George Clooney and his wife pledge 1 million dollars to fight Right Wing extremism in America.

Courtesy of The Guardian:

George and Amal Clooney have announced a partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center to combat “bigotry and hate” in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

The Clooney Foundation for Justice says that it will bestow a grant of $1m to the SPLC in order to assist the civil rights organization in its attempts to combat violent extremism in the US, following the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer at a white supremacist rally in the campus city earlier this month. 

“Amal and I wanted to add our voice (and financial assistance) to the ongoing fight for equality,” George Clooney said. “There are no two sides to bigotry and hate.” 

“We are proud to support the Southern Poverty Law Center in its efforts to prevent violent extremism in the United States,” the pair added in a statement. “What happened in Charlottesville, and what is happening in communities across our country, demands our collective engagement to stand up to hate.”

Keep in mind that most terrorist attacks in this country are perpetrated by Right Wing extremists.

 And since Trump and his cohorts don't seem to believe that terrorism exists unless it is perpetrated by an Islamic person with brown skin I guess that leaves it up to private citizens and liberal Hollywood activists to do the heavy lifting.

Here is George Clooney's MTP interview in its entirety.

This is important to share because since fairly early yesterday the only part of this interview that has been showing up repeatedly on the internet is this part: 

CHUCK TODD: 

Let me start with dinner you co-hosted on Friday night, a big fundraiser. I know that you have plans for later tonight. Do you look at how much is being raised and, I think the cost of the friday night dinner $353,000 a couple to be a co-chair, do you look at it yourself and think, "That's an obscene amount of money?" 

GEORGE CLOONEY: 

Yes. I think it's an obscene amount of money. I think that, you know, we had some protesters last night when we pulled up in San Francisco and they're right to protest. They're absolutely right. It is an obscene amount of money. The Sanders campaign when they talk about it is absolutely right. It's ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics. I agree completely.

That is the portion which has been pushed hard by the pro-Sanders people.

However as you watch Clooney's entire answer, and he is quite eloquent in his response, you learn that while he admits it is an obscene amount of money it is also a necessary amount of money as much of it is going to the Democratic party to support down ballot races.

President Obama on Sony's decision to pull "The Interview" from its Christmas release: "Yes, I think they made a mistake." Update!

Courtesy of NBC News:  

President Barack Obama said Friday that Sony Pictures Entertainment "made a mistake" by nixing the release of a comedic film after the company was hacked and received cyber threats. 

"Sony's a corporation. It suffered significant damage. There were threats against some of its employees," he said "I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. Having said all that, yes, I think they made a mistake." 

In a year-end press conference, Obama said that he wishes Sony had spoken to him before deciding to back down on the film "The Interview," which depicted a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "I would have told them 'Do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks,'" he said. "That's not who we are," he said. 

"That's not what America's about."

I agree with the President's remarks 100%.

Just like I did with George Clooney yesterday. 

By the way the Sony executives are none too thrilled that the President talked about them yesterday.

It must be noted that George R. R. Martin, author of the incredible Game of Thrones books, has offered to show The Interview in his own theater in Sante Fe, Mexico.

He also had this to say: 

"The level of corporate cowardice here astonishes me. It's a good thing these guys weren't around when Charlie Chaplin made THE GREAT DICTATOR. If Kim Jong-Un scares them, Adolf Hitler would have had them shitting in their smallclothes."

Well stated.

Update: It looks like Sony is rethinking their position in response to the President's remarks: 

Sony Pictures Entertainment has said it still wants to release its film The Interview which mocks the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and it is considering alternative platforms. 

The remarks come after President Obama said the film company made a mistake by cancelling the movie's release.

That is somewhat different than what they were saying before. 

Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler magazine, is also jumping into the fray with a porn parody of The Interview: 

“If Kim Jong-un and his henchmen were upset before, wait till they see the movie we’re going to make,” Flynt said. “I’ve spent a lifetime fighting for the First Amendment, and no foreign dictator is going to take away my right to free speech.”

I guess when you've already taken a bullet, a little hacking seems quaint by comparison. 

George Clooney explains why Sony caving into North Korean hackers is a big deal for all of us.

Courtesy of Deadline:  

DEADLINE: How could this have happened, that terrorists achieved their aim of cancelling a major studio film? We watched it unfold, but how many people realized that Sony legitimately was under attack? 

GEORGE CLOONEY: A good portion of the press abdicated its real duty. They played the fiddle while Rome burned. There was a real story going on. With just a little bit of work, you could have found out that it wasn’t just probably North Korea; it was North Korea. The Guardians Of Peace is a phrase that Nixon used when he visited China. When asked why he was helping South Korea, he said it was because we are the Guardians of Peace. Here, we’re talking about an actual country deciding what content we’re going to have. This affects not just movies, this affects every part of business that we have. That’s the truth. What happens if a newsroom decides to go with a story, and a country or an individual or corporation decides they don’t like it? Forget the hacking part of it. You have someone threaten to blow up buildings, and all of a sudden everybody has to bow down. Sony didn’t pull the movie because they were scared; they pulled the movie because all the theaters said they were not going to run it. And they said they were not going to run it because they talked to their lawyers and those lawyers said if somebody dies in one of these, then you’re going to be responsible. 

We have a new paradigm, a new reality, and we’re going to have to come to real terms with it all the way down the line. This was a dumb comedy that was about to come out. With the First Amendment, you’re never protecting Jefferson; it’s usually protecting some guy who’s burning a flag or doing something stupid. This is a silly comedy, but the truth is, what it now says about us is a whole lot. We have a responsibility to stand up against this. That’s not just Sony, but all of us, including my good friends in the press who have the responsibility to be asking themselves: What was important? What was the important story to be covering here? The hacking is terrible because of the damage they did to all those people. Their medical records, that is a horrible thing, their Social Security numbers. Then, to turn around and threaten to blow people up and kill people, and just by that threat alone we change what we do for a living, that’s the actual definition of terrorism.

Clooney goes on to say that he sent a petition to all the heads of major studios, asserting that they would stand with Sony against the hackers, and none of them would sign it. 

Of course Clooney is dead right here, and I don't think that we have yet to understand just what has happened and how it will shape how this country deals with cyber attacks in the future.

The other day a lot of people seemed to suggest that the producers of "The Interview" should have known better, and that they brought this on themselves.

Those people completely miss the point.

My favorite moment from last night's Golden Globes.

I laughed way too long and hard at this.

In my defense the audience that was there did the same.

(P.S. Here is the opening.)

Mitt Romney is jealous of President Obama's celebrity friends, like George Clooney, so he comes up with a celebrity of his own, Donald Trump. You're doing it wrong!

I know that picture looks like a parody from the Onion, but I swear that it is exactly the picture that you will find by clicking MittRomney.com.

There you will be provided the following offer:

Donate today and you are eligible for a chance to win: 
• Airport transportation in the Trump vehicle. 
• Stay at the Trump International Hotel & Tower New York. 
• Tour of Trump Tower. 
• Dine with Donald Trump and Mitt Romney.

I know right?

How could anybody pass this up?

Just think, by donating to this Mormon millionaire's campaign fund you could win the opportunity to fly coach to New York city, where a gaudy gold encrusted Trump golf cart will pick you up at the airport, transport you to the most pretentious piece of real estate on the planet, so you can have your face rubbed in an ostentatious display of wealth accumulated by one of the most arrogant assholes in history. After which you can sit down to a meal with a man who makes watching paint dry seem exciting and a man with orange skin and the scariest hair on the planet.

Seriously how is this offer even remotely as compelling as what Clooney provided Obama?

George Clooney's fund-raiser for President Obama on Thursday night was a Hollywood hit, with the event delivering a whopping -- and record-breaking-- $15 million into the commander-in-chief's campaign coffers. 

About 150 A-Listers forked over $40,000 a piece to attend the dinner at Clooney's Los Angeles mansion, including singer Barbra Stresiand, actors Robert Downey Jr., Tobey Maguire, Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Salma Hayek and Jack Black, and designer Diane Von Furstenberg.

 Yeah that's comparable!

Let's start the day with some inspirational words from some of our more famous freethinkers.

If image does not enlarge click here

Whenever I feel alone, or that my life seems inconsequential, I always remind myself that I am the universe, that the universe is me, and that I live on a planet populated with millions of intelligent people who share my sense of reality.

Perhaps somebody should sign George Clooney up to work on President Obama's reelection campaign. Just a thought.

Clooney's understated, yet very firm, endorsement of the President's accomplishments sounded very real and heartfelt to me. Personally I like to hear from people who are unwavering in their support of President Obama, based on his accomplishments and not simply their identification as Democrats.

We need more people to stand up for Obama in that way.

I have always liked George Clooney, who has recently been in the news for, and appearing on Meet the Press after, getting arrested outside of the Sudanese embassy for protesting human rights violations.

My daughter and I were watching Clooney's arrest together, and I pointed out the poor cop who was actually putting the cuffs on him, and who looked like he would rather be ANY place else in the world other than standing there arresting America's heartthrob George Clooney.

I turned to my daughter and said, "Can you imagine what this guy's home life will be like after this? His wife probably won't speak to him.  His kids will be mad he arrested "Danny Ocean." And he will have every woman living on his street shooting him dirty looks for a month."

(H/T to Mediaite.)

Some words of wisdom courtesy of George Clooney

Excellent point.

Even though the Republicans are demonstrating great disappointment in the fact that Romney is clearly going to end up their nominee, you can bet your house that they will turn in a tsunami of support for the chance to beat their nemesis, Barack Obama.

Can the Democrats do the same?