IT’S SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH, and Stacy McCain has some cases that you should be aware of.

QUESTION ASKED (BY REUTERS): Oil surplus or scarcity? Shale makes it even harder to predict.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that since we have all this shale and we keep getting more efficient at extracting it, that the answer “surplus” and it isn’t hard to predict at all.

DEVELOPING: Feds Patrolling Churches to Catch Gun Shop Suspect Who Penned Anti-Trump Manifesto.

This past Tuesday, Jakubowski allegedly broke into the Armageddon Supplies gun shop in Janesville and stole about 16 high-end firearms, ABC News reported. Thirty minutes later, a car belonging to the suspect was found engulfed in flames near the shop.

Among other weapons, the suspect reportedly stole at least two assault rifles, several high-end handguns, and perhaps even silencers, which the shop advertises on its Facebook page.

Police said Jakubowski could be seen on surveillance video, appearing to steal the weapons from the shop. Authorities said they believe the suspect had a bulletproof vest and helmet.

Sheriff Spoden also reported that police found a 161-page manifesto allegedly written by the suspect which had been sent to President Trump Tuesday at the White House.

Full story and updates at the link.

OUT: FLORIDA MAN. IN: FLORIDA SALAD. Dead bat found in Florida salad. “Florida diners made a disturbing discovery when they cracked open a prepackaged salad: a dead bat. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says two people started eating the salad before noticing the decomposing winged mammal. The bat, which was found in a ‘deteriorated condition,’ was sent to a CDC lab to test for rabies as the manufacturer rushed to recall the batch of salads that were shipped exclusively to Walmart stores throughout the southeastern U.S.”

SCENES FROM RAHM EMANUEL’S CHICAGO: Judge shot to death in Chicago, manhunt on for suspect.

IF THEY PUT LIMITS ON IMODIUM LIKE THEY DID ON SUDAFED, IT WON’T HELP BUT IT’LL BE ANNOYING AS HELL: Over-the-counter medicine emerges as an alternative for opioid addicts.

ENTITLEMENTS: New York Becomes Only State to Offer Free Four-Year College.

To paraphrase P.J. O’Rourke: If you think college is expensive now, wait’ll it’s free.

GUNS OF AUGUST, VOL. 2: The Balkans Will Be America and Russia’s Next (Virtual) Battlefield.

Russia has meddled extensively in Europe, and Moscow’s attitude toward the United States has become “explicitly belligerent.” That said, Putin has limited opportunities for further provoking the West. That makes the Balkans a more likely target for Russian interference.

Ukraine is an active and debilitating conflict, but it is, in some ways, a frozen one. Putin has failed to live up to his obligations under the Minsk Agreement, and there is scant prospect that the 2015 deal, often called Minsk II, will bring peace. Certainly it doesn’t preclude more war.

At present, however, Minsk II is all that is on the table. Meanwhile, the United States and the Europeans have clearly signaled that, while the sanctions on Russia tied to implementation of the agreement will be reviewed periodically, the near-term prospects for sanctions relief are nil.

At the same time, U.S. officials have signaled continuing support for Ukraine. In February, Trump told a prominent Ukrainian parliamentarian that the United States wouldn’t push for lifting sanctions anytime soon. Only a week later, Trump included a statement of support for Ukraine in a letter to the Lithuanian president. More recently, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has made similar pledges. A recent survey of experts concluded that, “two months into his presidency . . . the Trump administration [is] talking tough and taking diplomatic positions akin to those of his predecessor Barack Obama.”

These developments leave little space for the Kremlin to ratchet up its antics in Ukraine without further antagonizing both the Europeans and the Americans.

Read the whole thing, and remember that even the New York Times seems to have (quietly) dropped the Trump-is-Putin’s-stooge meme.

WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? The crackdown on opioid prescriptions is leaving chronic pain patients in limbo.

SWEET JUSTICE: Hillary Clinton is “not going away,” but Juanita Broaddrick just had a bigger weekend on Twitter than Madam not-President.

QUESTION ASKED: Who Needs Alt-Right Conspiracy Theories About Jews When You Have Politico?

Beyond the actual text of the article, note the artwork that originally accompanied it:

As Rod Dreher wrote in February, “I don’t believe the alt-right’s view of the world any more than I believe the [DNC-MSM-Hollywood-Academia] Cathedral’s. If the alt-right’s racist ideas are going to gain ground in American politics, they aren’t going to do it through my agency. But here’s what the Cathedral left needs to know: you aren’t going to be able to count on conservative people like me to help you oppose the alt-right, because you are their ‘respectable’ left-wing mirror image.”

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Judge Richard Posner’s unimpeachable honesty; Or, why we should start electing federal judges.

Posner is mostly just being honest. Judges do what he describes all the time, they just usually cloak it behind a smokescreen of legalism that makes it at least somewhat deniable. Indeed, that’s basically what the majority opinion does.

But the job of updating statutes is the job of legislators, not judges, and what legislators have over judges in that regard is that they are elected. Judges can — from within their insular world of life-tenure employment and elite-legal/academic socialization — guess at what contemporary social mores are. Legislators, by virtue of standing regularly for election, don’t have to guess.

So in light of Posner’s new conception of the judicial mission, I have a modest proposal of my own for updating what has become obsolete: Let federal judges stand for election themselves. I’m prepared to exempt trial judges, who have fewer opportunities for such sweeping pronouncements, and whose decisions in criminal trials, for example, probably shouldn’t be affected by electoral prospects. But for those who aspire to function as Platonic Guardians, I think a little more rootedness is called for.

You should read the whole thing. But you knew that, right?

KNOWN WOLF: Westminster Terror Killer Was Public Contact Point for Extremist UK Mosque, Friend of Suicide Bomber.

Yet we may never know his real motive.

CYBERFRAUD: Amazon’s Third-Party Sellers Hit By Hackers.

Hackers are targeting the growing population of third-party sellers on Amazon.com Inc., AMZN 1.35% using stolen credentials to post fake deals and steal cash.

In recent weeks, attackers have changed the bank-deposit information on Amazon accounts of active sellers to steal tens of thousands of dollars from each, according to several sellers and advisers. Attackers also have hacked into the Amazon accounts of sellers who haven’t used them recently to post nonexistent merchandise for sale at steep discounts in an attempt to pocket the cash, those people say.

The fraud stems largely from email and password credentials stolen from previously hacked accounts and then sold on what’s dubbed the “dark web,” a network of anonymous internet servers where hackers communicate and trade illicit information. Such hacks previously have favored sites such as PayPal Inc. and eBay Inc., but Amazon recently has become a target of choice, according to cybersecurity experts.

“Hacking Amazon is becoming…increasingly a big deal,” said Juozas Kaziukėnas, chief executive of Marketplace Pulse, a business-intelligence firm focused on e-commerce. “The value to be gained is bigger as Amazon grows.”

It isn’t just hackers racking up fraudulent sales on third-party accounts — there are also fraudulent third-party sellers.

I got hit by one last week, in which an item I purchased was delivered to Waterbury, CT. The seller didn’t respond to my request for a refund or a new delivery, so Amazon refunded my money. But as it turned out, the seller been doing this to their customers for a full year — taking the money and, apparently, delivering the merchandize to themselves.

Amazon dealt with the year-old situation only after the fact, and even then it required a 15-minute phone call on my part. That’s because Amazon’s website doesn’t offer customers the options necessary to report fraudulent sellers and issue a refund. Wider reporting options for legitimate customers would go a long way to help Amazon detect fraudulent sellers more quickly.

The company has a serious problem on its hands, but it isn’t clear that they’re taking it seriously enough.

WELL, THEY’RE PROBABLY DEPLORABLE ANYWAY: How Portland ignores its working class.

THE ART OF THE DEAL: China, South Korea discuss more sanctions on North Korea amid talk of Trump action.

The possibility of U.S. military action against North Korea in response to such tests gained traction following last week’s strikes against Syria. Previously, Washington has leaned toward sanctions and pressure to deter North Korea, but comments from U.S. President Donald Trump’s top aides at the weekend suggest that position may be hardening.

However, South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy Kim Hong-kyun said there was no mention of any military option in his talks with China’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, Wu Dawei. The two also did not discuss any possible strike against the North by the Trump administration, he said.

“Both sides agreed that despite the international community’s warnings, if North Korea makes strategic provocations such as a nuclear test or an ICBM launch, there should be strong additional measures in accordance with U.N. security council resolutions,” Kim told reporters.

Kim added the two sides agreed “an even stronger U.N. resolution” will have to be adopted in the event of additional weapons test by North Korea.

They didn’t have to talk about a possible U.S. strike on North Korea; after the cruise missile strike on that Syrian airfield last week, the threat of it is simply there.

And SecState Rex Tillerson told CBS News yesterday, “I think even China is beginning to recognize that this presents a threat to even China’s interests.”

Indeed. China did an about-face on North Korea last year, co-authoring new U.N. sanctions after yet another Nork nuclear test. Enforcement is believed to have been spotty, but with today’s news it looks increasingly like Beijing is looking for a graceful (or at least not too ungraceful) way out of its commitment to Pyongyang.

WHITEWASHING HISTORY: Harvard Looks to Boot ‘Puritans’ from School Song.

Maybe in a hundred years, Progressives will be seen as the oppressive religious fanatics they really are.

VIDEO: SECURITY DRAGS SCREAMING UNITED AIRLINES PASSENGER OFF OVERBOOKED FLIGHT — LITERALLY:

Bridges said the man became “very upset” and said that he was a doctor who needed to see patients at a hospital in the morning. The manager told him that security would be called if he did not leave willingly, Bridges said, and the man said he was calling his lawyer. One security official came and spoke with him, and then another security officer came when he still refused. Then, she said, a third security official came on the plane and threw the passenger against the armrest before dragging him out of the plane.

I’m so old, I remember when United called themselves the Friendly Skies. By the way, note all of the passengers who pulled out their cell phones and started recording the moment the passenger began screaming; a pack, not a herd, to coin a phrase.

ROGER SIMON: After Syrian Gassing, Trump Must Expose the Iran Deal.

Faster, please.

POLL: Americans Conflicted on Syria Strikes, Trump Authority.

SALENA ZITO: Why Mudcat Matters:

If Mudcat Saunders were running things he would never have approached bringing his beloved Democratic Party together by uninviting one faction of the divided party.

“Well, that would not have been my tactics, if your party is divided, well how do you bring it together if you don’t invite all sides?” he asks, confounded by the decision.

But that is exactly what they did to Saunders, a legendary Democratic operative with a deep southern drawl, commanding presence and a fierce loyalty to his party, despite its sharp turn left, beginning along the fringes with Al Gore.

Saunders is the Democrats’ outspoken liaison between progressive candidates and rural voters to help them soften their message to longtime Democratic voters who still like God, guns and find themselves in a church pew every Sunday. He was unceremoniously uninvited to the very event that was supposed to bring rural and progressive Democrats together ahead of the governor’s race this year.

They don’t care that you’re a loyal Democrat, Mudcat. And they don’t want to reach out to people like you. They just hate people like you. If they had their way, there wouldn’t be any people like you.

ANDREW MALCOLM: What Trump’s attack on Syria did – and did not – do.

Trump campaigned against U.S. military being a global policeman. This single strike doesn’t mean that’s changed. His justification was based on the paramount importance of U.S. national security.

“It is in the vital national security interest of the United States,” Trump said, “to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons….Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed, and failed very dramatically. As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies.”

It does mean, however, that America’s allies, especially Sunni Arab states like Jordan and Saudi Arabia that were awaiting U.S. leadership, are encouraged. The Saudis have even offered troops to fight ISIS.

It does mean that bad actors such as Syria, Iran, Russia and even loopy North Korea must now factor in Trump’s proven willingness to exercise American clout when he perceives a national security threat.

After the Sarin gas attack with photos of babies gasping for air, Trump acted swiftly and decisively. But not as critics fretted last year, wildly. He could have attacked all six Syrian airfields. He could have ordered Special Forces to simultaneously move in eastern Syria.

Instead, Trump targeted only the specific airfield that launched the gas attack. It was a measured response. No new ground troops. Not even pilots risking capture.

“Measured responses” don’t win wars, but that’s beside the point. The message was sent that the use of chemical weapons won’t be tolerated, but not sent strongly enough to kill Assad and turn Syria into another Libya.

HAPPY 15TH BLOGGIVERSARY TO THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY. It took me several months to convince Eugene to start blogging, but it was worth it!

ELI LAKE: The Frivolous Case Against the House Intelligence Chairman.

The committee is investigating whether Nunes violated rules prohibiting the disclosure of classified information when he held press conferences to discuss the reports he had seen. What is the violation? It’s the fact that Nunes said publicly that he had seen summaries of raw intelligence reports that he said inappropriately contained details about the Trump transition and were not related to Russia. While the chairman never acknowledged that the sources of his information were NSA intercepts, any mention of any information collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is technically classified.

This sounds worse than it is. This complaint, brought by a handful of lawyers who have been harsh critics of Trump and by progressive activists like MoveOn.org, is a ruse, meant to distract from the bigger question of how the Obama White House was receiving raw intelligence reports on the activities of Trump and his advisers after the election.

The infraction, if it was one, was not serious. Nunes did not disclose the targets of the surveillance or any details about how the information was collected. There is rarely a day that goes by in Washington when someone in the media is not reporting on classified information. It’s a part of the ecosystem. In most cases these leaks are considered to be the cost of doing business and a way for the press and Congress to hold the national security state accountable.

I think it’s fair to conclude after the last few months that the national security state does not want to be held accountable.

And I agree with Glenn that Nunes’ recusal was a “bad idea.”