CYBERSECURITY: Security analyst finds fake cell carrier apps are tracking iPhone location and listening in on phone calls.

GOOD LORD: Transgender Drugs Given to My Cancer-Stricken Son Are ‘Hastening His Demise.’

PRIVACY: Apparently Amazon and Google came out swinging against this Illinois bill saying a company is not allowed to remotely turn on a microphone without the owner’s permission.

TYLER O’NEIL: New Leak Reveals Google Manually Manipulates News Blacklist. “Did Sundar Pichai lie to Congress?”

HMM: No, experts don’t consider marijuana a gateway drug. That, and five more fact checks from the Texas Legislature on weed. “It’s unlikely Texas will become the next Colorado or California anytime soon. But when it comes to loosening criminal penalties or expanding medicinal use, how much of what each side says is true?”

THIS SEEMS LIKE A GOOD IDEA: SECNAV Proposes Fifth Assistant Navy Secretary To Run Cybersecurity.

PAULA BOLYARD: John McAfee, a pregnant housekeeper, and an Iranian teleportation device.

PAY UP, WHITEY: Cory Booker to introduce reparations commission bill in the Senate.

I hosted a Right Angle segment on this topic yesterday, and it ought to be up later this week at BillWhittle.com.

OBJECTION. ASSUMES A FACT NOT IN EVIDENCE. Elizabeth Warren Had Charisma, and Then She Ran for President.

SAD: The End of Aspiration. “Since the end of the Second World War, middle- and working-class people across the Western world have sought out—and, more often than not, achieved—their aspirations. These usually included a stable income, a home, a family, and the prospect of a comfortable retirement. However, from Sydney to San Francisco, this aspiration is rapidly fading as a result of a changing economy, soaring land costs, and a regulatory regime, all of which combine to make it increasingly difficult for the new generation to achieve a lifestyle like that enjoyed by their parents. This generational gap between aspiration and disappointment could define our demographic, political, and social future.”

Joel Kotkin, so read the whole thing.

OPEC REPORT: Venezuela reports collapse in oil supply, tightening global market. “In a monthly report, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Venezuela told the group that it pumped 960,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March, a drop of almost 500,000 bpd from February.”

This Reuters story describes Venezuela’s production collapse as an “involuntary curb,” which I suppose is one man’s way of saying “near-total economic collapse.”

More from CNBC:

OPEC’s output fell by 534,000 bpd in March to 30.02 million bpd, according to independent sources cited by the group in its monthly report. This year, supply from the group has fallen by more than 1.5 million bpd, helping to drive international Brent crude prices 30 percent higher.

Much of the March decline is due to Saudi Arabia’s willingness to aggressively cut production. In March, the Saudis took another 324,000 bpd off the market, bringing output to just under 9.8 million bpd and delivering on Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih’s vow to pump well below 10 million bpd.

OPEC is sacrificing marketshare to prop up prices, but given that producers in the Permian Basin are closing in on being profitable at $15-a-barrel, OPEC is creating bigger opportunities for North American shale producers.

But maybe the real measure of how big a pinch OPEC is in is that members states have become so desperate that they’re hardly cheating on their production quotas.

FASTER, PLEASE: Trump Order Will Clear the Way for the Constitution Pipeline Stalled for 5 Years. “The 124-mile natural gas pipeline would link Pennsylvania and New York.”

Give New Yorkers a taste of those high-paying energy jobs, and even they might start to come around.

HOTEL GOOGLEFORNIA: Even if you don’t check in, you still can never leave. “What happens when you create a specialty VPN to block all access to Google’s 8,699,648 IP addresses? It pretty much breaks your access to the internet.”

YES. Biden hugged, Harris ruined lives. Guess who’s more reviled?

As San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general, Harris compiled an astonishing record of disregarding legal flubs that stuck people in prison as she then insisted they stay there. In effect, she shoved due process in a paper shredder by way of technicalities, thereby enabling the ruin of people who, in some instances, were likely innocent. We’re not talking about emotional disturbance after a supposed kiss on the back of the head. We’re talking about the prolonged, debilitating torture of prison.

Harris, smart, tough and quick to offer freebies we can’t afford to citizens perhaps returning the favor at the voting booth, offered little to defendants when she served as a district attorney. She didn’t tell defense attorneys, for instance, that a lab technician had messed with drug evidence by such methods as theft, and so you got convictions based on a fair share of hooey. A judge let 600 of the victims go home despite Harris’s unprincipled protests.

When she was attorney general, there was a man whose stepdaughter had accused him of sexual abuse. He said she was lying and turned down a plea bargain offer of just a few years in prison. He got convicted without evidence being presented that she had in fact lied like a spurting fire hydrant to police. When that became known, Harris and team still fought to keep him in prison for decades, and won.

But Democrats can’t hold Harris accountable because intersectionality or whatever.

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Doctors find four bees in woman’s eye, feeding on her tears.

HMM: China’s Next Naval Target Is the Internet’s Underwater Cables.

While people tend think of satellites and cell towers as the heart of the internet, the most vital component is the 380 submerged cables that carry more than 95 percent of all data and voice traffic between the continents. They were built largely by the U.S. and its allies, ensuring that (from a Western perspective, at least) they were “cleanly” installed without built-in espionage capability available to our opponents. U.S. internet giants including Google, Facebook and Amazon are leasing or buying vast stretches of cables from the mostly private consortia of telecom operators that constructed them.

But now the Chinese conglomerate Huawei Technologies, the leading firm working to deliver 5G telephony networks globally, has gone to sea. Under its Huawei Marine Networks component, it is constructing or improving nearly 100 submarine cables around the world. Last year it completed a cable stretching nearly 4,000 miles from Brazil to Cameroon. (The cable is partly owned by China Unicorn, a state-controlled telecom operator.) Rivals claim that Chinese firms are able to lowball the bidding because they receive subsidies from Beijing.

Just as the experts are justifiably concerned about the inclusion of espionage “back doors” in Huawei’s 5G technology, Western intelligence professionals oppose the company’s engagement in the undersea version, which provides a much bigger bang for the buck because so much data rides on so few cables.

REMINDER: Obama National Security Council’s director of cybersecurity policy was hired as a lobbyist for Huawei.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Congressional Hearing Circuses and Much, Much More. “Yesterday, Attorney General William Barr appeared before the House Appropriations Committee to talk about the DOJ budget, but that was more of an afterthought as the Democrats used the opportunity to showcase their virtue on the Mueller report. The Democrats are upset that Barr released a letter summarizing Mueller’s findings and those findings blew up more than two years of claims that Trump is a RUSSIAN asset who worked with the RUSSIANS to win the presidential election. Now, the objective is to create a cloud of suspicion around Barr which, I guess, will cast doubt on the Mueller report. Silly stuff.”

SEAN TRENDE: Evaluating the 2020 Democratic Primary Field.

Good stuff on all the major-ish candidates, declared and not-yet-declared. Worth your time.

PAPER BEAR: Russia is talking about scrapping its only aircraft carrier, putting the troubled ship out of its misery.

The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s sole aircraft carrier which was built during the Soviet-era, was severely damaged last October when the massive Swedish-built PD-50 dry dock at the 82nd Repair Shipyard in Roslyakovo sank with the carrier on board.

The carrier was undergoing an extensive overhaul at the time of the incident.

While the ship was able to pull away from the sinking dry dock, it did not escape unscathed. A heavy crane fell on the vessel, punching a large gash in the hull and deck.

As is, the Kuznetsov is almost always accompanied by tug boats, preparation for practically inevitable problems.

The ship is rarely seen at sea. Between 1991 and 2015, the Kuznetsov, sometimes described as one of the worst carriers in the world, set sail on patrol only six times, and on a 2016 mission in Syria, the carrier saw the loss of two onboard fighter jets in just three weeks.

Putin’s Russia is the Loki of modern geopolitics, able to cause mischief and grief, but barely able to project hard power more than a few miles beyond its own borders. A savvy and ruthless intelligence operation (not to mention all those nukes) allows Moscow to punch above its weight, but its weight since the glory days of the USSR is like the “after” in a Slim Fast ad.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Matt Damon’s MeToo Nuance Suddenly in Vogue.

Today, the Damon model is back in vogue thanks to former Vice President Joe Biden. The possible 2020 presidential candidate has been credibly accused of inappropriate touching, kissing and, yes, sniffing. He didn’t deny the allegations.

Now, suddenly, some Hollywood power players are deeply devoted to nuance and, dare we say, “spectrum of behavior.”

First up is Rob Reiner. The celebrated director and virulent anti-Trump voice rose up to support Biden on social media.

Next, Cher weighed in her own Biden story, gently defending him by saying he never groped her sans permission.

Whoopi Goldberg told “The View” audience Biden is “a toucher,” letting him off the hook.

Finally, one of the women who shredded Damon for his “spectrum” comments circled back … to defend Biden. Alyssa Milano, the sometimes actress and full-time progressive activist, shared a picture of her and a grinning Biden on social media. She accompanied the image with her personally charged defense.

“I am proud to call Joe Biden a friend,” she said in a series of tweets.

That’s different because shut up.

Also, read the whole thing.

COMEDY IS NOT PRETTY. OR EVEN ALLOWED. In Venezuela, Comedy Is Protest. Until the Government Finds Out.

In November 2017, the stand-up comic Nacho Redondo told a joke at a university about the Paralympics that upset some audience members and drew controversy online, which he promptly used to promote his next shows. It may sound like a common, even mundane story.

But in Venezuela, where Redondo, 32, developed a following for his brash, dark humor, the price for a joke that offends can be much higher than online outrage or a boycott. After politicians harshly criticized him on state-run television, Redondo received death threats online, and the government sued him. He fled the country on the day the lawsuit was filed, and hasn’t returned. “I was terrified and then paranoid and scared for my life,” Redondo said by Skype from Mexico City, where he now lives, adding that he didn’t want to leave his aging mother and other family members but felt he had no choice. “You get jailed there because of tweets.”

Here, too, if the Totalitarian Left gets its way.

USELESS: The EU releases guidelines to encourage ethical AI development.

Human agency and oversight: AI systems should enable equitable societies by supporting human agency and fundamental rights, and not decrease, limit or misguide human autonomy.

Robustness and safety: Trustworthy AI requires algorithms to be secure, reliable and robust enough to deal with errors or inconsistencies during all life cycle phases of AI systems.

Privacy and data governance: Citizens should have full control over their own data, while data concerning them will not be used to harm or discriminate against them.

Transparency: The traceability of AI systems should be ensured.

Diversity, non-discrimination and fairness: AI systems should consider the whole range of human abilities, skills and requirements, and ensure accessibility.

Societal and environmental well-being: AI systems should be used to enhance positive social change and enhance sustainability and ecological responsibility.

Accountability: Mechanisms should be put in place to ensure responsibility and accountability for AI systems and their outcomes.

True AI is self-programming, so what’s to stop it from writing code to get around any human-imposed limits?

SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Mexican-American Trump Supporter Attacked in California Post Office for Wearing MAGA Hat. “Paloma Zuniga said she videotaped because she ‘wanted others to see how violent they are while we just mind our own business’.”

WHEN YOU’VE LOST POLITIFACT… Democrats push misleading tweet on Donald Trump, asylum seekers.

(UN)COVERING THE IMPORTANT ISSUES: Small Breasts Need Not Apply: Spanish Racetrack In Hot Water Over Giant Rack Requirement.