Robert DeNiro is my new spirit animal.

Courtesy of Indie Wire: 

Robert De Niro has made no secret of his disdain for Donald Trump. The actor made headlines a month before the 2016 election by declaring that he’d like to punch the future president in the face, and during a speech at the National Board of Review’s gala in January, he declared, “this fucking idiot is our president.” Now, as De Niro gears up for the 2018 edition of Tribeca Film Festival, which he co-founded in 2002, he has found some semblance of progress in one area of the political landscape — the debate about gun control.

“The people that I care about are those young people who demonstrated,” he said, in an interview with IndieWire at his Tribeca office with festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal, referencing the survivors of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida and other high school students who marched in Washington last month. “They’re the future. They know. They say, ‘We’ll remember in November.’ They’re the ones that feel the way we do, not the way the gun lovers and the NRA do, with all that idiocy to the point of absurdity.”

.....

Asked about the ratings win for “Roseanne” among working class viewers and the conversations it has started about reaching audiences that support Trump, he didn’t mince words. 

“I’ve never seen her show before, I didn’t know she was supporting Trump, but I have no interest in that,” he said. “We’re at a point with all of us this where it’s beyond trying to see another person’s point of view. There are ways you can talk about that, but we’re at a point where the things that are happening in our country are so bad and it comes from Trump. There are so many people who have left his administration. It’s a serious thing. So I don’t care about Roseanne. They want that thing, fine. We have real issues in this country.”

“We’re at a point with all of us this where it’s beyond trying to see another person’s point of view."

That is PRECISELY my opinion as well.

I know that the Russian plan was to spread divisiveness in this country, and that conventional wisdom is that we are supposed to fight that by keeping the lines of communication open and not ostracizing those on the other side of the ideological aisle.

But the facts are that it is all but impossible to communicate rationally with people you simply do not respect.

And I have not one ounce of respect for anybody dumb enough to have voted for Donald Trump.

But trust me I have similar disdain for anybody on the Left who allowed the Russians to manipulate them as well.

If you remain somebody convinced that Hillary Clinton stole the nomination from Bernie Sanders, despite all evidence to the contrary, then trust that you are off my Christmas list as well.

We need to move forward with eyes wide open, and people who continue to allow themselves to be manipulated by Russian propaganda, are simply in the way of this country's progress.

Republican Congressman says the litmus test for the GOP is no longer ideological, it is about loyalty to Trump.

Rep. Charlie Dent: “Before Donald Trump became president, the litmus test for Republicans was— it was really about the ideological purity and conformity. Now the litmus test has changed. The issue is loyalty to the man.” (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/ecuG9LWy2Q

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 24, 2017

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

One of President Donald Trump’s biggest critics from within the Republican Party, Rep. Charlie Dent (R–Pennsylvania), said the new “litmus test” for the GOP is who supports Trump, rather than the party’s “ideological purity and conformity.” 

Speaking on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, the retiring Congressman said, “Now the litmus test is changed. The issue is loyalty to the man, to the president, and for some, loyalty's not enough, you have to be angry and aggrieved.

"Dent said that Trump was “a factor” in his decision to retire from Congress after the end of his term next year and assessed the state of the country as “paralyzed” by polarity. 

“The polarization has reached the point of paralysis. There doesn't seem to be the bipartisan collaboration up front that we need on a lot of big issues,” he said.

If you think about it this is a fairly troubling assertion.

As much as we may have disagreed with the Republicans point of view on social issues, and what constitutes morality, at least they seemed to have a firm position.

But really all of that disappeared when Trump came on the scene, and now holier than thou evangelicals and big business supporting capitalists are eagerly supporting a thrice married, constantly bankrupt, possible Russian asset, as he destroys the credibility of the country they claim to love.

Have you ever had that moment when you thought you could not possibly lose any more respect for a group of people, and then suddenly discover that you can?

Greta Van Susteren is out at MSNBC!

I am out at MSNBC -

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) June 29, 2017

Courtesy of Vanity Fair: 

The anchor, whose show struggled to gain traction even as the rest of her colleagues were buoyed by anti-Trump hysteria, has parted ways with the network. She will not appear on the show on Thursday evening. She will be permanently replaced by Ari Melber, the network’s chief legal correspondent and host of the The Point on weekends. He will continue to appear across NBC and MSNBC shows as he takes over the 6 p.m. slot next month. (MSNBC and NBC News declined to comment. Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Van Susteren had no comment.)

The decision comes as much of the rest of MSNBC has been enjoying a ratings resurgence, and, in some cases, dominance over Fox News. For the first time in 17 years, the network beat both Fox News and CNN in prime-time viewership on weeknights in May amongst the crucial 25-to-54 age demographic—a giant 118 percent leap from a year earlier. In the full second quarter, according to ratings released by Nielsen earlier this week, the network came in second behind Fox for total day viewers, but its growth from a year earlier outpaced both its rivals. Much of this growth is due to prime-time anchors like Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell, whose nightly newscasts have tapped into a potent mix of liberal anxiety and schadenfreude over the Trump presidency.

Good, about damn time!

And she should be followed by Megyn Kelly ad Hugh Hewitt just as soon as possible. 

They are simply not good journalists, nor are they in line with the politics which make people tune into MSNBC.

I am proud to say that I have never watched a single episode of Greta's show, and I would even turn the volume down when she appeared on other MSNBC shows to provide commentary.

I have not forgotten what she and her associates did during the Obama presidency, nor how she helped to validate Sarah Palin and her husband to her Fox News viewers.

She was part of the Fox "Fake" News and she has no place on a cable news network that prides itself on accuracy.

Now perhaps MSNBC has learned its lesson and will discard this ridiculous experiment of giving Right Wing trolls their own shows, and start getting more intelligent progressive voices on the air.

Texas doctor's ultrasound consent form goes viral.

The above letter comes to us via our friends at Boing Boing.

Here is what is says:  

The Texas legislature, in its infinite wisdom, believes that neither you nor I are intelligent enough to carry on a conversation about how you might make an informed decision about how best to handle your current pregnancy. To be sure that they and their ideologues are part of our doctor patient relationship, they have mandated that you be forced to see and hear the ultrasound of your pregnancy, as well as be given a detailed description of the pregnancy's development to this stage. By inserting themselves into our conversation, they have almost certainly violated our first amendment rights to free speech and intruded into the time-honored relationship you and I share at this critical time in our lives. It is, however, the current state law in Texas. 

Most patients seeking a pregnancy termination are already anguished enough with the struggle to find the right answer for their lives and situation, without having others, ignorant of the situation, coerce them under the false guise of "providing more useful information". It has always been my practice to fully inform my patients of everything they need and want to know. As long as I am your physician, I will continue to provide that information and honor the sacred responsibility you've entrusted to me. 

Now that, my friends, is a good doctor!

However Texas is clearly not a good state for women who want to exercise control over their own bodies.

Final image of the day.

Yeah I think this is a fair representation of what ideologically driven Americans are thankful for this holiday season.

How anti-intellectualism and narrow ideologies are destroying the education system in America.

Courtesy of The Chronicle of Higher Education:

 Anti-intellectualism and ideological dogmatism in the guise of parental involvement is a significant concern in education today, and parents and other noneducators have lately stepped way out of line in their pursuit of more control over the education systems in this country. The most recent obvious example of the phenomenon is the debacle in North Carolina in September, when a Randolph County school board voted to ban Ralph Ellison’s landmark novel Invisible Man following a 12-page diatribe against the book by Kimiyutta Parson, the mother of an 11th grader (who referred to high-school students as “young children” in her letter). 

Parson objected to, among other things, the sexual content of the novel, which I find amusing considering that in recent years the teen birth rate in Randolph County, N.C., was almost twice the national average, with teen pregnancy accounting for 60 to 80 per 1,000 births. Something tells me that the teenagers in that county have more than a passing familiarity with sexual themes, and don’t need to read Invisible Man for tips. 

What I do not find amusing, however, is that a single parent and unqualified board members felt that they could pass judgment on literature without any significant experience in literary criticism, curriculum development, or, even, apparently, basic critical thinking. For example, one board member, Gary Mason, said that he could not find any “literary value” in the text. I have scoured the journals and the Internet, but I can find no record of Gary Mason’s credentials as a literary critic. He’s certainly entitled to his opinion, but should uninformed opinion be the basis of public-education policy? Absolutely not—unless you think it’s OK for someone who has opinions on medical care but no education or training in it to conduct delicate brain surgery. 

Such interference in elementary and secondary education is a crucial issue for college instructors because we rely on a successful and well-managed public-education system to prepare students for higher education. I need my students to have a certain background—to be exposed to such challenging material as Invisible Man, for example—before they reach college, so that I can actually teach at the college level. 

But when students are not allowed to read, explore, and engage with different kinds of course content due to the ideological, anti-intellectual practices of many parents and school districts, they arrive unprepared for and unable to succeed in college courses. We should not wonder why so many students struggle in college. They are simply not intellectually prepared. 

Certainly anti-intellectualism is nothing new in American life. Richard Hofstadter noted this as far back as 1963 in his Pulitzer Prize-winning study Anti-intellectualism in American Life. Susan Jacoby’s more recent examination, The Age of American Unreason (2008), asserted that the nation’s current “strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism, and anti-intellectualism” is damaging our democratic process and cultural development. In its review of Jacoby’s work, The New York Times noted that “conservatives have turned the term ‘intellectual,’ like the term ‘liberal,’ into a dirty word in politics.” 

Sadly, this anti-intellectualism has made our culture abandon the respect it once had for educators. It has also created a generation of college students who shrink from real intellectual engagement, who are so influenced by our current partisan culture that any significant opportunities for rigorous and honest classroom debate are rapidly disappearing. In fact, it’s not uncommon for today’s college students to mirror their parents’ disdain for college professors; for example, after failing an examination, a student once told me, “Just because you have a Ph.D. doesn’t mean you know more about American history than I do.” 

I was sad for that student because he was missing out on the opportunity to learn more, and more different things, to add to his own knowledge. This is the most heartbreaking result of the current influence of social and cultural anti-intellectualism in education: It is creating missed opportunities for students.

Personally I think all of this is purposeful, and part of an organized effort by religious conservatives to protect their interests and keep the youth of America dumbed down enough to continue buying into their bullshit.

After all how better to keep church attendance up, and hang onto Republican voters than to keep Americans ignorant, frightened, and easily manipulated?

And they could not care less what kind of damage is done to the country in the process.

Pope Francis goes rogue. Makes case against Christian "ideologues."

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Speaking at daily Mass last Thursday, Pope Francis warned Christians against turning their faith into a rigid ideology. 

“The faith passes, so to speak, through a distiller and becomes ideology,” he said, according to Radio Vatican. “And ideology does not beckon [people]. In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. 

“And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements.” 

“The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people,” Francis added. “But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?” 

He said Christian ideology was the result of a lack of true prayer.

I think that old joke, "Does the Pope shit in the woods," is now completely outdated.

The new joke should be, "Does the Pope shit all over his own religion?"

Look I am NEVER going to be able to trust this guy completely, I mean after all he's a Catholic, but if this guy keeps this up I may have to start cutting him some slack.

That is if he lives that long. I HAVE to imagine that the Cardinals and Bishops are having little meetings that center around just how long the life expectancy of a Pope should be allowed to extend.

I mean the guy is trying to make Christianity reflect the values of Jesus Christ! What is he thinking?

Personally I think they should pray for lightning to strike him. I mean if they have faith, and they consistently claim that they do, then they should leave it up to God to decide whether he keeps his job or not.

Until then, he IS supposed to be considered God's representative on earth. So suck it Catholics!

Bill Clinton making the point that should be obvious to all.

And you know, that doesn't JUST go for politics.

Just last week we heard an equally intelligent and progressive point made by Hillary as well.

This is the kind of thinking that we need to have much, much more of in politics.