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LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Sanctions, Google, Smollett Video, and Much, Much More.

Here’s the line-up for the Democratic presidential debates.

Wednesday: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio; Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.); former HUD Secretary Julián Castro; former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.); Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii); Gov. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.); Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.); former Rep. Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke (D-Texas); Rep. Tim Ryan (R-Ohio); and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

Thursday: Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.); former Vice President Joe Biden; South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.); Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.); former Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.); Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.); Marianne Williamson; and Andrew Yang.

I need a drink.

Tyler O’Neil is filling in for Liz this morning.

GOVERNMENT: Humboldt County threatened cannabis fines. They were growing peaches and tomatoes.

The Neukoms themselves had to think fast. Their daily farming grind went on the back burner as they spent time providing proof to the county that the property in question carries no cannabis plants.

At night, the couple worried aloud to each other, not about the peaches and tomatoes they grow, but whether the county would accept their proof over the false accusation.

“I told the county, ‘I think we’ve been caught up in a dragnet when we weren’t supposed to be,’” Jacques Neukom said. “Just because you have a driver’s license doesn’t mean you get a speeding ticket. And just because I have a greenhouse in my backyard doesn’t mean I’m growing cannabis in it.”

He added that the county staff were “very professional” in handling the process. But the implications of being flagged for illegal cannabis stretch past the burden of proving innocence.

What a mess.

FLASHBACK: Make the Supreme Court lots bigger. It’s not a priesthood, it should represent America. You know, when I wrote this it was semi tongue-in-cheek, but on review I kinda think it’s a good idea.

NOT SURPRISING TO ANY WHO HAS DEALT WITH THE FRENCH: Hiring Discrimination Is Greater in France and Sweden Than in the U.S.

SUCCESS: SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches 24 satellites in government mission.

Also, In a reusability first, SpaceX catches Falcon Heavy fairing with a boat.

And: SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Puts Solar Sail Into Orbit.

Only failure: The core booster missed its landing on the barge, but that wasn’t unexpected given the difficulty of this mission.

FLASHBACK: Trump And The Crisis Of Meritocracy. It’s become clear that we have more meritocrats than we have merit. . . .

LIE OF THE YEAR: E. Jean Carroll Says She Didn’t Think Including Trump Accusation In Her Book Would Get Much Attention.

BLACK COFFEE, BROWN FAT: Coffee Could Have Fat-Busting Effects, U.K. Study Finds.

In a study published Monday, researchers at the University of Nottingham said that coffee may help stimulate our brown fat reserves, also known as brown adipose tissue, which play a key role in how quickly we can burn calories.

There are two forms of fat cells, brown cells and white cells, and each plays a different role in our metabolism.

While brown cells help generate heat, white cells are responsible for the storage of fat — or, energy — ready for release as needed. Levels of brown fat are known to be high in children but recent findings on the presence of brown fat in adults has restored hope to use them as targets to treat obesity.

“Brown fat works in a different way to other fat in your body and produces heat by burning sugar and fat, often in response to cold, said professor Michael Symonds, from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, who co-directed the study.

“Increasing its activity improves blood sugar control as well as improving blood lipid levels and the extra calories burnt help with weight loss. However, until now, no one has found an acceptable way to stimulate its activity in humans.”

The scientists started by testing out coffee on stem cells to see if it would stimulate brown fat. Once they found the right dose, they moved on to humans to see if the results were similar.

Put on another pot. Why take chances?

SIC SEMPER SOCIALISM: What’s different about Bernie Sanders’ student loan plan? It would help more rich people. “Sanders’ plan doesn’t have caps or limits. It would offer loan forgiveness no matter how much people earn or how much debt they have. Put another way: His plan would forgive the big college and graduate-school debts of high-earning professionals such as doctors and lawyers. Sanders’ plan would make those people wealthy, fast.”

Goodies for the Gentry Class, in the name of equality.

YOU CAN’T TRUST THE TECH BILLIONAIRES TO PROTECT FREE SPEECH: I Was Called A KKK Member For Asking Amazon To Support Ideological Diversity.

All of this points to the fact that Amazon has no conservatives in positions of power. No conservative board member would sit idly by while the SPLC was allowed to run the business’s charity portal. It’s inconceivable. That’s why we think Amazon needs to institute a policy that considers viewpoint and ideological diversity. But such a suggestion was too much for the leftists in the room.

They booed and heckled me throughout my presentation. After my proposal, a representative from Arjuna Capital suggested that I was there to “protect white males.” Then, after the meeting, a representative from the Nathan Cummings Foundation tracked me down to suggest I should get going so I wouldn’t be late for my “next Klan meeting or book burning.” This is the guy who introduced a shareholder proposal calling on Amazon to ban content!

Liberal intolerance for diversity of thought is both top-down and bottom-up. Amazon’s board flatly rejected our proposal in the hopes of remaining a liberal enclave. Amazon’s activist investors hate the thought of viewpoint diversity so much that they reacted with petulance and name-calling.

When you hear a corporation tout its supposed goals of “diversity and inclusion,” just know that this sentiment doesn’t mean inclusion of conservatives or those with deeply held religious beliefs.

Very much the opposite.

YES: John Altman & Michael Poliakoff: Force Colleges To Allow Free Speech. “The University of Chicago’s Principles of Freedom of Expression ought to be standard operating procedure at every college and university. And it is time for the philanthropic community to make it their own operating procedure that there will be no money for any university without its official commitment to a comprehensive policy protecting and fostering freedom of expression. For this reason, the Altman Charitable Foundation offered $1 million to Miami University of Ohio for its Humanities Center, conditional upon the university first adopting the Chicago Principles of Freedom of Expression. In fact, that operational rule for higher education philanthropy is now written into the Foundation’s bylaws.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. America’s Most Educated, Engaged Citizens Are Making Politics Worse. Which says bad things about the state of education.

MATT MARGOLIS: Democrats Were the Party of Segregation Years Ago, and they Still Are Today.

PETER WOOD: How Oberlin Played The Race Card And Lost. “You can’t understand the Gibson’s Bakery story without understanding Oberlin College’s deeper and deeper descent into a kind of collective madness that overtook the college during Marvin Krislov’s decade as president, 2007-2017. Krislov himself—now president of Pace University—is a tell-tale figure. He is a lawyer who led the defense of the University of Michigan’s racial preferences in the Supreme Court case of Gratz v. Bollinger and had a well-established reputation before he was appointed Oberlin’s president as a fierce defender of affirmative action. Encouraging a spirit of racial grievance was close to the center of his life. And so it happened that Oberlin embarked on a decade of discovering racial grievances pretty much out of thin air.”

YOU CAN’T DIG A FLOWERBED IN COLORADO WITHOUT STUMBLING ON A FOSSIL OF SOME KIND, I SWEAR.  OF COURSE, I DON’T KNOW. I DON’T DIG FLOWER BEDS. MOSTLY I WRITE. WE DID HAVE COPROLITE IN OUR BACKYARD IN MANITOU SPRINGS YEARS AGO. EVERY TIME I TRIED TO FIND IT TO TAKE IN TO THE MUSEUM AND SEE IF IT WAS ANYTHING RARE/IMPORTANT, THE KIDS HAD PLAYED WITH IT AND LOST IT (I HAD BOYS!) :  Scientists say fossils found in Colorado are from 68-million-year-old triceratops.

I WISH I REALLY WERE SURPRISED AT THIS:  Antifa doxing Tucker Carlson and Stephen Miller with posters all over DC listing home addresses.

GOOD THING WE DROVE BACK VIA WYOMING, I GUESS:  Roll Out Those Lazy, Hazy, SNOWY Days of Summer.

YEAH. MY FACE, SO SHOCKED:  Google, censorship, and politics.

THIS WOMAN IS OUTRIGHT EVIL. READING HER BOOK (PARTS OF IT) MADE MY SKIN CRAWL:  Harris Adopts The “America Was Never Great” Strategy.

NO. HE’S NOT WRONG. HE’S LYING:  Author John Irving Wrong Is About Pro-Life Crusaders.

BECAUSE FACING REALITY WOULD BURST HER BUBBLE:   Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Childishly Refuses Tour Of Real Concentration Camps.

AGAIN, MY SHOCKED FACE:  Waters Sings Maduro’s Praises While Venezuela Burns.