REPUBLICANS POUNCE! The Right Comes for a Knitting Website.

Forget it, Jake — it’s Salon.

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.

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

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?

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

FACE, MEET PALM: ‘Morally Bankrupt:’ Joe Biden Blames Trump for Obama Immigration Policies.

GOOD LORD: Police, Antifa Threaten Concerned Moms at Drag Queen Event With Chest Binding Raffle for Preteens.

BOOM: Trump Imposes Sanctions on Iran’s Supreme Leader, Others.

The move came on the same day the Trump administration said it is planning to try to assemble an international coalition to protect shipping in the Persian Gulf, senior State Department officials said Monday.

However, officials did not spell out the precise role other countries would take, saying they would serve as observers, deterring Iranian attack by watching and taking photographs of Iran’s operations.

“This is having eyes on,” said one State Department official, who is traveling with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Saudi Arabia. “So it’s not about shooting at people. It’s about shooting pictures of Iranians.”

“The U.S. will participate,” added the State Department official, who noted that the effort is being dubbed the “Sentinel program.”

Keep “shrinking the box,” as I wrote earlier today.

FASTER, PLEASE: Trump Administration Pushes To Make Health Care Pricing More Transparent.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Democratic Presidential Clown Car Update for June 24, 2019. “Biden boasts about his segregation senate buds, a sleestak joins the race, Beto hires a Ralph Northam staffer, and New York Times and/or Google News screw up a lot of candidate photos.”

GOOD: Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban on ‘Immoral or Scandalous’ Trademarks.

SINGLE PAYER, SINGLE DECIDER: Vast Majority of Democrats Falsely Believe People Can Keep Their Private Plans Under ‘Medicare for All.’

OH: Just-Promoted DCCC Official Has History of Homophobic, Racist Comments. “Top committee staffer Tayhlor Coleman deletes tweets after Free Beacon inquiry.”

GODSPEED: Falcon Heavy rocket set to attempt SpaceX’s “most difficult launch ever.”

First of all, this is the first time the Air Force has flown payloads on a Falcon Heavy rocket. And while this mission will not be carrying anything critical to national security—such as large satellites valued at $1 billion or more used for observation, communication, or other purposes to advance the national interest—Air Force officials will be watching closely.

The US military is in the middle of determining which providers among SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, and Northrop Grumman will win lucrative launch contracts from 2022 to 2026. The Air Force is only expected to pick two winners, and SpaceX has said its Falcon Heavy rocket can meet all nine of the Air Force’s “reference orbits,” which means sending heavy payloads to some exotic orbits that require a lot of energy to reach.

The unique profile of Monday night’s mission will help demonstrate that the Falcon Heavy rocket’s second stage does indeed have the capability to reach all of these orbits. After the rocket launches and its second stage separates, it will perform four separate upper-stage engine burns, and then, almost like a school bus, drop off satellites at three different locations. These maneuvers will require precise performance by the upper stage over the course of six hours.

It all begins in just a few hours.

RUN ALL THE CANDIDATES! Some Guy Named Joe is Running for President: Dem Field Complete.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Iran Is Not a Problem We Should Solve, But It Is a Situation We Can Manage. “It’s safe to say then that when it comes to core interests, that for Iran, née Persia, not much has changed since the Persian Emperor Darius the Great began his campaign to subdue mainland Greece in 492 BC, and won’t change much in the future.”

DECOUPLING: US may require companies make 5G equipment outside of China. “It wouldn’t be enough to use hardware from non-Chinese companies.”

CRACKDOWN: Venezuela Detains Six Military, Police Officials, Family Members, Activists.

“Family members,” now known as “hostages.”

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Immigration Raid Canceled After Rogue Leak. “When are these leakers going to be hunted down and punished? Anyone who is leaking information from the White House needs to be discovered and punished severely. It’s dangerous to have unelected bureaucrats deciding to influence policy by trying to embarrass the administration. It’s Trump’s fault that he hasn’t smoked out these activists and fired them or put them in an office with nothing other than a crossword puzzle and a pencil. You can’t fire these dirt bags because of the ridiculous union “job protection” rules but you can add civil service reform to the top of the list of issues Trump should have addressed on day one.”

CORN, POPPED: A civil war is coming for the Democratic Party — and it won’t be pretty.

For starters, is the Democratic Party a party of the rich or a party of the little guy? For many years, they’ve been the party of the rich playing a good game of pretending to be for the little guy.

And the Democratic establishment does it in insidious ways that are too clever by half: They are for the marginalized guy or gal in the race, gender, and sexuality issues because, hey, that doesn’t hurt their and their affluent constituents’ pocketbook much.

But in the economic issues that matter, they often sock it to the average Democratic working-class voter: in the global trade deals that’ve offshored jobs and have decimated the American manufacturing base; in their looking the other way as illegal immigrants depress the wages of working-class Americans, and more.

But as long as they talk and talk and talk some more — about abortion and transgender rights and racism (not that these aren’t relevant issues), they can have their cake and eat it too.

But all this worked until 2016, but can’t be pulled off anymore. The Democratic establishment wing is still either clueless or stubborn, but they want good ol’ Joe Biden to come to the rescue and Make Oligarchic America Great Again.

But the restive Sanders, Warren, and Ocasio Cortez wing of the party won’t let them.

As I was saying…

TURKEY: In Setback for Erdogan, Opposition Candidate Wins Istanbul Mayor Seat.

An opposition candidate has won a repeat ballot for Istanbul mayor Sunday, ending President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s quarter-century grip on the megalopolis and exposing troubles at his long-dominant ruling party.

The opposition party’s candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, beat a rival from Mr. Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, 54% to 45%, according to a tally of 99% of votes cast released by Turkish state news agency Anadolu.

“It’s a new beginning,” Mr. Imamoglu said in a victory speech.

The AKP candidate, Binali Yildirim, conceded defeat. “I congratulate him and wish him success,” he said in a brief televised address.

Mr. Imamoglu had defeated the AKP candidate in the initial March municipal ballot, but electoral authorities had voided the results after Mr. Erdogan complained of fraud and called for a do-over.

Sunday’s defeat, adding to the loss of the capital, Ankara, in the March elections, is a stinging setback for Mr. Erdogan, who led numerous rallies in support of his AKP protégé ahead of the repeat election.

What’s a guy got to do to steal an election these days?

JON CALDERA: Colorado cities like Longmont and Boulder are venturing into ill-advised monopolistic ventures.

As technology and competition are turning once invincible natural monopolies into dinosaurs, we’re watching local governments create monopolies that almost certainly will be disrupted by technology.

So, of course, Boulder is trying to build its own electric power empire because they can do it better than Xcel, don’t ya know, they’re Boulder. But if technology will disrupt Xcel in the future, it will certainly disrupt Boulder’s government-owned monopoly too.

But here’s the big difference — like AT&T, when Xcel takes a hit, their stockholders lose. When a government-owned monopoly takes a hit, taxpayers lose. (Um, social justice warriors, where are you on this injustice?)

The new craze of city-owned broadband service is nothing more than switching financial risk from private stockholders, who willingly take the risk, to taxpayers.

But just think of the increased opportunities for graft and corruption.

DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS: Texas To Send 1,000 National Guardsmen To Border To Address Illegal Alien Surge.