SNEAKY COMMIES: Venezuela dodges oil asset seizures with export transfers at sea.

Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA has limited the damage from an unprecedented slump in crude exports by transferring oil between tankers at sea and loading vessels in neighboring Cuba to avoid asset seizures.

Venezuela has been pumping oil this year at the lowest rate in three decades after years of underinvestment and a mass exodus of workers. The state-run firm’s collapse has left the country short of cash to fund its embattled socialist government and triggered an economic crisis.

I’m pretty sure it was the socialist government’s battle against free markets which triggered the economic crisis.

TOXIC FEMININITY: Female Senator Asks Male Judges About Their Sex Lives.

GOOD MESSAGING: Millionaire Democrat Wants To Tax Parents With More Than Two Kids As “Irresponsible Breeders.”

Shouldn’t they get a medal instead for helping to shore up Social Security?

WINNING: Trump’s Ambassador To Germany Scores Another Victory Against Iran.

Grenell has scored a series of victories in recent days by successfully lobbying against a $400 million payment from the German central bank to the Islamic Republic and convincing car company Daimler to cancel expansion plans in the country.

“The Trump administration intends to fully enforce the sanctions reimposed against Iran, and those who fail to wind down activities with Iran risk severe consequences,” the White House warned in a Monday release.

Grenell was particularly instrumental in convincing Daimler to cancel its expansion and business with Iran, having met with the CEO of the company on several occasions, a U.S. official familiar with the process tells The Daily Caller.

I’m old enough to remember when leaving the Iran Deal would isolate us on the world stage and cause our trading partners to side with Tehran.

DON’T WORRY, IT WAS PROBABLY FOR HATE SPEECH OR SOMETHING: The Chinese Government Destroys Ai Weiwei’s ‘Zuoyou’ Studio: “Free speech and free expression have simply never existed in China or in its artist communities.”

PLANS FOR PACKING THE COURTS, TAKING OVER THE INTERNET — THESE PEOPLE ARE A DISGRACE: Senate Democrats Are Circulating Plans for Government Takeover of the Internet.

A good reason to make sure there aren’t enough Senate Democrats to make it happen.

DAVID SOLWAY: Jewish Self-Estrangement Is Perennial.

HE’S NOT WRONG: Harvard-Educated Owner of Five Homes and a Private Plane Says Democrats Becoming ‘Too Elitist.’

DEMOCRATS ARE ALL ABOUT SILENCING THEIR OPPONENTS, NOT OUT-ARGUING THEM: ‘Survival of our democracy’ depends on banning sites like InfoWars, Dem senator says. And also about establishing precedents for Trump, who they’ve been warning is Hitler, in case he decides to actually act like Hitler. Though to be honest, I don’t know why Trump would want to shut them up when they’re acting this crazy.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Emails Reveal High School Teachers Plotting To Hide Their Political Bias From Parents.

Shortly after President Trump’s inauguration, a group of public school history teachers in the posh Boston suburb of Newton pledged to reject the “call for objectivity” in the classroom, bully conservative students for their beliefs, and serve as “liberal propagandist[s]” for the cause of social justice.

This informal pact was made in an exchange of emails among history teachers at Newton North High School, part of a very rich but academically mediocre public school district with an annual budget of $200 million, a median home price of almost half a million, and a median household income of more than $120,000. Read the entire email exchange here.

I obtained the emails under a Massachusetts public records law after one of those teachers arranged, earlier this year, for an anti-Semitic and anti-Israel organization to show Palestinian propaganda films at Newton North. This stunt earned the Newton Public Schools district a rebuke from the New England branch of the Anti-Defamation League and from Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council. But, as the teachers’ emails reveal, Jew-hatred is not the only specter haunting the history department at Newton North.

Read the whole thing.

SO — SCRATCHES HEAD — THIS HAPPENED: Dragon Awards 2018 Finalists.

IS THERE A THING FOR CRAZIES WITH SWORDS LATELY:  So the other day we were sitting at Pete’s Kitchen (Colfax Avenue) having late dinner, and next to our table was a table of policemen (not unusual there) with a radio.  And suddenly out of the radio the words crackle “He’s run back into the alley and he has a sword.”  Uh.  Bringing a knife to a gunfight… in Nebraska.

ON BOOKS PUBLICITY, AND NOT BAD ADVICE ON WINE, EITHER:  In Vino Veritas.

IT’S NOT SO MUCH OUR BEING RULED BY BOTS THAT UPSETS ME. IT’S OUR BEING RULED BY STUPID BOTS:  Code Is Free Not Spam.

AND THEIR STUNNING LACK OF SELF AWARENESS WILL NOT HELP THEM SCRAMBLE FROM THE BRINK:  Purity Spirals Into Evil.

THOUGHTS FROM THE BOSS ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH, BUT HERE’S THE THING — THEY WANT TO DO AWAY WITH THE FIRST AMENDMENT TOO.  THERE’S MORE AND MORE TALK ABOUT HOW IT DOESN’T ALLOW US TO RESTRICT “HATE SPEECH” AND THAT’S A BAD THING. I VIEW ALL THIS AS THEIR FIRST STEP TOWARDS THAT:  Freedom of speech is under attack from the big cybertech companies.

THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE:  Rahm Emmanuel is Pouring Fuel on Chicago Fire.

FIVE? FIVE? IF I START LISTING REASONS, I’LL BE HERE ALL NIGHT:   Barack Obama Gets Another Peace Prize: Here Are 5 Reasons He Doesn’t Deserve It.

THE FIRST AMENDMENT EXISTS TO PROTECT OFFENSIVE SPEECH. NO ONE EVER GOT IN TROUBLE FOR PRAISING MOM AND APPLE PIE:  The War Against InfoWars and Free Speech.

AND AGAIN: Now it’s SMOD’s turn for a Twitter timeout. Over this:

I’m sorry that SMOD failed to deliver on his 2016 presidential campaign promises, but auditioning to become a New York Times columnist seems like a dramatic step down in rank.

SHOCKING. POSITIVELY SHOCKING. Florida man shocked by 7000 volts while attempting parkour on live power wire.

(Classical reference in headline. Found via…who else?)

REPUBLICAN TROY BALDERSON WINS BELLWETHER OHIO SPECIAL ELECTION.

Link is to the NYT, but here’s how Drudge plays it:

Related: Socialist star Ocasio-Cortez strikes out: All endorsed candidates lose Tuesday primaries.

Don’t get cocky, kids. The Ohio race shouldn’t have been this close.

NARRATOR VOICE: THEY ARE. Scientologists Blast Accusations That They’re a Cult.

HMM: Chinese People Hope ‘Powerful Grandpa Trump’ Ends the Chinese Communist Party.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: ABA Withdraws Proposal To Remove LSAT As Accreditation Requirement, Doubles (To 30) Number Of Permissible Online Credits And Eliminates Ban On Online 1L Credits.