Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Consistently wrong since 2002

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

Let there be snark.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You are here: Home / Economics / Grifters Gonna Grift / Sunday Pharisees Open Thread: The New Failson Falkirk Center

Sunday Pharisees Open Thread: The New Failson Falkirk Center

by | 106 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , ,

Jerry Jr. (last seen defending himself against charges of real estate fraud, self-dealing, misappropriation of funds from the university he inherited, and nightclubbing in Miami Beach) has gotten together with Charlie Kirk (founder of TP-USA, last seen bulk-buying failson Trump Jr’s ‘best seller’) have a new grift, per the Washington Examiner:

Growing concerns in conservative circles that liberals are trying to convert young Christians into socialists by distorting the Bible and U.S. Constitution have prompted Virginia’s Liberty University to form a new center to push back on the media, academics, and Democratic politicians.

The new think tank, announced Saturday in Lynchburg and previewed to Secrets, was co-founded by two key leaders in the Christian youth movement, Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr. and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

The Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty, a combination of their names, will “play offense” against efforts by liberals to water down Judeo-Christian values in the Bible and Constitution in their bid to build support for big government, said Kirk.

“The fastest-growing religion in America is atheism and secularism and with that is the rise of leftism and statism and, as people veer away from the church and veer away from the Judeo Christian values that built our country, people are more likely to embrace statism,” he said in an interview…

It will operate under a 501(c)(3) charter and is owned by Liberty.

The plan to go on offense is similar to how President Trump operates, and it’s no coincidence that both Falwell and Kirk are leading defenders of the president.

Kirk, who stressed that it was an “honor” to work with Falwell in the bid to “organize an army of believers in faith and liberty,” said he expects to be attacked as he and Liberty’s president have for their support for Trump…

“If you want to be loved today as a political conservative, go against the president. You’ll get the best press you could ever possibly imagine. But if you want to stand for what’s right, if you want to stand for truth, defend our country, then you have to stand behind this president,” said Kirk, who has been accompanying Donald Trump Jr. during his book tour to colleges and universities to promote Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us.

All the failsons gotta hang together, it’s both natural affinity and a defense against their (many, legitimate) enemies.

That Jesus dude notoriously condemned religious profiteering, promoted multiculturalism and sharing material goods across the community, and gave away free food and healthcare. (Also, He preferred hanging with his group of fellow believers to getting an honest job, and when one of the overworked women of the movement asked for a little help in the kitchen, slanged her off for not properly valuing the worth of intellectual labor.) So: Signs point to YES!

Reader Interactions

106Comments

  5. 5.

    Wag

    As I was reading the post, I kept seeing Failkirk instead of Falkirk. Hoping that it turns out to be a prescient misread.

  6. 6.

    chris

    Being a socialist is a lot like being a Christian, you have to go to a bunch of fuckin meetings in the hopes that it'll be better after you die.

    — post-literate (@_SaturnReturn) November 28, 2019

  7. 7.

    Duane

    Last I saw of Kirk he was meekly sitting on his hands while Trumpov Jr’s handler defended them from angry right-wing nuts. Kirk doesn’t stand for anything except C.R.E.A.M.

  8. 8.

    Mary G

    Hoocoodanode:

    The White House has informed House Democrats that it will not participate in the Judiciary Committee's first impeachment hearing. https://t.co/Bm2GYKzgg0— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 2, 2019

    “The process is unfair because the president doesn’t get to tell his side!”

  9. 9.

    Czanne

    (Also, He preferred hanging with his group of fellow believers to getting an honest job, and when one of the overworked women of the movement asked for a little help in the kitchen, slanged her off for not properly valuing the worth of intellectual labor.)

    Seriously, this describes every male college communist I ever met.

    The ones who told women it was their job to feed and clean up after the revolution, and f**k for the revolution and raise children for the revolution. (Because those dudes wouldn’t wear condoms for the revolution, oh, no.) (And no, they’re not going to a reproductive rights demonstration. That’s not part of the revolution…)

  12. 12.

    Baud

    efforts by liberals to water down Judeo-Christian values in the Bible and Constitution in their bid to build support for big government,

    Shit. They’re onto us.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mary G:

    I’m sure the House leadership was already prepared for this. Trump fails at this kind of fight because he doesn’t have the discipline to avoid telegraphing his punches.

  17. 17.

    J R in WV

     

    If we could only force FailKirk Think Tank to only refer to the Red Letter Bible, the one composed of the words of The Christ, as opposed to the words of Paul, etc, etc.

     

    Those guys acted like they had never heard of any of the parables of Jesus. Which I was taught were serious morality learning exercises, not just fairy tales.

  20. 20.

    Martin

    @chris: ETAsk: what is the Falkirk Center’s definition of socialism? Just for the lulz.

    The usual: Whether one believes black people deserve the same rights as  white people.

  21. 21.

    karen marie

    @Duane:   I try to keep up with all internet traditions but the number of them increases exponentially.

     

    I know it’s a tag used at this here site but what does “C.R.E.A.M.” stand for?

     

    I’ll take my answer off the air.  Thanks.

  22. 22.

    dmsilev

    Sad news, everyone. Joe Sestak has ended his Presidential campaign.

    I know, I had forgotten he was running too.

  26. 26.

    Anne Laurie

    @karen marie:

    I know it’s a tag used at this here site but what does “C.R.E.A.M.” stand for?

    C(ash) R(ules) E(verything) A(round) M(e).  Originally a rap song, but it’s become the unofficial motto of the Republican party.

  29. 29.

    Jinchi

    when one of the overworked women of the movement asked for a little help in the kitchen, slanged her off for not properly valuing the worth of intellectual labor.

    To be fair, Martha wasn’t asking Jesus and his men for help. She wanted him to kick her sister Mary out of the room to go work in the kitchen. He decided that she had a place in the conversation.

  31. 31.

    chris

    @Martin:

     Ah, thanks. I was expecting something about “precious bodily fluids” but this is America and racism is always the answer.

  32. 32.

    TS (the original)

    @Barbara: Falkirk is also a town in Scotland from whence came many of my forebears – who would not be happy with this use of their ancestral place name.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud: Shit.  I need to ask my 8th grade social studies teacher why we never learned about all the Jesusing in the Constitution.

     

    And I went to a religious grade school, dammit!

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Raven: Damn you.  If I had my headphones, I’d start blasting that into my sound receivers.

     

    ETA – Tales of Brave Ulysses

  36. 36.

    Mo MacArbie

    @Raven: Well shoot, if you’re going to bring that up, then let’s just cut to the chase: it’s “She Walks Like A Bearded Rainbow.”

  37. 37.

    Rusty

    As a lefty Jesus freak, I would happily convert all those evangelicals to feeding the poor, healing the sick, clothing the naked, comforting the widow and visiting the prisoner.  I think the young ones are starting to catch on to the hypocrisy and the gap between what they read and what they are told it means.  Interesting that Falwell Jr.d lead a congregation where he would actually have to confront people’s problems and pain.  He is just a political back.

  38. 38.

    TS (the original)

    @chris: From your link

     

    She was dragged into the spotlight, her text messages weaponized, and her life destroyed so that the Trump administration could have a brief distraction.

    This is what trump does to individuals who dare to be critical of him. This is why too many media pundits will not call him out for the harm that he does and the lies that he tells.  He lives to ruin the lives of others.

  39. 39.

    Dan B

    @chris: The weakening of the FBI and DOJ is scary.  Will they be used to lock up social justice advocates and investigative reporters as was done during the Red Scare?

  44. 44.

    Kent

    How about we draw a connection between this post and the the one about loan forgiveness two posts ago.

     

    Falwell’s Liberty University enrolls 15,000 students on campus and another 90,000 or so through it’s online classes that are apparently super popular with the home schooling group.  Call it 100,000 students.  If the average student pulls down a $5,000 subsidized Stafford loan which is below the max limit then you have an annual Federally subsidized income stream of $500 million flowing into Liberty University, much of which will drift into Falwell’s pocket and to the pockets of all the other grifters who have latched onto that institution.

     

    If you start doing loan forgiveness for students who attend institutions like this then you are basically eliminating the student from the equation and pumping the $500 million of tax dollars straight into Falwell’s pocket.  Pretty good grift no?  Obviously those numbers are probably high as not everyone gets loans.  But even if they are just 1/2 that amount the sums are astonishing.

     

    I’m sympathetic about student loan debt but I also don’t want to see billions of my tax dollars going to subsidize these sorts of private fundamentalist cancers.  I also don’t think forgiving the student loans of rich doctors with mcmansions in the suburbs and new SUVs  is necessarily a greater priority than forgiving the medical loans of say a single working mom who has a child with leukemia and $200,000 in medical debt as a result.

  45. 45.

    Mary G

    @mrmoshpotato: It’s going to be awful anyway. Ed Kilgore at NY Mag:

    For consumers of the hearings on television, the key thing to understand is that there are 41 members of the Judiciary Committee, compared with only 23 members of the Intelligence Committee. So the hearings will be longer even if Nadler sticks to one round of questioning per witness.
    Another key question is whether the tone of the hearings will improve from what we saw in the Intelligence Committee, given the gravity associated with the proximity of formal articles of impeachment. That’s not likely. No, it won’t be easy for Judiciary Republicans to match Devin Nunes’s hammer-headed invocation of right-wing conspiracy theories or the contempt he showed for Schiff (who reciprocated). But two of the most combative Intelligence Committee Republicans, Jim Jordan and John Ratcliffe, are also on Judiciary and will get to keep up their barrage of insults toward Democrats and their witnesses. For comic relief, Judiciary includes the grand old troglodyte of the far-right fringe, Louis Gohmert. Another especially wild Trump fan, Matt Goetz, will also be present.

    I’m not setting the alarm and getting up by 6 a.m. to watch boring experts explain the Constitution and then be yelled at by these cretins for hours.

  47. 47.

    Czanne

    @Jinchi: though that can be interpreted as that Mary being a Cool Girl who gets to hang out with the dudes through demonstrated affection for chili dogs, beer and burping (and good foot massages) instead of being the means of production of said chili dogs and beer.

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mary G:

    I’m not setting the alarm and getting up by 6 a.m. to watch boring experts explain the Constitution and then be yelled at by these cretins for hours.

    You’re no fun.

  50. 50.

    chris

    @Dan B:

    Will they be used to lock up social justice advocates and investigative reporters as was done during the Red Scare?

    That will depend on the number of members like Page vs the number of members like Barr. I’m not taking bets…

  52. 52.

    Jinchi

    @Czanne: I’m not saying that Martha didn’t have a legitimate gripe. But I don’t think Jesus would come off looking better if he had agreed with her and sent Mary away.

  53. 53.

    trnc

    @Kent:

     

    I agree with you 100% on the loan forgiveness, which should definitely be means tested for the student and require some standards for the institutions. As far as tuition, I’d rather see low cost loans and subsidies rather than “free” tuition because:

    • it isn’t free
    • a good college education has value, so it’s worth paying something for it as a customer
  56. 56.

    Kent

    @trnc:

    I agree with you 100% on the loan forgiveness, which should definitely be means tested for the student and require some standards for the institutions. As far as tuition, I’d rather see low cost loans and subsidies rather than “free” tuition because:

    • it isn’t free
    • a good college education has value, so it’s worth paying something for it as a customer

     

    Just getting public university tuition (and fees) back to the inflation-adjusted equivalent of what they were in the 1960s would be a monumental accomplishment.   Where say an average student could pay for a year of college tuition by working a really hard summer job and then pay for room and board during the school year by waiting tables or whatever.

     

    Problem with free university in places like Europe is that it ends up devaluing education and you end up with lots of professional “tenured” students who are poking around universities into their 30s because it doesn’t cost them much of anything.  We don’t need free college, just reasonably priced college that is affordable for most and then subsidies for the most needy.

     

    What worries me today is that the right seems to be waging a new war on higher education and turning it into the next culture war.  This is just weird to me.  Used to be Republicans were just as supportive of higher education as Democrats, or close too it.  Today we are developing a huge gulf and it doesn’t bode well for this country.

  57. 57.

    Arclite

    He preferred hanging with his group of fellow believers to getting an honest job

    So He was the original John Galt?

  58. 58.

    dmsilev

    @Kent: I’d far rather spend the money funding state schools, from community colleges all the way up through flagship universities. Get state school tuition down to where it was a generation or so (inflation-adjusted) and you solve a lot of problems.

  59. 59.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jay: fuckin fig tree knows what it did

     

    (I have got to make good on my plans to read that book one of these days… I hear it’s getting more and more attention, lots of people are talking about it)

  60. 60.

    Steve in the ATL

    Where on earth are you people meeting actual communists?  I thought they existed only in history books and right wing slash fiction.

  61. 61.

    Arclite

    @Baud:

    Firk
    Kwell
    Falk

    “Firk you”

    “Falk you too”

    “KwellThxBye”

     

    I dunno, they probably made the right choice, but given how these conservative namings have gone in the past, that it was right was probably coincidental.

  63. 63.

    CarolDuhart2

    One way to handle the “tenured student” problem is requiring degree progress and some sort of “gap year” where the student has to do something else.  People who have a hard time due to childcare issues, health issues, and whatnot can document their issues.  But if the student is not burdened,  “gap year” for them where they have to leave and get a job or just go elsewhere.   And degree progress?  If not at a certain point, issue a “general degree” anyway and they have to leave if without documented hardship.

  64. 64.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Steve in the ATL:

    right wing slash fiction 

    Sexy, sexy proletariat

    (Sorry, slashfic immediately makes me think of ridiculous things.  Or ridiculous thongs autocorrect.)

     

    P.S. Dinosaur erotica!

  65. 65.

    Repatriated

    @trnc:

    …rather than “free” tuition because:

    it isn’t free
    a good college education has value, so it’s worth paying something for it as a customer

    An educated citizenry has societal value, especially in a democracy. This makes it worth subsidizing with public funds.

    Means-testing presents barriers that those of lower socioeconomic status may not be able to navigate but those of high SES may be able to evade. Additionally, constraining the benefit to those of low SES reduces the constituency for it to those with the least political influence.

  66. 66.

    CarolDuhart2

    @CarolDuhart2: Now some of the “tenured students” are very affluent and really don’t have to get a job somewhere.  Those people can be invited to start paying for their tuition if they haven’t made much progress on some degree.

     

    But I ran into nuns who spent 20 years teaching and working towards that degree, or people with jobs during the day that did the same.  So if we can be compassionate enough to cover these hardships, we can be firm on those who are just hanging around with no aim.

  67. 67.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Steve in the ATL:

     

    I know one person who describes herself as communist. She’s a transactional lawyer in my office, and had escaped Bosnia shortly before the war. She’d come of age during the mid 70s when Tito was a maverick communist. She’s culturally Muslim but doesn’t spend much time at the mosque.

     

    She has no love for banks or hedge funds, but is generally OK with private enterprise.

  68. 68.

    Bruuuuce

    Also, He preferred hanging with his group of fellow believers to getting an honest job

    But He was a carpenter. Might not have been a soshulist (though in fact He was), but it’s a lock that He was a damned union guy.

  69. 69.

    Ken

    @Jinchi: There is a fairly recent short story, I don’t remember the author, where Jesus instead helps Martha clean, then when that’s done he goes back to teaching.

  71. 71.

    jayjaybear

    @Rusty: I’d read that Falwell Junior was never a major preacher. That was his younger brother, Jonathan, who was the one who actually took over Thomas Road. Jerry Junior has Liberty U, which he runs like the typical, if grasping and grifting, college administrator.

  72. 72.

    Origuy

    Regarding C.R.E.A.M, this is an opportunity to point out the link to the Lexicon at the top of your page. There you will find the definition of this acronym, along with other BJ vocabulary such as Doughy Pantload, Glibertarian, and the ever-popular Skull Fuck a Kitten.

    Just another feature of this full-service blog.

  76. 76.

    NotMax

    Labeling atheism a religion? It’s well beyond tunnel vision, it’s pea shooter vision.

    What a cramped and fetid world they inhabit.

  77. 77.

    boatboy_srq

    Someone should tell these asshats that Falkirk generally means one of two things:

    1. The battle where the English defeated the Scots, adding fuel to an already centuries-old feud. Faith had nothing to do with this particular conflict: just ethnicity and geography.
    2. The battle where a Catholic pretender to the British throne handed the Brits arses – briefly, and eventually fruitlessly.

    Neither of these events are especially useful for FundiEvangelist thought.

  78. 78.

    Citizen Alan

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

     

    She has no love for banks or hedge funds, but is generally OK with private enterprise.

    I’ve often wondered to what extent the nation’s hysterical fears of Islam are driven by the fact that (IIRC) Islam forbids the charging of interest, which makes it as much a threat to western capitalism as communism was.

  82. 82.

    boatboy_srq

    @chopper: Gun-totin’ Capitalist White Jeebus handed the Constitooshun to the Founding Fathers in 1787. It was inscribed in microdot on the third tablet that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai and that Joshua lost in the Red Sea.

  83. 83.

    chris

    Winning the war against socialism is everything! I’m sure Republican Jesus approves.

    Trump's proposed cuts to food stamps would affect:- 400,000 people in Texas- 328,000 in Florida- 225,000 in Pennsylvania- 176,000 in Washington State- 165,000 in Michigan- 118,000 in Wisconsin- 97,000 in GeorgiaPass it on.— Robert Reich (@RBReich) November 30, 2019

  86. 86.

    Zinsky

    Someone needs to point out to these gaping sphincters that Jesus hung out with tax collectors!  The Apostle Matthew (aka Mattias) was one.  Tell them that and watch their heads explode!

  88. 88.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Citizen Alan:

     

    You bring up a really interesting point about Muslims and finance. There is a  method of Muslim lending, but it is Shariah compliant – I think it is more or less a flat rate for the use of funds, but doesn’t increase with time.

    One other thing – in Muslim communities, both ends of any transaction are negotiable, and not necessarily governed by the four corners of a contract. Muslim judges will look at both ends for basic fairness, and someone doing business would do well to price it in before.

  92. 92.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Czanne: Infamous statement from 60s ‘ the only place for women in the Movement is prone’!!

     

    It’s claimed the women walked out and started the Women’s Liberation Movement

  93. 93.

    karen marie

    @Origuy:  Thanks for that reminder.  I actually did remember, and I thought about looking there but I’m a lazy socialist and figured I’d let someone else do the work.

  94. 94.

    catclub

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That fig tree had ONE job.

     

    I agree on reading that book, especially for the atheists.

    The goofball who asked Slate what to do about the Fundamentalist Christian who thought he/she was destined for hell….

    Should a known Matthew 25:34-47

    Not a thing about believing, a LOT about serving your fellow humans.

  96. 96.

    Steve in the ATL

    @mrmoshpotato:

     

    Sorry, slashfic immediately makes me think of ridiculous things

    Oh absolutely! I’ve never read any but that’s the impression I get merely from its description (“your tight mustard yellow shirt is giving me feelings that my Vulcan brain cannot process, captain.” “Your tight powder blue shirt brings out the lack of empathy in your eyes, Spock”)

  102. 102.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @TS (the original): Came here to say exactly that – it was literally the first thing I thought of. In point of fact, I spent some of the happiest times of my life there. I really can’t stand having such a lovely town tainted by association with these two assclowns.

     

    Ceterum censeo factionem Republicanam esse delendam.

  103. 103.

    trnc

    @Repatriated:

    Means-testing presents barriers that those of lower socioeconomic status may not be able to navigate but those of high SES may be able to evade. Additionally, constraining the benefit to those of low SES reduces the constituency for it to those with the least political influence.

    I’m only suggesting means testing for loan forgiveness. Whatever improvements are made on accessibility of future loans should be available to all.

  104. 104.

    trnc

    Growing concerns in conservative circles that liberals are trying to convert young Christians into socialists by distorting the Bible and U.S. Constitution have prompted Virginia’s Liberty University to form a new center to push back on the media, academics, and Democratic politicians.

    Safe to say this means the observation that “everything Jesus did was the opposite of what today’s republican does” is making some inroads?

  105. 105.

    trnc

    @trnc:

    I’m only suggesting means testing for loan forgiveness. Whatever improvements are made on accessibility of future loans should be available to all.

    ETA: Actually, means testing loan forgiveness is probably silly since few wealthy kids probably took out loans. Also, I realize means testing in general makes it easier to demonize.

  106. 106.

    Chris Johnson

    @trnc: Yep. Basically, to properly move in a modern Democratic direction, forget means testing for things. Price whatever you think you’re losing through lack of means testing into progressive taxation.

     

    Remember that if the ultra-rich get away with screaming about how they will end the world or flee to New Zealand for being taxed one extra percent (when historically they’ve had to pay ten or a hundred times as much on their excess capital during less capital-friendly times), then they will also scream the same things that you are not paying THEM an extra percent beyond the nothing they pay
 or ten, or a hundred, or everything you have. They have NO OFF SWITCH, you can’t go by the screams of the rich. It’s meaningless when the answer is always the same.

     

    The goal for a functioning society is to have the public goods functional and low in overhead. You absolutely can’t means-test everything, even universal basic income, because the overhead eats up any benefit you’d provide. What you gotta do is give from one hand and then empower the IRS to take from those who clearly have waaay too much to require such help. But the help, that’s just a public service, like roads, or perhaps trains (housing?). You can make baseline versions of these things, then it’s up to people to aspire for more, which they inevitably will do. Government cheese will never be cool or a status symbol.

Comments are closed.