21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Crowdsourced reports could save lives when the next earthquake hits.

HERE’S THE WASHINGTON POST’S RESPONSE TO THE COVINGTON KIDS’ LIBEL SUIT.

‘SOME PEOPLE DID SOMETHING:’ Ilhan Omar’s Unbelievable Description of 9/11 Attacks. “I suppose we could describe Omar’s commentary on 9/11 as despicable, unfeeling, crass, or just plain stupid. But this is one case where I will break my longstanding rule and describe her comments as un-American. Because they are,” Rick Moran writes.

TYLER O’NEIL: New Leak Reveals Google Manually Manipulates News Blacklist. “Did Sundar Pichai lie to Congress?”

HASN’T THIS ALWAYS BEEN THE CASE: Too soon for sex talk? New study shows some boys are having sex before age 13.

Flashback: Teen Sex and Media Hype.

AT AMAZON, save on Automotive Tools and Equipment.

Plus, deals on Blu-Ray and DVD.

HMM: No, experts don’t consider marijuana a gateway drug. That, and five more fact checks from the Texas Legislature on weed. “It’s unlikely Texas will become the next Colorado or California anytime soon. But when it comes to loosening criminal penalties or expanding medicinal use, how much of what each side says is true?”

FASTER, PLEASE: Cancer ‘vaccine’ shown to be effective in small trial.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: New model accurately predicts harmful space weather.

THIS SEEMS LIKE A GOOD IDEA: SECNAV Proposes Fifth Assistant Navy Secretary To Run Cybersecurity.

PAULA BOLYARD: John McAfee, a pregnant housekeeper, and an Iranian teleportation device.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF G.I. JOE.

PAY UP, WHITEY: Cory Booker to introduce reparations commission bill in the Senate.

I hosted a Right Angle segment on this topic yesterday, and it ought to be up later this week at BillWhittle.com.

YEP: John Stossel: Mark Zuckerberg, Crony Capitalist.

I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS: Dutch F-16 flies into its own bullets, scores self-inflicted hits. “It appears that the damaged aircraft actually caught up with the 20mm rounds it fired as it pulled out of its firing run. At least one of them struck the side of the F-16’s fuselage, and parts of a round were ingested by the aircraft’s engine. The F-16’s pilot managed to land the aircraft safely at Leeuwarden Air Base.”

This has happened before.

MAY THE SAME THING HAPPEN HERE: There Is No Left Left In Israel. “The most far-reaching consequence of the 2019 Israeli election may well be that it verified, beyond any reasonable doubt, that there is functionally no left left in Israel. It has become a country with a center, a right, and a far right, but no electorally viable left to speak of.”

OBJECTION. ASSUMES A FACT NOT IN EVIDENCE. Elizabeth Warren Had Charisma, and Then She Ran for President.

COLLUSION: “While special counsel Robert Mueller has concluded there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, some of the key people in creating the Russia-collusion narrative themselves have ties to a foreign nation. Both the Democratic National Committee as well as Fusion GPS—the company hired by the DNC and the Clinton campaign to research the Trump campaign—were using Ukrainian sources in their efforts to discredit Trump. Serhiy Leshchenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament, was a common thread involved in Democratic opposition research efforts into former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort.”

THERESA MAY HEMORRHAGING SUPPORT: In the mid-90s UK I looked on in horror as John Major’s campaign people insisted that discontent with his government was temporary and voters would come back in the general election. They didn’t, Tony Blair won in a landslide, and he wrecked the constitution. This time a similar dynamic is in play, but May is losing the activists, not just the voters, and the Labour leader is an out-and-out Marxist. Mark Wallace relates the level of anger at May’s Brexit betrayal.

SAD: The End of Aspiration. “Since the end of the Second World War, middle- and working-class people across the Western world have sought out—and, more often than not, achieved—their aspirations. These usually included a stable income, a home, a family, and the prospect of a comfortable retirement. However, from Sydney to San Francisco, this aspiration is rapidly fading as a result of a changing economy, soaring land costs, and a regulatory regime, all of which combine to make it increasingly difficult for the new generation to achieve a lifestyle like that enjoyed by their parents. This generational gap between aspiration and disappointment could define our demographic, political, and social future.”

Joel Kotkin, so read the whole thing.

YOU CAN CHECK OUT ANYTIME YOU LIKE, BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE: “USC is conducting a case-by-case review of all students involved in the alleged scheme and has placed a hold on their accounts, preventing them from registering for classes until they agree to participate in the review and preventing them from withdrawing from the university.”

OPEC REPORT: Venezuela reports collapse in oil supply, tightening global market. “In a monthly report, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Venezuela told the group that it pumped 960,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March, a drop of almost 500,000 bpd from February.”

This Reuters story describes Venezuela’s production collapse as an “involuntary curb,” which I suppose is one man’s way of saying “near-total economic collapse.”

More from CNBC:

OPEC’s output fell by 534,000 bpd in March to 30.02 million bpd, according to independent sources cited by the group in its monthly report. This year, supply from the group has fallen by more than 1.5 million bpd, helping to drive international Brent crude prices 30 percent higher.

Much of the March decline is due to Saudi Arabia’s willingness to aggressively cut production. In March, the Saudis took another 324,000 bpd off the market, bringing output to just under 9.8 million bpd and delivering on Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih’s vow to pump well below 10 million bpd.

OPEC is sacrificing marketshare to prop up prices, but given that producers in the Permian Basin are closing in on being profitable at $15-a-barrel, OPEC is creating bigger opportunities for North American shale producers.

But maybe the real measure of how big a pinch OPEC is in is that members states have become so desperate that they’re hardly cheating on their production quotas.

WELL: Barr says he believes Trump’s 2016 campaign was spied on. By the feds, on behalf of the Democrats.

UPDATE: Ouch.