RECYCLING: SpaceX Aims for Historic Rocket Launch With Reused Booster.

Relying on the Falcon 9’s repurposed lower stage—including nine refurbished main engines intended to propel a European commercial satellite into Earth’s orbit—the blastoff slated for Thursday from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center will mark the culmination of years of intense planning, testing and public advocacy by the company.

The aim for Mr. Musk and his team is to demonstrate the viability of such “flight-proven” hardware, which they argue eventually will help usher in an unprecedented era of frequent, inexpensive flights to orbit and beyond. Ultimately, they and other space entrepreneurs, including Amazon.com Inc. Chairman Jeff Bezos, see re-flying rockets as the Holy Grail of exploring the solar system.

“Full reusability is a game changer,” said Mr. Bezos, whose Blue Origin LLC also has signed up commercial customers willing to put expensive satellites on top of reusable rockets.

Regardless of the outcome of Thursday’s long-awaited, first-of-its-kind mission, industry and government experts say ambitious projections of huge cost savings and other operational gains won’t be evident for at least several years, and likely much longer.

The question isn’t just “Can it be done?” The larger question is “Can it be done at a cost savings big enough to compensate for the increased risk?”

SHOCKER: Internal Sheriffs Association email shows that money drives pistol permit law.

ABOLISH THE FILIBUSTER ENTIRELY, THEN RAM ALL THE NEW BILLS THROUGH: Democrats push McConnell toward nuclear option on Gorsuch.

Senate Democrats are beginning to line up against Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, increasing the chances the Senate will enact a “nuclear option” that would thwart the minority filibuster for high court picks.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, announced he would vote against Gorsuch, an expected move, but one that could set the tone for rank-and-file Democrats on the fence about his nomination.

Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Tom Carper, D-Del., also announced opposition to Gorsuch, and the list is likely to grow significantly.

At least eight Democrats are needed to end a filibuster party lawmakers have announced against Gorsuch, who is now serving as a judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

So far, not one Senate Democrat has pledged to vote in favor of him, although some red-state Democrats up for re-election in 2018 may have a difficult time rejecting him.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has sent a warning to Democrats that he’ll ensure Gorsuch is seated on the Supreme Court no matter how they vote, signaling he’s willing to change Senate rules that would lower the threshold for his confirmation from 60 votes to 51 votes. Such a move would completely bypass the Democrats, who control 48 votes.

Go full “Reid Option” and nuke the filibuster. Because the last several years we were told repeatedly how outdated and undemocratic the filibuster is.

HAVE YOU HUGGED A FRACKER TODAY? OPEC Be Warned: Russia Prepares for Oil at $40.

Policy makers in Moscow said on Friday they see Urals at an average of $50 a barrel this year, but falling to $40 at end-2017 and then staying near that level in 2018-2019. As the central bank honed its forecasts, it also gingerly resumed monetary easing, pointing to the “uncertainty” in the oil market as a factor for its “conservative” forecasts.

Russia’s Finance Ministry similarly highlighted the $40 level in January when it announced that the central bank will start buying foreign currency on its behalf when crude exceeds that level in order to insulate the exchange rate from oil volatility. The price of $40 is additionally being used to calculate the country’s budget in 2017-2019.

An increasing number of American shale oil fields are profitable at $40 or under.

LOSING IT: Schumer goes off on Trump supporter at NYC restaurant, witness says.

“They are a highly respected couple, and Schumer made a scene, yelling, ‘She voted for Trump!’ The Califanos left the restaurant, but Schumer followed them outside.” On the sidewalk, Schumer carried on with his fantastical filibuster: “ ‘How could you vote for Trump? He’s a liar!’ He kept repeating, ‘He’s a liar!’ ”

Hilary confirmed the confrontation, telling Page Six, “Sen. Schumer was really rude . . . He’s our senator, and I don’t really like him. Yes, I voted for Trump. Schumer joined us outside and he told me Trump was a liar. I should have told him that Hillary Clinton was a liar, but I was so surprised I didn’t say anything.”

Joe Califano was my boss back at Dewey Ballantine. I’m glad to hear he’s doing well, though the Joe I remember probably wouldn’t have let some punk Senator yell at his wife. And good for Hilary.

But this is pretty much proof that Trump is living rent-free in the heads of the Democratic leadership. His victory really did cause a party-wide nervous breakdown.

UPDATE: From the comments: “Clearly this shows that the Senator from New York may be losing his ability to direct the affairs of state!”

Plus: “People who are confident do not do that in public.” True.

HOSTILE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT: Male Students Told To Confess Their Sins At ‘Masculinity Confession Booth.’ Plus, dumb stereotypes: “The group’s introductory video criticizes the stereotypical view of men as macho and unemotional, linking this to spousal abuse by asserting that men have violent outbursts as a result of pent-up emotions.”

But then, I’ve been accused of “hypermasculinity” myself. It’s a fair cop.

YET SHE PERSISTS:

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: California College Alleged to Be Hiding Hate Crime Against Conservative Student. “The situation was not classified formally as a hate crime, which is part of what has Recalde-Martinez speaking out.”

RUSSIAN TOOLS: Protesters Ready to Put ‘Bodies on the Line’ to Block Southern End of Dakota Access Pipeline.

JOHN ELLIS: Paul Ryan’s Catastrophic Lack of Political Skill and Judgment.

Everyone knows that a competent lawyer never asks a question in court to which he doesn’t already know the answer. And likewise, a competent political leader never puts a piece of legislation up for a vote without having a good idea of what the vote will be. But when Paul Ryan released his American Health Care Act he evidently had no idea what its reception would be. Whole sections of his own party were angered, and it was obvious that his bill had no chance of passage without truly major changes.

Why didn’t Ryan know all of that before he published the bill? A skilled leader sounds out the major opinion centers in his party to get a sense of what it will take to get them all on board, so that by the time the bill is published he knows where everyone stands and how they will vote. By going public with his bill before ascertaining the lay of the land, Ryan has created an ugly rift within his party, delayed and endangered the forward movement of the Trump administration, and further alienated a GOP base which has long been exasperated by the ineffectiveness of its congressional leaders. But Paul Ryan’s political incompetence is by now a very old story.

Yet there doesn’t seem to be anyone willing or able to replace him, which is remarkable given that the GOP has been in the majority for six years and should have a deep bench filled with plenty of ambitious congressmen.

HIGHER EDUCATION HAS CHOSEN SIDES: Conservatives notably absent at Ivy League commencements.

KORI SCHAKE: Trump Has a Strategy for Destroying the Islamic State — and It’s Working.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Russian Farce. “Remember when Obama and Hillary cozied up to Putin? And recall when the media rejoiced at surveillance leaks about Team Trump?”

And:

The Obama administration came up with a reset–soft-glove approach to Vladimir’s Russia, characterized by Secretary Hillary Clinton’s heralded pushing of the red plastic button on March 6, 2009, in Geneva. Reset was couched in overt criticism of George W. Bush, who had supposedly alienated Putin by reacting too harshly (like a typical cowboy) to Russia’s aggression in Georgia.

Over the next few years, the reset policy consisted of, among other things, backtracking on previously agreed-on missile-defense plans in Eastern Europe. In the second presidential debate of 2012, Obama portrayed Romney as being too tough on Russia, to the point of delusion:

A few months ago when you were asked what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia, not al-Qaeda. You said Russia. In the 1980s, they’re now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.

The Obama administration invited Russia into the Middle East for the first time in nearly a half-century to help Obama back off from his own redline threats to attack Syria if evidence of WMD usage appeared. Moreover, after the Crimea and eastern Ukraine aggressions, the perception in most of the Western world was that the U.S. was not sufficiently tough with Putin, largely because of its commitment to a prior (though failed) outreach.

So what ended this one-sided reset in 2016?

The estrangement certainly did not coincide entirely with Putin’s aggressions on Russia’s borders. Nor were Democrats inordinately angry with Putin when he bombed non-al-Qaeda Syrian resistance fighters.

Rather, Democrats’ split with Putin grew from the perception that hackers had easily entered the porous e-mail account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign guru John Podesta and released his messages to WikiLeaks. This led to general embarrassment for Hillary and the Democrats — and they floated the theory that WikiLeaks and Julian Assange were taking orders from Putin or at least operating with the encouragement of the Kremlin’s intelligence services.

Read the whole thing.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How Not To Die From Loneliness.

Isolation is deadly. So why aren’t we doing anything about it?

For starters, there’s a stigma against admitting loneliness, especially for men, and there’s a whole other taboo against openly wanting to make new friends.

We celebrate lifelong friendships and treat the friends we make earlier in life as more legitimate than the ones who come later. The early friendships are filled with inside jokes, funny stories of crazy nights and that thing that happened that one time that still no one can believe. We know all the background stories, each other’s full biographies. It’s deep, there’s no doubt about it.

It’s also nearly impossible to maintain. The group of friends who hung out until sunrise most weekends in their early 20s will have a hard time keeping it going into their 30s and 40s.

Most friendships end up getting relegated to social media. We like each other’s pictures as a way of staying in touch, but don’t actually make an effort to get together. We fight off screen time inside our families but don’t realize we have friends whose lives we only learn about on Facebook.

Read the whole thing.

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SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: Massachusetts Prepares to Vacate Nearly 24,000 Tainted Drug Convictions; Prosecutors are expected to drop nearly all of the convictions based on the work of a drug lab chemist who falsified evidence in favor of police.

DO WE WANT PEOPLE SO IMMERSED IN LEFTY POLITICS TEACHING OUR CHILDREN? CAN WE TRUST THEM TO BE FAIR AND OBJECTIVE? Metro Nashville Teachers Union Hosts Organizing Meeting For Progressive Activist Group.

AS WITH KERMIT GOSNELL, IT’S STRICTLY A LOCAL NEWS STORY, RIGHT? CNN’s Brian Stelter Hammers Fox News for Covering Rockville Rape Case:

Just when you thought CNN host Brian Stelter couldn’t become any more of a “ridiculous figure” he found a new level of low to crawl to, during Sunday’s Reliable Sources. As had been extensively covered by the MRC, the liberal networks have been blacking out the rape of a girl on school ground by illegal immigrants in Rockville, Maryland, with Fox News being the only TV news outlet covering it in detail. But according to Stelter, that’s apparently a problem for Fox.

“Rapes and assaults and murders are local news stories on a daily basis. But when do they break through to become national news and when do they not?” he wondered at the top of the segment and before taking it to Fox.

Related: “Father of 18yo Rockville High School rape suspect arrested. ICE says Adolfo Sanchez-Reyes, 43, of Guatemala, was in U.S. illegally,” Kevin Lewis of ABC’s DC affiliate tweets tonight.

(Classical allusion in headline.)

UPDATE: Seriously?! CNN Complains About the Deportation of Drunk Driving DREAMer. “If CNN was trying to make the case that innocent people were being swept up by immigration officials, then they obviously chose the wrong guy. It would be interesting to know how Mothers Against Drunk Driving would feel about Matadamas’ deportation knowing he was being held on a drunk driving charge, including evading arrest.”

TO BE FAIR, HE’LL BE AT LEAST AS OBJECTIVE AS SHARPTON, MADDOW, BRIAN WILLIAMS, CHUCK TODD, AND ANDREA MITCHELL: Josh Earnest Named NBC News, MSNBC Political Analyst.

Just think of NBC News as Democrat operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.

THE USUAL “FAKE NEWS” EXCUSE — A “CONVERSATION:” D.C.’s Missing Teens: A False Number That Spurred A Real Conversation On Race.

Well, the main thing about the PizzaGate scandal is that it’s spurred a real conversation on child abuse, right?

TRAINING YOUR BRAIN so you don’t need reading glasses.

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TEACH WOMEN NOT TO MASS-MURDER: Maryland teen caught with shotgun and bomb-making materials for school shooting plot. “An 18-year-old student meticulously planned a mass shooting at her high school in which she intended to die, authorities in Maryland said Monday. A shotgun, ammunition and bomb-making materials including nails and fireworks were found at Nichole Cevario’s home in Thurmont on Thursday, Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins said at a news conference.”

A STORY WITH A HAPPY ENDING: Homeowner’s son shoots, kills three would-be burglars. With an AR-15.

STUDY AUTHORS FACE RISK OF LA LECHE LEAGUE DISPLEASURE: Study shows no long-term cognitive benefit to breastfeeding.