BECAUSE THERE ARE NO LONGER ANY OVERRIDING GEOPOLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR PLAYING FOOTSIE WITH ANKARA’S PRIDE: Why President Trump Should Recognize The Armenian Genocide.

TURNABOUT: Antifa Members Arrested for Refusing to Remove Masks. “An anti-Klan statute nabs a new generation of violent Leftists.”

BUT OF COUSE: Starbucks’ ‘unconscious bias training’ isn’t enough, protesters say.

“The actions of the Starbucks corporation are totally unacceptable,” Philadelphia Councilman Kenyatta Johnson told protesters Sunday. “We know they said they’re going to move forward and specifically focus on a training that deals with unconscious bias, but that’s a one-day training.

“We want to see how they’re going to change their culture as it relates to racial insensitivity and also diversity and inclusion as it relates to making sure that everyone who comes to a Starbucks store that lives in the city of Philadelphia should feel welcome,” he added.

On a long enough timeline, the Left always eats its own. Always.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: ‘Your kids masturbate’ and other provocative lines from Fresno State professor’s talks.

In one clip featured in the video, Jarrar is discussing Fresno’s agriculture industry and says “a lot of the farmers now are Trump supporters and just f—ing stupid.” In another, she says she can’t stand “the white, hetero patriarchy.”

Also in the video, Jarrar criticizes what she sees as Democrats’ inaction on political issues, pointing to “resistance fighters” in the 1960s and ’70s who hijacked planes.

“I don’t give a f—. I’m buying guns. I’m an American. I’m buying guns,” she says in one video clip. “The other side is, like, doing some stupid s—. I’m gonna do some stupid s—. I’m tired of, like, being the bigger person — literally am usually — but, like, I’m also just tired of the left being, like, f—ing stupid and being like, ‘No we have to like be gentle’ … no, don’t be f—— gentle.'”

She sounds like a potential danger to others or herself.

FORMER NEW BLACK PANTHER CHAIRMAN: ‘You Don’t Like Us, Mr. Trump? Then Hand Over the State of Florida.’

Maybe he’d settle for Old California.

CAMPAIGNING: Corker says he won’t oppose Democrat seeking his Senate seat.

Outgoing Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee is sticking by his decision not to campaign against the Democrat seeking to fill his seat.

Corker says he considers the Democrat, former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (BRED’-uh-sen), a “friend.” Corker backs Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn but says he won’t oppose Bredesen.

Maybe politics is beanbag, after all.

SO IT’S COME TO THIS: A YouTuber was fined $1,100 for posting clips of his girlfriend’s dog giving a Nazi salute.

These are Heinlein’s Crazy Years — we just live in them.

THE SINS OF THE GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT GRANDFATHERS: Dream Democrat Agenda Includes Reparations.

The desire was stated in the invitation for a Monday reception during the annual spring gathering, which was attended by top Democratic Party officials such as DNC chairman Tom Perez, former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, and Reps. Raul Grijalva (Ariz.) and Mark Pocan (Wis.).

The reception, “Way to Win: 2022 Victory Party,” was presented as a look forward at what’s possible if Democrats can be effective in coming elections.

“It’s 2022 and we are celebrating policy victories across the nation: Medicare for All and Free College, and next on the agenda is Reparations,” the group projected, according to an invitation to the event.

The GOP should absolutely run with this, and hard.

RICK MORAN: Save the Earth! Burn Fossil Fuels!

RAND PAUL: Putting forward a plan for Congress to balance the budget.

The Senate rules say that if the leadership and the Budget Committee don’t report out a budget by April 1, any senator can do it — so that’s exactly what I’m going to do this week.

I will introduce a FULLY BALANCED budget that includes spending cuts, entitlement reform, and a plan to bring our fiscal house in order. No more trillion-dollar deficits. No more adding to the $21 trillion debt with reckless abandon.

Instead, here are some of the highlights from my balanced budget plan.

My budget will balance in FIVE years, without touching Social Security. It repeals the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 and its trillion-dollar deficits and instead uses the Penny Plan to balance.

What does that mean? It means that next year we will spend 1 percent less than we spend this year, and for the next five years, until balance is reached between revenues and spending. After that, the budget will begin to grow again at one percent per year instead of cutting.

Sounds simple, right? Would you be able to do with 99 percent of what you had previously spent if you needed to? Washington will scream and holler, but these are the facts. We are $21 trillion in debt. The deficit is growing again. And it takes only a 1 percent cut per year for a few years to reverse this and to balance.

I’d rather make those cuts permanent after five years, with the savings split 50/50 between tax cuts and debt reduction. But even Paul’s baby steps are too much for Washington to take.

NEO-OTTOMANS: Erdogan’s shock election call brings cherished powers within reach.

Those two factors support his decision to go early. Economists don’t expect Turkey to sustain last year’s breakneck growth of 7.4 percent through to the scheduled Nov 2019 poll date, while Erdogan is enjoying nationalist acclaim for early military success across the border in Syria.

“Erdogan has all odds stacked in his favor. From … economic growth to the state of emergency which he has been using to crack down on opposition, to a near complete control of the media,” said Soner Cagaptay, a fellow at the Washington Institute.

The prize for the victor in June will be power almost unprecedented since the Turkish republic was created under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, out of the ruins of the Ottoman empire nearly a century ago.

“The office of prime minister will cease to exist. Erdogan will become head of state, head of government, head of the police, head of the army and head of the ruling party,” said Cagaptay. “He will become the most powerful Turkish leader since Ataturk, and in some regards more powerful.”

Turkey’s economy is already showing signs of running out of other people’s money, which is why Erdogan needs to lock in his sultan-like powers now.

FEAR WILL KEEP THE LOCAL STUDENTS IN LINE: The Hidden Legacy of Columbine: Ignorance About School Violence. “On another National School Walkout day, 57 percent of teens are worried about dying in a school shooting. They shouldn’t be.”

Invoking Columbine is meant to remind people that such attacks have been happening for decades, and to imply that this is because national leaders have continually failed to implement solutions.

But Columbine should teach us a different lesson: The press, the public, and policymakers are often ignorant, and doing the wrong thing can be just as counterproductive as not doing anything. In the wake of Columbine, so-called experts completely misdiagnosed the causes of the crime, and they decided to implement “safety” policies that gravely undermined students’ rights without making schools any safer.

Read the whole thing.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Waffle House Hero, Romney’s Fail and Much, Much More.

CHANGE: Israeli Firms Scramble As Trump Administration Restricts Military Aid.

In the past, when the US provided Israeli with grants under the Foreign Military Funds program, Israel could convert 25 percent of the aid from dollars into shekels to buy Israeli products and support local R&D. But under the new 10-year FMF agreement signed in 2017, that percentage will gradually drop over time to zero.

Under the new agreement signed in September 2016, the US will pay Israel $34 billion over the decade from 2019 to 2028 — but eventually all FMF funds will have to be used for the purchase of US-made systems.

Retired Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni, executive Vice President of land systems at Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI), headed the special commission that was formed to prepare the needed changes. In an interview with Breaking Defense, he said that the Israeli defense forces will get approximately 5 billion Israeli shekels (about $1.4 billion) less each year when agreement is fully implemented.

“That may cause small companies to collapse or get into big problems,” Shamni said. “We will need to transfer some of the production to the U.S and that can be done with our American subsidiaries. But the real solution is in the hands of the Israeli government, which will have to increase the defense budget. Without that, I’m afraid , companies will get into problems but the greater risk is that less will be put into R&D. If that happens, in some years we will lose our technological edge.”

Israeli defense R&D is world class, and 25% of their FMF funds isn’t a rounding error in our budget — so I have to wonder if this is the right place to pinch pennies.

A SOCIALIST EDUCATION: Thousands of Venezuelan children in Cucuta are not going to school, spending their days alone, following their parents, selling items on the streets or begging.

Every day more arrive. About 40,000 Venezuelans were legally entering Colombia each month at the end of 2017, according to Colombian authorities, with thousands more thought to enter illegally.

All along the Venezuelan border, towns are struggling to cope. Last week, leaders of Brazil’s state of Roraima asked the Supreme Court for permission to close its border temporarily to halt the mass arrival.

While many Venezuelans with the means to migrate legally fled years ago, those leaving today are often seeking jobs to send money to families back home. Few seek political asylum.

Aid groups and authorities warn poverty plus lack of schooling or daily supervision will push children into the ranks of Colombia’s organized crime groups.

“If you don’t educate a child, you can’t correct that. You totally change the trajectory of their life,” said Yadira Galeano, Norwegian Refugee Council manager for Colombia’s border areas.

“Many kids end up being easy subjects for criminal or armed groups.”

And this being from Reuters:

BLUE WAVE? Hillary Clinton, not on ballot, is star of GOP midterm plan.

“I promise you that you’ll continue to see it — Hillary Clinton starring in our paid media. She’s a very powerful motivator,” said Corry Bliss, who leads the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super political action committee ready to spend tens of millions of dollars to shape House races this fall. “It’s about what she represents. What she represents, just like what Nancy Pelosi represents, is out-of-touch far-left liberal positions.”

Critics suggest the strategy reeks of desperation, if not sexism. But with no Democrat to attack in the White House for the first time in nearly a decade, Republicans are betting big that the ghost of Clinton will serve them well in 2018. Saddled with Trump’s poor approval ratings, they may have little choice.

It’s helpful, some Republicans say, that Clinton refuses to disappear from national politics altogether.

I bet a lot of Democrats say the same thing, except for the “helpful” part.

“A REMARKABLY SCANDAL-FREE ADMINISTRATION”: Obama bureaucracy left our private data more vulnerable than ever.

The government isn’t sure who has your information. It only knows the Obama-era databases have been breached by outsider threats potentially 1,000-plus times. That’s according to a recent investigation of cyber-intrusions at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where the sensitive information is stored.

The number of confirmed breaches of consumers’ personally identifiable information is “just north of 200,” revealed Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget chief who took control of the CFPB late last year, in testimony to Congress. “We think there’s another 800 [incidents of hacked information] that we suspect might have been lost, but we haven’t been able to nail that down.”

In fact, the bureau has suffered 233 confirmed hack attacks and another 840 suspected hacks, putting at risk the financial information and other personal data — including Social Security numbers and birthdates — of potentially millions of Americans.

Plus:

Most people don’t know this, but after President Barack Obama created the CFPB, he had the powerful regulatory agency snoop into virtually every financial account held by Americans to assemble a massive and secret government database as part of the post-financial crisis overhaul of the banking industry.

Without asking if customers wanted to opt in, CFPB has collected and stockpiled from banks more than 600 million credit-card accounts and personal data from millions of home, auto, business and student loans.

The Orwellian-named Consumer Financial Protection Bureau needs to be shut down, and its servers destroyed.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: A flaw-by-flaw guide to Facebook’s new GDPR privacy changes.

Facebook is about to start pushing European users to speed through giving consent for its new GDPR privacy law compliance changes. It will ask people to review how Facebook applies data from the web to target them with ads, and surface the sensitive profile info they share. Facebook will also allow European and Canadian users to turn on facial recognition after six years of the feature being blocked there. But with a design that encourages rapidly hitting the “Agree” button, a lack of granular controls, a laughably cheatable parental consent request for teens and an aesthetic overhaul of Download Your Information that doesn’t make it any easier to switch social networks, Facebook shows it’s still hungry for your data.

Surprising exactly no one, except perhaps for EU regulators.

I’ve just dipped a toe in the water at MeWe, which promises “No Ads. No Tracking. No BS.”

We’ll see.

HMM: Mitt Romney Fails to Get Senate Nomination at Utah GOP Convention. “Has the Republican Party of Trump passed Romney by?”

JOHN ELLIS: The 6 Most Overrated Restaurants.

Not to give too much away, but there’s never going to be anything too exciting about boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

BREAKING: ISIS Threatens ‘Satanic’ CNN, Universal Studios Hollywood, NASA.

ANOTHER REASON TO SUPPORT SMALL GOVERNMENT: Uganda’s President Wants to Ban Oral Sex, Says the “Mouth is for Eating.”

CHANGE: Will Marijuana Industry Overtake Beer As Legalization Spurs Innovation?

Whether marijuana sales ever overtake beer, we’re still living in a golden age of beer production and experimentation.

HAVING LIVED IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, I CAN ONLY WISH THEM A SARCASTIC “GOOD LUCK WITH THAT.”: ISIS Threatens to Set Seattle Ablaze.

BLUE WAVE? Arizona Senate Race Heating Up – Blue, not Red.