This week, the only thing worse than the Ferguson grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, was the right-wing reaction to that decision.
Many of us dreaded what we all but knew would be a decision not to indict. Some of us were prepared to mourn. Some on the right, however, were ready to celebrate.
Former New York Mayor and failed presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani just couldn’t wait for the grand jury decision. On a Sunday “Meet The Press” appearance, Giuliani trotted out the tired right-wing trope about “black-on-black violence,” and was thoroughly shut-down by sociologist and author Michael Eric Dyson.
[fve]http://youtu.be/IquABgERErw[/fve]
The rest of wingnuttia didn’t fail to disappoint.
- Giuliani even went on to say that he would prosecute Ferguson witnesses for lying, when they said Michael Brown had his hands up.
- In a blog post on Monday morning, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee compared the Ferguson protesters to Bull Connor and the killers of Medgar Evers.
- American Family Association news director Fred Jackson declared that Michael Brown had a “mentality of entitlement,” and “paid the consequences” for allegedly stealing cigars from a convenience store.
- Seizing upon Darren Wilson’s grand jury testimony, radio host Bryan Fischer suggested that “there was a demonic presence that was operating inside Michael Brown’s body.”
- After the heated exchange between Giuliani and Dyson, Fischer said that banning “stop and frisk” was “like a hate crime against black citizens” — because if the majority of people stopped and frisked were black, then the people most protected are other black people.
- Fischer declared that Wilson cannot face federal charges because it would violate “double jeopardy,” revealing his utter ignorance of the judicial process.
- Appearing on Fox News, right-wing sheriff David Clarke said that President Obama called for calm in Ferguson “with a wink and a nod.”
- Radio host Mark Levin said that Darren Wilson “is owed an apology” after the Ferguson grand jury decision.
- During a discussion on the Hugh Hewitt radio show, former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said race relations have gotten worse under Obama, “because of his unusual emphasis on race.”
- End Times radio host Rick Wiles wondered if the Ferguson protests are a “false flag” meant to give President Obama political cover to unilaterally implement gun control laws.
- Oath Keepers are patrolling Ferguson, and they say they’re prepared to use lethal force.
- Pat Robertson pleaded with “racial agitators” to “cool it,” because police are “trained to be careful with minorities.”
And in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a car plowed through a crowd of peaceful protestors.
Twitter was wing-nut party central on Monday “Right-wing’s sick Twitter celebration: Ann Coulter, Ted Nugent, Brit Hume battle for grossest Darren Wilson tweet - Salon.com”), with several high profile righties competing for “Sickest Tweet of the Night.”
MO guv: Cops will protect lives, property & "free speech." Only people whose free speech is threatened are whites cowering in their homes.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) November 25, 2014
DarrenWilson did good MichaelBrown did bad justice is served
— Ted Nugent (@TedNugent) November 25, 2014
Hardcore leftists' don't really give a rip abt facts. Goal is and has always been to undermine civil society, stoke unrest, chaos.
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) November 25, 2014
SCUMBAG; Hey my butt hurts. Let's light some working class guy's small business on fire.
MEDIA; Where should we put the camera?
— John Nolte (@NolteNC) November 25, 2014
Is this when rand paul comes out and says he too might have punched a police offer when he was young?
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) November 25, 2014
White foreign journalists have to be snippy to impress the Muslims back home.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) November 25, 2014
Here’s the best of the rest in wingnuttia this week:
- In his Thanksgiving message, Pat Robertson warned that gay rights — or “aberrant lifestyles” — threaten everything the pilgrims worked to build.
- Congressional Republicans are so mad at President Obama over immigration, they may not invite him to give a State of the Union Address.
- Georgia Republican state senator Bill McKoon introduced a bill to ban drivers licenses for individuals who have work permits and deferrals from deportation — including battered immigrant women granted rights under the Violence Against Women Act.
- Eagle Forum president Phyllis Schlafly said that “the class of people coming in now” don’t understand the Bill of Rights, or America.
- Right-wing talk show host Michael Savage told his listeners that immigrant women “[knock] out babies like loaves of bread” to get more benefits.
- James Kirkpatrick, of the white nationalist website VDARE called for a nativist third party if the GOP fails to impeach President Obama.
- Oops. A Republican-controlled House committee has found that the CIA and the military acted properly in Benghazi, debunking most of the right’s favorite conspiracy theories.
- Naturally, Fox News refused to accept the findings of the House GOP Benghazi report. The rest of wingnuttia was incensed.
- After visiting Nazi concentration camps in Poland, Republican and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee told his audience that legal abortion is worse than the Nazi Holocaust, and that America will “pay the consequences” for gay marriage.
- WorldNetDaily founder and editor Joseph Farah wrote that President Obama has “the kind of thinking that led to the gas chambers,” and is “doing everything in his power to spread the Ebola virus.”
- The Texas State Board of Education approved a textbook including Moses as an honorary founding father.
- Guess who the tea party wants to primary John McCain. Go on, guess.