WELL, GOOD: Nasty, 3ft-long parasitic worms are on the cusp of being wiped from the planet.

It all starts with a sip of water that’s contaminated with the worm’s larvae. Inside a human host, the larvae punch through the digestive tract, entering into the body cavity to quietly grow. Within a few months, the male and female worms meet and mate. Then the males die off. The surviving female worms mature, reaching 60 to 100 centimeters (2 to 3 feet), and migrate into the victim’s muscles. About 10 to 14 months after that tainted drink, the female worms burn through the skin by oozing acid, creating a searing blister. This can happen anywhere in the body, but it’s usually in the legs or feet.

Not coincidentally, dunking the blister in water eases the pain—and gives the female worm the opportunity to burst out of the wound and spew a milky slurry containing millions of larvae, which starts the cycle all over again. From there, the victim can slowly try to pull the worm out. But yanking too quickly could break the thin parasite (measuring only 1 to 2 mm wide), which could cause an infection. Instead, it has to be slowly extracted, usually by winding the end around a piece of gauze or twig and turning it a few times each day. The process often takes weeks.

The Carter Center deserves credit for doing a lot of good work towards wiping these things out.

PLAN B? Google defeats lawsuit claiming YouTube censors conservatives.

UH-OH: Tesla Bonds Crash After Moodys Downgrade Due To “Liquidity Pressures.”

Tesla’s ratings reflect the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company’s Model 3 electric vehicle. The company also faces liquidity pressures due to its large negative free cash flow and the pending maturities of convertible bonds ($230 million in November 2018 and $920 million in March 2019). Tesla produced only 2,425 Model 3s during the fourth quarter of 2017; it is currently targeting a weekly production rate of 2,500 by the end of March, and 5,000 per week by the end of June. This compares with the company’s year-earlier production expectations of 5,000 per week by the end of 2017 and 10,000 by the end of 2018.

The Caa1 rating of the unsecured notes reflects the junior position of the notes relative to the company’s $1.9 billion secured credit facility.

Tesla continues to benefit from solid market acceptance of Models S and X, which collectively hold over a third of the US luxury market. In addition, third-party evaluations of the Model 3 remain favorable, consumer response to the vehicle is sound, and advance purchase reservations and deposits remain high. Finally, regulatory support for battery electric and zero-emission vehicles continues to grow.

The negative outlook reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity short-fall.

More importantly, Tesla has to scale up Model 3 entry-level sedan production, or start issuing $1,000 refund checks to hundreds of thousands of depositors — which would really put a crimp in the company’s cashflow.

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: In Venezuela, hungry child gangs use machetes to fight for ‘quality’ garbage.

“Our kids are finding ways to survive because neither in their homes nor in their communities is there enough food,” explains social worker Roberto Patino, who has established 29 public diners all over the country to feed hungry children.

From Monday to Friday, the diners provide food for 1,000 kids every week. Patino said even so, he believes he isn’t coming close to feeding all the children who need the help, given the overwhelming number he sees on the streets. Experts estimate that in Caracas alone, there are in hundreds, if not thousands of street children and young adults.

Patino bemoans that there are not enough resources to help these kids get their lives back on track let alone feed them properly. For now, many have turned to trash bags as a source of nutrition.

And it’s not hunger alone sending children onto the streets. Domestic violence is also often cited. “I left because I got beaten badly,” Caramelo says about her mother, a drug addict.

Caramelo has two aspirations now — she wants to become a criminal justice advocate or to open a candy shop she would name Caramelo’s.

A year ago, she had a miscarriage. Patricio was the father. The baby died, she said, as a consequence of a clash with a rival gang. “A girl from another gang punched me hard in my belly. The next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital,” Caramelo recalled.

Despite that, she returned to the gang, she said, to take care of her “street kids.”

The gang must protect its “zone” from rival gangs searching for food — but that works both ways. Sometimes the Chacao gang ventures into the more affluent neighborhoods of Caracas to look through what they call “quality” garbage bags.

That’s probably nothing compared with what those kids will have to face in the near future.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Our All-Consuming, Incomprehensible News Cycle. “Even with all this bandwidth, we can’t judge what really matters.”

With misinformation as with miseducation, the public sees but not in due proportion. Its calculations are put all out of reckoning. The image of the world is presented like a reflection in a funhouse mirror, with certain aspects greatly enlarged while others are minimized almost to invisibility.

Read the whole thing.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Let’s Repeal All the Amendments.

THE BEST IN LIFE BECOMES CLEAR: New Satire Comic ‘My Hero Magademia’ Book Makes SJW Comics Fans Cry Salty Tears.

PRIVACY:

Click here to read the whole thread.

BLUE ON BLUE: Nixon blasts Cuomo for ‘mansplaining’ sexual harassment.

BREAKING: Seattle-Area Man Arrested in Mailing ‘Potential Destructive’ Packages to D.C. Installations.

JOHN HAWKINS: The Ignorant Parkland Kids Don’t Speak for Their Dead Classmates. “Taking advantage of your dead classmates to get your 15 minutes of fame is disgusting.”

HMM: American who escaped al-Qaeda captivity in Syria says the FBI under Mueller and Comey ‘betrayed’ him and claims the bureau tried to run an intelligence operation instead of rescuing him.

Matt Schrier, now 39, was taken hostage by Jabhat al-Nusra, a militant group aligned with al-Qaeda, while he traveled through Syria back in December 2012.

He claims he was tortured and beaten by Syrian rebels who accused him of working for the CIA and imprisoned him in dark cell for seven months until he managed to escape.

Following his return to the US, Schrier said he started investigating his abduction and claims to have uncovered a pattern of ‘betrayal’ from the FBI agents assigned to his case.

In an interview with Fox News’ The Story on Monday, Schrier said the FBI was monitoring his bank accounts after the terrorists used his money to purchase a dozen computers and tablets.

He claims the agents were trying to run an intelligence operation by trying to track the computers and learn more about the terror group’s activity.

The New York native says the FBI should have instead been investigating how to rescue him.

‘So they’re monitoring my financial records straight off the bat. They’re letting them steal this money. Why are they letting them steal the money, what’s the angle? Well, what are they buying? They’re buying laptops and tablets,’ he said.

Read the whole thing.

LAWFARE: California to sue Trump admin over citizenship question in 2020 census.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the suit against the administration late Monday on Twitter, saying the measure would be unlawful.

“Filing suit against @realdonaldtrump’s Administration over decision to add #citizenship question on #2020Census. Including the question is not just a bad idea — it is illegal,” Becerra wrote.

The Commerce Department said in a statement that the citizenship question would be added in response to a request by the Justice Department made in December. The statement said that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross “has determined that reinstatement of a citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census questionnaire is necessary to provide complete and accurate census block level data.”

Democrats have criticized the administration’s announcement, saying the inclusion of such a question amounts to an effort to intimidate immigrant communities and siphon money and electoral power away from them.

Only illegal immigrants would lose money (which they aren’t entitled to) and electoral power (ditto).

MICHAEL WALSH ON JOHN PAUL STEVENS: There is no chance that two-thirds of both the House and the Senate will pass such an amendment, and even less that three-quarters of the states will ratify it.

BLUE WAVE? Dems would need to win nationwide by 11 points to retake House.

PLEASE BE TRUE: Lincoln Planning a Return to Suicide Doors on Continental, Report Claims.

Sedan sales have taken it on the chin in recent years, as buyers have switched in huge numbers to crossover vehicles. So it would make sense for Lincoln to manufacture a sedan which both stands out, and marks a return to the brand’s storied heritage.

THEY DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH: ‘Surprised’ Terror Group Protests Terrorist Designation from U.S. “‘We do not have ideological or intellectual ties with any faction internationally enlisted,’ claims Uzbek ally of Taliban that vows to ‘overthrow the infidel regimes’ and train kids in jihad.”

Maybe the surprise was in Washington finally recognizing what everybody knew.

YOU GO FIRST: Humanity’s meat and dairy intake must be cut in half by 2050 to avoid dangerous climate change.

ALLIES: Turkey’s Erdogan calls for ‘ARMY of Islam’ to ATTACK Israel on all sides.

Less than a month ago the Turkish state’s mouthpiece the daily Yeni Şafak ran an article for Erdogan titled “A call for urgent action” and on the newspaper’s website headlined “What if an army of Islam formed against Israel?”

It called for the 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to form a joint army to simultaneously attack Israel from all sides.

The article said: “If the member states of the OIC unite militarily, they will form the world’s largest and most comprehensive army.

“The number of active soldiers would be at least 5,206,100, while the defence budget would reach approximately $175billion (£124billion).”

This was accompanied by an interactive map providing formation of military forces for a joint Muslim attack on Israel.

Erdogan did not deny his support for the report and has on several occasions said he would like to resurrect the Ottoman Empire.

“Erdogan did not deny” is a far cry from the “Erdogan calls for” in the headline. In any case, the more powerful of the Sunni Arab states have assumed the role of “Israel’s unofficial Muslim allies” formerly played by the Turks.

CREEPING SHARIA: Texas teen was beaten, had hot cooking oil poured on her after refusing arranged marriage.

BRIDGET JOHNSON: Sell Taiwan F-35s to Deter China’s ‘Aggressive Military Posture,’ GOP Senators Urge Trump.

We could also make it clear that a nuclear-armed North Korea might result in nuclear weapons for South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

DAVID UNSWORTH: Data on mass shootings at school don’t live up to the hysteria.

Since March of 1998, there have been 298 people killed in school shootings in the United States, or 14.9 deaths a year. Put another way, in a typical year in the United States in the past two decades, 35 states would not even have a single school shooting death, while the other 15 would have only one.

Of course even one is too many, but this is hardly the national epidemic of school-related violence that the Second Amendment-hating Left and partisan Hollywood celebrity supporters would make it out to be.

The aspiring heroes of the “March for Our Lives” claimed that “they are going to be the kids you read about in the history books” because they are going to end gun violence in schools. But how, exactly, are they going to do that? To physically keep guns out of schools would require that schools lock all first-floor windows at all times and have metal detectors at all entrances during school hours. We could do that, but it would be an incredible inconvenience in order to prevent against the extremely unlikely. A cost-benefit analysis would reveal its impracticality.

Given that over the past 118 years, 4.7 people per year have died at the hands of school shootings, and 14.9 per year over the past 20, perhaps there are more serious issues that they should worry about.

Yes, but they aren’t as conducive to youth indoctrination and voter registration.

CAROLINE GLICK: Bolton’s Hire Is a Brilliant Move.

While it is true that Bolton is from Washington – or Baltimore, to be precise – and although it is true that he held senior foreign policy positions in both Bush administrations, he has always been a thorn in the side of the establishment rather than a member of that establishment.

For the better part of three decades, Bolton has bravely held positions that fly in the face of the establishment’s innate preference for appeasement. He was a vocal critic, for example, of then-President Bill Clinton’s disastrous nuclear diplomacy with North Korea.

The 1994 “Agreed Framework” that Clinton concluded with Pyongyang was touted as a peaceful resolution of the nuclear crisis with North Korea. In exchange for shuttering – but not destroying — its nuclear installations, North Korea received light water reactors from the U.S. and massive economic relief. As Bolton warned it would, North Korea pocketed the concessions and gifts and continued to develop its nuclear weapons. In other words, far from preventing North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, the Agreed Framework preserved the North Korean nuclear program and enabled the regime to develop it effectively with U.S. assistance.

For his warnings, Bolton has been reviled as a “warmonger” and a “superhawk” by the foreign policy elite, which has gone out if its way to undercut him.

That right there might be the strongest possible endorsement of Bolton.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Amy Schumer Drops Truth Bomb in Between Her Hate. “The gun control comedienne let loose with an inconvenient truth during her ugly speech at the March for Our Lives.”

In the middle of Schumer’s hateful speech she let loose with something most media outlets refuse to acknowledge. Progressive actors spouting progressive talking points are hurting their own bottom lines.

Speaking up about this puts literal targets on our backs, and for sick bullying and lies about us, and it narrows the people who will support our work. We sell half as many tickets because we’re standing up for what is right.

She’s… right.

One of many reasons the Age of the Movie Star sits in the same dustbin as Teddy Ruxpin and 8-track tapes is because stars are too political these days. And by “too political” we mean aggressive, mean-spirited, cruel and eager to twist facts to help their causes.

Most entertainment outlets refuse to publish this cold, hard truth.

The entertainment outlets are in the business of making the stars look their best, which was a Herculean task even before the stars became so aggressive, mean-spirited, and cruel.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: FTC Looks at Facebook, Media Continues Kids’ Anti2A March and Much, Much More. “Just as a reminder, no one cared about Facebook’s practices until it appeared to help President Trump.”