HAVE YOU HUGGED A FRACKER TODAY? American Drivers Will Enjoy Another Summer of Cheap Gas.

The weather’s getting warmer, and many U.S. drivers are looking forward to another summer of road trips thanks to relatively cheap gasoline. . . .

Prices are slightly higher than they were at this time last year (and are, in fact, at nearly a two-year high), but they still remain far below what they were even three years ago, when a gallon of gas averaged well above $3.50. Today, that average is just $2.41, thanks to relatively low oil prices and an abundance of U.S. crude inventories.

It doesn’t take long to become accustomed to the status quo, but let’s remember that from 2011 to 2014, it was commonplace to be paying more than $4 per gallon at the gas station. Cheap gasoline isn’t just helpful for Americans planning their next vacation, it’s also helpful for any worker who relies on driving for his or her daily commute. The shale boom precipitated the global crude price collapse, and is therefore one of the main reasons why gas is so cheap today. Remember to thank fracking the next time you fill your tank up.

I will!

LI’L KIM: North Korea Says Nuclear War Could Break Out ‘At Any Moment’

That kind of talk can’t be playing well in Beijing.

NORTH KOREA’S NUCLEAR TEST SITE IS PRIMED AND READY: This is a 38North.org report analyzing activity at Pyongyang’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site. It’s excellent.

VERY MUCH RELATED: Last night’s post linking to NBC’s report that Washington is preparing to strike North Korea if it tests a nuclear device. (Bumping it.)

NBC NEWS REPORTS U.S. PREPARED TO STRIKE NORTH KOREA IF NORTH KOREA TESTS NUCLEAR DEVICE: NBC said “multiple senior U.S. intelligence officials” provided the information. That description usually means the reporter received an official, coordinated leak. U.S. officials also said South Korea must agree to the preemptive attack. In any case, strategic patience is over. For context, here’s the relevant history and background.

UPDATE: North Korea threatens its own “preemptive strike.” Sheesh. I know from personal experience that’s nothing new.

IT USUALLY IS: A passenger was violently dragged off a flight, but it’s even worse than you thought.

Even The New Yorker, which understood that passengers were bumped for crew members, referred to the problem as an “overbooked” flight, clearly not understanding what overbooked actually means. (The only way the flight could have been overbooked would be if flights always have empty seats for unanticipated crew members to fly for free, which would defeat the purpose of overselling in the first place.)

The fact that the flight was not overbooked may seem trivial, or pedantic, but there is very important legal distinction to be made. There may not be a difference in how an airline (typically) responds when it needs additional seats, such as asking for volunteers who wish to give up their seat for a voucher or cash. But there is a legal difference between bumping a passenger in the instance of overselling a flight versus bumping a passenger to give priority to another passenger. Any thoughtful person can see the problem that arises if an airline were allowed to legally remove one fare-paying passenger to allow for another passenger it prefers.

Since the flight was not actually overbooked, but instead only fully booked, with the exact number of passengers as seats available, United Airlines had no legal right to force any passengers to give up their seats to prioritize others. What United did was give preference to their employees over people who had reserved confirmed seats, in violation of 14 CFR 250.2a. Since Dr. Dao was already seated, it was clear that his seat had already been “reserved” and “confirmed” to accommodate him specifically.

This doesn’t look good for United.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN NIGERIA: Boko Haram Islamist militants continue their terror campaign — but they’re having trouble recruiting suicide bombers. So they’ve turned to coercion.

“…by the end of 2016 most of the suicide bombers were women (often teenagers) and children (some as young as ten)…Attacks using female suicide bombers tended to use kidnapped girls convinced or coerced to make such attacks. Sometimes young girls (under 10 years old) are used, usually to wear bomb vests that can be detonated remotely. These bombers often do not know they are wearing explosives.

Where’s the media outrage?

UPDATE: It’s been three years since the mass school girl kidnap in Chibok. How’d Michelle Obama’s “#BringBackOurGirls” work out? Boko Haram still has 195 of the 276 girls. Many of those who were freed ” had babies in captivity.” That tells me they were raped.

BYRON YORK: Trump’s Long March Problem. “To give a few examples, there are 113,000 employees in the Department of Justice, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions is the only Senate-confirmed Trump appointee there. There are 742,000 civilian employees of the Department of Defense, and Defense Secretary James Mattis is the only Senate-confirmed Trump appointee there. There are 105,000 employees in the Agriculture Department, and there are no Senate-confirmed Trump appointees there.”

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THIS IS CNN: CNN Publishes Locations of Town Halls, Aiding Democrat Activists.

Democrat operatives with bylines.

ATTENTION, PAUL RYAN: Republicans Had Better Listen to Georgia Wake-Up Call: GOP Faces Enthusiasm Gap In Georgia Race Over Lack of Progress. “If Republicans fail to address Obamacare, tax reform, or immigration in a convincing way, they will likely see some of their voters stay home in 2017. If enough do, control of the House or Senate could be jeopardy.” The GOP was elected to bring real change, not to play nice with K Street. If the House leadership has forgotten this already, their voters haven’t.

SOMEWHERE, CURTIS LEMAY SMILES: Trump’s MOAB Drop Triggered a Tweet You Need to Read. “Excessive American caution has cost American lives and American limbs, and it has left families and friends of the victims with deep psychological wounds. Those wounds would be grievous enough in the best circumstances, but they’re compounded by the fact that many of the decisions not to shoot, not to use artillery, or not to drop bombs were based on a combination of rules of engagement and military misjudgments that were transparently foolish at the time. . . . Soldiers tend not to respect timidity, and they generally have little patience for commanders who seem to place public or political perceptions over their lives and limbs. Watch this Trump statement carefully: He doesn’t say he authorized the use of the bomb itself. He says he authorizes the military. This is a key, wise, statement — one that hopefully empowers the military to act from a proper position of legal, moral, and political strength. Obama was notorious for not only implementing strict rules of engagement but for vacuuming an enormous amount of military decision-making authority straight to the White House. It’s hard to think of a more disempowering practice. It’s hard to think of a practice better calculated to lead to timidity in the field. Trump seems to be bringing a change, and it’s a change that’s long overdue.”

CONRAD BLACK: A Secular Good Friday Came Early.

The reaction to the cruise missile attack on Syria has been highly encouraging for President Trump. First, Democrats have generally acknowledged that it was a justified action in response to the brazen atrocity of murdering civilians and particularly children with Sarin gas. Second, it has attracted some criticism from the isolationist right, which makes it harder for the president’s opponents to attack him for being an isolationist. Third, although the Russians were advised to remove their personnel from the target area, it clearly debunks the theory that Trump is in dishonorable cooperation with Russian leader Putin.

Trump has therefore managed to cover all the bases with a simple military exercise that put no Americans at risk.

Read the whole thing.

CASS SUNSTEIN: A Simple Way to Ease the Pain of Airline Overbooking.

In 1968, economist Julian Simon offered an ingenious solution. Whenever planes are overbooked, airlines should run an auction, in which passengers specify the lowest amount they would accept to be bumped, and airlines take the lowest bidders.

Simon’s approach would have the advantage of ensuring that passengers would not be bumped unless the compensation was adequate by their own lights. And indeed the current system of voluntary bumping (which starts with low offers, which increase if no one accepts them) draws on his proposal. But a full-scale auction would be difficult to administer, not to mention confusing and stressful for people who are just trying to get from one place to another.

Here are two simpler proposals.

First, the Department of Transportation should make it clear that the figures in the 2011 regulations are just the minimum, and that airlines are free to give higher amounts to involuntarily bumped passengers. That approach would have the advantage of allowing a kind of market competition.

Second, the department should initiate a new rule-making process, asking for public comments on a different approach. The simplest option would be to eliminate the $650 and $1,300 maximums, so that involuntarily bumped passengers get double the cost of their ticket for short delays, and quadruple the amount for longer delays. Another possibility would be to include legal floors, so that passengers would get (say) at least $600 for short delays, and at least $1,200 for longer ones.

How about ban involuntary bumps entirely, and make the airlines bargain with passengers if they want them to surrender the seats they bought?

But also bear in mind that the United flight wasn’t overbooked. They just kicked the guy out of his seat because they wanted it for someone else.

JON GABRIEL EXPLAINS THE PRESS: Republican Bombs Are Bad, M’kay?

Criticizing a bomb for being too lethal is like criticizing a cherry fritter for being too delicious.

The lefties were fine when Obama was droning Yemeni wedding receptions and US military deaths in Afghanistan quadrupled over the Bush years. But now that President Trump is C-in-C, fighting terrorism is a cruel thing.

The main problem critics have with the MOAB is that it’s a Republican bomb. It was designed under George W. Bush and first used by Donald Trump. SEAL Team Six shooting up Osama’s compound made progressives feel butch, but ordnance that kills exponentially more terrorists is vulgar.

One can only imagine the fainting fits if Trump bragged that he’s “really good at killing people.”

AARON MATÉ: MSNBC’S Rachel Maddow Sees a ‘Russian Connection’ Lurking Around Every Corner.

It’s “impossible,” fellow anchor Lawrence O’Donnell told Maddow on April 7, to rule out that “Vladimir Putin orchestrated what happened in Syria this week – so that his friend in the White House could have a big night with missiles and all of the praise he’s picked up over the past 24 hours.”

Maddow concurred, suggesting that only the FBI’s ongoing probe into Trump’s alleged collusion with Russian electoral interference will determine the truth. “Maybe eventually we’ll get an answer to that from [FBI Director] Jim Comey,” Maddow said.

The Washington Post noted that the “conspiracy theory” drew “derision from across the political spectrum.” But it was not out of place.

There’s a video compilation at the link, and you’d be forgiven if you mistook it for a postmodern riff on Dr. Strangelove.

It’s always the Russians with these people — makes you wonder what they’d have thought back in the day of Ted Kennedy getting into bed with the Soviets to hack the 1984 presidential election.

On the other hand, for leftists it’s probably perfectly acceptable to pussyfoot with Russian Communists.

SO FIRE THEM: Labor Department Mutiny: Obama’s holdovers refuse to follow Trump’s directive. “Now we know one reason Democrats blocked President Trump’s first nominee to be secretary of Labor: The bureaucracy is in open rebellion against the new President’s directives. The casus belli is the fiduciary rule, the attempt by Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez to rewrite the rules for offering investment advice. The rule was supposed to go into effect Monday.”

THE HILL: CIA head: WikiLeaks a ‘non-state hostile intelligence service.’

CIA Director Mike Pompeo on Thursday hammered WikiLeaks, calling the organization a “non-state hostile intelligence service.”

In his first major public appearance since taking the top intelligence post in the Trump administration, Pompeo took aim at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked confidential information about NSA surveillance to news outlets before seeking refuge in Russia.

“It’s time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: A non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,” he said.

Pompeo said disclosures by Assange and Snowden have done “great harm to our nation’s national security and they will continue to do so in the long term,” adding that the revelations have hurt the U.S.’s relations with foreign partners.

Huh. I thought Trump was Wikileaks’ stooge.

POOR THING: Kaepernick Has Been Blackballed by NFL for Anthem Protest.

With great salary comes great responsibility.

UH OH: United Airlines Didn’t Have The Legal Right To Eject The Doctor From His Seat. “Since the flight was not actually overbooked, but instead only fully booked, with the exact number of passengers as seats available, United Airlines had no legal right to force any passengers to give up their seats to prioritize others. What United did was give preference to their employees over people who had reserved confirmed seats, in violation of 14 CFR 250.2a. Since Dr. Dao was already seated, it was clear that his seat had already been ‘reserved’ and ‘confirmed’ to accommodate him specifically. . . . A United Airlines spokesperson said that since Dr. Dao refused to give up his seat and leave the plane voluntarily, airline employees “had to” call upon airport security to force him to comply. However, since the flight was not overbooked, United Airlines had no legal right to give his seat to another passenger. In United Airline’s Contract of Service, they list the reasons that a passenger may be refused service, many of which are reasonable, such as “failure to pay” or lacking “proof of identity.” Nowhere in the terms of service does United Airlines claim to have unilateral authority to refuse service to anyone, for any reason (which would be illegal anyway).”

I thought that taking things from people they belong to, and giving them to people you like better, was the essence of our political system.

IRA STOLL: The McConnell Method Emerges as a Strategy For a Republican Era.

Senator McConnell’s success in getting Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the Supreme Court is a reminder that there’s no limit to what can be accomplished in Washington if conservatives don’t waste their time worrying about what the liberal press says about them.

And:

A lesser politician than Mr. McConnell — a politician who cared more what the New York Times, President Obama, or PBS had to say about him — might have caved to the pressure. Instead, the senator from Kentucky stood his ground and held his caucus together.

This disregard for liberal conventional wisdom — and higher regard for the Constitution — is a habit for the Senate majority leader. It was on display during the George W. Bush administration, when Mr. McConnell brought a lawsuit, McConnell v. FEC, arguing that the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that President Bush had signed into law was an unconstitutional infringement on liberties protected by the First Amendment.

If Mr. McConnell seems at times to relish his role as villain, Mr. Ryan, on the other hand, sometimes seems like he covets the John McCain-Lindsey Graham title of every liberal journalist’s most favorite Republican.

Not giving a damn about what the media said about him — thriving on it, perhaps — won Donald Trump the GOP nomination and then the White House.

BUT OF COURSE: Chicago Tribune Asks Trump To Clear Up The Nuclear Waste Left By Obama. “Suddenly, mainstream media and liberals find all the problems Obama left. Funny, that. . . .”

EVERYBODY’S BLOGGING FOR THE WEEKEND: Start it off right with Liz Sheld’s morning brief at Hot Mic.

BOMB DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MOAB bombing of IS in Afghanistan ‘killed dozens’

Just as importantly, the strike “also destroyed a large stash of weapons,” and it doesn’t much imagination to glean what became of the network of caves where the enemy forces were dug in.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDITION: 64% Of Law Grads Want Law Schools To Raise Admissions Standards; 58% Say Their Debt Load Is ‘Unmanageable.’

STILL RELEVANT: The Unexpected Return of Duck and Cover.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Some of the biggest blows to the progressive cause in the past year have often been due to the votes of white men. If white men were not allowed to vote, it is unlikely that the United Kingdom would be leaving the European Union, it is unlikely that Donald Trump would now be the President of the United States, and it is unlikely that the Democratic Alliance would now be governing four of South Africa’s biggest cities.

—Could It Be Time To Deny White Men The Franchise?, the Huffington Post yesterday.

I’m old enough to remember when the Huffington Post was angry at white men because they were voting for Hillary.

Why, it’s like the white man is the Jew of Liberal Fascism, to coin a phrase.

Related: The ‘Toxic Masculinity’ Trend Blames Boys For Being Born Male.