THE PATRIOTISM GAP:  Democrats, college grads, and young people are not so high on America.  And it’s getting worse.

CALVIN COOLIDGE WAS A YANKEE DOODLE DANDY:  Born on the Fourth of July, 1872.  Read his entire Independence Day speech (delivered in Philadelphia, July 5, 1926).  Or if you only have time for the best paragraph, read it here.

INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1863:  On this day, Lincoln received news of the victories at both Gettysburg and Vicksburg.

EVERYBODY HAS A SCOTUS FAVORITE:  Steve Cortes makes the case for Amy Coney Barrett.

THIS MORNING’S WALL STREET JOURNAL WAS CORRECT:  What it predicted has already come to pass.  That was fast.

APPRENTICESHIPS ON THE RISE?: The rising popularity of apprenticeships usually goes under the radar. But in the last few weeks we’ve seen a poll of U.K. teens showing an increase in the popularity of the idea. And there’s bits of news from Kentucky and Chicago. And don’t forget Idaho.

But don’t start thinking the USA can replicate the German system, where more than half of young people serve at least one apprenticeship. As I wrote about in Apprenticeships: Useful Alternative, Tough to Implement, the German system depends for its success on strong national unions and complex licensing requirements.  The German model would be quite unpopular here.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO RESCIND THE OBAMA-ERA GUIDELINES ON RACE IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS?:  The Wall Street Journal is reporting that it will do so soon.  If so, it is good news.  Those guidelines encouraged, rather than discouraged, race discrimination.

Unlike the Supreme Court, which in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) stated, “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today,” the Obama Administration’s policy was apparently “racial preferences now, racial preferences tomorrow, and racial preferences forever.”

Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder was explicit about this.  In an interview at Columbia University, he said:  “I can’t actually imagine a time in which the need for more diversity would ever cease. … why should we shy away from the fact that we are going to have race as a factor to consider in what a student body is going to look like? … The question is not when does it end, but when does it begin. … When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?”

(As always, I include here a link to an article explaining why race-preferential admissions are not in the interest of their supposed beneficiaries.)

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: Pickett’s Charge. It … uh … didn’t work.

THE POLITICS OF SUPREME COURT NOMINATIONS:  Would Amul Thakar make the most sense from the standpoint of politics?  John Fund makes the case.

IF FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED: A few days ago, the Commission voted to re-open its investigation into conditions at immigration detention facilities. As I pointed out in my Dissenting Statement, the original report failed to uncover the “egregious human rights and constitutional violations” that the then-Chairman of the Commission predicted. The Commission will keep trying …

RIGHT SENTIMENT, WRONG DAY:  On this day in 1776 (and not July 4th), the Continental Congress voted for independence from Great Britain.  The next day, in a letter to Abigail, John Adams rhapsodized:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Yes, we did eventually come to celebrate Independence Day with parades, bonfires and illuminations. But we chose the 4^th of July (the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed) rather than the 2^nd of July when the vote for independence was taken.

Here’s one way the difference might matter:  Choosing the 4^th made Jefferson the most significant figure in the story, since he wrote the Declaration. If the 2^nd had caught on as the day to celebrate, it would have put Adams more at the center, since he was the more important oral advocate for independence.

IMAGINE THAT:  Evidently Laura Ingalls Wilder wasn’t a bloodthirsty Indian-hating Nazi after all.

OH DEAR:  I didn’t really want to know this.

WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY THEY FIRST MAKE MAD: One interesting attribute of the Obama Administration’s education policy was its schizophrenia. On the one hand, it pushed schools into adopting tough anti-bullying policies (at the behest of the “LGBT community” part of its political coalition). On the other hand, it forced those same schools to lighten up on discipline (at the behest of the “civil rights community” part of its coalition). Well … uh … that’s a bit of a contortion: Stop the bullies, but don’t punish them.

The strategy doesn’t seem to work too well. And alas, the Trump Administration has not yet done anything to change that.

(By the way, neither policy is supported by law. If you want to know why the school discipline policy is unsupported by law, read the final version of my article (with Alison Somin) on school discipline. It explains not just why the Obama Administration’s policy is misguided, but why it is beyond the scope of the Department of Education’s authority.  On bullying, I have this Dissenting Statement from the Commission on Civil Rights report that cheered on the Obama anti-bullying policy from a few years ago.

MISMATCH: Two years ago this week, the Supreme Court decided Fisher v. University of Texas (2016)(Fisher II). By a 4-3 vote, it denied relief to Abigail Fisher, a young woman who had been discriminated against in admissions because she was white.

At oral argument, Justice Scalia (just two months before his death) had pointed out that there is evidence that when an affirmative action beneficiary (or an athlete or a legacy or anybody) attends a school where the rest of the students have much higher academic credentials, it hurts rather than helps his chance of ultimately becoming a doctor, a lawyer, an engineers, a professor or other high-status professional. Harry Reid (and the media) went wild, accusing Scalia of racism.

Despite the skewering, Scalia was simply stating a fact. There is plenty of evidence that “mismatch” is a problem. Try these:

A ‘Dubious Expediency’: How Race-Preferential Admissions Policies on Campus Hurt Minority Students 

Want to Be a Doctor? A Scientist? An Engineer? An Affirmative Action Leg Up May Hurt Your Chances

Alas, not enough people know about the mismatch effect (in large part because so-called liberals attack those who mention it). An organization that I am affiliated with recently conducted a focus group in part on this topic. I’m not a big fan of focus groups, but the results of this one were what I would have expected: The participants—ordinary citizens, many of them sympathetic toward race-preferential admissions—had never heard of the research on mismatch. When it was brought to their attention, they considered it very important.

So pass it on. Make sure your loved ones know about the evidence (yes, including your liberal brother-in-law).

NEW RONALD REAGAN MOVIE:  This time, the Gipper will get his due, says John Fund.  He writes:

The script premise is a fascinating one. It begins with a Putin-like figure, the new leader of Russia, visiting a nursing home to interview an old KGB agent named Viktor Petrovich (played by Jon Voight) to learn how Reagan and the U.S. defeated Communism. The movie tells Reagan’s story through Petrovich’s eyes as he follows Reagan for four decades; Petrovich can’t get his superiors to heed his warnings about Reagan until it is too late. The Petrovich character is a composite of several KGB agents who did indeed track Reagan throughout his career.

Sounds cool.

“MAX BOOT’S WEAK DEFENSE OF HARVARD’S AFFIRMATIVE ACTION”:  Ramesh Ponnuru destroys Boot’s four arguments one by one.

(And here’s one more argument against race-preferential admissions.)

HOT OFF THE PRESS!! The final version of my school discipline article (with Alison Somin)—The Department of Education’s Obama-Era Initiative on Racial Disparities in School Discipline: Wrong For Students and Teachers, Wrong on the Law—is now available. Alas, the Trump Administration has not yet rescinded that policy.

(Bumped, by Glenn).

GO SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY:  SIU to honor its alumnus-hero.   (I’m such a sucker for hero stories.  I can’t get enough of them.)

IT’S TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN 2:  If 45 spotted or box turtles will really sell in China for $40,000, this won’t be the last of the the turtle-nappings.  Maybe we need to arm our turtles …

ELIZABETH WARREN’S ACADEMIC CLAIM TO FAME MAY BE NO MORE LEGITIMATE THAN HER CLAIM TO BE NATIVE AMERICAN:  William A. Jacobson explains how this will be an issue if she decides to run for President.

I wrote about her highly questionable “research” on medical bankruptcies back in 2006.  If only the media (including the conservative media) had paid attention then …

I’M HOPING FOR THE CLARENCE THOMAS MOMENT INSTEAD:  Paul Mirengoff asks, “Is This the Sandra Day O’Connor Moment?”  O’Connor said  in Grutter v. Bollinger that she expected race-preferential admissions policies would no longer be necessary in 25 years.  That was 15 years ago, and the level of preferences has, if anything, increased.

TOXIC MASCULINITY IN HISTORY:  In honor of UW-Whitewater professor Kathleen Elliott’s suggestion that the evils of “toxic masculinity” should be taught starting in kindergarten, I looked up the death toll on the Titanic.  Sure enough, according to the figures I found, the survival rate for women was high–74%.  For men, not so much.  Only 16% survived.  And it wasn’t just a class thing.  Third-class (steerage) women were more likely to survive (49%) than first-class men (32%).  N.B.:  The reason for the difference was not that women are better than men at treading water.

ARE YOU A YOUNG PERSON IN AN UNPAID SUMMER INTERNSHIP (OR NO JOB AT ALL)? ARE YOU ANNOYED THAT YOU COULDN’T LAND A REAL JOB?: Well, understand that when the government passes laws that make it riskier for an employer to fire or lay off an employee (and there are lots of them), it makes employers more cautious at the hiring stage. The rise of unpaid summer internships is one of the economy’s ways of responding to the regulatory environment: The more protected jobs are, the harder they will be to get. Highly regulated employment relationships hurt young people most.

But take heart, we may be entering a period where even those with no job experience (or a blemished record) can land a paying job. I saw a post on my neighborhood notice board recently from a woman who was shocked to get a job offer (apparently after a lot of heartbreak). She needed clothing appropriate for the job—fast. And the neighborhood came up with what she needed. Good-o.