I’M SO OLD, I REMEMBER WHEN WE USED TO PUMP MORE OF OUR OWN: OPEC tells EU it’s not possible to replace potential Russian oil supply loss. “OPEC told the European Union on Monday that current and future sanctions on Russia could create one of the worst ever oil supply shocks and it would be impossible to replace those volumes, and signalled it would not pump more.”

GOOD IDEA: States urged to tighten security of elections, balloting.

STILL POPULAR: ComfiLife Gel Enhanced Seat Cushion – Non-Slip Orthopedic Gel & Memory Foam Coccyx Cushion for Tailbone Pain. #CommissionEarned

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Mitt Romney Seems To Know That He’s Jeff Flaked Himself. “Republicans aren’t a hive mind like the Democrats. There are always members of the GOP in Congress who are willing to swim upstream in their own party just to get a pat on the head from The New York Times. Yes, the Democrats have had their struggles recently with Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and AOC but they’re anomalies. There is always a Manchin, Sinema, or AOC hanging around the GOP.”

REPORT FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Seattle’s transit system struggles as riders refuse to pay: Almost 70% of passengers ride for free. Consequences, what are they?

GOOGLE CENSORS STRIKE AGAIN: The TechnoMetric Institute of Policy and Politics (TIPP) accurately predicted the outcome of the past five presidential elections. That kind of accuracy is why Issues & Insights (I&I) partners with TIPP on regular polling of American public opinion.

But according to the censors at Google AdSense, it doesn’t matter how accurate a poll is, what counts is whether the results advance the Left’s agenda, as represented by the Biden administration. Here’s how it came down, according to I&I:

“We reported on the results of our monthly I&I/TIPP Poll, which found that nearly two-thirds of registered voters thought decisions about COVID restrictions were driven by politics, not science. Majorities in just about every demographic, political, and ideological group felt this way.

“Nevertheless, Google’s AdSense network stripped its ads from this article because it contains what Google claims is ‘dangerous or derogatory content’ and that we must ‘fix it’ for Google to restore those ads.”

Sadly, the Google AdSense censors refused to even consider reviewing their decision, much less explaining how in this or any other universe it can be “dangerous or derogatory” to report accurately the results of a survey conducted by a pollster with a sterling record for reliability and precision.

Somewhere John D. Rockefeller and the rest of the Robber Barons are spinning in their graves, absolutely consumed with envy for Google AdSense.

THE LONG MARCH BACK THROUGH THE INSTITUTIONS: Conservative activist now leads student government that blocked her club.

BRAD THOMPSON: Sex and the Schools, or, An Essay You Don’t Want to Read.

CHRIS QUEEN: DeSantis Just Keeps Winning. “DeSantis signed another bill into law that will strengthen families in the Sunshine State. The initiative sets aside $70 million in state funds to provide resources that benefit families and children in Florida, including programs that promote fatherhood and help young fathers.”

FROM MELISSA MCSHANE:  Beguiling Birthright.

GEORGE KORDA: Play by the rulebook — our Constitution — to avoid a new civil war.

A new civil war in America: It’s all the rage among the enraged. But there’s a way out, if we follow the rulebook.

In a conversation in his Washington office several years ago with then-U.S. Sen. and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, I asked him what, in his opinion, was generating the seeming fury that dominates so much national political discussion.

He got up from his office table, walked over to his desk and picked up his smartphone. Waving it slightly, he said, “This.” No further explanation on that subject was necessary: social media is a culprit, but by no means the only one.

America in its history has often been divided along economic, racial, educational, religious, ancestral and other lines. But up to 1861 and since the end of the Civil War, “E pluribus unum” (“Out of many, one”) has described America’s makeup. These days, however, the anger and desire to “get” those who oppose correct thinking — “correct” being a subjective consideration — is almost tangible. And a growing number of Americans want to be separated from fellow Americans with “incorrect” ideas or opinions.

There have always been ideological divides among Americans. However, it’s possible that what’s fueling the present anger is the number of amplifiers to which Americans are exposed that trumpet political and social differences. Among these are amplifiers that condemn in increasingly strident terms anyone with ideas outside respective ideological silos. Examples are found daily on the internet, social media, national news media, cable TV news, talk radio and social media, the last being the issue to which Alexander referred.

Another divisive problem: If you’re trying to speak and someone puts a hand over your mouth, what happens? You get mad. And as more Americans see or feel themselves silenced, they get madder. This is happening as in important areas of society, support declines for the First Amendment. This decline has itself been going on for years, as evidenced by a March 12, 2018, Washington Post article spotlighting the trend: “College students support free speech — unless it offends them.”

Throughout the country we see daily examples of people losing jobs, banned from social media, ostracized, condemned and demonized, because they say something deemed “insensitive” or “bigoted” in the subjective judgment of an onlooker. When people are intimidated, bullied or denied the right to speak, some will find other, and more dangerous, ways to make their points.

A way out of this morass already exists. The rulebook that makes us “e pluribus unum.”

In the movie “Bridge of Spies,” actor Tom Hanks plays an American lawyer sent to Germany to negotiate the release of an Air Force spy plane pilot shot down over the then-Soviet Union. While talking to a U.S. intelligence agent of German heritage, Hanks, playing a character of Irish ancestry, gives an eloquent description of what makes Americans American.

Said Hanks: “I’m Irish, you’re German. But what makes us both Americans? Just one thing. One. Only one. The rulebook. We call it the Constitution. And we agree to the rules, and that’s what makes us Americans. It’s all that makes us Americans.”

But many nowadays would cast it aside for a temporary advantage.

ONLY DECADES AFTER THEY’VE BEEN OBVIOUS:  Even Labor Unions Starting To Admit Protectionism Has Problems.

THERE IS NO SIMPLE WAY TO TALK ABOUT IT; THERE’S NOTHING INDIVIDUALS CAN DO:  Invasion.

And yet, it needed to be mentioned.  And we need to remember.

YES, RIGHT NOW THE ONLY THING KEEPING US ALOFT IS THAT THE REST OF THE WORLD IS EVEN MORE F*CKED:  Tectonic Shift.

Fortunately for us, underestimating other countries abilities to shoot themselves in the foot with their heads up their *sses is a constant of US history. So we might continue levitating. However, keep in mind that like Willy Coyote in the cartoons, we’re running mid-air over an abyss. Sleep tight.

VANDALS, SAVAGES AND REPROBATES:  Palestinians Vandalize, Set Fire to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus.

WE’VE ALSO NOTICED:  Inflation Hits a Four-Decade High With an 8.5% Surge in March.

SO, DO THEY NEED THEM FOR CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, COLORADO?  WaPo Seeks Foreign Correspondent To Cover Texas, “a part of the country that is governed largely by one political party”.

Of course not, because that’s the one political party they like.

WE KNOW:  CNN+: A Bomb of Epic Proportions.

THE MASKS ARE WELL AND TRULY OFF: The Dem Wipeout: It’s Not Just the Midterms.

You can’t put them back on once you take them off. My biggest fear is that they will try to fake the midterms, and unleash a storm that will burn us all.

DID YOU REALLY THINK THEY’D RESTORE AMERICA’S PLACE IN THE WORLD?  Joe And Kamala Mocked On Saudi TV.

I’M NOT SURE I’D CALL HIM ANY KIND OF CONSERVATIVE:  Mehmet Oz is a Phony Conservative.

OUR PROGRESSIVES WANT TO THIS TO US:   Eric Feigl-Ding reports on the horror of China’s lockdowns without irony.

And they are totally without shame.

OPEN THREAD: And if there’s no tomorrow, I know we have this here and now.

BLACK FLAG DEFINED PUNK OF THE 1980s: Donald Douglas reviews two new books about the seminal L.A. punk band.

DISPATCHES FROM THE ANTHROPOLOGIST-AMERICAN COMMUNITY: Washington Post looking for Texas-based reporter to ‘illuminate the forces driving political polarization.’

(Classical reference in headline.)