film that seems designed to be a legitimate blockbuster. Maybe Black Panther is the only thing preventing 2018 from being seen as a dismal year for Hollywood. Maybe you shouldn't blame the success of one thing for the failure of another. Movies are not a zero-sum game.

 We had a record-setting March last year when Logan (an $88 million debut weekend), Skull Island ($61m), Beauty and the Beast ($174m), Power Rangers ($40m) and The Boss Baby ($49m) mostly thrived alongside each other. The biggies of March 2018 (Red Sparrow, Wrinkle in Time, Tomb Raider, Pacific Rim: Uprising, and Ready Player One) are getting hurt by the mid-February smash that won’t die. Pacific Rim opened with a “disappointing” $38m debut in 2013, but the sequel is “hoping” for a $25m launch.

So, last year, a bunch of mediocre movies managed to get relatively equal slices of the entertainment dollar pie. Whoop de freaking do
 The "biggies of March" are  an R-rated spy flick with a 47% Rotten Tomatoes score, a fantasy film based on a children's book with a 40% RT score, the aforementioned video game movie remake, a painfully stupid-looking sequel to a rip-off of the equally insipid Transformers, and a movie that HASN'T EVEN OPENED YET. Why should any of these movies be doing well?

It’s dangerous when the consecutive wave of biggies threatens post-debut legs of the previous weekend’s big flick. It’s impossible when one big tentpole becomes such an all-audiences favorite and crushes every other studios’ would-be event movie. We can’t know how well the last months worth of tentpoles would have performed if Black Panther had played like a “normal” ($95 million Fri-Sun/$235m total domestic) MCU flick. But it was so huge that it wounded a whole slate of studio-appointed biggies, all of which were important the respective studio’s bottom line.

Maybe the lesson here should be MAKE BETTER MOVIES.Or at least make movies that people want to see. Have an original idea. Or just do a better job with your comic book superhero movies. I don't know. Just don't blame Black Panther for outdoing your movie. and maybe don't  act like a huge blockbuster is suddenly a bad thing when it's done by black people.