REPUBLICANS BUY SNEAKERS TOO:  How the Left is Ruining Sports with Politics.

NOT A GOOD SIGN:  Netherlands prosecuting a man for insulting Turkish President Erdogan.

VICTIMS OF STUDENT WHO FALSELY ACCUSED THEM OF RAPE SPEAK OUT AT HER SENTENCING: “I lost my scholarship, my dream of continuing to play football and now I am in debt $30,000.”

Let justice roll down like waters.

CALIFORNIA IN ITS DEATH THROES: Alas for our hard-working seniors, the Freedom from Slavery Act has failed to qualify for the November 2018 ballot. If passed, it would have exempted everyone age 55 and over from state and local taxes. Next up: The Freedom from Child Slavery Act, which would exempt “youngsters” (age 0 to 55) from state and local taxes. We mustn’t let arithmetic get in the way of an idea whose time has come.

MORE EVIDENCE FOR MISMATCH EFFECT IN STEM: There’s a lot of evidence now.  For an explanation of the Mismatch Effect in STEM, see Want to Be a Doctor? A Scientist? An Engineer? An Affirmative Action Leg Up May Hurt Your Chances. Note that it’s not just affirmative action that can hurt a student’s chances of getting a STEM degree. Legacy and athletic bumps can hurt too.

JUDGE REVERSES HIMSELF, SAYS OHIO STATE OFFICIALS CAN BE SUED FOR ANTI-MALE BIAS: The College Fix has the story.

WHY DOES THE LEFT HATE TOLKIEN?  Because they think centralized, overbearing power is just ducky.  They are not about to destroy that ring.

TOM COTTON AND HUGH HEWITT DISCUSS “JAILBREAK LEGISLATION”:  Via Powerline.

MAKING A FEDERAL CASE OUT OF EVERYTHING: The Federal Commission on School Safety was set up in the wake of the Parkland massacre and has been meeting over the last several months. Until it issues its report, it’s unlikely we’ll see any movement toward returning school discipline policy back to the local schools where it belongs. So I’m waiting—as are many teachers. And I’m a slightly optimistic that things will turn out okay in the end. But it’s slow. Read this if you have the time: The Department of Education’s Obama-Era Initiative on Racial Disparities in School Discipline: Wrong For Students and Teachers, Wrong on the Law. The Obama Administration’s effort to assert federal control over school discipline practices was remarkably wrongheaded. It hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DID WITHDRAW THE TRANSGENDER BATHROOM/LOCKER ROOM/SHOWER GUIDANCE, YOU KNOW: Politico doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge the Trump Administration’s position. The Administration’s view is that Title IX does not speak to the issue of how bathrooms, locker rooms and showers should be assigned. It is up to the individual school. Politico nevertheless seems to think that it’s news that the Trump Administration isn’t forcing schools to organize their facilities according to “gender identity” rather than anatomical sex.

This friend-of-the-court brief in Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., submitted by Peter Kirsanow and me, tries to explain the law as we see it (and as the Trump Administration now sees it). I think our argument is pretty strong. After the brief was written, the Obama-Era guidance was withdrawn. That made the case for our position even stronger, since the argument that courts should defer to the Obama-Era Department of Education’s view disappeared when the “Dear Colleague Letter” on the subject was withdrawn.

It’s entirely possible this issue will reach the Supreme Court again sometime in the future. It was remanded back down after the Dear Colleague Letter was withdrawn. If the case does wind up there, it will be interesting.

ON THIS DAY IN 1940: Leon Trotsky died from his wounds in Mexico City. He had been attacked with an ice axe (no, not an ice pick, an ice axe) the day before by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish-Catalan communist and NKVD agent, acting on orders from the top. Look, when Stalin wanted you dead, you were dead. It didn’t matter where you were.

WILL BACKING KAVANAUGH HELP OR HURT RED-STATE DEMOCRATS?:  It may depend on which state you’re talking about.  Or so say some polls.

ON THIS DAY IN 1940: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Yes, he gave that speech.

DUELING POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: Don’t Ask College Applicants About Their Criminal Records Versus Colleges Are Cesspools of Rape.  

TSA TO THE RESCUE:  It was reported this week that a TSA agent in Austin missed a passenger’s loaded gun.  On the other hand, yesterday TSA agents took great pains to chemically analyze the small bag of kitty litter I had packed for the kitten I was transporting.  I honestly don’t mind.  They were nice.  It took only about five minutes.  And for all I know, there is some explosive substance that can be easily disguised as kitty litter.  (Maybe readers can enlighten me on whether this procedure made sense.)  But I couldn’t help but laugh my head off.  If somebody had told me 30 years ago that one day I would have to stand and wait while federal officers chemically analyzed my kitty litter, I would not have believed them.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: THE MONOLITHIC MEDIA MAY BE BIASED!   Dr. Hal Pashler and I ran a psychology experiment showing that one’s ideological point of view will tend to color one’s judgment on what is newsworthy. If a news story seems to provide ammunition for one’s own viewpoint, it’s more likely to be viewed as newsworthy. The result may not come as a bolt from the blue for savvy Instapundit readers. But by golly, it’s science now. (Note that the article contains lots of groovy graphs. I’ll bet that you didn’t think I could make graphs like that.)

TRUMP’S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION HAS STILL NOT WITHDRAWN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S SCHOOL DISCIPLINE POLICY: Still waiting. But in the meantime, here’s an explanation of why the Obama-Era policy was outside the scope of the Department of Education’s powers. More complete version here.

MORE OF THIS PLEASE:  Stephen has already posted the story that the Trump Administration will now require hospitals to post standard prices online.  Hallelujah!  I wish the Administration would extend this to nursing homes.  My mother recently spent seven months in such a place.  My sister and I never did figure out the pricing structure–even after I met with someone from the finance department to try to figure it out.  There was no way to price compare. And the charges were extraordinary (even with Medicare and long-term care insurance).

AUGUST 7 IS THE 276^th ANNIVERSARY OF NATHANAEL GREENE’S BIRTH: During the Revolution, General Nathanael Greene was second only to George Washington in importance. Honors were heaped upon him just after it ended. To give you just a taste, the following places were named for him: Greensboro, N.C., Greenville, N.C., Greenville, S.C., Greeneville, Tenn., Greenburg, Penn., Greene Co., Mo., Greene Co., Va., Greene Co., Penn., Greene Co., Tenn., Greene Co., Ohio, Greene Co., N.C., Greene Co., N.Y., Greene Co., Miss., Greene Co., Ill., Greene Co., Iowa, Greene Co., Ind., Greene Co., Georgia, Greene Co., Ark., and Greene Co., Ala.

But Greene died just five years after Yorktown at the age of 43. In part for that reason, his fame has been eclipsed by other Founding Fathers who played a role in the making of our Constitution or in the early years of the Republic. I suspect few school children, even those living in the various Greene Counties, have ever heard of Nathanael Greene. I count my blessings when they know something about George Washington beyond his owning slaves.

IT’S A GENUINE SCANDAL THAT A GOP SENATE HASN’T BEEN ABLE TO CONFIRM AN ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR CIVIL RIGHTS:   It’s been over a year since Eric Dreiband was nominated to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.  The amount of time it took to nominate him was bad enough.  But now we’re almost halfway through the Trump Administration, and nothing has happened.  Despite the Senate being in GOP hands, Dreiband has not been confirmed.

GREAT SCOT! ALEXANDER FLEMING, DISCOVERER OF PENICILLIN, WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1881: The story is that just after returning to his laboratory after a month-long vacation, he saw that one of his staphylococcus-containing petri dishes had gotten moldy. Upon closer inspection, lo and behold, he saw the area adjacent to the mold was bacteria free.

Fleming was modest about his discovery, saying that sometimes one finds what one is not looking for. But it would be wrong to believe that the good doctor was just a lucky guy who happened to run across the moldy bread that revolutionized medical science—à la Jed Clampett discovering oil on the Beverly Hillbillies. Fleming already had a reputation as dogged and meticulous researcher (if occasionally an untidy one). And he was looking for a method to eradicate harmful staphylococcus. When he looked at that petri dish, he had a fighting chance of recognizing what he was looking at. The rest of us … not so much.

COMPANIES FLOCK TO COLUMBUS, OHIO TO TEST MARKET PRODUCTS:  It’s a pretty good cross-section of America.  John Fund writes that we should think of Tuesday’s special election for Ohio’s twelfth congressional district (which includes parts of Columbus) that way. Though it leans Republican, it may be a useful barometer for measuring the mood of the electorate.

THEY’RE FREE NOW. THAT’S EVEN BETTER: I’m sure I’ve mentioned how much fun Paul Taylor’s Kindle Books—The Big Picture: An Illustrated Guide to Modern American Trends (Volumes I and II)—are for policy nerds like me. Well, they are free now. Enjoy!

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: New York City schools use a Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) to determine which students get into its elite high schools and which do not. Mayor Bill de Blasio has opposed the test essentially on the ground that it lets in too many students of some races and not enough of others. But a just-made-public 2012 study shows that the test does indeed identify the students who are most likely to succeed at their studies.

As always, I remind everyone that you are not doing students any favors, no matter what their race, by admitting them to academic programs where their academic credentials put them toward the bottom of the class. Students learn more in programs where they are competitive with other students. See Want to Be a Doctor? A Scientist? An Engineer? An Affirmative Action Leg Up May Hurt Your Chances and A “Dubious Expediency”: How Race-Preferential Admissions Policies on Campus Hurt Minority Students.

THIS IS GETTING REALLY OUT OF HAND:   Facebook blocks ad by Elizabeth Heng, GOP candidate for Congress.

UPDATE (by Charlie): This is the video: