‘WHATEVER IT IS, I’M AGAINST IT:’

In a couple of days, we’ve gone from a celebrity saying a flag is bad, to a major corporation indulging that judgment, to presidential candidates and governors blithely confirming and cementing it. In my view, though, the scariest part is not so much “how quick it has been,” but that there has been no argument or explanation to speak of. Upon the instant, professional progressivism has accepted the change as if it were taking orders from on high. “The flag is in the bad column now? Got it. Will amend attitude and proceed accordingly.”

Asked about the flag, Beto O’Rourke said, “I think it’s really important to take into account the impression that kind of symbol would have for many of our fellow Americans, respect the decision Nike made and grateful for the conversation.”

What “impression”? Which “fellow Americans”? What “conversation”?

Social media is an unhealthy virus — somebody should write a book about that.

THE BORING SPACE-CAPSULE ORION, NOT THE COOL NUKE-POWERED ORION: NASA has successfully tested one of the most crucial systems on its future Orion spacecraft: the launch abort system (LAS).

BACK AND TO THE LEFT…BACK AND TO THE LEFT…Neo: If Kamala makes Obama 2008 look right-wing, so do Klobuchar & the rest.

KYLE SMITH: This Fourth of July, why have we lost our patriotism?

For the haters, it’s open season on the American ideal.

Colin Kaepernick doesn’t like today’s American flag because it reminds him of police brutality and he doesn’t like Betsy Ross’ O.G. flag because it reminds him of slavery. I’m starting to think maybe Colin Kaepernick is not so fond of the flag, or of the country that made him rich.

Nike supported him by withdrawing the Betsy Ross-flagged sneaker. That’s right, the American flag, in any form, is now apparently a toxic symbol. The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, actually praised Nike.

Meanwhile, the Charlottesville City Council just voted to stop celebrating Thomas Jefferson’s birthday in the city where he died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence he wrote. American patriotism has just reached a record low entirely because of Democrats, of whom only 22% say they’re “extremely proud” of their country. To celebrate the Fourth, America’s most prominent newspaper is bidding for the trolling Hall of Fame by running a video, titled “Please stop telling me America is great,” that argues how America is “just OK.”

Remember the distant past of 2016, when leading voices of progressivism were saying, “America never stopped being great” (Hillary Clinton) and “America is already great” (Barack Obama)? All that’s over.

Which is why the left’s motto today, Stacy McCain writes, is “Happy Fourth of July, You Fascists!”

The Democrats are now a party of paranoid conspiracy theorists:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said in a new interview that she believes the United States is heading in a fascist direction under President Trump.
“Are we headed to fascism? Yes. I don’t think there’s a question,” Ocasio-Cortez told Yahoo News earlier this week after she visited migrant detention facilities managed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“If you actually take the time to study, and to look at the steps, and to see how government transforms under authoritarian regimes, and look at the political decisions and patterns of this president, the answer is yes.”

They define fascism as “whenever Democrats lose elections,” and therefore when Ocasio-Cortez says we are “headed to fascism,” what she means is that Trump will be re-elected. After all, Democrats believe the Betsy Ross flag is a symbol of “white supremacy,” so we shouldn’t be surprised that they consider patriotism a synonym for “hate.”

In contrast, Cocaine Mitch ensures that at least today, cooler heads prevail:

Related: Of course, the DNC-MSM freaking out on the Fourth isn’t all that new a phenomenon: NewsBusters compiles nearly 30 years of choice quotes: Fourth of July Flashback: The Press Blasts Racist and Awful America.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Taco Bell is facing a tortilla shortage and it might be time to panic.

ROGER KIMBALL: The joys of Independence Day in London.

ROGER SIMON ON THE FOURTH OF JULY: Hate in the Time of Peace and Prosperity.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Now Betsy Ross Is a White Supremacist, Apparently.

Exit Question: “It was good enough for Obama’s inauguration. Not anymore. If Betsy Ross is racist now, how about the 76ers? The Patriots? Should we start picketing showings of Hamilton?”

CERTAINLY AS OPPOSED TO ADMINISTRATORS, WHO SHOULD BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD. OR BETTER YET, NOT HIRED. Faculty members need to reassert themselves as the people who direct discourse on campuses. “When the past academic year began, I warned that professors have ceded ground to a growing and powerful class of student-facing administrators who not only shape considerable academic discourse at colleges and universities but also are dangerous to the promotion of deliberative dialogue. Those administrators — in offices such as student life and residential education — are overwhelmingly liberal and have fostered the creation of a progressive and activist monoculture among students on many campuses with their extracurricular agenda-setting power.”

They add no value, and their positions should largely be eliminated.

ALL THE DEMOCRATS HAVE TO DO IS NOT BE CRAZY, AND THEY CAN’T EVEN MANAGE THAT: The Genius of Trump, the Madness of the Libs.

CONGRATULATIONS! The College Fix celebrates another successful year of campus journalism.

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ANALYSIS: TRUE. The 1776 Flag Isn’t the Problem. Anti-American Leftists Are.

Seen on Facebook: “Trump has the left protesting the Fourth of July!”

HEH: Imperial AT-ATs Begin Arriving In Capital For Military Parade.

Note to Snopes: This is the Babylon Bee, so it’s satire — or is it?

CHANGE: Trump doubles Obama level of Christian refugees welcomed in US.

RESTAURANT WITH ‘MY GIRLFRIEND IS NOT HUNGRY’ MENU ITEM GOES VIRAL:

It’s a tale as old as time: Boyfriend takes girlfriend out to eat, girlfriend claims she’s “not hungry” — and then proceeds to eat half of the boyfriend’s meal.

Social media users have dubbed it “date night food-theft” — and in Arkansas, there seems to finally be a solution.

A restaurant called Mama D’s, in North Little Rock, has been serving a menu item known as the “My Girlfriend is Not Hungry,” which adds “extra french fries to your entrée, and fried chicken wings (2) or fried cheese sticks (3).”

The restaurant has been cooking up the side dish for a while now, along with several other food joints across the country, but it only recently went viral.

Well, this is America after all.

Farragut, Tennessee. Happy Fourth of July!

20 MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: The Left’s Endgame Is Not Chaos. It’s Worse.

WELL, ART IS ART, ISN’T IT? STILL, ON THE OTHER HAND, WATER IS WATER. AND EAST IS EAST AND WEST IS WEST AND IF YOU TAKE CRANBERRIES AND STEW THEM LIKE APPLESAUCE THEY TASTE MUCH MORE LIKE PRUNES THAN RHUBARB DOES. NOW YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW: Marianne Williamson Makes It To Second Round Of Dem Debates.

I’m pretty sure it was Treacher who put her over the top.

OF COURSE THEY DO: California Politicians Want More Federal Money to Keep Doing a Terrible Job With Homelessness.

LIES, LIES, AND MORE LIES: Rep. Dan Crenshaw on AOC: First There Was No Crisis, Then It Was A Manufactured Crisis, Now People Are Nazis.

WELL, THEY’RE LEFTIES, SO EMOTIONALLY OVERWROUGHT HATE DISGUISED AS COMPASSION IS THEIR GO-TO: Double down: Border critics fundraise off ‘concentration camp’ comparison, mock US flag.