HAVE YOU HUGGED A FRACKER TODAY? How cheap oil is changing the world.

Now then you get a country like Venezuela, which was on the edge even before prices fell from $100 a barrel, well they’re running out of foreign exchange reserves, they’ve fallen from $66 to about $15 billion. And they’re collapsing collapsing and they’re running out of the ability to import food and other materials, and so there you’re dealing with almost societal instability, and order is being maintained by folks with guns.

And so countries are dealing with it differently, it’s been very very difficult. They all want to get out of this as fast as possible – those towering oil inventories and the risk of another oil price collapse and prolonging this hemorrhaging – because no matter what strategy they’ve chosen, they’re all painful. They want out. All producers want out.

But the question is are they willing to cut and cooperate collectively? What we’ve seen since the beginning of the oil market is that it’s very difficult to get producers to cooperate collectively to restrain their production. The temptation is to cheat, to let somebody else do some cutting and you enjoy the higher oil prices. This has always been a challenge for the oil industry.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of kleptocratic petrostates.

FORMER PRESIDENT SELFIE STICK: The Audacity Of A Monumental Library.

SO WHY DIDN’T WE JUST PASS THIS? The Bill To Permanently Fix Health Care For All. I especially like this: “All customers must be billed for actual charges at the same price on a direct basis at the time the service or product is rendered to them.”

Related: The Healthcare Confusopoly.

Update (from Steve): Near as I can tell, this proposal offers almost zero opportunities for graft. So there’s your answer.

FINGERS CROSSED: A North Korean Nuclear EMP Attack? … Unlikely.

Considering the physics behind EMP and the status of North Korea’s nuclear program to date, doomsday headlines in the press regarding the North’s potential EMP threat are grossly overstated.[4] North Korea’s nuclear tests have not yet demonstrated sufficient yield to cause damage to large areas through EMP. Moreover, with only a limited arsenal, it would not make sense for the North Koreans to conduct nuclear tests simply to develop EMP weapons.

But enough Iranian cash might just make it worth Pyongyang’s while.

THE CRAZIER TRUMP’S OPPONENTS ACT, THE SANER TRUMP SEEMS: Model Chrissy Teigen says Trump should pay for her botox, medical bills because of ‘crippling anxiety.’ “So fucking tired of this manically insane, incompetent president and this dumpster fire administration I’m gonna have to go on another med.”

This is why quite a few people who didn’t support Trump in November support him now.

UPDATE: From the comments: “Welcome to the Re-Elect Trump 2020 campaign, Ms. Teigen! Glad to have you on board!”

WELL, GOOD: Trump to Nominate 10 Federal Judges.

Among those expected to be nominated for vacancies on an appeals court are Joan Larsen and David Stras, state supreme court judges in Michigan and Minnesota, respectively. Both Larsen and Stras were also on the list of 21 potential nominees to fill the Supreme Court seat occupied by the late Antonin Scalia, which Trump released during his campaign. The list was compiled with the help of two conservative groups, the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. One of the judges on the list was Neil Gorsuch, who Trump successfully nominated to the Supreme Court. Another on the list is Amul Thapar, whom Trump has already nominated to an appeals court vacancy on the Sixth Circuit.

Leonard Leo, the executive vice president of the Federalist Society who advised Trump on the Gorsuch selection, says the selection of Larsen and Stras for appeals court judgeships isn’t unexpected. “These are very impressive state judges who are natural prospects for federal judicial service at the Court of Appeals level. That was always a possibility,” Leo told me.

But will Trump prove bold enough to ask Congress to dismantle the Ninth?

BRUCE BAWER: What Happened in France?

BASICALLY, THE SAME WAY AS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES IN AMERICA: How Censorship, And Self-Censorship, Work In China.

THE PITY OF WAR: Top ISIS Commander in Afghanistan Was Killed in Raid Where Rangers Died.

The commander, Abdul Hasib, oversaw the group’s regional branch in South Asia, ISIS-K, named after the Khorasan province.

Hasib was allegedly behind a bloody attack in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on March 8 in which gunmen disguised as doctors stormed a military hospital, killing at least 30 and wounding 50, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said.

In a statement, Pentagon officials said Hasib ordered ISIS fighters to behead local elders in front of their families and directed the kidnapping of girls and women who were forced to marry militants.

The statement also confirmed that Sgt. Joshua Rodgers, 22, and Sgt. Cameron Thomas, 23, were killed in the April 27 operation in a remote area in Nangarhar province, in eastern Afghanistan.

Thirty-five ISIS fighters and several other unidentified leaders were also killed in the joint American-Afghan raid, the statement said.

SALENA ZITO: Hillary’s perfectly crafted untruths.

Trump’s willingness to say what he thought during the 2016 campaign endeared him to his supporters. Unlike the press, Trump supporters understood that Trump shot from the hip and would make mistakes. To many of them, his walking-back of some of what he said then makes sense; is a sign of learning, not of duplicity.

Compare this to Clinton’s interview Monday with Christiane Amanpour: She conceded to mistakes during the campaign, offered to write a “confessional” seeking “absolution” — and then blamed it all on FBI Director James Comey.

Bruce Haynes, founding partner of the bipartisan Purple Strategies consulting firm, calls this typical political doublespeak: “She may as well have said, ‘Wasn’t on me, bro.’ She says she takes responsibility but, in the next breath, she blames James Comey, WikiLeaks, Vladimir Putin and who knows who else.”

“Clinton neglected to include things like calling voters ‘deplorable’ and ‘irredeemable’ and failing to adequately campaign in states like Michigan, where voters had the highest levels of economic anxiety and the biggest questions about what her policies would do to help,” Haynes said.

The reality is, she put her campaign at risk by using a private email server, while the campaign’s decision to try to manipulate the Democratic primaries in her favor (and its embarrassing internal emails that others exposed) also helped to put her in a bad light. Comey didn’t put the email server in her basement, Putin didn’t invent the phrase “basket of deplorables,” and Julian Assange didn’t write the embarrassing campaign emails, said Haynes.

It’s clear that Clinton just isn’t responsible or mature enough to be President.

UPDATE: Link was incorrect before — fixed now, sorry!

CHANGE: Texas governor signs bill banning sanctuary cities.

The bill, which Abbott could be seen signing on Facebook Live Sunday evening, establishes criminal and civil penalties for local government entities and law enforcement that don’t comply with immigration laws and detention requests, the governor’s office said.

The new measure would fine government entities up to $25,500 for each day the law is violated.
It would also result in a misdemeanor charge for sheriffs, police chiefs and constables who fail to comply with detention requests and in removal from office for elected and appointed officials, Abbott’s office said.

“As Governor, my top priority is public safety, and this bill furthers that objective by keeping dangerous criminals off our streets,” Abbott said in a press release. “It’s inexcusable to release individuals from jail that have been charged with heinous crimes like sexual assault against minors, domestic violence and robbery.”

The measure goes into effect on September 1, according to the governor’s office.

An interesting test case, if you will, in actually enforcing the law.

GOOD MORNING: Liz Sheld’s Morning Brief will help shake off those Monday blahs.

IF YOU’RE A COLLEGE PRESIDENT, YOU NEED TO REALIZE THAT CAMPUS SOCIAL-JUSTICE WARRIORS ARE POISON, AND THAT TRYING TO MAKE THEM HAPPY IS SUICIDE: Mizzou Enrollment Drops Again After Notorious Race Protests. “In response to the declining enrollment and a shrinking student body, Mizzou has taken a total of seven residence halls ‘offline’ in the past two years.” How bad is it? Worse than “Tulane University the year after Hurricane Katrina.”

Higher education is already facing tough times, but if you alienate your key constituencies in order to satisfy a few hundred (or a few dozen) campus loudmouths who by their nature will never be satisfied, you’re basically committing suicide.

OVERSTRETCH: Multiple Deployments Are Forcing SOCOM To ‘Eat Our Young,’ Officials Say.