"Shut Up and Ski"

Prior to the opening ceremonies of the 2026 Winter Olympics, American freestyle skater Chris Lillis remarked

I love the USA. I would never want to represent a different country in the Olympics. With that being said, a lot of times, athletes are hesitant to talk about political views and how we feel about things.

I feel heartbroken about what’s happening in the United States. I’m pretty sure you’re referencing ICE and some of the protests and things like that," he continued. "I think that, as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens as well as anybody, with love and respect. I hope that when people look at athletes compete in the Olympics, they realize that that’s the America we’re trying to represent.

Colleague Hunter Hess expressed a similar sentiment, went slightly further and was critized by President Donald Trump and other conservative snowflakes. (But I repeat myself.). So afterward, he clarified

I love my country. There is so much that is great about America, but there are always things that could be better.

One of the many things that makes this country so amazing is that we have the right and the freedom to point that out. The best part of the Olympics is that it brings people together, and when so many of us are divided we need that more than ever. I cannot wait to represent Team USA next week when I compete."

It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It’s a little hard. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t," Hess said.

I think, for me, it’s more I’m representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S. If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.

I just kind of want to do it for my friends and my family and the people that support me getting here.

But any deviation from complete loyalty to Herr Trump has become risky. And so it was that talk radio host Boomer Esiason, a former New York Jets and Cincinnatti Bengals quarterback, was asked on February 10 whether such skiers, who ended up winning a gold medal were "happy to represent America."  He told his co-host on their New York City show

They seem to be happy to represent America.  Not everybody is buy everybody should just pipe down and just do their sport and play for our country and respect the flag and respect everything that's going on.

Threre are at least two excellent responses to Esiason's response, the first no less valid because of being obvious. Rick Strom of TYT Sports reminds us that sports is in fact heavily politicized:

If it's not the place for political statements, why do we have flyovers from fighter jets that are sent to different parts of the world to kill people and wipe out regions for United States imperialism. Why do we see Palantir's sponsors on the scoreboard? That occurred. Why do we see Ring, who's partnering with Floc to surveil us for police departments and now the Department of Homeland Security? That is a political move.

Why do we allow poltiicans to attend games? Those are poltical acts. Why do we allow the President to go on a nationally televised game for an interview/discssion during said televised game? Why is the United States flag on the field? Why is the national anthem played? Why do we have military reunions that the NFL partnered with the military for?

The flyovers are a brazen military maneuver conducted to ensure support for any military action, but especially for continually expanding the Pentagon's budget, expected to be a record $838.7 billion for fiscal 2026, $8 billion more than the Department requested. And Donald Trump is a member of professional wrestling's largest promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), with which he has a close connection, and of the company's Hall of Fame. Even before being elected in 2016, Donald appeared at Wrestlemania XXIII and was participated in the Battle of the Billionaires. A long-time mixed martial arts fan, the President is set to host with the Ultimate Fighting Championship on June 14 the first live professional sporting event on the South Lawn of the White House. 

Even better, though including a point media will ignore, was the rant of ESPN host Michael Ryan Ruiz of the Dan Le Batard Show, who directed his comments toward Esiason, maintaining (profanity left in because, well, that's what he said)

Say what you mean. Say it wih your chest. You chickenshit. Because your MAGA-coated bullshit has been going on for ten years. The guy has been in office for a second time because his whole platform is how much this country stinks. Yet you sit on the sidelines when Nick Bosa wears a MAGA hat post-game. Ehere's the same energy?

I'm a sports fan. My soccer team won the club World Cup. He was on the freakin' stage. I had to eat it. I'm a NASCAR fan. Riley Gaines is giving incantations. The President is literally taking laps at the Daytona Motor Speedway. 

It took me 45 minutes to get into the national championship game because the Secret Service is there checking everybody because he so effectively uses sports to sportswash his image. And yet I've had to eat it. You got your way. They're not kneeling during the anthem. They're doing every thing they can so you can live in your little bubble and not be threatened by the reality of your decisions, the cost of what you actually voted for. 

The liberals, the left, they all had to eat it because you gus were so loud, and so soft, and so triggered. But you can't tune in to the Winter Olymics, a sport that you probably only worry about every four years and you don't want to be faced with the reality that maybe some people- and according to the polling, a hell of a lot of people- aren't exactly thrilled with how things are going in this country and they are using their one moment, in most cases, to highlight that because that is universally American. And you want them to shut up? Quit being a pussy, Boomer Esiason. Put your name to it. Say what you fucking mean.

Ruiz referred to "your MAGA-coated" b.s. and "you got your way" because Esiason is a consrvative who condemned Colin Kaepernick and celebrated Donald's recent election victory. And he urged Esiason to "put your name to it" because the ex QB is not coming clean on partiality to right-wing politics.

Nevertheless, Ruiz's most important point came early: "the guy has been in office for a second time because his whole platform is how this country stinks."

This is something both the media and the Democratic Party completely miss. In Trump's first inaugural speech, he described what he viewed as "American carnage."  Between Donald's two terms, he attacked the USA as "rigged, crooked, and evil." Early in this term, he claimed Americans are "bloated, fat,  and disgusting." He has been determined to undermine a range of American insitutions, both rhetorically and in practice. His campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again," reinforces this contempt- no need to make something "again" if it no longer is. 

His "whole platform is how much this country stinks." Ultimately, skiing is not the issue. The freedom to criticize one's own government is. And so is the movement whose leader brooks no criticism of its leader and god, and a nation which will does not acknowledge that its President believes it is loathsome.

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Together

After the State of the Union message delivered on March 4, 2025

President Donald Trump mocked Democrats who sat in front of him Tuesday night, needling them with a grin, “nothing I can say or do to make them happy.” Democrats mostly responded with silent protest — wearing pink, waving placards emblazoned with “FALSE” and “Save Medicaid.” More than a dozen walked out of his speech early, some revealing shirts that said “No Kings Live Here.”..

Democrats’ protest was “very silly, and unserious, but I can’t help but feel some level of empathy for them,” said a Democratic strategist granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. “I’m sure they feel like they have to do something, anything, [but] that wasn’t it.”

At best, the protest of Democratic members of Congress to, and during, the State of the Union Address was a dud, a flop, a bust (synonym* day!).

Thus, asked on Fox News about President Trump's State of the Union message to be delivered on February 24, 2026, Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman stated

I do plan to attend. And I hope that this year, they don't put up those silly paddles and all these kinds of weird protests. You don't have to agree, or agree with whatever you hear but like last year, it just made us look like, like children and you know, exactly, I can see you're referncing that. You know, it's like show up or not but to do that kind of thing, like have some dignity and just, you know, we can agree to disagree and not call people names and behave in such ways like that.

🚨 Senator Fetterman plans to attend the State of the Union and hopes his fellow Democrats "don't put up those silly paddles and all those kinds of weird protests."

"Last year, it made us look like children."

"Have some dignity... we can agree or disagree and not call people… pic.twitter.com/plpJmEOs75

— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) February 14, 2026

It's an overworked cliche, but I'm going there anyway. Given this report from the inauguration on January 20, 2025 of Donald Trump, maybe Fetterman should sit this one out. It was then that

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman wore shorts and sneakers to the U.S. Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.

Despite chilling temperatures that moved the inauguration inside, Fetterman, 55, was seen sitting in the front row in the Capitol Rotunda as attendees took their seats before the ceremony began on Monday, Jan. 20.

The senator was also wearing a black hoodie to the event, where he joined guests such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos to watch Trump take office for his second term.

CBS reporter Scott MacFarlane shared a photo of Fetterman arriving at the Capitol on Monday, when temperatures were hovering in the 20s.

"Wind chill in the teens… as Sen John Fetterman (D-PA) arrives at Capitol in shorts," MacFarlane wrote on X.

There is nothing that says "dignity" better than an overweight, middle-aged man wearing shorts to a traditonal national ceremony like the swering in of an individual to the American presidency. Nor is there anything weird about that. No, nothing.

It's tempting to call Fetterman an imbecile but he's correct that Democrats writ large were not dignified and looked a little like children. He may or may not understand that Democrats were easily ridiculed precisely because most did not do what some were doing.  When a few members of the party- either party- do this while some do that, they are easily mocked or scorned* by the opposition and disparaged or dismissed* by traditional and mainstream* media. 

The party of serious and normal people must respond appropriately. That could mean sitting on their hands throughout the speech, though they may have to join Republicans in jumping up and applauding when Trump wraps himself (figuratively, hopefully) in the flag or religion. Perhaps they all need a placard with identical words. In any case, coordinate.

The Democratic Party is a coalition of whites, blacks, and other ethnic groups; men and women; stratight and un-straight persons; Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others; and- well, you get it. It's difficult to get all these individuals to do any one thing in unison. Nevertheless, they must do so because Donald Trump will tear them apart if they lack a coherent message. 

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Two Antithetical, Converging Philosophies

How do you say "if you don't love it, leave it" in left?  Lawyer Sunny Hostin tells us how in this excerpt from "The View":

You know, this country seems to be one of the only countries in the world that is so proud of being neolingual and not being able to communicate in more than one language. And the fact of the matter is, in about twenty years, multi-ethnic people will be the majority in this country. So if you don't understand Spanish,, maybe start taking a little Duolingo course.

🚨WATCH: Sunny Hostin tells viewers that if they wanted to understand Bad Bunny they should have learned spanish.

SUNNY: "Maybe start taking a duolingo course." 🤡

So let me get this straight — telling immigrants to learn English, the most widely spoken language in America, is… pic.twitter.com/esdkvQEAde

— Brandon Tatum (@TheOfficerTatum) February 11, 2026

One of the significant things in this remark initially escaped my attention, as it did the tweeter. Hostin says that in approximately twenty years, multi-ethnic people will be a majority in the USA.  Then she recommends individuals learn Spanish. However, in what may be the most recent estimate, the researcher refers  (emphasis mine) to "the growth in Multicultural populations in the U.S." There not only are more Latinos residing in the USA than in past years, but more immigrants from Africa and Asia and tribal populations remain. Relatively few in those groups speak Spanish. 

Nonetheless, the thrust of Hostin's statement is the warning that if  "you don't understand Spanish, maybe start taking a little Duolingo course."  The condescending reference to "little" and "start taking" may be unintentional. However, the implication is obvious and intentional: if you don't know Spanish, you won't belong here. If you don't love it (as it will be), just leave.

Perhaps Hostin has learned from the right. In  this tweet featured in my last post, lawyer and ex-Fox News talk show host Megyn Kelly remarks

So we have to keep the Super Bowl, which is a quintessential american event. Football, that kind of football, is ours. They cal it American football. And the halftime show and everything around it needs to stay quintessentially Amrican- not Spanish, not Muslim, not anything other than good old-fashion American apple pie. There should be a meat loaf, maybe some fried chicken, and an English-speaking performance. That's what the Super Bowl should be.

Food is a relatively superficial marker of nationalism but I can play the game as well as does Kelly. Meatloaf is, according to Wikipedia, "a traditional Slovak,German, Czech, Nordic, and Flemish dish." Fried chicken also originaed from abroad, perhaps from Scotland. And "good old-fashion American apple pie,"  according to Rossi Anastopoulo (and who would know more about food than a Rossi Anastopoulo?) originated in England, 'where it developed from culinary influences from France, the Netherlands, and even the Ottoman Empire. In fact, apple trees weren’t even native to North America until the Europeans arrived."

They all came from abroad and then were adapted to the taste of Americans. And that's the point. These dishes did not have to originate in North America. They were brought here, were adopted by Americans, and became what we think of as American. 

Bad Bunny was born in Puerto Rico and thus is a natural-born American. (He is eligible to become President once of age; please, spare me.) But you get the point: he was not born in any of the 50 states and speak a language foreign to most of us born in the USA.  But that does not disqualify him from being accepted by Americans, especially those who speak Spanish, are young (rap music), and were born outside of the continental USA.

It goes to the question of what is "American" which, to Megyn Kelly, evidently excludes non-English speaking peoples and Muslims. 

It is a mistake easily made, and not only by ethnocentric conservatives. Sunny Hostin, whose perspective is not the majority on the left, but not uncommon either, says you better learn Spanish.  In her utopian future, no one in her country may be uni-lingual unless Spanish is the only language they know. 

Kelly and Co. believe that a Super Bowl halftime show in Spanish is not "quintessentially American." Hostin and Co. believe that because, sometime in the not-distant future, "multi-ethnic people" outnumber non-Hispanic whites, everyone not white (which includes many people whose first language is neither English nor Spanish) must learn Spanish. 

Megyn Kelly argues that the halftime show of a game which is broadcast to the USA entirely in English (elsewhere, no doubt translated) should be in English, not Spanish. It is not even the championship game itself which must be in English, but the accessory to the game. And as far as we know and very likely, it will not become a habit.

Both groups believe that there can be one America, one in which everyone conforms to the majority (Kelly) or to a minority (Hostin). They both believe in the sadly enduring myth of the USA as a melting pot. Toss everyone into the cauldron and everyone becomes the same, Everyone must know English- or everyone must know Spanish.

The USA is not a melting pot. It never has been one, though we like telling ourselves it is. Kelly is representative of a narrow-minded conservatism while Hostin represents only a liberalism which, if seen clearly, is quite illiberal. 

If the NFL chooses periodically to slap English-speaking Americans in the face because it envisions a global, rather than a US-centered, market, it is entitled. If in 2046 or thereabouts many of us choose to continue to speak only one language, we will be entitled to do so. We will survive either- or both- because various and varied subcultures can exist side-by-side with individuals choosing to adopt- or shun- any portion they wish.  Ours need not be a society of forced homogenization but of a colorful tapestry.

Kelly on the Bunny

Megyn Kelly starts out by making one valid point... then goes off the rails.

Megyn Kelly just shouting “FOOTBALL IS OURS” at Piers Morgan about Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show is the perfect example of this moment in time. Put it in a time capsule and send it out into space. pic.twitter.com/oTuiwI9xBR

— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) February 9, 2026

In the excerpt presented in this tweet, Kelly is seen arguing

I'm sorry, Piers, but to get up there and perform the whole, the whole show in Spanish is a middle finger to the rest of America. Who gives a damn that we have 40-40 million Spanish speakers in the United States. We have 310 million who don't speak a lick of Spanish.

Of course, it's a "middle finger to the rest of America"; a middle finger to the portion of the USA, the vast majority of the country, which does not speak English. Take a point away from Kelly for referring to her (and my) country as "America" instead of the United States of America, which is ironic given "though the United States of America is colloquially referred to as just 'America,' Bad Bunny reminded the audience- and perhaps some U.S. politicians- that America is the entire western hemisphere, as he named [sic] checked dozens of countries as the show concluded."

If Mr. Bunny has thus impelled some prominent Americans to refer to our country, properly, as the "United States of America" (or USA), he will have performed an important service.  If so, it will be- again- ironic that it was effected by an awful rabbit who rarely uses his real name, Benito Antonio Martiniez Ocasio. (Fat chance of that happening, though.)

Kelly continues by making a point which is demonstrably inaccurate as she contends (and yes, Megyn, we all caught the Spanish accent you inelegantly tried with "Latinos")

This is supposed to be a unifying event for the country, not for the Latinos, not for one small group, but for the country, not for one small group, but for the country. We don't need a black national anthem...

As we would have responded as children on the playground decades ago, "who says?" Is there a stature, rule, or even guideline which states that the halftime show of the Super Bowl is to be "a unifying event for the country?"  Spoiler alert: no.

Open your eyes, woman! Most Americans already have decided that they are, or are not, fans of the NFL. Among the tens of millions of Americans for whom Spanish is their first language, there are many who have not seriously considered professional football. If they weren't going to watch the game otherwise, most surely would check out this guy singing in Spanish- and the others, because of the countroversy engendered.

But the NFL has an even greater motivation for turning the halftime show over to an internationally popular, Spanish-speaking rapper. The 2025 season which concluded Sunday included six international games, one each in Dublin, Berlin, and Madrid, and three in London.  In 2026, there will be one game each played in Paris, Munich, Melbourne, Rio, Madrid, Mexico City, and three again in London. The NFL wants to market itself everywhere it can be profitable, and that includes the Spanish-speaking world. The billions keep piling up and the league, and Commissioner Roger Goodell, don't care whose face gets slapped. Capitalism, baby! (To her credit, Ms. Kelly seems never to have embraced the term "populist.")

The interview continued with Kelly getting something iwith immensely important implications legally and objectively incorrect. Piers Morgan asked her "O.K., what is the national language- officially- the national language of the United States of America?" 

The guest replied "I mean, English and there have been-" To that, Morgan countered "No, no. Hang on.You don't have one. You don't have one. The truth is you don't have an official language."

Well done, Piers! (Exclamation Point Day.)  Morgan is correct. It turns out that- notwithstanding the President's effort- apparently somewhat successful- to muddy the waters, the Executive Order signed by Donald Trump merely applies to the executive branch, and then only in limited fashion. As explained here

On March 1, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14224, “Designating English as the Official Language of The United States,” which, as the name suggests, declares English as the official language of the U.S. The executive order also revokes Executive Order 13166, “Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency,” signed by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Executive Order (EO) 13166 required federal agencies and recipients of federal funding to improve access to their services for those with limited English proficiency (LEP). To comply with EO 13166, federal agencies released various resources and guidance on how entities should achieve better access to their services. Those guidance documents were key resources on standards, best practices, and technical assistance that helped government agencies comply with the executive order

The Trump administration’s EO 14224 lifts those requirements — meaning that federal agencies and recipients of federal funding are no longer required to implement plans to ensure that LEP individuals can access their services. EO 14224 requires the U.S. Attorney General to withdraw policy guidance documents that were previously issued under EO 13166 and provide “updated guidance” that takes into account EO 14224….

The Trump administration’s Executive Order 14224 is not statutory. As an executive order, it does not have the power to change existing federal laws and statutes. The order’s authority does not extend beyond the executive branch and is technically limited to telling federal agencies how to implement a statute. To declare English as the official language of the U.S., Congress would have to approve legislation establishing an official language and the president would have to sign it.

Though the NFL did give a middle finger to most of the country, in so doing the league was not thinking of brown or white, but of green. Further, the NFL does not owe Americans a "unifying" halftime show or even any halftime show at all. And there is no official language in the USA.

Nonetheless, Kelly's strident criticism does raise an issue which is critical and which, while below the radar, should be provocative. How important, if at all, is it that a national (also international, obviously) event which draws the attention of well over 100 million Americans be unifying?  That may be considered in the next post which, thankfully, would not be as long as this one.

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Endangered

Decades ago, we had the "if you don't love it, leave it" crowd, as reflected in the unfortunately good country song "The Fightin' Side of Me."  We no longer hear those exact words but we have their descendants, the "shut up and think as we tell you" crowd.

On Twiiter/X, yhey may have "HOOD CONSERVATIVE" (Lavern Spicer) in their bio. Or "MAGA.". Or "America First" or "Patriot." Or a biblical verse. However, the rude, bellicose sentiment always is the same.

“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now… Just because I wear the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.”
- Team USA Olympic Skier Hunter Hess

The anti-ICE, liberal athletes are already insufferable at the Olympics…

If… pic.twitter.com/yn7ruEHbFr

— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) February 7, 2026

Hunter Hess, identified as Team USA freestyle skater, states

I have mixed emotions to represent the USA now, I think. It's a little hard. There's obviously a lot going on I'm not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren't...

If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it. Just because I wear the flag, doesn't mean I represent evetything that's going on in the U.S.  I want to do it for my friends, my family, the people that supported me getting here.

The critics of such athletes have sunk to an even lower level than the "if you don't love it, leave it" crowd of yore. The old timers believed that individuals who criticize the country should get out. These folks believe if an individuals criticize a man- a human being, the President- they are not worthy of participating in the Olympics (so much for the  advocates of "merit"). As one of them put it, "take your uniform off" and "stay in Italy."

Even more disturbing to some of us is the frequent reference to God and/or Christian symbolism in the bios. One refers to Christ and 1 Peter 3:15.  Another is "MAGA Christian."  They all are exclusionary and, less obviously, elitist.

Unsurprisingly, that echoes President Trump. Christian Peter Wehner recently wrote in The Atlantic

In a rambling, 75-minute speech at the Prayer Breakfast yesterday, we saw the quintessential Trump. His comments were grievance-filled, narcissistic, conspiratorial, factually false, divisive, and insulting. He referred to his critics as “lunatics.” He engaged in projection, comparing them to “dictators” and “the gestapo.” He labeled Republican Representative Thomas Massie a “moron” because he won’t cast legislative votes the way Trump wants. Joe Biden is “Crooked Joe,” while Jacob Frey is “the horrible fake mayor” of Minneapolis. Trump praised El Salvador’s authoritarian President Nayib Bukele—Bukele has referred to himself as “the world’s coolest dictator”—for his “very strong prisons.” (The prison that Trump celebrates, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, known as CECOT, is notorious for its cruel and inhumane conditions.) Trump emphasized that Bukele—who also spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast—is “one of my favorite people.”

And yet, in the very same speech in which his critics were labeled “lunatics” and “moron” and “Gestapo,” President

Trump took credit for churches “coming back stronger than ever” and for religion being “hotter than ever.” He claimed he has “done more for religion than any other president”—apparently, before the age of Trump, Christians couldn’t say “Merry Christmas” in public—and argued that his predecessors in the White House “bailed out” on religion. “I don’t know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat. I really don’t,” he said, adding, “They cheat.”

The President invoked the term "religion" twenty times, though his most brazen and transparently phony probably was "all of these good things I'm doing, including for religion. You know, religion is back now hotter than ever."  He added "but I said even though I did that and so many other things, I named things, I said I won't qualify. I'm not going to make it to heaven."

When evangelicals mention "religion," they're invariably doing so in a neutral matter or- more frequently- as a negative (source: Gemini- but accurate).  They usually view religion as a pejorative to describe non-man-made efforts to earn salvation. a non-denominational, evangelical and Protestant site explains

Christianity is not about signing up for a religion.... God eants us to know Him, to draw near to Him, to pray to Him, and love Him above everything.  That is not religion; that is a relationship.

Nonetheless, in what is no more surprising than hypocritical, Wehner notes "the audience of some 3,500- the great majority of whom undoubtedly claim to be followers of Jesus- responded to Trump's remarks with a standing ovation." In an article written a couple of weeks earlier, he had observed that the Trump Administration "has welcomed Christians into a theological twilight zone, where the beatitudes are invoked on behalf of a political movement with authoritarian tendencies."

This applies to many MAGA tweeters, whose allegiance to the political movement clearly outweighs their devotion to God, Scripure, of the Christian faith. This attempt to merge Christianity with personality-driven, far-right politics, imperils the future of Christianity, or what, the President wishes to have us believe, he means by "religion." 

So, too, is there a connection when Wehner argues persuasively

Unless you've spent time in the evangelical world, fully appreciating the level of antipathy that exists toward Democrats and progressives is difficult. The only thing that exceeds it is the loathing reserved for the Christians and conservatives who broke with trump because their commitment to their faith, and to cherished moral truths, required them to speak ou against him.

Though Wehner was speaking primarily about theologians and members of the clergy, his criticism applies also to many MAGA tweeters, whose allegiance to a personality-driven, far right political movement clearly outweighs whatever their devotion to God, Scripture, or the Christian faith. The Olympic skater maintained, referring to what evidently are his cherished moral truths, "if it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it."  

Enraged, the Trump disciples lashed out at Hess. Speaking not specifically about such individuals but more generally

Huge numbers of American fundamentalists and evangelicals—not just cultural Christians, but also those who faithfully attend church and Bible-study sessions and prayer gatherings—prefer the MAGA Jesus to the real Jesus. Few of them would say so explicitly, though, because the cognitive dissonance would be too unsettling. And so they have worked hard to construct rationalizations. It’s rather remarkable, really, to see tens of millions of Christians validate, to themselves and to one another, a political movement led by a malignant narcissist—who is driven by hate and bent on revenge, who mocks the dead, and who delights in inflicting pain on the powerless. The wreckage to the Christian faith is incalculable, yet most evangelicals will never break with him. They have invested too much of themselves and their identity in Trump and what he stands for.

They will never acknowledge that damage: subtle, persistent, and immeasurable.

 

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Bias and Timidity, Wrapped Into One

This is a clever tweet, because it illuminates the habit of this White House to offer shifting explanations for an outrage:

First: “it’s fake”

Then: “it’s real but he’s trolling you”

Now: “it was a staffer that posts to his account without him having any knowledge of it”

Soon: “it’s a hoax”

— Cooper (@justcuuper) February 6, 2026

He was referring to President Donald Trump's post on his Untruth Social 

late Thursday night of a video that included a racist animation of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama depicted with the bodies of apes.

After backlash, the White House at about noon Friday said the post had been taken down from the president's page.

The roughly minutelong video, shared by Trump at 11:44 p.m. ET on Thursday, largely focused on debunked claims about the 2020 election.

At the end of the video, the Obamas' faces appear abruptly and without explanation for seconds with the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" playing over it. The video then ends back on similar imagery of the conspiracy video footage.

A few Republicans (not many), such as Senator Tim Scott, a black Republican from South Carolina, have reacted appropriately. However, John James, a black US Representative and two-time unsuccessful GOP candidate for governor of Michigan, did not.

I was shocked and appalled by that post.

I know the President. He is not racist.

I’m glad to see that trash has been taken down. https://t.co/GJgUNvRSN6

— John James (@JohnJamesMI) February 6, 2026

Well, actually, Donald Trump is a racist. We've suspected that for many years, well before on Deccember 16, 2023

 “They let — I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump told the crowd at a rally in New Hampshire. “That’s what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America, not just to three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.”

Trump then repeated the use of “poisoning” in a post on his social media website Truth Social, saying overnight in an all-caps post, that “illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation. They’re coming from prisons, from mental institutions — from all over the world.”

The term “blood poisoning” was used by Hitler in his manifesto “Mein Kampf,” in which he criticized immigration and the mixing of races. “All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning,” Hitler wrote."

"Poisoning the blood of our country" is not using a dogwhistle but screaming "racist." Whatever the valid explanation for Thursday's reprehensible video, Donald Trump is a racist and almost certainly has been for a long time. However, he could , if not make amends, show real leadership. He could say it was a mistake to post this, then find the person or persons responsible for it, and fire them.

However, that would require real leadership, which Donald would much rather fake than demonstrate.  However, to be fair and non-partisan, this may be common among two-term presidents. The last two-term president and the last two-term Democratic president since Bill Clinton, has responded in a starkly indirect way.

To all the athletes representing @TeamUSA: I'm so proud of you. Your talent and perseverance have brought you to this moment, and Michelle and I will be joining Americans from across the country cheering you on.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 7, 2026

Oh so bold. The man who is serving in the office Barack Obama held for eight years shows his true colors (no pun intended), working indirectly with Russian president Vladimir Putin to break up NATO, and set federal law enforcement upon both illegal immigratns and legal immigrants in a brutal and punitive manner. Membes of Obama's own party are swinging hard at Donald Trump for a social media post depicting Barack and wife Michelle as animals. Carrying water for him, they are, and the ex-President so boldly tweets out a message "cheering you on."

Audacious! Courageous! In Obama's defense, former President George W. Bush has said nothing about Trump's message, and won't. He, too, was a two-term President and unlike Barack Obama- who has said a little about Trump's immigration tactics- Bush has said nothing. 

I'm not sure what that says about us as voters and as a people, but it probably is nothing good. Still, we deserve much better than Donald J. Trump- the one who is a clear-cut, palpable bigot and. though less obvious to the naked eye, the fellow for whom leadership is a four-letter word.

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Ethnicity and Federal Agents

This blog's favorite blogger, Steve M. of No More Mr. Nice Blog, has written an excellent post with an unfortunate title. He critiques the "Stephen Miller Paid Latino Thugs to Murder Alex Pretti" by empty wheel's Marci Wheeler with "Overthinking the Ethnicity of Alex Pretti's Killers." SM first refers to the Pro Publica article which reported 

The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez....

Ochoa is a Border Patrol agent who joined CBP in 2018. Gutierrez joined in 2014 and works for CBP’s Office of Field Operations. He is assigned to a special response team, which conducts high-risk operations like those of police SWAT units.

He then quotes Wheeler as emphasizing

Alfredo Mancillas Jr. was found in St. Paul last Tuesday, passed out drunk in his illegally-parked car, covered in his own vomit....

The two heavily masked ICE agents who snatched Brad Lander last June are “a Pakistani Muslim immigrant who lives in Brighton Beach” and “an Indo-Guyanese gentleman who lives in South Ozone Park.”

There are a lot of reasons Stephen Miller’s goons wear masks. To terrify the communities they invade. To make it harder to shame them. To make it harder to tie them to other crimes they may have committed....

But there is accumulating evidence that a big reason these goons hide their faces is to hide that the white nationalist project Stephen Miller is pursuing — like virtually everything else in America — relies on brown people to do the hard work. Miller can only sustain the myth of white self-reliance by hiding the faces of those who murder white men at his behest in the streets of Blue cities....

They’re trying to hide how much even their deeply racist project is helpless without brown labor.

I think this misunderstands the way right-wingers look at race. Some are pure bigots in the David Duke/Nick Fuentes mold. They hate anyone who isn't white and Christian. And even those who don't fall into this category want to live in an America in which white male heterosexual Christians run pretty much everything.

But the people hoping to build a white ethnostate are always in tension with those on the right who proudly point to everyone of color who seems to have "escaped" from "the liberal plantation." The organizers of Trump's campaign rallies seemed happy to have the candidate speak with "BLACKS FOR TRUMP" signs in the background. Trump embraced Kanye West before West became too toxic. And Republican candidates of color -- Herschel Walker in Georgia, Mark Robinson in North Carolina, Royce White in Minnesota -- have won Republican primaries throughout the Trump era. In the Florida governor's race, Byron Donalds leads all other candidates in Republican primary polling by more than 30 points, and in polling of the Ohio GOP gubernatorial primary, Vivek Ramaswamy's lead is more than 50 points. Most Republicans enjoy pointing to these figures and accusing liberals of being "the real racists."

Wheeler's framing implies that Miller's non-white immigration agents are laboring in a state of pseudo-enslavement, or at least doing the work reluctantly because there's nothing else available. That's belied by what the ProPublica story tells us about one of the agents....

This is an accurate reading of the right and a critically important point to make. Some are "pure bigots" while a larger number are proud to trumpet (pun intended) support of their cause by blacks so they can accuse liberals of being "the  real racists," as SM recognizes.

But there is something else going on. Whites generally, and conservative whites specifically, are tired of accusations of racism directed toward them, or what they perceive as such criticism. They are happy and relieved whenever individuals such as Herschel Walker, Mark Robinson, Royce White, or Byron Donalds rear their black head, as long as those individuals are on their side. They believe that proves they are not racist and legitimizes their conservative viewpoints. It's not only progressives, liberals, moderates, and centrists who want to be recognized as open-minded; the right does, also.

That was key to Barack Obama's success. Of course, few conservative Republicans- as the vast majority of Republicans are- would vote for him because they were, obviously Republicans. However, that left many moderates, and  especially centrists, who comforted themselves by voting for the man who would become the first black President.  It frees them, as SM argues, to accuse Democrats themselves as being "the real racists." Then in an off-year election, they could vote Republican, having already done their part to prove they were open-minded.

Yet, SM is wrong insofar as he's maintaining that we are overemphasizing race in considering the ethnicity of the killers of Alex Pretti.  He says the apparent killers "shared the mindset that compels white men to become immigration officers."

Well, sure, that is accurate. But it is too easy, implying that it is a white mindset that impels such injustice or brutality. One of his readers comments "there's a lotta men who are hungry, and lack, a sense of belonging and meaning in their lives, and a sense of control and power, and being given a  gun  and being made part of a group with a mission can be very attractive, whatever their ethnicity."  Less elegantly or thoughtfully, another realizes (emphasis his) "ALL ethnicities have assholes."  And I would add: "and bigots."

These all are valid critiques of Wheeler's primary thesis, as is the one from another commenter who notes that many border patrol agents

are Hispanics whose families have been there for generations, if not since Texas was Mexican. Even more recent arrivals may despise those trying to come in now as poorer and somehow less worthy than they, their parents or grandparents were. Also, they are more likely to feel directly threatened by competition for jobs by the newcomers than most.

Doubtless, Border Parol has always been far more aggressive on the southern border than elsewhere and coverage of the aggression and illegality has been limited and localized

It's typical that it never occurred to Trump, Miller, Noem and the rest that South texas Border Patrol aggressiveness and disregard for law would appal residents of Minneapolis, nor that people in the rest of the country, including rred areas, would be outraged and disgusted by it, not cowed by it.

This seems to me a far more likely explanation for Stephen Miller "relying on brown people to do the hard work" of "maintaing the myth of white self-releance." Yet, all of this- Marci Wheeler's speculative theory, Steve M's cogent rebuttal, and the wise remarks largely buttressing the rebuttal- pertain only to the perpetrators.

Closing the circle would require consideration also of the victims, as it does in the matter of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their co-conspirators..

This, the left does not want to dwell on. And in a dirty little secret, centrists generally would be even more loathe to address it.

And that is this: Renee Good and Alex Pretti are both white. Obvious? Yes.  Mentioned? No.

It was a fundamental tenet of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 that brutal law enforcement was not only focused on blacks but was directed virtually exclusively toward "people of color." It needn't have been stated; we all just knew that blacks were the sole targets of police officers acting badly.  

Unlike today and especially during campaign 2024, actual critics of the protest were few.. Conservatives much preferred the slogan "Blue Lives Matter" to substantive condemnation of the movement. There was some, but relatively muted, criticsm of the blue lives matter argument. By contrast, the slogan "All Lives Matter" was consistently attacked as being racially insensitive, if not racist.

This was a response not only from the left. Moderates and centrists who should have known better, many of them probably knowing better, went along for the ride.

We now know better, yet still refuse to acknowledge it. ICE is practicing racial profiling, but much less out of racial bias than because it has implemented quotas and stopping people who appear to look Latino gets the numbers up. We've learned also that if an individual gets in the way, such as by filming an ICE agent or border patrol officer, being white will not spare the activist from harassment or worse..

So race, as Marci Wheeler believes, is a factor. It usually is. Nonetheless, as Steve M. and most of his readers evidently believe, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and thuggery is just thuggery.

 

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