RUSSIA’S BELOGOROD, A VERY SPECIAL SUBMARINE: “Belgorod won’t work for the navy like other subs but for the GUGI (Main Department of Deep-Water Researches) which works for the intelligence services and is attached to the navy for ship and crew support.” Read the whole thing, especially the part about Poseidon autonomous underwater vehicles that carry nuclear warheads and can travel to enemy coastal cities then detonate underwater and create tidal waves.

HMM: Will Russia Abandon The OPEC+ Oil Deal?

OPEC’s task in estimating global oil supply going forward has been made more difficult by mounting uncertainty over Russian oil supplies to Europe via the Druzhba pipeline, expectations of further production declines in Venezuela, and the possibility of an outage in Libya, which is in the midst of a civil war with rival armies fighting for the capital Tripoli.

Amidst all this, Russia sent several ambiguous messages to the market last month. First, its Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that OPEC and Russia might choose to fight for market share against the U.S., even if this means quitting the OPEC+ deal and sending oil prices significantly lower.

Then at the end of last month, Putin said that he hoped the Saudis wouldn’t break their promises under the OPEC+ deal, adding that he hadn’t heard of anyone indicating willingness to quit the agreement.

As for Russia itself, it has been struggling to reduce its oil production to the agreed upon level under the pact.

Moreover, Russian oil companies have been balking at the output cuts because the OPEC+ deal has been meddling with their production growth plans.

The amazing thing about OPEC’s years-long effort to cut production and inflate prices is how well it’s worked. Success at raising prices usually induces cheating which causes prices to fall again. That hasn’t happened (yet) this time around, which I’ve taken as an indicator at just how desperate OPEC/Russia have become in the face of ever-increasing American fracking.

But maybe new cracks are finally starting to form.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Private College Tuition Discount Rate Hits All-Time High Of 52%.

Way back in The Higher Education Bubble, I warned that this was a major trouble sign to watch. Now it’s here. And if you’re paying full freight, you’re a sucker.

BUFF LEAVES BARKSDALE, HEADING TO CENTCOM: A B-52H assigned to the USAF’s Bomber Task Force leaves Louisiana for a deployment in the Central Command area of operations. Think of it as a message to Tehran.

THE IVY LEAGUE’S CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Donors Endowed Coaching Positions; Children Subsequently Admitted. “The Boston Globe reported Sunday on a pattern in which donors to Yale University and other top colleges endow coaching positions. That’s a trend about which many colleges have been very open. But not known is what the Globe reported about the children of donors then applying to and being admitted to those colleges, and in many cases playing on the teams of the coaches whose positions have been endowed.”

Related: To Reduce Inequality, Abolish The Ivy League.

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LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Lindsay Graham Working to Declassify FISA Docs. “So, the bottom line is the dossier has never been independently confirmed. It was used to get a warrant. They knew the author of the dossier was on the Democrat Party payroll. He hated Trump; they got the warrant anyway. Most Americans should be very upset about that. I’m very upset about it. And we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

Good.

THINK OF IT AS A PREVIEW OF THE GREEN NEW DEAL: California May Go Dark This Summer, and Most Aren’t Ready.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Get a generator, or at least an inverter, while you can.

THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP: Resurfaced video shows Joe Biden pushing border fence, calling for employers who hired ‘illegals’ to be punished. The Trump 2020 campaign can just run this clip and add “I’m Donald Trump, and I endorse this message.”

FLASHBACK: Remember InstaPundit In Your Will!

ROGER KIMBALL: “Watching the histrionics of the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee (as well as the Democrats on its Senate counterpart, especially the cognitively challenged Mazie Hirono), I am somewhat at a loss to explain their behavior.”

Plus: “But here’s the truth of the matter. William Barr has pledged to answer the following questions: ‘How did the Trump-Russia investigation get started? Who started it? On what authority? For what reason? What was the rationale for the FISA warrants taken out against Carter Page and renewed several times? It has been alleged that assets of the DOJ spied on the Trump campaign: did they? The entire investigation was plagued by leaks of classified information, a felony: who leaked it that information? Who, for example, leaked the transcript of the phone call between Michael Flynn, Trump’s first, ill-fated director of the National Security Council and the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak? There is only a small circle of possible candidates.’ If William Barr’s behavior over the last month or two doesn’t convince you that he excels in doggedness and is very likely to answer all of these questions, take a look at his performance in that 1991 clip I linked to above. The man is part terrier (and another part Sphinx). He will get to the bottom of this whole rotten story.”

Well, that’s probably the reason for the histrionics. It looks as if the whole collusion narrative was designed to distract from what Barr is going to uncover.

OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: Biden Declares U.S. Has ‘Obligation’ To Give Taxpayer-Funded Healthcare To Illegal Aliens.

DON’T GET COCKY, KIDS: Trump captures Biden’s blue-collar, older voter base.

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s hope of riding the support of blue-collar workers and older voters to the White House has hit a wall called President Trump.

In a survey of key battleground states conducted after Biden entered the 2020 Democratic primary, Trump not only has a 46%-44% edge, but he has a 26-point lead among non-college educated workers earning $75,000 or less, considered the blue-collar base and a Biden target.

What’s more, the battleground state survey from WPA Intelligence showed that Trump does better with Biden’s other main support group, older voters, and has a 48%-44% lead over Biden in Florida, dubbed the Democrat’s “firewall.”

Well, Trump has been a successful President. Biden was an unexceptional Vice President.

DION J. PIERRE:  “I wouldn’t participate in a blacks-only commencement.  No grad should.”

The Department of Education really should look into neo-segregration on campuses.  There is a lot of it.

CHRIS ARNADE ON RELIGION AND BACK ROW AMERICA.

His book, Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America, comes out in a few weeks. I think it’s going to be one of the most important books of the year.

OHIO: The Midwest state where Democrats should give up already.

Republicans have come a long way since 2012, when I ran Mitt Romney’s campaign in Ohio. President Barack Obama took an op-ed Romney had written with the headline “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” four years earlier and used it to slam the GOP. Romney never had an answer to Obama’s attack depicting Romney as a heartless corporate raider who cared more about profits than people.

“When some wanted to let Detroit go bankrupt, we made a bet on American workers, on the ingenuity of American companies,” Obama said in a Columbus speech in May of 2012. He was still at it in October: “[We] refused to throw in the towel and do nothing. We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt. We bet on American workers and American ingenuity, and three years later, that bet is paying off in a big way.” I had nightmares about that “bankrupt” headline; I couldn’t turn on a TV or pick up a newspaper without seeing Obama’s team relentlessly hammering that nail.

The gambit worked perfectly: Obama bested Romney by three points in Ohio, en route to winning a second term.

But four years later, Ohioans, like many other Midwestern voters, had soured on Democrats, with Trump owning Hillary Clinton by eight points. In fact, Trump’s margin of victory in Ohio was bigger than Georgia (5) and Arizona (3.5), states that pundits routinely think of as being redder than Ohio. And Trump’s work in the state will make it more likely than not that Trump will outperform any earlier poll that predicts a Democratic edge.

Flashback: Democrats Can Kiss Ohio Goodbye.

SNUBBBED: Queen Declines To Invite London Mayor Sadiq Khan To Trump State Dinner.

ROBERT REICH, CLOSET REPUBLICAN? There are many reasons not to impeach Trump. The House should do it anyway.

SKYROCKETING ATTACKS ON NYC JEWS IGNORED BECAUSE OF RACE:

Imagine that members of a religious minority were being frequently physically assaulted in America’s largest city at alarming rates. Imagine if members of that minority were being cold-cocked or spit on randomly for doing nothing more than being who they are and dressing how they dress. Imagine what a powerful and important story this would be to our country, how mobilized the media and government would be to stop it. But what if I told you that this is happening in New York City right now, and nobody seems to care very much? How can this be? I’ll explain it.

Read the whole thing.

“HARVARD CAVES TO STUDENT MOB, FIRES RONALD SULLIVAN FOR BEING HARVEY WEINSTEIN’S LAWYER“:  This story is almost unbelievable.  Does Harvard really want student mobs to decide whether an unpopular client gets an attorney?

If the ABA and the Massachusetts Bar Association don’t vigorously protest this, then they ought to be ashamed to call themselves lawyers.

MATTHEW CONTINETTI: The Real Democratic Agenda: It’s Impeaching Donald Trump. Well, good luck with that.

TOO LATE! Democratic female freshmen signal Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t represent them.

Plus: “Democrats with military, CIA backgrounds unite to fundraise for each other.”

JON CALDERA: The fun police come for CSU’s ‘Undie Run.’

Today the buzz-kills at Colorado State University are trying to snuff out the Undie Run. This prestigious collegiate tradition happens before the start of final exams as students run across campus clothed in only their underwear.

Not quite the high-brow sophistication of full-on streaking, which along with Led Zeppelin IV were the only real achievements of the 1970s, the Undie Run is a tip-of-the-hat to the public nudity of old.

CSU officials have emailed parents asking them to discourage their kids from participating.

There was a time when the range of helicopter parenting could not extend to college, which was the key ingredient in college fun.

CSU’s many nanny worries include, “After-parties where students remain in their underwear, creating a tone that breeds harmful situations for our students.”

Tone? Today’s kids are deluged with squishy, vague terms like “tone.” So, exactly what should be the tone of a college kegger?

I can barely keep pants on my kids and they still live at home.