It doesn’t seem to matter how unlikely, ahistorical, or plain dumb the story is (or as we have learned to say, the “narrative”), there is always a market for it, especially among the gullible, resentful, and ill-informed. Colin Kaepernick, currently with the San Francisco Forty-Niners, is all three, and therefore vulnerable to the political left’s phantasm that American police officers are little more than ku kluxers, devoted to taking the lives of law-abiding African Americans at every opportunity.

By now almost everyone has learned of Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the National Anthem before games because America, according to him, is a racist hell-hole. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” he said in explanation of his dissing of America.

The assertions that contemporary America systematically oppresses blacks, or that police officers in America are systematically anti-black racists and a threat to the lives of law-abiding black citizens, are too transparently false to even justify rebuttals. But a certain political party, which shall remain nameless, relentlessly retails this vision of Bull Connor’s America in order to ensure that black voters will remain a wholly-owned subsidiary of said political party. It has worked so far.

Kaepernick is just one of the latest to rise to this pernicious bait, and one whom the media attaches a lot of attention to because of his employer. Which employer, by the way, is oppressing Kaepernick this season to the tune of $11.9 million, even though this five-year veteran of the NFL has yet to learn how to be a pocket quarterback. Kaepernick’s scrambling on the football field doesn’t work as well as it did at first. (NFL defenses always catch up to the college game.) And his scrambled view of the country that has so richly rewarded him doesn’t work at all.

Kaepernick isn’t the only household name malcontent from this week’s news. Barbra Streisand, whom America has showered with attention, affection, and money for decades, told 60 Minutes interviewer Michael Usher Sunday that she would move to Australia or Canada if Donald Trump is elected president in November. Can we have that in writing, Babs?

If the Donald does prevail, perhaps Barbra and Colin could go down under together. They wouldn’t be missed in patriotic precincts here. And is it too much to ask that they take Alec Baldwin with them? He’s one of these entertainment bums who promise to leave if the conservative candidate wins and are never as good as their word (see 2000).