MICHAEL BOSKIN:  The Left’s agenda is scientifically, economically, and numerically illiterate.

BABYLON BEE:  “Dems Change Mind on Border Wall After Realizing It Will Keep People from Leaving When We Switch to Socialism.”

(Ask Snopes whether this is satire.  These days it’s hard for me to tell ….)

DID THE INFAMOUS D.B. COOPER JUST DIE A BLOCK OR SO FROM MY GENTLEMAN FRIEND’S HOME?:  I don’t know.  But it’s a good story.  And even if Robert Rackstraw was not D.B. Cooper, he seems to have led an astonishingly crazy life.

SIGNIFICANT EARTHQUAKE HITS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA:  Fortunately, it happened in a relatively unpopulated area.  I didn’t feel it here in San Diego, but it has reminded me I need to update my preparations.

SOUNDS LIKE A VIOLATION OF TITLE VI:  Augsburg University pays non-whites to attend minority-only STEM workshop.

(If Augsburg is really interested in increasing the number of minority STEM majors, here’s a shocking simple (and legal!) way to do it.)

REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA v. BAKKE: On this day in 1978, aspiring physician Allan Bakke won his case in the Supreme Court and hence his right to attend UC Davis Medical School. Yet those who believed Bakke’s victory would spell the end of race-based admissions policies were disappointed. Four justices came down hard against preferential treatment; a different four were happy to tolerate such treatment. Justice Lewis Powell, a Nixon appointee, attempted to come down somewhere in between. Powell’s swing opinion worked for Bakke, but colleges and universities were able to drive a truck through the narrow “diversity” exception Powell thought he was drawing.

Ever since then, “diversity” (which had barely been argued as a justification for race-based admissions by the Regents) has been the watchword on campus.

The consequences of the Bakke decision have not at all been what Powell was hoping for.

HANS BADER:  “Prosecutor endorsed by AOC wants shorter sentences for violent crimes or no jail time at all.”  And hopes to reduce prison populations to “zero.”

JASON RILEY:  Political scientist finds 1 in 3 hate crimes claim is a hoax.  [Edit:  Whoops, that was supposed to say fewer than 1 in 3 is genuine. That sounds more like it. Sorry about that.]

(By the way, the federal statute is unconstitutional too.)

BLACK CRIME VICTIMS MATTER TOO: To Mayor Pete Buttigieg: If you really think Black Lives Matter, please don’t lose sight of the need for police presence in the neighborhoods that see the most crime.

Chicago may have lost sight of that in 2016 to the great detriment of its citizens.

THE BERLIN AIRLIFT: After WWII, Churchill declared that an “iron curtain” had descended across Europe, separating Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe from the free world.  Berlin, which had been reduced to rubble, was an anomaly. Located deep inside East Germany, it was nevertheless not wholly under Soviet control. Rather, under the agreement reached at Potsdam, it was divided into four sectors, with each under the control of one of the allied powers—France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States. The French, British and American sectors formed West Berlin, which was … well… the part you’d want to be in.

Westerners wondered how long could such an arrangement could last. How long would it be before the Soviet Union moved to gain full control? They got their answer in this day in 1948 when the Soviet Union blockaded the roads and railroads leading from West Germany to West Berlin. The Soviets were hoping to strangle this little enclave of freedom, which had only a few weeks worth of food and a month’s worth of coal.

Sensible people thought a city the size of Berlin couldn’t be supplied with food and necessities by air. That’s what freight trains and big trucks are for. But other than to surrender the city, the allies had no choice. Beginning on June 26, the air forces of France, Great Britain and the United States, along with those of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa executed the Berlin Airlift. According to Wikipedia, they flew 200,000 sorties in a single year. That works out to one every two or three minutes.

The Soviets did nothing to stop it. They knew they’d be risking war if they tried.

There were lots of heroes in this story. But the special hero was an American pilot named Gail Halvorsen. One day after flying a cargo plane into Tempelhof air field, he noticed a group of about 30 ragamuffin children watching from behind a barbed wire fence, so he went over to talk to them. They told him that if at some point the weather gets too bad to continue the airlift, they would be okay. “We can get by on a little food, but if we lose our freedom, we may never get it back.”

Lt. (later Col.) Halvorsen reached into his pocket and came up with two sticks of Wrigley’s gum, which the children excitedly broke into tiny pieces and shared as best they could. Some only got to smell the wrapper.

A light went on in Halvorsen’s head. Next time he and his crew would airdrop candy tied with handkerchiefs as tiny parachutes. The children were delighted. Each time he dropped a load of candy he noticed the crowd of children was larger than before.

The higher-ups in the Air Force noticed too. Soon Halvorsen’s project was made official and greatly expanded to include many pilots and their crews. All told, it is thought that more than 23 tons of candy—much of it contributed by candy manufacturers—were dropped from over 250,000 little parachutes to many thousands of children who needed a bright spot in their lives. Let freedom ring.

By the way, as far as I can tell, Gail Halvorsen is still alive, one of the last of the Greatest Generation.  Here’s to you, Colonel! You are a better Gail H. than I.

THE TRUMP ADMINSTIRATION HAS DONE THE RIGHT THING BY PUTTING LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS BACK IN CHARGE OF THEIR DISCIPLINE POLICY:  But that doesn’t necessarily mean that New York City is going to do the right thing.

JOHANNES GUTENBERG:  On this day in 1400 (or thereabouts), arguably the most consequential man of the millennium was born.  Or at least the city of his birth, Mainz, so declared in the 1890s. The city needed an official day to celebrate (and so do I).  June 24 was chosen. Don’t argue.

WELL, IT’S EXACTLY THE WORD I WOULD USE:  “‘Hero is not a word I would use,’ says UPS driver who ran into a burning building.”

GRUTTER v. BOLLINGER DECIDED ON THE DAY IN 2003: In it, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, held it should defer to the judgment of colleges and universities on whether race discrimination in admissions is justified.

It was a decision that has turned out to have a bigger downside than the five justices anticipated.

UH OH:  “More than 100 cops in St. Louis and Philadelphia under investigation for offensive social media posts.”

I KNEW THERE WAS A REASON I LIKE THE USA MORE THAN I LIKE BELGIUM:  “Prosecutors Call for an End to Jury Trials [in Serious Criminal Cases in Belgium]”

ON THIS DAY IN 1871: Arthur Wynne, the inventor of the modern crossword puzzle, was born. Yes, crossword puzzles had to be invented. They didn’t just fall from the sky.  Very little in life just drops from the sky.

ELIZABETH WARREN CONTINUES TO RISE IN POLLS:  Okay, but her medical bankruptcy study still looks a lot like a case of academic fraud.

SOMERSETT’S CASE: On this day in 1772, Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, held that chattel slavery was unsupported by the common law of England and Wales.

James Somersett had been brought to England in 1769 by customs officer Charles Stewart, who had purchased him in Boston. In 1771, Somersett escaped. Stewart recaptured and imprisoned him, intending to ship him off to the Caribbean to be sold. But anti-slavery advocates sued in court for his release.

Stewart warned of dire consequences if slavery were to be unrecognized. Mansfield responded, “Fiat justitia, ruat caelum.” (Let justice be done though the heavens fall.)

MY EMPLOYER IS RE-NAMING THINGS: The University of San Diego, whose campus is graced with beautiful Spanish architecture and mission imagery, has resolved to “better recognize the rich history of the Kumeyaay Nation.” To that end, the University President announced in an email message a while ago that “Serra Hall,” previously named for St. Junipero Serra has been re-named “Saints Tekakwitha and Serra Hall.” According to the message, this is “meant to encourage continued dialogue on the important topic of colonialization, the spread of the Catholic faith and the impact both had on Native American populations.”

Tekakwitha, however, was a 17^th century Mohawk woman who spent her life in New York and Canada. It’s unlikely Tekakwitha and her fellow Mohawks had ever heard of the Kumeyaay Nation. Moreover, it’s worth noting that the Mohawks of her era were not known for respecting the autonomy of neighboring tribes, so it’s not clear why anyone should regard this as an effort to recognize the Kumeyaay.

History is messy.

OUR CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER IS BORN: On this day in 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution. With that ratification, the Constitution went into effect. Further states could join, of course, but with nine states, we were going to have a union of at least those nine no matter what.

New Hampshire, like several other states, suggested some amendments to the Constitution in its ratification message, some of which it got when the Bill of Rights was subsequently proposed and ratified and some of which it did not get. Among its proposals:

“Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.”

“Congress shall erect no company of merchants with exclusive advantages of commerce.”

HONG KONG PROTESTERS’ ANTHEM IS “SING HALLELUJAH TO THE LORD”:  You can bet that won’t get much coverage in the media.  (And, yes, we know why.)

NEW REPORT BY THE U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS:  In one of its most bipartisan (but still not all that bipartisan) moments, Commission members agree that there are too many collateral consequences to felony convictions.  (For example, ex-offenders are prohibited from taking too many jobs and excluded from too many aspects of the “social safety net” in ways that may well increase recidivism).  Still, in my statement (with my fellow Commissioner Peter Kirsanow), we had to point out that our colleagues’ approach to collateral consequences was too one-sided.  Not all of such consequences are bad.

Our most important point:  The particular collateral consequence our colleagues are most upset about is the exclusion of ex-offenders from voting.  This just happens to be the least important one when it comes to getting ex-offenders jobs and stable living situations.  Yet they give it more extended treatment (and describe it in more dramatic terms) than any other aspect of the problem.  It’s a curious thing …

Full report here.

WAIT.  WHAT ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING?  DON’T THEY CAUSE THAT TOO?:  “New Research Links Affirmative Action Bans with Increased Smoking Among Minority Teens.”

SAYONARA TO GOOD SENSE:  “Campus Food Service Worker Hit with Bias Complaint After Saying ‘Hello’ to Student in Japanese.” This one is from the University of Minnesota (a state formerly famous for its “Minnesota nice”).