Nike & The Flag
 
Nike had a great idea to celebrate America's upcoming 243rd birthday with a new shoe design sporting a patriotic look by featuring the Betsy Ross flag.  Unfortunately, you can't buy it. 
 
Nike pulled the shoes from store shelves after Colin Kaepernick complained.  Sources say that the original NFL kneeler found the flag "offensive." A company spokesman told the Wall Street Journal, "Nike has chosen not to release the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July as it featured the old version of the American flag."
 
In my opinion, this is just an excuse.  I suspect Kaepernick would have objected to any version of the flag, old or contemporary.
 
This is just another example of the left's hatred of America.  Any historical reference about America pre-1860 is considered by some to be so evil that it cannot be displayed.  Monuments to our Founding Fathers are routinely vandalized and at risk of being torn down. 
 
And now the left claims that the Betsy Ross flag is a symbol of slavery and oppression rather than freedom and independence from Great Britain. 
 
Sadly, a spoiled ingrate like Colin Kaepernick is in a position to tell a conglomerate like Nike what is appropriate.  Yet Kaepernick will never come close to being as important to America as Betsy Ross.
 
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey is reportedly canceling state tax incentives for Nike, tweeting:
 
"Words cannot express my disappointment at this terrible decision.  I am embarrassed for Nike. . . Nike has made its decision, and now we're making ours. . . Arizona's economy is doing just fine without Nike. We don't need to suck up to companies that consciously denigrate our nation's history."
 
The Nike flag flap comes as a new Gallup poll reveals a continuing decline in the percentage of Americans who are proud of our country.  The decline in patriotism is most pronounced among self-identified liberals and our nation's youth.  And that is no coincidence.
 
The vast majority of educators, teachers and college professors, identify as liberals or progressives.  And too often these ideologues are teaching our children anti-American history.
 
 
 
Progressives vs. The Holocaust Museum
 
The Holocaust Museum is now feeling the wrath of the progressive left.  What's that, you say?  The preeminent institution on the Holocaust is being attacked by the left?  Yes it is.
 
I recently reported to you that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared border detention facilities to concentration camps.  The Holocaust Museum, well-known for its non-partisanship, issued a statement saying it was unacceptable to compare U.S. immigration policy and our border facilities to the camps where six million Jews died. 
 
Now hundreds of "scholars" have gone on the record urging the Holocaust Museum to recant its criticism of AOC.  Incredibly, the scholars are accusing the museum -- not AOC -- of "taking a radical position," and they are threatening the museum's reputation as "a credible, leading global institution dedicated to Holocaust memory, Holocaust education and research."
 
This is another example of how the left demands that facts and reality must bend when the truth conflicts with left-wing ideology. 
 
These so-called "scholars" are in fact left-wing activists.  Their letter is an attack on free speech and academic integrity in the pursuit of a political agenda.  They are members of the social justice mob, attempting to browbeat every institution, even the Holocaust Museum, into submission in order to advance the left's agenda. 
 
They should be ashamed of themselves, as should any institution affiliated with them.
 
 
 
2020 Update
 
A CNN poll released overnight confirms what many political observers suspected.  The two days of Democrat debates took a toll on the frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, and boosted Sen. Kamala Harris.  Here are the results:
 
Biden 22% 
Harris 17% 
Warren 15%
Sanders 14%
 
No other candidate received double digit support.
 
Since CNN's last poll, Biden is down 10 points, Harris is up 9 points and Elizabeth Warren is up eight points.  Bernie Sanders has lost four points.