Smarmy Hypocrite du Jour

None other than Tony Perkins:

They were the biggest gatherings, by far, but in Washington, D.C., where one reporter said it “felt as if the entire city had emptied into downtown,” the atmosphere felt different. Calmer.

For once, it was pastors and faith leaders holding the bullhorns, as riots turned into rallies for reflection and repentance. Hundreds of evangelicals in the D.C. area led a long march across the Anacostia River, stopping, periodically, to pray.

Together with different generations and races, they called for the church to rise up and help heal our nation. “Our protest needs to be different,” Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile urged the crowd — not rooted in hatred or bitterness, but in Jesus.

Across the city — from the Reflecting Pool to hot asphalt sidewalks — people knelt to pray. It was the same serene picture in other parts of the country, where Christians met up in parking lots and city centers to offer an alternative to the violence and anger.

A few random thoughts on this:

I'm old enough that I remember when "faith leaders" would have been leading these demonstrations from the beginning -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., anyone? Or the Berrigans, both priests and leaders of anti-war demonstrations in the '60s and '70s. What's changed? Maybe it's just that the voices of the real followers of Christ have been drowned out by the power-hungry hypocrites.

There's evidence that the violence was initiated by right-wing, white supremacist agitators:

As demonstrations spread from Minneapolis to the White House, New York City and overseas, federal law enforcement officials insisted far-left groups were stoking violence. Meanwhile, experts who track extremist groups also reported seeing evidence of the far-right at work.

I'm sure they're all good "Christians". And at this point, I'll believe anyone but the feds -- the party line is "It's Antifa"; my guess is it's the Boogaloo Bois.

And where has Perkins been during all this? Hiding in a bunker? Why wasn't he out marching against racism in law enforcement? Oh, right.

Oh, in case you were wondering, from Merriam-Webster:

Definition of smarmy

1: revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, or false earnestness

a tone of smarmy self-satisfaction
— New Yorker

Another WTF? Moment

The right, and especially the members of the Trump regime, are expert at turning reality on its head:

The largely white protesters who oppose social distancing measures to protect the public from COVID-19 are like Rosa Parks, who waged a historic battle for racial equality, right-wing economic commentator and White House adviser Stephen Moore repeatedly insisted Friday.

“I call these people modern-day Rosa Parks. They are protesting against injustice and a loss of liberties,” Moore told The Washington Post, in one of at least three instances of this astonishing comparison.

He also told CBS News: “It’s interesting to me that the right has become more the Rosa Parks of the world than the left is.” He said in a YouTube video quoted by The New York Times: “We need to be the Rosa Parks here, and protest against these government injustices.”

So, let me see if I've got this right: the government doing its job and trying to save people's lives is "government injustice". I would have thought it came under the heading of providing for the common welfare.

And lawless vigilantes (who, incidentally, showed up at the Michigan state capitol armed to the teeth with their AR-15 penis substitutes) are freedom fighters.

As for Moore -- well, this seems to be representative of his take on things:

He once quipped that Trump’s first act as president would be to kick a Black family (the Obamas) out of public housing (the White House), according to The Atlantic.

Only the best and the brightest.

Via Joe.My.God.

Today in Disgusting People

I know, I know, but they've been crawling out from under their rocks for the last three years. This one is choice:

In times of national crisis and fast-spreading tragedy like the novel coronavirus pandemic, you can always count on the people who promote sociopathic political worldviews to reveal their awful, deeply inhuman natures for all the world to see—and they don’t come much more sociopathic than immigrant-hating Nativists.

Sure enough, the leaders and spokesmen of key Nativist hate groups—notably the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), both designated hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center—have taken the lead in opposing any release of immigrants currently held in detention centers around the United States despite the spread of COVID-19 in these facilities, as Michael Edison Hayden reports at Hatewatch.

Some of the statement coming from these racist groups sound reasonable, until you stop to think about them. This is just one example:

Another writer at CIS’s website, Andrew Arthur, argued: “Releasing ICE detainees takes them out of a facility where sanitary protections are readily available, testing is accessible, quarantine can be accomplished, and treatment is guaranteed. If that is not joining forces with the current pestilence, I am not sure what is. Detention is the best resistance to pestilence.”

This is pure horsepucky. It's well documented that the conditions at these facilities are appalling -- overcrowded, unsanitary, inadequate food, and practically non-existent medical care.

If these "nativists" want America reserved for the real Americans, they should all go back to Europe.

Read the whole thing, and also the article linked to at Hatewatch.

Footnote: I can't help but wonder how many of these people consider themselves good Christians. How many times does their Bible tell them to welcome the stranger?

Liar du Jour

Maybe of the month -- but he's got some pretty stiff competition. At any rate, here's hate group spokesman Bryan Fischer trying to see how many lies he can pack into one paragraph:

I am a Christian nationalist because the Founders were. The Founders established a nation grounded and rooted in Christianity, Christian principles, and a Christian worldview. They enshrined their view of what a Christian nation looks like in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

He goes on. This one is worth a good belly laugh:

While Christian nationalism is condemned and dismissed by some as a thinly disguised form of white supremacy, it is impossible that that could be the case. The ringing declaration of the Founders was that “all men,” every last one of them, regardless of race or ethnicity, have received certain non-negotiable human rights from their Creator.

1) Christian nationalism is not a thinly disguised form of white supremacy. It is a blatant form of white supremacy.

2) "Regardless of race or ethnicity" -- unless they're brown and speak Spanish. Or Arabic. Or Farsi.

3) And lets not mention sexual orientation -- Fischer has built his career on trashing gays.

And yet more:

I use the term “constitutionalist” synonymously with “Christian nationalist,” because our constitution is the constitution of a Christian nation, and could only be the constitution of a Christian nation. Our Constitution is shot through, warp and woof, with the thinking of Christian statesmen who shared a deep-dyed view of the world, soaked deeply in the Bible.

This is pure fantasy -- or delusion, except that I'm pretty sure that Fischer knows what the actual basis of the Constitution is -- this country is, without doubt, a child of the Enlightenment -- and he's lying about it. It's what he does.

The disheartenting thing is that even if his listeners learned some real American history somewhere along the line, they've rewritten it in their heads to conform to their biases -- excuse me, I mean "sincerely held beliefs".

No, I'm not going to link to the whole diatribe. There's a link at Joe.My.God (linked above) if you really want to ruin your morning.

(Stray thought: considering how many radical right "Christians" own guns, I'm sort of surprised that no one tried to assassinate Barack Obama. I wonder if that will hold for the next Democratic president.)

Today in Disgusting People

A "Christian," of course. This is what you get from an alternate reality:

“So let me get this straight. Obama is a gay man, married to a dude who looks like Chewbacca, & Chewy gets selected as ‘woman of the year’. Trumps’ wife fluently speaks 7 languages, is a class act of poise & beauty & is an actual WOMAN. Yet she gets treated like the Clampetts.” – Self-proclaimed “Christian broadcaster” Sheila Zilinksy, in a tweet that has over 1300 likes.

Trump's wife? Which one?

I don't, as a rule, comment on people's looks as a way to insult them, but Zilinsky has made herself fair game:

According to an update in the comments, the tweet has been deleted, whether by Zilinsky or by Twitter is unknown.

And these racist assholes just can't get over the Obamas, can they?

Today In Disgusting People

This is the sort of thing that Trump has brought out into the open:

A Des Moines woman smoked methamphetamine hours before intentionally hitting a 14-year-old central Iowa girl with her SUV this month, according to court documents.

Nicole Poole Franklin, 42, told police she targeted her victim because the girl "is Mexican." Clive Police Chief Michael Venema shared Franklin's admission at a news conference Friday morning.

She now faces an attempted murder charge and a number of other charges from a racially-charged incident that occurred 15 minutes later.

Community members are calling for Franklin, 42, to be charged with a hate crime because she admitted targeting the girl because of race. Authorities aren't ruling that out.

To be honest, racism has always been part of our social fabric. And now that there's an open racist in the White House, all the white supremacists, neo-Nazis and run-of-the-mill racists are crawling out from under their rocks and going public.

Thank you, Trump.

Via Joe.My.God.

Oops!

This one's gone viral, but I have to post it here.

A crowd at Modesto’s City Council erupted into laughter when Don Grundmann, the co-organizer of a Straight Pride event planned for that California city in late August, slipped while arguing to the assembled chamber and councilmen.

“We’re a totally peaceful racist group,” proclaimed Grundmann, defending his cause and inspiring a facepalm from one councilwoman and gales of laughter and cheers from the crowd.

And the crowd went wild.

Today's Must-Read: Boom!

Here's Michael Cohen's opening statement to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The core:

I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is.

He is a racist.

He is a conman.

He is a cheat.

He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails.

I will explain each in a few moments.

And he does.

Today in Trump's America: Genocide is Funny

There seems to be a lot of puzzlement over this tweet from the Tweeter in Chief:

Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President. Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore? See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2019

The puzzlement seems to stem from wondering whether Trump knows about the Trail of Tears. (It's sort of indicative that his apologists are relying on his fundamental ignorance about just about everything as an excuse.)

Of course he knows. And he thinks something like this is funny.

If you had any doubts about what a total loss Trump is as a human being -- well, what rock have you been hiding under?

(And note: any of his cultists who actually understand the reference probably think it's funny.)

Via Joe.My.God.

Today in Disgusting People: How Did I Miss Steve King?

The white supremacist congressman from Iowa's 95% white 9th congressional district waxes eloquent. From Tom Sulivan at Hullabaloo :

Except for bald-faced lying, it is not as if some of our politicians work all that hard at hiding the truth. It is just still a surprise when they speak it aloud, as Rep. Steve King, Republican of Iowa did ... again:

A New York Times piece on King is generating more controversy for the already embattled Republican. “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language become offensive,” King wonders in the piece. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?

Note that he's conflating "Western civilization" with "white nationalist" and "white supremacist". I see it as another tactic to legitimize his racism -- after all, "Western civilization" is the basis of all that's good, right? If you ignore the destruction of the environment, the genocide, the obliteration of native cultures, and the like.

But he goes on:

King has drawn fire for the comments, but really, it is nothing new. In July 2016, King bragged of his white pride to MSNBC's Chris Hayes, saying, “Where did any other sub-group of people contribute more to civilization?”

Um, let me see: those anonymous people from, probably, Anatolia who started farming -- along with the Chinese and Indians in the Indus Valley. The Chinese in general. The Sumerians and Babylonians, the Egyptians, whom we claim as cultural ancestors. The Arabs, who gave us our number system and algebra (the latter being a mixed blessing, in my opinion).

Sullivan wonders:

Since the partial shutdown of the government for the last three weeks is over immigrants from largely Christian, Spanish-speaking lands to the south, one wonders just what defines western civilization in King's mind.

That's easy: white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, heterosexual.

Which is coming to mean anti-American.

Today in Disgusting People: Aryan Barbie Edition

Who else but Ann Coulter?

Many on the left believe Ann Coulter has become irrelevant, but she still holds sway on the right. The 57-year old may have morphed from conservative pundit to far right wing extremist, but she still has the ability to draw crowds. Coulter has 2.1 million followers on Twitter, over 675,000 followers on Facebook, and is a New York Times bestselling author. And she still influences voters, especially when she goes on Fox News. . . .

Tuesday night on Fox News' "Ingraham Angle," hosted by another extremist, Laura Ingraham, Coulter unleashed what some see as racism and bigotry so extreme it must be countered.

And of course it was on a show hosted by another Aryan Barbie. Here's what caused the outrage:

On Ingraham's Fox News show, Ann Coulter describes her version of the Dem party

"I mean you have the Muslims and the Jews and the various exotic sexual groups and the black church ladies with the college queers ... you must hate white men. It's the one thing they have in common" pic.twitter.com/xGWe0wH2uP

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) December 12, 2018

Actually, for Coulter that's not so extreme. And yes, of course she's a racist. It's part of the definition of "conservative."

Let's face it, she's just a loudmouth who will say whatever gets her some attention -- or whatever someone will pay her to say -- and if it's offensive to a majority of Americans, so much the better.

The Lower Depths

keep getting lower. The United States has now "reinterpreted" a 1995 agreement between the US and Vietnam regarding the status of Vietnamese refugees:

The Trump administration is resuming its efforts to deport certain protected Vietnamese immigrants who have lived in the United States for decades—many of them having fled the country during the Vietnam War.

This is the latest move in the president’s long record of prioritizing harsh immigration and asylum restrictions, and one that’s sure to raise eyebrows—the White House had hesitantly backed off the plan in August before reversing course. In essence, the administration has now decided that Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in the country before the establishment of diplomatic ties between the United States and Vietnam are subject to standard immigration law—meaning they are all eligible for deportation.

The new stance mirrors White House efforts to clamp down on immigration writ large, a frequent complaint of the president’s on the campaign trail and one he links to a litany of ills in the United States.

Remember, though, immigrants are only responsible for a "litany of ills" if they're not white.

Read it -- it's a fairly complex situation and the article explains it pretty well, in addition to pointing up the Trump regime's finesse at international relations. (Yes, that was meant to be sarcastic.)

Via Joe.My.God. Some of the comments at Joe's post are pretty interesting -- I had forgotten the number of Vietnamese who settled in the South, particularly in coastal areas. It appears from some of the comments that they are not only accepted, but well integrated into their communities. Chicago also has a substantial and lively Vietnamese community, centered on Argyle street around Broadway. (The traffic jams on weekends of people waiting to get into the parking lot for the Vietnamese market is amazing.) Most of the businesses and a lot of the apartment buildings are Vietnamese-owned.

Today in Trump's America: Worse Than Deplorable

This is just stunning -- a trumpie on immigration:

During a discussion on immigration, Trump supporter Cindy Ruggiero said that she was worried about the caravan of “14,000” migrants headed toward the United States from Central America.

When Camerota and other women on the CNN voter panel told her that she had vastly inflated the number of migrants in the caravan, she brushed it aside and said it was still too many people coming into the country.

She then insisted that she only objected to migrants who enter the country illegally and that she welcomed immigrants who came to the United States while following all the rules.

“Come in the legal way and you are more than welcome,” she said.

Camerota then pointed out that migrants fleeing from violence in Guatemala are not trying to sneak into the United States.

“I mean, it is legal to seek asylum,” she said.

Ruggiero sat in silence for a full six seconds.

“Well, I hope Trump changes that,” she eventually responded.

That's the kind of people who support Trump. The kind of people whose kids you wouldn't let your kids play with. I mean, talk about a moral vacuum: what kind of person wants to bar people fleeing persecution, starvation, violence from seeking asylum here?

Today in Right-Wing Hypocrisy

From none other than the holotype of bigoted, hypocritical "Christian":

Sessions was speaking at the Boston Lawyers chapter of the Federalist Society when a man, later identified as United Methodist Pastor Will Green of Ballard Vale United Church in Andover, Mass., interrupted with quoted lines from the Bible.

“I was hungry and you did not feed me. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. I was naked and you did not clothe me,” Green said. “Brother Jeff, as a fellow United Methodist I call upon you to repent, to care for those in need, to remember that when you do not care for others, you are wounding the body of Christ.”

The pastor was then escorted from the room. Another pastor, identified as Darrell Hamilton of First Baptist Church of Boston, also addressed Sessions and was escorted out.

That quote is from Matthew 25, and is my favorite to throw in the face of these anti-immigrant neo-fascists. But Sessions' response is priceless:

"I don't believe there's anything in my theology that says a secular nation-state cannot have lawful laws to control immigration in this country. That’s what we’re talking about," Sessions said. "It’s not immoral, not indecent and not unkind to state what your laws are and then set about to enforce them, in my view. I feel like that’s my responsibility and that’s what I intend to do.”

That's one of the smarmiest things I've heard from Sessions, who is also the type specimen of smarmy.

So, suddenly the U.S. is a "secular nation"; funny, I could swear that we're a "Christian" nation. And by the way, they're not enforcing the laws; they're making it up as they go along. Note: "the law" is as follows:

8 U.S. Code § 1158 - Asylum

(a) Authority to apply for asylum

(1) In general

Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section or, where applicable, section 1225(b) of this title.

What Trump, et al. are trying to do is circumvent the law to keep their racist, isolationist base happy. That's all.

Footnote: Scrolling down through the Code section, I ran across this. Hide your irony meter:

(2) Exceptions

(A) In generalParagraph (1) shall not apply to an alien if the Attorney General determines that—

(i) the alien ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion;

Pity the Trump cultists aren't trying to emigrate. Oh, well, you can't have everything.

Via Joe.My.God.

Trump's America: Waiting While Black

This one is really a prize-winner:

A Wisconsin woman showed up early one morning for a job interview when a police cruiser smashed into her vehicle and officers jumped out with guns drawn.

Robin Anderson said she feared for her life as officers ordered her to crawl over broken glass and out of her car, and then handcuffed her, reported the Journal Sentinel.

This is the prize part:

Glendale police later blamed the incident on a case of mistaken identity, and the department apologized to Anderson’s father and paid to replace her broken window, but not the dents in her car. . . .

Anderson had arrived early for her job interview, and the restaurant’s doors were still locked.

Police were looking for four black men suspected in a string of robberies at cell phone stores in the area, and they were allegedly driving a Hyundai Elantra — a different model than Anderson’s car.

Officers also had a specific license plate number, which did not match Anderson’s, and no women were believed to be with the suspects.

Well, they all look alike. . . .

Today's Must-Read: Proud of What?

I missed reports on this little event:

Think Progress reports:

The Proud Boys took Manhattan Friday night, attending a lecture by their founder, Gavin McInnes, at the Metropolitan Republican Club of New York City.

Following the event, the white nationalist group took to the streets, brutally beating and kicking several individuals while shouting “faggot” and “cocksucker,” reportedly because one of them stole one of their MAGA hats. Fox News responded by only reporting on anti-fascist vandalism that had taken place at the venue, while continuing to portray Democrats as the real angry mobs.

There's a fairly detailed analysis of what makes these assholes tick, especially the men of color who are part of this white supremacist movement (and if you think that's an oxymoron, you're not alone). What it boils down to is "male rage". I guess they're just not men enough to deal with it like adults.

Two things that are more than a little sobering. First, the police:

Several people have pointed out that the police appeared to protect the Proud Boys in these altercations. Indeed, Rebecca Kavanaugh, senior staff attorney for The Legal Aid Society, confirmed on Twitter that three arrests were made, but all three were anti-racist protesters — none of them members of the Proud Boys.

Local police forces in this country already suffer from a reputation that is -- how shall I put it? -- tarnished? Things like this don't help.

And then there's the "leftist media":

As Huffington Post National Reporter Christopher Mathias pointed out, U.S. media would describe the Proud Boys’ behavior as a fascist gang in any other country, but somehow their extremism continues to be downplayed.

I wish the Republicans had waited a few years to destroy the country, after I was safely dead. Is New Zealand far enough away, do you think?

Video at the link, if your stomach can handle it.

Today in Trump's America: Babysitting While Black

Yes, this really, truly happened:

Georgia resident Corey Lewis is crying foul after a white woman first stalked him and then called the police on him because she feared for the safety of the two white children he happened to be babysitting.

Local news station CBS 46 reports that Lewis was in the parking lot of a local Walmart going on an errand with the two children he was babysitting when a white woman approached him and started questioning him about the children’s safety.

The woman then asked Lewis if she could talk to the children to make sure they were okay — and he refused, as he didn’t see why he should let a complete stranger talk to the children whose safety he was supposed to be guarding.

The woman then followed Lewis in her car all the way to the street where he lived before calling the police to report him.

An officer showed up on the scene and talked to the two children, a 10-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy, who confirmed that Lewis had not kidnapped them. The police then called the children’s parents, who expressed disbelief that someone had told the cops to investigate their babysitter.

The mother of the two children, Dana Mango, told CBS 46 that she is stunned that anyone would call the police on Lewis.

“I said are you saying that because there’s an African American male driving my two white kids, that he was stopped and pulled over and questioned and he said I’m sorry ma’am that’s exactly what I’m saying,” Mango said.

The boy attends a youth mentoring program run by Lewis.

They're crawling out from under their rocks. "Make America White Again!"

Video at the link.

How To Miss the Point, In One Easy Lesson

Of course, it helps if you're a racist -- say, for example, like Ann Coulter:

What is the thinking behind snickering at “white men” judging an accusation of sexual assault? Chuck Grassley is a big rapist?

You can be for rape or against it — I happen to be against it — but the idea that alleged sexual assault survivors need the loving care of black, Indian or Hispanic men to judge their stories flies in the face of crime statistics from around the globe.

First off -- "You can be for rape or against it". Really? I think that's carrying being non-judgmental a step too far, especially coming from someone as judgmental as Coulter.

And of course, the point she misses is that it's not about white men -- it's about no Republican women judging an accusation of sexual assault.

Duh.

Today's Must-Read: Digby on Modern Conservatism

A fairly lengthy article by Digby at DAME magazine on how Republicans got that way:

Conventional wisdom says that Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States is a gift to the rabidly anti-abortion conservative evangelicals who have revealed themselves to be the most coldly cynical transactional voters in the country, throwing their loyalty behind the crude, fascist brute in the White House. It’s tempting to see this nihilistic lust for power as a symptom of Trumpism. But this goes much further back than that. Trump’s 2016 victory has simply brought GOP officials and the conservative movement leadership out in the open, and forced them to admit that they are not organized on the basis of a long intellectual tradition, but are, instead, a cynical political faction that uses propaganda and unscrupulous tactics to obtain and hold power.

Conservatives have long insisted on a fatuous conceit that they are “the party of ideas” driven by an intellectually rigorous adherence to a strict set of principles metaphorically defined as resting on an ideological three-legged stool of family values, small government, and patriotism. They used this framework to justify state-mandated conservative religious morality and patriarchy, laissez-faire economics to uphold white supremacy and an ever-growing global military empire. Academics and writers worked through these issues and they were quite successful in creating an ideological schema that politicians honed into poll-tested catchphrases and symbols designed to signal tribal affinity to American voters.

The article is pretty much in line with my thinking: Trump is merely a visible sign of where the GOP has been going for a couple of generations, if not longer. I suspect, however, that the roots are far deeper than Nixon (not to discount his cynical misuse of power to further his own ends): There's an element of retrograde "conservatism" -- racist, isolationist, jingoist, religious extremist, authoritarian -- that goes back to the founding of this country. The GOP has quite deliberately aligned itself with that element as a means of gaining and maintaining power -- the much-touted "permanent majority" -- by an means necessary.

At any rate, read it. It's Digby at her best.

Today in American Racists (Update)

Oh, excuse me -- I meant "real 'Christians'". None other than Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Liberty University, all in a snit because Nike, if only for PR reasons, is supporting Colin Kaepernick:

“We’re exploring the situation,” Falwell said. “If Nike really does believe that law enforcement in this country is unfair and biased, I think we will look around. If we have a contract, we’ll honor it, but we strongly support law enforcement and strongly support our military and veterans who died to protect our freedoms and if the company really believes what Colin Kaepernick believes, it’s going to be hard for us to keep doing business with them.

(Emphasis added by source.)

Of course he's repeating Trump's lies about Kaepernick's protest, because that's what he does. It's not like that BS about the troops and the flags hasn't been debunked so many times I've lost count -- it's part of his script, at this point, handed down by Glorious Leader. Also notice the shift away from race-based police brutality to "law enforcement" in general.

“But if it’s just a publicity stunt to bring attention to Nike or whatever, that’s different. We understand that. We understand how marketing works. But they’re going to have to convince us that they’re not proactively attacking law enforcement officers and our military. If that’s the reason behind using this ad, we’re going to have a hard time staying.”

(Emphasis added by me.)

There's the give-away -- of course, Falwell understands if it's just a marketing ploy. He knows all about marketing.

Just to set the record straight, while I support Kaepernick and his protest against racist police actions, I'm not about to run out and buy anything Nike -- they're hardly saints in the human rights area.

But it's nice to see Falwell living down to expectations.

Update: O course, it's all Obama's fault. This is "Judge" Jeanine Pirro, through the looking glass:

Your version of America is not the America we want. To us, social justice is about justice for American citizens and not illegal criminals. To us social justice is about taking care of veterans who come back to our shores with fewer limbs than when they left. To us, social justice is not about burning our flag, it’s about raising it and lifting it.

“I am sorry to say this, but there is one thing your gonna have to live with, the only reason that we have an outsider businessman president is because of you, your lies, your policies, and your divisiveness.

“You, Barack, you elected Donald Trump. And there is nothing you can do about the fact that he’s sitting in the Oval Office now.

"Justice for American citizens" -- unless they are not white.

"Taking care of veterans" -- that's just outright bullshit: Why are 40,000 of them living on the streets?

The rest is pure projection.

There's an excellent, full-throated response to Pirro by commenter lymis here.