SALENA ZITO: Why the generation after millennials will vote Republican.

Generation Z is also more religious than preceding generations — attending organized weekly church services at about twice the rate of millennials, Generation Xers and baby boomers.

They are interested in issues that involve themselves but that also impact the broader community — education, employment, security and the environment all concern them.

“Politically, Generation Z is liberal-moderate with social issues, like support for marriage equality and civil rights, and moderate-conservative with fiscal and security issues,” said Brauer.

“While many are not connected to the two major parties and lean independent, Gen Z’s inclinations generally fit moderate Republicans.”

The Republican Party, if it plays its cards right, could make lasting inroads with this generation, even at an early age — something the GOP has struggled with for decades.

Had he been able to vote last November, Bloomstine definitely would have picked Donald Trump for president.

“I was not old enough to vote for him, but I was very engaged and informed all throughout the election,” Bloomstine said. “I liked most his independence from the political parties and his willingness to challenge them when he felt they were not serving the American people.”

If Trump runs in four years would Bloomstine vote for him? “As long as he continues to be himself, absolutely.”

Last year was the first presidential election in which Generation Z voted, according to Brauer, “yet, there was virtually no attention paid to this demographic.”

Read the whole thing.

TWO WEEKS AGO, A DEMOCRAT SHOT A REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN: Democrats unleash on Trump after CNN clothesline video: ‘He has violence and blood in his mind.’

Note to Democratic operatives and media figures: Wrestling isn’t actually real. It’s more like your programming.

OUCH:

“LITERALLY:” Trump literally tackles mainstream media with CNN ‘clothesline’ video.

CNN’s Brian Stelter actually contacted Twitter to ascertain if Trump’s animated GIF-themed tweet violated their terms of use.

Meanwhile, from BuzzFeed, “MORE LOGO VIOLENCE: BuzzFeed staffer creates wrestling video with the DOJ logo knocking out President Trump.”

As Allahpundit quipped yesterday:

The Atlantic wants Trump banned from Twitter for supposedly violating its terms of service covering violent threats, harassment, and “hateful conduct,” which is a bit like asking the Angels to release Mike Trout. When there’s only one compelling reason to pay attention to a mediocre organization, they’re going to cling to that reason as long as they can afford to. Frankly, maybe it’s best for everyone that Twitter continues to let him slide: He doesn’t seem all that stable as it is and taking away his favorite toy is likely to compound the problem. The best-case scenario is that he starts doing video rants on Instagram instead. Worst-case: Korean War II.

Perhaps another GOP presidential candidate with a show-biz connection said it best:

THANKS, OBAMA: UN agency expects rising migrant flow.

The U.N. refugee agency says people smuggling and migrant flows in Libya are on the rise, so Europe may face increased flows of migrants and refugees in the future.

UNHCR says 84,830 migrants and refugees have reached Italy’s shores so far this year from Libya, a 19-percent increase from a year earlier. Seven in 10 are economic migrants and the rest are “people in need of protection” like refugees and asylum-seekers.

In a new report on migration trends in Libya issued Monday, UNHCR noted that largely lawless Libya has become a major thoroughfare for migrants, but patterns of movement are changing.

I’m so old I can remember when Libya was a quiet ally in the Terror War.

AU CONTRAIRE: Mark Cuban: Media can’t be distracted by Trump’s tweeting ‘sideshow.’

RON RADOSH: The GOP’s Health-Care Debacle.

A MUSLIM COMES TO RURAL MINNESOTA: “The people of Dawson seemed good and genuine until they voted for the wrong presidential candidate. Who is the bigot? Who is blinded by prejudice? I see no sign that the [Washington] Post’s reporter understands that she and Dr. Virji are drawing the wrong lesson from the story they tell, but I suspect that a great many readers will take away quite a different point from the one that they intended.”

Read the whole thing.

HMM: Oil, crushed in the first half of this year, is about to rebound, analyst says.

“You are going to see crude oil inventories globally and domestically begin to decline month after month. That will support crude oil prices, boosting the entire sector,” Thummel said.

Thummel also sees a lack of capital investment in U.S. production leading to an undersupply of crude oil, resulting in a rise in crude prices.

Oilfield services firm Baker Hughes reported on Friday that its weekly count of oil rigs operating in U.S. fields fell by two rigs, the first decline since January. Last week, U.S. crude output dropped 100,000 barrels per day to 9.3 million bpd, the steepest weekly fall since July 2016.

We’re still a long, long way off from $100 oil again.

THE HILL: Trump’s Lean White House Staffing Could Save Taxpayers Big Money.

FASTER, PLEASE: NASA’S First Asteroid Deflection Mission Enters Next Design Phase.

“A binary asteroid is the perfect natural laboratory for this test,” said Tom Statler, program scientist for DART at NASA Headquarters. “The fact that Didymos B is in orbit around Didymos A makes it easier to see the results of the impact, and ensures that the experiment doesn’t change the orbit of the pair around the sun.”

After launch, DART would fly to Didymos, and use an on-board autonomous targeting system to aim itself at Didymos B. Then the refrigerator-sized spacecraft would strike the smaller body at a speed about nine times faster than a bullet, approximately 3.7 miles per second (6 kilometers per second). Earth-based observatories would be able to see the impact and the resulting change in the orbit of Didymos B around Didymos A, allowing scientists to better determine the capabilities of kinetic impact as an asteroid mitigation strategy. The kinetic impact technique works by changing the speed of a threatening asteroid by a small fraction of its total velocity, but by doing it well before the predicted impact so that this small nudge will add up over time to a big shift of the asteroid’s path away from Earth.

“DART is a critical step in demonstrating we can protect our planet from a future asteroid impact,” said Andy Cheng of The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, the DART investigation co-lead. “Since we don’t know that much about their internal structure or composition, we need to perform this experiment on a real asteroid. With DART, we can show how to protect Earth from an asteroid strike with a kinetic impactor by knocking the hazardous object into a different flight path that would not threaten the planet.”

The clock is ticking.

WELL, THEY MOSTLY SUPPORT DEMOCRATS, SO WHY NOT? Bannon Pushes Tax Hike For Wealthy.

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

CONGRESSMEN IN HIDING, PROTESTING FOR IMPEACHMENT, AND BODY-SLAMMING CNN: All that and more in Liz Sheld’s morning brief.

USA TODAY EDITORIALIZES: On Independence Day, U.S. elections remain vulnerable.

I made that same point in my paper ballots piece.