MICHAEL BARONE: From the Northwest Ordinance to Trump’s big Midwest win.

THANKS, OBAMA: Iran Condemns Sanctions, Says It Will Pursue Missile Program ‘With Full Power.’

I’m so old I can remember when Iran was under a full sanctions regime and hadn’t received pallets of cash for financing this kind of thing.

CHANGE: John Kelly closes the Oval Office door.

Gen. John Kelly, the new White House chief of staff, has taken control in dramatic fashion, and is already imposing unmistakable signs of order after just a few days on the job:

Even POTUS appears to be trying to impress his four-star handler, picking up his game by acting sharper in meetings and even rattling off stats.

Meetings, which under Reince Priebus were meandering, are shorter and stick to their scheduled topic. Reince was a wallflower; Kelly moderates and is clearly in charge.

Everyone — even uber-aides Jared and Ivanka, and economic adviser Gary Cohn — is being deferential to Kelly.

All is proceeding as Scott Adams has foreseen.

“WE DON’T WORK FOR THE PRESIDENT”: Senate Republicans are turning their backs on Trump.

They defeated an Obamacare repeal bill despite Trump’s pleas. They’re ignoring his Twitter demands that they get back to work on the repeal measure. They dissed the White House budget director, defended the attorney general against the president’s attacks and passed veto-proof sanctions on Russia over his administration’s objections.

They’re reasserting their independence, which looked sorely diminished in the aftermath of Trump’s surprise election win.

“We work for the American people,” Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said Tuesday. “We don’t work for the president.”

Those are surprisingly tough words from a Republican whose state Trump won easily less than a year ago. But after six months of controversies and historically low approval ratings, it’s clear Trump isn’t commanding the fear or respect he once did.

The old joke says, “Every Senator looks in the mirror and sees a President.” It’s a joke because it’s funny, but it’s still around because there’s truth to it. With this much unrest, will Trump get a primary challenger from the Senate?

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): On my short-list for potential constitutional amendments is a ban on Senators becoming President. It would probably improve the presidency, and it would definitely improve the Senate.

WE NEED MORE ACCOUNTABILITY: Ousted conservative prof files grievance against UCLA. “Fink alleges that UCLA ‘blatantly and brazenly’ violated rules governing its treatment of faculty members, disregarding his rights in an effort to secure a negative outcome in the ‘excellence review’ that decided his fate.”

He should also complain to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: UNC’s arrogance over academic scandal has tainted the school’s once-great image.

In 2011, the newspaper obtained a transcript of UNC football star Marvin Austin showing a B-plus grade in a senior level African studies class he took before his freshman year began. UNC officials were at a loss to explain how he got into a high-level course before his first football practice.

Reporters and investigators began digging, and the results were appalling.

From 1993 through 2011, about 3,100 UNC students – nearly half of whom were athletes – took African studies classes that proved to be bogus. Classes generally did not meet; homework was not assigned.

Most required little work – a simple term paper at the end of the semester often sufficed.

UNC hired attorney Kenneth Wainstein to investigate, and he found that about 40 percent of those term papers were at least in part plagiarized, yet were accorded an average grade of A-minus.

Many of the term papers were graded by Deborah Crowder, a former academic administrative assistant and an avid Tar Heels fan. She gave A and B grades, Wainstein found, regardless of the quality of the work. Never mind that she was not a faculty member and was not supposed to grade papers.

These “fake” courses helped athletes remain eligible, Wainstein wrote, including members of UNC’s 2005 national championship basketball team.

The News & Observer later reported that five members of that team took a combined 52 fake courses. Rashad McCants, a starter on that team, has said (his claims are disputed by former teammates) that tutors wrote term papers for athletes.

Here’s what an academic counselor told Wainstein about fake classes: Athletes “didn’t go to class. They didn’t have to take notes, have to stay awake. They didn’t have to pay attention or necessarily engage with the material.” . . .I’d feel some sympathy for UNC officials if they had earnestly tried to get to the bottom of all this. But instead of opening up, they lawyered up and stonewalled investigators. They blamed a false “media narrative” for forcing the NCAA to investigate and have distanced themselves from the Wainstein report

The school already has spent $18 million on the academic scandal, mostly in legal fees.

And yet any effort by the legislature to bring some adult supervision to this clown show is treated as some sort of fascism.

FINALLY, EVIDENCE OF TRUMP-RUSSIA COLLUSION: And it’s from the Center for American Progress, so you know it’s the unbiased, unvarnished truth.

That and more in Liz Sheld’s morning brief.

DALLAS DEBACLE: Scathing HUD Report Illustrates the Staggering Hypocrisy of Dallas City Staff.

WHAT HATH MERKEL WROUGHT? Terror Hits Germany Ahead of Merkel’s Re-Election Bid.

With almost 50 days to go until the German parliamentary election, the country has been hit by another wave of terror and migrant crime. On Friday, a ‘Palestinian’ asylum seeker went on a stabbing spree at a Hamburg supermarket before he was overpowered by passers-by. Despite the eyewitness account of assailant screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ at the scene of attack, German media and politicians went into their ritualised speculations over the psychological state of the attacker. German news reports repeatedly described the 26-year-old Arab attacker as ‘mentally unstable’.

Nervous German media wants to avoid such Islamist attacks from jeopardising their beloved Chancellor’s re-election bid. “Investigating the deadly knife attack in Hamburg is best kept out of the general election campaign,” pleaded the public broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “In the case of the Hamburg attacker, there are indications that it was more of a crazed act by someone under considerable psychological pressure, where Islamism was only used as a pretext.”

A senior German parliamentarian called for more psychological counselling to prevent the radical Muslims from turning violent.

That’s the ticket.

WAIT, THAT’S NOT THE NARRATIVE: With fifth judge confirmed, Trump outpaces Obama and Bush.

Meanwhile, look how Trump’s first appellate appointment, Amul Thapar, did on his first day.

LEFTIES SOUR ON KAMALA HARRIS: Kamala Harris’ Whorephobia Is Sadly No Surprise.

But then, according to Kamala Harris, a prosecutor who knowingly introduces a forged confession isn’t behaving in an “outrageous” fashion.

WHEN DON’T THEY? When Progressives Endorse Hate.

The Women’s March moved me. O.K., so Madonna and Ashley Judd said some nutty things. But every movement has its excesses, I reasoned. Mr. Trump had campaigned on attacking the weakest and most vulnerable in our society. Now was the time to put aside petty differences and secondary issues to oppose his presidency.

That’s certainly what the leaders of the Democratic Party, who applauded the march, told us. Senator Charles Schumer called the protest “part of the grand American tradition.” The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, offered her congratulations to the march’s “courageous organizers” and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand gushed about them in Time, where they were among the top 100 most influential people of 2017. “The Women’s March was the most inspiring and transformational moment I’ve ever witnessed in politics,” she wrote. “And it happened because four extraordinary women — Tamika Mallory, Bob Bland, Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour — had the courage to take on something big, important and urgent, and never gave up.” . . .

What wasn’t to like?

A lot, as it turns out. The leaders of the Women’s March, arguably the most prominent feminists in the country, have some chilling ideas and associations. Far from erecting the big tent so many had hoped for, the movement they lead has embraced decidedly illiberal causes and cultivated a radical tenor that seems determined to alienate all but the most woke.

Start with Ms. Sarsour, by far the most visible of the quartet of organizers. It turns out that this “homegirl in a hijab,” as one of many articles about her put it, has a history of disturbing views, as advertised by . . . Linda Sarsour.

The progressive pantheon is always like this. Look at the cult of Che Guevara, a mass-murdering gay-hating racist who is still treated as an emblem of liberation.

STANDING UP AGAINST RACISM: Justice Dept. to Take On Affirmative Action in College Admissions.

THIS TIME IT’S REALLY HER TURN: Kamala Harris Is Being Aggressively Manufactured For 2020 By Wealthy Clinton Donors.

The California senator is being fêted in Bridgehampton on Saturday at the home of MWWPR guru Michael Kempner, a staunch Clinton supporter who was one of her national-finance co-chairs and a led fund-raiser for her 2008 bid for the presidency. He was also listed as one of the top “bundlers” for Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, having raised $3 million.

Guests there to greet Harris are expected to include Margo Alexander, a member of Clinton’s inner circle; Dennis Mehiel, a Democratic donor who is the chairman of the Battery Park City Authority, even though he lives between a sprawling Westchester estate and an Upper East Side pad; designer Steven Gambrel and Democratic National Committee member Robert Zimmerman.

Washington lobbyist Liz Robbins is also hosting a separate Hamptons lunch for Harris.

Despite being less than seven months into her new job as senator, Harris is already said to be the Democrats’ top fund-raiser and is being talked about as a 2020 presidential hopeful.

That’s your honest-to-God Democratic grassroots right there.

They’re hoping for a retread of Obama ’08 on a platform that was old when they first ran it in ’68.

Because party of youth and new ideas.

GOOD IDEA — GET AHEAD OF THE INEVITABLE CONSENT DECREE: Evergreen College pledges to train students not to discriminate against white people.

YEAH, BUT WHAT ELSE HAVE THEY GOT, REALLY? Modern feminism needs to ‘stop blaming men,’ says Camille Paglia.

RACE TO THE BOTTOM: ‘Competitive Victimhood’ Among Racial Minorities Backfires, Study Finds.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: California Considers Lowering Passing Score On July Bar Exam. “I’d like to thank the deans of law schools around the state who provided invaluable input.”

The tension is between two self-interested groups: Law deans who want a higher pass rate to help their applications and rankings, and the bar which wants a lower pass rate to ensure that there’s not competition that might — shudder! — drive down fees.

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Plus, save in Sports Nutrition.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE (CONT’D): Teacher pleads guilty to affair with ‘girlfriend’ student.

A Philadelphia teacher who worked at a school for troubled kids has pleaded guilty to a having an affair with a female student.

Nina Scott, 28, accepted a plea deal Monday for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student whom she referred to as her “girlfriend” while employed at The Village School, news station WCAU reported. . . .

Scott, who has a 2-year-old daughter, was fired in December from the school.

She will serve a minimum of three months on electronic home monitoring, which will be followed by five years of sex offender probation, WCAU reported.

I wonder if a man would have gotten actual jail time?

IF IT IS, THEN I WANT A REFUND FOR THE OBAMA ERA: NY Times: Is It O.K. To Protest Trump By Withholding Taxes?

WHAT WE GET INSTEAD OF FLYING CARS AND MOONBASES: Facebook Messenger and Other Apps are Listening to You Through Your Phone. Here’s How to Turn the Microphone Off.

AT AMAZON, the XR5 Tactical Assault Rock.

THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: Florida Woman calls herself “Freddy Krueger,” attempts to stab boyfriend.

WELL, WELL: Former Obama Aide Ben Rhodes now a person of interest in unmasking investigation. “Former Obama White House National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes is now an emerging as a person of interest in the House Intelligence Committee’s unmasking investigation, according to a letter sent Tuesday by the committee to the National Security Agency (NSA). This adds Rhodes to the growing list of top Obama government officials who may have improperly unmasked Americans in communications intercepted overseas by the NSA, Circa has confirmed.”