STEVEN HAYWARD: Normal America Returns. The political class’s worst nightmare!

OPEN THREAD: It’s time we made the most, of what’s left of the night.

LIFE IN LOS ANGELES:  If trans women are women, they’re at least a bit more violent than most of the women I know.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: SpaceX tracking camera captures epic video of Falcon 9 rocket landing.

GIVEN WHAT THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS DOING TO THE WORLD, THESE PEOPLE ARE HEROES: Some Chinese shun grueling careers for ‘low-desire life.’

“Lying flat” is a “resistance movement” to a “cycle of horror” from high-pressure Chinese schools to jobs with seemingly endless work hours, novelist Liao Zenghu wrote in Caixin, the country’s most prominent business magazine.

“In today’s society, our every move is monitored and every action criticized,” Liao wrote. “Is there any more rebellious act than to simply ‘lie flat?’” . . .

In a sign of the issue’s political sensitivity, four professors who were quoted by the Chinese press talking about “lying flat” declined to discuss it with a foreign reporter.

Enjoy life, Chinese slackers, and let the commies do their own work.

I MAY HAVE TO LIVE IN CALIFORNIA, BUT AT LEAST I’M NOT IN SAN FRANCISCO:  San Francisco Target, Walgreens Stores to Close Early Due to Rampant Theft.

T-CELLS ARE THE KEY: Researchers find potential path to a broadly protective COVID-19 vaccine using T cells.

JUST SAY NO TO THE KILLJOYS: Why ‘Grilling Is Bad’ Is A Bad Hot Take.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Culture Wars Are Long Wars.

TRYING TO STAY AHEAD OF THE KOREANS (CONT’D): 2022 Mercedes-Maybach S680 4Matic First Drive: Big Luxury in Every Sense. “Among the few options to be offered to American buyers is a package that adds heated and cooled cupholders to the rear-seat center console, along with tables that fold out from it like those in a first-class airline seat. Other options include a fridge—complete with a pair of metal champagne flutes—that’s accessed via a panel between the seats, and an electric opening and closing system for the rear doors actuated by switches mounted in the roof, just above the rear windows. . . . The 12-cylinder Maybach S680 may not have the extraordinary presence of a Rolls-Royce Phantom, but it comes with much more high-tech amenities for less than half the price. Meanwhile, the V-8-powered S580 is bigger, roomier, and more ostentatiously opulent than a similarly priced Bentley Flying Spur.”

Plus, zero-to-sixty in 4.4 seconds. Nothing I would buy, but definitely fancy.

HOW ALIENS COULD FIND US: At Least 2,034 Ways Earth Has Blown Its Cover.

BORED WHILE YOU WAIT TO LIGHT THE GRILL AND SHOOT OFF FIREWORKS? Here’s a special Independence Day bonus open thread.

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Regular physical activity linked to more ‘fit’ preteen brains.

WEREN’T PREHISTORIC SUVs THE REAL REASON? Climate change, not humans, fueled decline of prehistoric elephants, mammoths.

TAX TAKERS WANT TO FORM A TAX CARTEL: U.S. Proposal For 15% Global Minimum Tax Wins Support From 130 Countries.

FOURTH OF JULY T-SHIRT SALE: Helen’s Page advertiser No-System is having a buy 2 get one free sale. Celebrate the 4th with a Capitalists T-shirt. And these Gadsden flag earrings are back in stock!

SHADES OF FARR’S LAW: Analysis: COVID-19 has dropped from top killer in U.S. to 7th since January.

RANDY BARNETT: What the Declaration of Independence Said and Meant.. “It officially adopted the American Theory of Government: First Come Rights; Then Comes Government to Secure These Rights.”

JULY 4 THOUGHTS FROM JIM BOVARD: Why Not Draft The Next Congress? “The All-Volunteer Congress has proved to be a failure. Its cost is extremely high and there is not a proportional representation of minorities. There are also many doubts about the honesty and intelligence of the recent volunteers. . . . Randomly picking people off the street would give a much higher level of honesty and responsibility.”

STACY MCCAIN: ‘Harmful Extremist Content’? Why Does Facebook Want You to Be ‘Concerned’?

The political class is in midst of running a huge con, and they don’t want the marks to catch on until it’s too late.

J.D. VANCE: “If you look at every issue in this country, every issue I believe traces back to this fact: On the one hand, the elites in the ruling class in this country are robbing us blind, and on the other, if you dare complain about it, you are a bad person.”

Or an “extremist.”

ICYMI: Canadian official admits ban on in-person gatherings is to prevent spread of ‘false information.’ “‘The information’ being shared during in-person gatherings ‘itself if listened to creates risk to the public,’ claimed stammering Nova Scotia chief medical doctor Robert Strang, necessitating ‘a need to manage that misinformation campaign’ by restricting socializing.”

INDEPENDENCE DAY THOUGHTS FROM HANNAH COX: Weren’t We Always Extremists? “When we said, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,’ the reality is that this principle had been self-evident to practically no one throughout thousands of years of history. When we said that all men are ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,’ it got people’s attention, and suddenly others began to agree. When we said humans are entitled to ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,’ it became a violation to impede such things. But make no mistake. These notions were not mainstream when our founders threw down the gauntlet with the Declaration of Independence.”

Plus: “I always find it odd that America alone is criticized for injustices such as slavery, racism, inequality, and civil rights violations. It’s as if the vast majority of people are truly under the impression these injustices only ever happened here. In truth, the entirety of human history is marred by these evils, and in many places, you’ll find much worse conditions for civil liberties to this day.”

AND THEY CLAIM TO BE ANTI-FASCIST:  Today’s blacklisted American: YouTube blacklists group exposing Chinese genocide in its Xinjiang region.

IT’S INDEPENDENCE DAY: ABA Gets An Earful Over Proposed Diversity Training Mandate For Law Students.