patriotism

So Jimmy Kimmel is coming back, fast enough that there are still folks out there who didn’t know he was gone.

Hallelujah? Praise be to ABC? Free speech triumphs?

It all depends on Tuesday night, when we see if Kimmel returns undaunted, or if he has been subdued. Of all the consequential, crazy, frightening events that have taken place in recent days, Kimmel’s return should be a moment we all watch — a real-time, late-night look at how successful our president is at forcing us to censor ourselves through fear.

Please, Jimmy, don’t back down.

If Kimmel tempers his comedy now, pulls his punches on making fun of power, he sends the message that we should all be afraid, that we should all bend. Maybe he didn’t sign up for this, but here he is — a person in a position of influence being forced to make a risky choice between safety and country.

That sounds terribly dramatic, I know, but self-censorship is the heart of authoritarianism. When people of power are too scared to even crack a joke, what does that mean for the average person?

If Kimmel, with his celebrity, clout and wealth, cannot stand up to this president, what chance do the rest of us have?

Patriotism used to be a simple thing. A bit of apple pie, a flag on the Fourth of July, maybe even a twinge of pride when the national anthem plays and all the words pop into your mind even though you can’t find your car keys or remember what day it is.

It’s just something there, running in the background — an unspoken acknowledgment that being American is a pretty terrific thing to be.

Now, of course, patriotism is the most loaded of words. It’s been masticated and barfed out by the MAGA movement into a specific gruel — a white, Western-centric dogma that demands a narrow and angry Christianity dominate civic life.

There have been a deluge of examples of this subversion in recent days. The Pentagon is threatening to punish journalists who report information it doesn’t explicitly provide. The president used social media to demand U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi go after his perceived enemies.

The one that put a knot in my stomach was the speech by Stephen Miller, Trump’s immigration czar, speaking, without humor, at the memorial for Charlie Kirk.

“We are the storm,” Miller said, hinting back at a QAnon conspiracy theory about a violent reordering of society.

That’s disturbing, but actually mild compared with what he said next, a now-familiar Christian nationalist rant.

“Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello,” Miller said. “Our ancestors built the cities they produced, the art and architecture they built. The industry.”

Who’s going to tell him about Sally Hemings? But he continued with an attack on the “yous” who don’t agree with this worldview, the “yous,” like Kimmel, one presumes (though Kimmel’s name did not come up) who oppose this cruel version of America.

“You are wickedness, you are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred, you are nothing,” Miller said. “You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing.”

Humor, of course, ain’t nothing, which is why this administration can’t stand it.

Humor builds camaraderie. It produces dopamine and serotonin, the glue of human bonding. It drains away fear, and creates hope.

Which is why autocrats always go after comedians pretty early on. It’s not thin skin, though Trump seems to have that. It’s effective management of dissent.

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels knew it. In 1939, after his party had set up a Chamber of Culture that required all performers to adhere to certain rules, he banned five German comedians — Werner Finck, Peter Sachse, Helmuth Buth, Wilhelm Meissner and Manfred Dlugi — for making political jokes that didn’t support the regime. He basically ended their careers for daring satire against Nazi leaders, claiming people didn’t find it funny.

“(I)n their public appearances they displayed a lack of any positive attitude toward National Socialism and therewith caused grave annoyance in public and especially to party comrades,” the New York Times reported the German government claiming at the time.

Sounds familiar.

Kimmel, of course, is not the only comedian speaking out. Jon Stewart has hit back on “The Daily Show,” pretending to be scared into submission, perhaps a hat tip to Finck, who famously joked, “I am not saying anything. And even that I am not saying.”

Stephen Colbert roasted Disney with a very funny parody video. Political cartoonists are having a field day.

And there are plenty of others pushing back. Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken to all-caps rebuttals. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, whom Trump called “nothing,” is also vocal in his opposition, especially of National Guard troops in Chicago.

The collective power of the powerful is no joke. It means something.

But all the sober talk in the world can’t rival one spot-on dig when it comes to kicking the clay feet of would-be dictators. Mark Twain said it best: Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. Which is what makes Kimmel so relevant in this moment.

Can he come back with a laugh — proving we have nothing to fear but fear itself — or are we seriously in trouble?

Former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron draped himself in an England flag and declared his love for his country at the opening night rally of the party’s conference in Bournemouth.

“We will not have our history, our heritage, and our home stolen by the poison of nationalism,” the MP roared as he called on members to “reclaim patriotism” from the far right.

Farron’s flag also featured a union jack in one corner. And confetti cannons rained glitter over him as the brass bombast of Land of Hope and Glory rang out and a giant union jack appeared on the screen behind him.

The theatrics seemed to work, as a membership sometimes mocked for its mild-mannered approach got to its collective feet and filled the air with whoops of approval and the flutter of hundreds of mini flags.

Farron told a hall full of activists to “stop being so flaming squeamish and English” and reclaim the UK’s flags from groups who seek to “divide and destroy”.

“Be proud of your country, the British flag and the flags of our four nations,” he said. “They are ours. They belong to all of us. Let’s take them back. Let’s wave them with pride.”

“Let us reclaim our flags for those who would reunite and rebuild, not divide and destroy, because we will not yield our identity, our flag, or our country, to the nationalists.

“A Britain that may be broken by the wickedness of hatred, fake news and isolation, but a Britain that I passionately believe is not beyond healing.”

At the end of his speech, the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale held aloft the giant England flag bearing the slogans “Pride of Lancashire” and “Rovers til I Die”, in support of his football team Blackburn Rovers.

The Liberal Democrats are going all out this week to claim that they are the true patriots, in contrast to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who they have dubbed a “plastic patriot”.

They have even created a “plastic patriot” Farage Lego figure, which is included in a welcome pack being handed out to journalists.

For a party that has largely shunned flag-waving displays of national pride, this is a new departure.

But the party’s MPs are eager to take the fight to Reform and insert themselves into the national debate, as St George’s Cross and Union flag are displayed in towns and cities across the UK.

Leader Sir Ed Davey was greeted by a flag-waving crowd of party activists as he led a marching band through Bournemouth Central Gardens, twirling a baton – a deliberately patriotic twist on his trademark stunts.

The band, which had arrived on the ferry from the Isle of Wight, played Sweet Caroline, a favourite among England football fans, as they came to a halt in front of the Bournemouth conference centre.

Elsewhere, a group calling themselves “Bournemouth Patriots” protested outside a hotel in the town being used to house migrants.

The group stood with national flags outside of the Roundhouse Hotel in the centre of the town, and were met by a counter-protest.

The Lib Dem leader told reporters: “The vast majority of people who’ve got decent values, respect for the rule of law, tolerance, who love our country like the Liberal Democrats do.

“They want to see a party that is true to British values but will change our country.”

India’s most recent encounter with Pakistan in the Asia Cup was celebrated as a patriotic spectacle: a win dedicated to the armed forces and those affected by the Pahalgam attack. Such declarations, however, expose something deeper: a strategy of playing politics with sport, hypocrisy masked as principle.

Beneath this posturing and tokenism lies a contradiction too stark to ignore. This is not just sport. It is cynical theatre in which administrators, players and commentators attempt to ride on two boats at the same time. The hypocrisy is visible to anyone with a sane set of eyes.

At the heart of this contradiction is the relationship between India and Pakistan in cricket. Officially, India refuses bilateral cricket with Pakistan. The line is firm: no tours, no series and no diplomacy. The justification rests on national security, especially after the clash between the South Asian neighbours in May.

Indian artists are banned from collaborating with their Pakistani counterparts. Pakistani singers and actors once popular in India have been cut off on social media and otherwise. Indian celebrities themselves are trolled and shamed for past collaborations done on neutral grounds.

Yet the same ecosystem explodes with excitement when India faces Pakistan in multination tournaments. Matches are packaged as spectacles, marketed as the “greatest rivalry” and cashed in for billions in advertising revenue.

This duality is not accidental. Jay Shah, now serving in International Cricket Council (ICC) leadership, has been accused of pressuring Team India into playing Pakistan despite reluctance from within the camp. Sanjay Raut, a member of parliament in India, recently alleged that Shah’s hand forced the decision, turning the match into an obligation rather than a choice.

If true, this signals how far politics has penetrated Indian cricket administration for the sake of money and clout. The game is no longer simply sport but a vehicle for symbolic battles decided in boardrooms, not dressing rooms.

The hypocrisy becomes sharper when one considers the home environment. While Indians in other spheres faced online lynching for working with Pakistani colleagues even before the war, cricketers are being placed on a pedestal for defeating Pakistan. It is not only about double standards. It is about a calculated exploitation of sentiment.

Cricket is permitted as the only arena of “contact” because cricket sells more than most things in India. The ban on cultural exchange is explained as nationalism, but cricket is exempted in the name of multilateral obligations and commercial survival. Dedications of wins to soldiers and terror victims act as moral cover for what is essentially a business transaction. This is sheer hypocrisy and tokenism.

If India insists on involving politics in sport, consistency demands more. Look at Muslim athletes and countries known for boycotting matches against Israeli opponents. They forfeit games, risk sanctions and face bans. Whatever one thinks of their politics, their actions are clear, uncompromised and costly. They make a stand and face consequences.

India refuses bilateral cricket with Pakistan yet plays them in ICC tournaments because the money is too big to lose, especially when most of it comes home through viewership endorsements and advertisements. It tries to sail on two boats, waving nationalism with one hand while collecting profits with the other. The dedication of victories to the armed forces does not erase that contradiction. It exposes it.

The India-Pakistan rivalry itself is not what it used to be. Competitive balance has tilted drastically. India has dominated recent contests due to the Pakistani team’s poor form. Suspense is long gone, but the manufactured hype remains.

Broadcasters and advertisers pump the match as if it still defines the fate of nations. In reality, it defines the fate of sponsorship deals. The sporting value is hollowed out. The symbolic gestures after each victory only add to the theatre. In their latest match on Sunday, Indian players refused to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts.

Such dissonance turns patriotism into branding and erodes the dignity of national discourse. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, the ICC leadership and political voices close to the game must confront this contradiction. Cricket cannot remain both business and battlefield. A rivalry stripped of sporting essence but inflated with symbolism cannot endure. The Pahalgam victims deserve solidarity but should not be used as props for cricketing theatre. Sport deserves freedom from tokenism.

Instead of continuing this hybrid model of opportunism, India can opt for one of two choices. It can refuse to play Pakistan entirely, across all formats, including ICC tournaments. That would align deeds with words at the highest level. It would be costly in terms of ICC sanctions and revenues, but it would at least be consistent.

Or India can accept playing Pakistan as part of sport while removing politics and symbolic dedications from the game. That would mean treating cricket as cricket, not as a stage for nationalism.

India’s cricket establishment must choose one path. If it wants politics in sport, it must show the courage of consistency. If it wants to keep politics out, it must strip away the hollow dedications and patriotic posturing. The current approach of trying to sail on two boats is not sustainable. It fools no one, neither at home nor abroad. Cricket is being diminished by this hypocrisy and so is national dignity.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Rep. Robert Garcia’s relatives, many of Peruvian decent, have been asking him recently if they need to carry identification with them, as federal agents seemingly round up brown people at will.

His answer? Yes, but don’t let fear quell resistance.

“What’s happening right now with the terror of seeing masked men with rifles running into communities and scooping people up, the images that people are seeing on the TV of folks being sent to foreign prisons that have committed no crime, this is a serious moment,” he told me last week, ducking off the House floor where President Trump’s mess of a bill was being debated to speak by phone.

But “we cannot just allow all this to happen and for there to be no accountability for these actions,” Garcia added.

These days, Garcia is all about accountability. The Long Beach representative was recently was chosen by his Democratic congressional peers — after less than three years in office — for the minority party’s top job on the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

For those of you who aren’t government wonks, that’s a prime position for pushing back against Trump. So, as the president would say, it’s A BIG DEAL! Especially for a young guy — because usually the role goes to an old politician with seniority.

That’s left some, myself included, wondering if Garcia, 47, isn’t our insider Zohran Mamdani — the young, charismatic New Yorker whose recent win in the mayoral primary has left Democrats reeling with the reality that voters want fighters, and that patriotism isn’t just what MAGA decides it is.

Garcia has the same kind of energy and confidence that his version of America — one that is unabashedly inclusive, affordable and fair — is what his constituents want, and one he’s expected to fight for.

“I love this country,” Garcia said. “I feel like Trump and his minions don’t understand what real patriotism is.”

If you missed the fantastic profile of Garcia that my colleagues Seema Mehta and Andrea Castillo did not long ago, I’ll give you the highlights. Garcia came to this country from Peru when he was 5, his parents like so many seeking safety and opportunity.

The family overstayed their visas and joined the millions of undocumented Californians working hard, hoping harder and dreaming of a day when America embraced them the way they embraced America.

His mom cleaned houses and worked in a thrift store. Garcia taught himself English reading Superman comics. He excelled in school and by the time he was in college, Ronald Reagan of all people offered him a path to citizenship with the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. He grabbed it.

“When I swore an oath to the Constitution, that actually meant something to me,” he said. “I had to fight for citizenship.”

Garcia went into public service and was elected mayor of Long Beach, the city’s youngest, first openly gay and first Latino mayor. Then he jumped to Congress in 2022, becoming president of his freshman Democratic class.

He is the American dream. But also the American nightmare to some on the far right, who may never forgive him for once being undocumented and doing the worst thing an undocumented person can do — succeed.

“I am who I am,” he said. “I’m a U.S. citizen. I have just as much right to be here and to serve as he does, and I’m not scared of Donald Trump.”

Garcia’s rapid rise in Congress shows he’s not just a brawler, but one with finesse. Garcia beat out Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch, 70, for the job on the Oversight Committee. And before that, Maryland Rep. Kweisi Mfume, 76, bowed out, lacking support. He also bested Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, 44, who has made a name for herself as a clever pugilist.

“It was clear by the numbers that my style of leadership is not exactly what [Democrats] were looking for, and so I didn’t think that it was fair for me to push forward and try to rebuke that,” Crockett told Politico after dropping her bid.

Garcia was able to combine his willingness to spar with the boring necessity of being a good manager, something he learned from running Long Beach. The committee role Garcia has now opened up when Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly died of cancer in May.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, long considered the youthful firebrand of the Democratic Party, sought the job earlier this year but was rebuffed in favor of Connolly, with his years of clout. But that was before Mamdani, and the internal blowup within the party over age and attitude.

Ocasio-Cortez decided not to pursue the role a second time, but Garcia said she was one of the first people he spoke with when he decided to try his own luck.

“It’s been clear to me that the party should welcome generational change,” he said, echoing a now-familiar line. “There’s a groundswell out there of folks that want new ideas, that want us to be aggressive against Trump.”

With Democrats in the minority in both houses of Congress, there isn’t too much Garcia or any Democrat can do to stop the Trump agenda. But it’s important to make noise, set markers for future action and speak truth, Garcia said — and lay the groundwork for a time when Democrats do have a majority.

“The first thing is, we’ve got to be serious about having an anti-corruption agenda that includes taking a look at all of the horrific ways that [Trump’s] enriching himself and his family,” Garcia said.

The fancy dinner for investors of his cryptocurrency, the Qatari jet, his new perfume. The examples of Trump profiting off the presidency are numerous.

Garcia calls it “enormous grift” and “huge steps backward for our democracy.”

And then there is fellow Californian Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigration offensive.

If Democrats are ever back in power, and Oversight Committee Democrats can issue subpoenas and conduct investigations, “rest assured that Stephen Miller needs to be answering questions,” Garcia said. “Elon Musk needs to be asked questions in front of the Oversight Committee. So that agenda is going to be critical.”

But also, it’s not all about Trump.

“We have to also have a forward-looking agenda of, how do we make government work better?” he said. “It’s a bigger question about what kind of country, not only that we want to live in right now, but what kind of country we can actually build in the future.”

This Fourth of July, patriotism for many Americans feels a bit slippery.

As citizens of our near 250-year-old republic reminisce about the Independence Days of their childhoods — adorned with American flag motifs and smelling of charred hot dogs — some, particularly in 2025, are wrestling with thoughts about what it means to love one’s country.

Such dialogue has exploded as protesters over the last month have publicly condemned ongoing immigration enforcement raids. In L.A., several communities fearing the consequences of those raids are canceling their Independence Day events in an effort to protect vulnerable residents.

Organizers of the Gloria Molina Grand Park Summer Block Party in downtown L.A. posted on Instagram that they postponed the annual event “out of an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing events across L.A. county.”

At the same time, time-honored Fourth of July festivities are taking new shapes as concerns mount about their environmental costs. For the first time in nearly a century, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena will swap its crowd-favorite firework display for a drone show.

Although celebrating American independence may look different this year, L.A. still has a spirited slate of parades, concerts, boat rides and firework shows where you can show your patriotism — whatever that means to you.

Here is a list of 52 places and events in L.A. County to ring in the holiday. (Events start Wednesday and continue through Sunday, but be sure to watch for any new cancellations.)