OH NO YOU DI’N’T! Saudi Arabia Whines US Has Too Much Control Over World’s Oil.

This is what winning feels like, in case you’d forgotten.

SAD! New Hepatitis C Infections Triple, Driven By Drug Use, CDC Says.

HARD BARGAIN: Dozens of ISIS Fighters Let Go on Condition They Cleared IEDs from Critical Dam Near Raqqa.

EVERGREEN HEADLINE: The American Left Is Talking Itself Into Violence — The recent violence that’s marked our college campuses is seeping into the rest of society, and the vast majority of it comes from the intolerant Left.

On March 18th, 1968, Bobby Kennedy told the students at Kansas State University:

As Kennedy began [to speak at Kansas State U.], his voice cracked, and those near the stage noticed his hands trembling and his right leg shaking.After praising [Al] Landon’s distinguished career, he said, “I am also glad to come to the home state of another great Kansan, who wrote, ‘If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all their youthful vision and vigor then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better the world for tomorrow.’ ” …

At first he seemed tentative and wooden, stammering and repeating himself, too nervous to punctuate his sentences with gestures. But with each round of applause he became more animated. Soon he was pounding the lectern with his right fist, and shouting out his words.

Rene Carpenter watched the students in the front rows. Their faces shone, and they opened their mouths in unison, shouting, “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!”

Hays Gorey, of Time, called the electricity between Kennedy and the K.S.U. students “real and rare” and said that ” .. John Kennedy … himself couldn’t be so passionate, and couldn’t set off such sparks.”

Kevin Rochat was close to weeping because Kennedy was so direct and honest. He kept telling himself, My God! He’s saying exactly what I’ve been thinking! ..

Kennedy concluded by saying, “Our country is in danger: not just from foreign enemies; but above all, from our own misguided policies–and what they can do to the nation that Thomas Jefferson once said was the last, great hope of mankind. There is a contest on, not for the rule of America but for the heart of America. In these next eight months we are going to decide what this country will stand for–and what kind of men we are.”

He raised his fist in the air so it resembled the revolutionary symbol on posters hanging in student rooms that year, promised “a new America,” and the hall erupted in cheers and thunderous applause.

As he started to leave, waves of students rushed the platform, knocking over chairs and raising more dust. They grabbed at him, stroking his hair and ripping his shirtsleeves. Herb Schmertz was left with a lifelong phobia of crowds. University officials opened a path to a rear exit, but Kennedy waved them off and waded into the crowd …

Or as a rather prominent far left community organizer said in various speeches to his constituents decades later, punish your enemies, If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun, get in their faces, and punch back twice as hard, I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry, etc.

AND VIEWERS DON’T STICK TO ESPN: ESPN Reporters Say They’re Not Going To ‘Stick To Sports’

THE PERILS OF “AVOCADO HAND:” “There’s a hidden danger lurking in your produce section – though it doesn’t become dangerous until you take it home. That danger is your precious avocado and your attempt to slice it open (i.e. holding it in your hand while trying to take out the pit with a knife may not be the safest bet).”

Cut away from yourselves, people. Though I suspect InstaPundit readers mostly know that.

THE DEEP STATE UNDERMINES ITSELF: Government ethics office appears to troll Trump on Twitter.

People keep saying that Trump is unprofessional and paranoid, while all the “professional” types throw propriety out the window to go after him.

The big lesson of the Trump presidency so far is that our entire ruling class is narcissistic, undisciplined, and partisan. In a word, unfit.

FAUSTA WERTZ: A week of pearl-clutching.

The one thing that is clear from the start of the Trump presidency is that the media insists that it owns the narrative, regardless of the emergence of independent media, or whether, in this instance, people don’t care about a career bureaucrat, who, as Byron York points out (emphasis added),

is the FBI director who did not tell the Director of National Intelligence that the FBI had opened a counter-intelligence investigation involving Russia and the 2016 election.

The liberal media (I repeat myself) owned the narrative for so long that they took Hillary’s victory as a given. After the American people went against that narrative, the media will do anything to take Trump down, and will clutch ever-larger pearls, to the detriment of actual news.

Some of those pearls are the size of ice cream scoops.

Read the whole thing.

GOOD, I GUESS: Teen Drinking Reaches Lowest Point in 25 Years, CDC Says. On the other hand, when teens were drinking and having sex more, they weren’t such PC weenies.

AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR: Security situation in Afghanistan likely to get worse.

JUST REREAD LARRY NIVEN’S RINGWORLD, and I have to say it holds up surprisingly well.

ANDREW KLAVAN: President Troll on the Planet Hysteria.

EVERYTHING SEEMINGLY IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL: Madness on the March in Indonesia, Harvard and Clemson.

(Classical reference in headline.)

U. MASS STUDENTS HAVE SET UP a drinking game for Elizabeth Warren’s commencement speech.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW about 5G.

OUCH: Retail Sales Miss Across The Board; Grow At Slowest Pace Of 2017.

We could sure use some tax reform about now.

IS THERE ANY TRUMP STORY THE PRESS ISN’T OVERREACTING TO? Is the media overreacting to Comey’s firing?

SPENGLER: The Existential Roots of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

THE RED PLANET IS A HARSH MISTRESS: 5 Ways Mars Can Kill.

WELL, IT’S MOSTLY SELLING A FANTASY ANYWAY: When the Gospel of Minimalism Collides With Daily Life. Also, if you think having a chicken coop is about “simplicity,” it’s because you’ve never kept chickens.

BIG IFS: Six ‘Ifs’ Stand Between AHCA and Successful Passage.

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: Indonesian Islamist leader says ethnic Chinese wealth is next target.

The leader of a powerful Indonesian Islamist organization that led the push to jail Jakarta’s Christian governor has laid out plans for a new, racially charged campaign targeting economic inequality and foreign investment.

In a rare interview, Bachtiar Nasir said the wealth of Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese minority was a problem and advocated an affirmative action program for native Indonesians, comments that could stoke tensions already running high in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.

“It seems they do not become more generous, more fair,” the cleric said, referring to Chinese Indonesians, in the interview in an Islamic center in South Jakarta. “That’s the biggest problem.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world:

And here you’ll find a much-needed reminder for Dowd.

WSJ EDITORIAL BOARD: The fastest way to lose Congress is by not repealing ObamaCare.

I’ve been saying this for three months.

A SLEEPING GIANT: America’s export machine cranks up.. “Shipments of oil and gas hit new highs in 2016. As drilling picks up and new infrastructure is built, 2017 could be another record breaker.”

The bigger change, however, was that US oil was able to find its way to markets around the world, reflecting broad demand for the light sweet crude coming out of US shale oilfields. Before the lifting of the ban, nearly all exported US crude went to Canada, which held a valuable exemption from the long-standing restrictions. In 2016, US oil found its way to 26 different countries, though Canada remained the biggest buyer, pulling in nearly 60% of exports. The Netherlands, which funnels crude throughout Europe, was the second largest buyer at 38,200 b/d.

Italy and the UK were also sizable importers. Curaçao, where Venezuela’s PdV blends its own heavy oil with US light oil for re-export or to feed its refinery on the island, was the third-largest buyer.

Early 2017 figures point to rising crude exports as production picks up and new infrastructure is built as oil fills the gaps left by Opec’s cuts. Exports for the first quarter were 0.775m b/d, compared with 415,000 b/d over the same period in 2016. Rising output from the Permian is helping push crude exports to new highs. Most of the Permian’s 2m b/d-plus in output is linked via pipeline to the Gulf Coast, which is saturated with light tight oil. Domestic supplies have already backed out virtually all imports of other light grades in the Gulf Coast, leaving the new Permian barrels little space except for the export market.

Have you hugged a fracker today?