LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Notre Dame, Mueller report and much, much more. “It doesn’t matter what Barr wrote or what Mueller’s bottom line is, the Democrats and the media are so invested in getting Trump, the response to the Mueller report will be as if he were found guilty.”

UH-HUH: Gillibrand Campaign Blames Weak Fundraising Numbers on Franken Comments.

YOU ALREADY KNOW IT’S TEXAS, RIGHT? This 1 State Is Turning America Into an Oil-Exporting Juggernaut.

That anticipated gusher of oil production growth in Texas has the industry planning to spend billions of dollars on building out the necessary infrastructure to move more barrels to global markets. Enterprise Products Partners is one of several companies working on oil pipelines in the region. The company is currently in the middle of converting an existing natural gas liquids line to oil service, which will help move additional Permian barrels toward the coast. Meanwhile, Canadian oil pipeline giant Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) is working with MLP Phillips 66 Partners (NYSE:PSXP) and refiner Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) to build the Gray Oak pipeline. That roughly $2 billion-system will move 900,000 BPD of crude from both the Permian as well as the Eagle Ford to refineries and export facilities along the coast of Texas.

As these and other export projects come online, they’ll enable the country to ship more oil overseas. According to Enterprise Products’ forecast, the U.S. is on track to exceed Saudi Arabia’s export capacity by 2024.

Say, whatever happened to Peak Oil?

REVELING IN THEIR OWN BULLSHIT: Media Praises Itself For Misleading Americans on Tax Cuts.

Remember this any time you hear Chuck Todd et al. crying about Trump describing the media’s product as “fake news.”

BECAUSE REPUBLICANS ARE ICKY AND ORANGE MAN BAD: Why Does Rep. Omar’s Life Matter More Than Republicans?

FASTER, PLEASE: Overdue Overhaul: Security Clearance Reform in a Decade of Leakers, Spies and Insider Threats.

The most significant overhaul of the security clearance process in 50 years appears to finally be at hand. At the end of February, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center and the deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management – working through the interagency Security, Suitability, and Credentialing Performance Accountability Council – announced that the Trusted Workforce 2.0 framework would be implemented soon, once White House review of the framework is complete.

Trusted Workforce 2.0 is intended to improve the government’s personnel vetting and security clearance processes. Media reporting indicates that this improvement will be based on six primary pillars: more nimble policymaking and clear policy for implementation; ensuring personnel vetting is tailored, reciprocal between agencies, and includes continuous vetting (which will tie into insider threat programs) rather than laborious periodic reinvestigations; aligning and streamlining security, suitability and credentialing processes; reducing the number of investigative levels, or tiers, from five to three (Trusted, Secret and Top Secret); expanding the spectrum of investigative methods, including the use of digital interview channels; and implementing a trusted information provider program to improve efficiency by allowing investigators to leverage certain information that has already been collected by designated government and private sources.

I might go further, and have security clearances automatically withdrawn at the end of government employment, available for reissue, but not automatically reissued, on an as-needed basis for consult work.

Consider a part of Glenn’s revolving door tax surcharge plan.

IF YOU AREN’T SERIOUS ABOUT NUCLEAR, YOU AREN’T SERIOUS ABOUT REDUCING CARBON: Supreme Court Upholds ‘Zero Carbon’ Nuclear Power Subsidies in N.Y., Illinois. “Ex-Obama lawyer loses anti-nuclear appeal.”

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Will you be able to use your credit card when buying legal weed in N.J.?

FORMER CNN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL: High Profile Attorney Michael Avenatti Allegedly Funded His Racing Team with Embezzled Money.

NOTRE DAME: “Nothing will remain from the fire,” spokesman says.

THIS SHOULD, BUT WON’T, SHUT A LOT OF PEOPLE UP: Redacted Mueller Report to Drop on Thursday.

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Florida man threatened to destroy town with army of turtles.

POLITICO: White House messaging falls in line with Trump’s sanctuary cities proposal. “Sanders’ acknowledgment that administration officials are revisiting the proposal follows denials from The White House and Department of Homeland Security to The Washington Post late last week that the idea was still under discussion.”

When White House messaging is in disarray, that’s a disaster. As opposed to stories like this one about White House messaging coming together, which is a disaster.

#NTTAWWT: 2 dads, 1 mom: Bald eagles raising 3 young in rare single nest and you can watch.

SURPRISING EXACTLY NO ONE: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘I Support Impeaching This President.’

BREAKING: Massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

More to come.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Abolish the Income Tax, Abolish the IRS. “Everybody hates income taxes. Some people say there are too many loopholes, or too few incentives, or that they’re too high, or too low, or that the system is rigged against (insert your favorite group here), or biased in favor of (insert your least favorite group here) or that the IRS is abusive, or the IRS is too lenient, and — almost everybody agrees — the whole thing is corrupt and corrupting.”

And all the complaints are correct. How about a Fair Tax instead?

Much more at the link.

WHEW? Julian Assange’s lawyer: Poop-smearing story is total crap.

DISEASE IS ANTI-VAX, TOO: Measles Cases Continue to Soar, Stirring Concern Over Long-Term Effects.

The virus continues to flare up in the U.S. among groups whose vaccination rates are low, often after exposure to overseas travelers who return with the disease. An outbreak among Orthodox Jews in New York City this year has led to a surge in U.S. cases. New York City health officials said Friday that there have been 285 measles cases in the city, and more than 11,000 people have been exposed to the virus.

Researchers who study the virus say that concern about these outbreaks extends beyond the effect of the initial infection to longer-term implications for the health of the victims.

The virus may leave the immune system in a temporary state of amnesia, leaving the body’s defenses unable to remember and effectively attack some invaders it has seen before, according to emerging research. Immune-system memory loss could leave the body prone to more severe infections for two to three years, until it relearns from hard-won experience how to fend off attackers, researchers have said.

“You don’t have that quick response,” said Michael Mina, an assistant professor at Harvard University who studies immune-system response to the virus. “You have to create it from scratch again.”

I’ve always thought we’d beat infectious disease in the 21st Century, at least in the developed world, but things like this make me wonder.

UM… I Got Stoned and Did My Taxes. “Being comfortably high makes the burden of taxes a bit less awful.”

UGH: Why Is Mitch McConnell Telling 2020 GOP Candidates to Run ‘Independent of Trump’? “McConnell’s admonition shows he is woefully out of touch with the realities of the 2020 campaign.”

WHO? WHAT? Presidential Hopeful Marianne Williamson on Reparations: ‘Whatever It Costs’ It’s a ‘Debt We Owe.’ “Williamson says reparations to descendants of slaves would create a ‘spiritual force’.”

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Bernie Sanders is cool with capitalism for himself, but no one else.

Of course, he is exactly like other wealthy Americans: You provide a service or produce something people want to buy, and you go from ­disheveled lawmaker from Vermont to millionaire disheveled lawmaker from Vermont.

Only in America!

Other millionaires and billionaires can explain their riches like Bernie does. “I started a Web site that sold books, and now we sell everything.” “I invented a way to search the Internet with ease and accuracy.” “I invested in companies and helped them grow.” “I run a pharmaceutical company that cures diseases and produces medication so sick people can live better lives.”

Bernie’s book-writing, in other words, isn’t any nobler than the paths taken by other millionaires.

Au contraire. Sanders got rich telling people how bad rich people are, giving him a richness of spirit those other, nasty rich people will never have. Or something.

BUT THE NARRATIVE! Trump Insists He Has Legal Right to Move Detainees to Sanctuary Cities, and He’s Probably Right.

GOOD QUESTION: Why isn’t Assange charged with ‘collusion with Russia?’

In a nutshell: Knowing that Russia had the capacity to hack the DNC and perhaps Clinton herself, WikiLeaks urged it to come up with new material and vowed to help bring it maximum public attention. By necessity, this desire to hurt Clinton would inure to Sanders’s benefit. And sure enough, WikiLeaks eventually published tens of thousands of the Democratic emails hacked by Russian intelligence.

So . . . I have a few questions.

Read the whole thing.