PERHAPS SARAH HOYT WILL LET ME BORROW HER SHOCKED FACE: Venezuela’s President May Have Falsified Information on the Petro.

Venezuela’s token El Petro, the world’s first state cryptocurrency, would have raised $ 5 billion in its initial money offer (ICO), according to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. However, upon a review of the claim CCN and Criptomoedas Fácil, the numbers announced by Maduro have great chances of being false given that the announced value is impossible to have been collected.

According to the whitepaper on the official site of the initiative, exactly 38,400,000 tokens were on offer worth $ 60 each token (not counting the discount of 60% announced by the government during this phase). Crunching the numbers, the maximum the government could raise would be $ 2.304 billion, not counting the discount. If Maduro tells the truth in his announcement, he does not tell the truth in the official document of the project and in all previous announcements made by the president himself.

It’s almost as though the whole thing were just a scam to further enrich Maduro and his cronies, and keep them in power a little longer.

ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: Pep Boys suspends Facebook ads after data security breach.

NEO-OTTOMANS: Turkey to intervene in Sinjar if Iraq doesn’t.

Turkey will launch an operation into Iraq’s northern Sinjar region if Iraqi forces do not fully carry out an operation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed, while an Iraqi military spokesperson said their army was deployed in the region controlled by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“Our hope is that Iraq will complete the operation there thoroughly. If there is a problem achieving this goal, we will conduct our bilateral meetings and be the ones who will do what is necessary in Sinjar,” Erdoğan said on March 26, speaking ahead of his trip to Bulgaria’s Varna for a summit with European Union leaders.

The PKK took control over Sinjar in 2015 after defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who took the region from the Yazidi minority community in 2014.

Sources in northern Iraq said on March 23 that the PKK would withdraw from the Sinjar area.

That attitude might ruffle a few feathers in Tehran, where the mullahs believe that bossing around Iraq is strictly their prerogative.

Related: Turkey’s ‘holy war’ in Syria puts a more religious nationalism on display.

JUSTICE: Ex-Boss of Larry Nassar Arrested, Jailed. “William Strampel listed as inmate at Ingham County, Mich., jail; he has also been named as a defendant in civil suits brought by hundreds of women and girls allegedly abused by Nassar”

Dr. Strampel, 70 years old, was listed as an inmate at the Ingham County, Mich., jail on Monday night. Local media reported that police vehicles were stationed outside his house Monday afternoon. No charge or bail information was available as of late Monday night.

Lawyers for Dr. Strampel didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Michigan State University confirmed that Dr. Strampel had been arrested Monday afternoon. A spokeswoman said the school would cooperate fully with any criminal investigations into his actions.

The Ingham County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Michigan State Police didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for the Michigan attorney general’s office declined to comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Dr. Strampel had told a group of students and administrators in October 2016—when he was the dean of Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine—that he didn’t believe the women and girls who accused Dr. Nassar of sexual abuse, according to two people who said they were present at the meeting.

Michigan State had fired Dr. Nassar the month before, amid a criminal investigation into his conduct. “Patients lie to get doctors in trouble,” Dr. Strampel was reported as saying. “I don’t think any of these women were actually assaulted by Larry…As soon as I found out I had to fire his ass. I didn’t want to, but what am I supposed to do?”

No charges have been announced.

PROHIBITION BLUES: FDA’s Low-Nicotine Cigarette Scheme Is an Invitation to Black Market Vendors.

Tobacco isn’t all that different a product than alcohol or marijuana, and the burdensome taxes and regulations under which the stuff is sold have already created healthy opportunities for smugglers and bootleggers. “Excessive tax rates on cigarettes approach de facto prohibition in some states, inducing black and gray market movement of tobacco products into high-tax states from low-tax states or foreign sources,” says Scott Drenkard of the Tax Foundation which, with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, tracks cigarette smuggling on an ongoing basis.

Under existing rules, an estimated 56.8 percent of cigarettes consumed in New York come from illegal sources. Enforcement efforts are as brutal in this black market as any other—Eric Garner was choked to death by New York City police officers in a confrontation rooted in his status as a dealer of black market cigarettes.

So, what’s the chance that the FDA’s latest brainstorm in substituting regulators’ preferences for those of consumers will end up any differently than previous experiences with alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco? Why would low-nicotine smokes find a less-resistant audience than 3.2 beer, or heavily regulated marijuana, or highly taxed cigarettes?

FDA Commissioner Gottlieb’s proposal to mandate low-nicotine cigarettes looks an awful lot like other well-intentioned but presumptuous efforts to substitute the will of regulators for the desires of the public—it’s Prohibition Lite.

While I remain against this kind of nannystatism, perhaps lower-nicotine cigarets would encourage more smokers to take up vaping — which provides a full dose nicotine and far fewer health risks.

BUT THE NARRATIVE! No, Hillary, it’s the red states that are ‘dynamic.’

Of the 12 blue states that Hillary Clinton won by the largest percentage margins — Hawaii, California, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Washington, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware — all but three of them lost residents through domestic migration (excluding immigration) over the last 10 years.
In fact combined, all 12 Hillary Clinton states lost an average of 6 percent of their populations to net out-migration over the past decade. California and New York alone lost 3 million people in the past 10 years.

Now let’s contrast the Hillary Clinton states with the 12 states that had the largest percentage margin vote for Donald Trump. Every one of them, save Wyoming, was a net population gainer — West Virginia, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Idaho, South Dakota, Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Nebraska and Kansas.

The move from blue to red states — almost 1,000 people every day — has been one of the greatest demographic stories in American history. If you go to states like Arizona, Florida, Tennessee and Texas these days, all you see is out of blue state license plates.

Pretty much the same pattern holds true for jobs. The job gains in the red states carried by the widest margins by Mr. Trump had about twice the job creation rate as the bluest states carried by Mrs. Clinton.

Hillary Clinton mentioned GDP numbers. While it is true that the blue states of the two coasts and several of the Midwestern states are richer than the redder states of the South and mountain regions over recent decades, she failed to mention the giant transfer of wealth from Clinton to Trump states.

IRS tax return data confirm that from 2006-2016 Hillary Clinton’s states lost $113.6 billion in combined wealth, whereas Donald Trump’s states gained $116.0 billion.
The Hillary Clinton states are in a slow bleed.

To be fair, the Bluest States will go broke two ways: Gradually, then suddenly.

YOU’RE NO FUN ANYMORE: Chinese Government Cracks Down on Parodies.

M.I.L.E.: Porn Star Stormy Daniels Considered a U.S. Senate Run in 2009.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Killer Mike and Jesse Hughes Believe in the Second Amendment, So They Must Be Stopped.

DO NOT TAUNT THE HAPPY FUN WARRIOR: Dana Loesch Responds to Claim She Was ‘Show Business Wannabe.’

IF IT MOVES, TAX IT: Cynthia Nixon rails against tax breaks ‘Sex and the City’ received.

JACK DUNPHY: Police in Stephon Clark Shooting Were Justified in Using Force.

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Could #MarchForOurLives be a setback for gun control?

“NRA = Murder” signs were widespread at Saturday’s rally, along with “The NRA Supports Terrorists” and “[Expletive] the NRA.” At least one rally featured chants of “Hey, Hey, NRA—How many kids did you kill today?”

So how does it feel to spend a day being called a child murderer on national television?

“You get used to it,” said Cam Edwards, host of the popular “Cam and Company” show on NRATV. “This is nothing new, maybe just more ramped up.”

Edwards makes the point that the NRA is a membership organization and an attack on it is an attack on the 6 million or so people who choose to send in their $40 a year because they want to protect what they see as a constitutional right.

“NRA members are some of the best people in this country: first responders, educators, veterans, moms and dads,” Edwards says. “Not people who care more about their guns than their kids. And certainly not domestic terrorists.”

There’s something else Americans who support gun rights are: Registered voters.

Ask Bill Clinton about the assault weapons ban and the 1994 midterms — or better yet, don’t, since he still goes on about it.

SCARCITY AMID PLENTY: It is Venezuela’s crisis that is driving the oil price higher.

Prices have risen 30 per cent over the past nine months. Why? Are we seeing the beginning of a new upwave towards the $100 a barrel level last seen in 2014? Is there a looming shortage of oil caused by under investment? Is Opec back in control? Or do oil traders really think the US will now go to war with Iran?

The answer is much simpler. Opec’s production quota system has been largely adhered to, but that alone cannot account for a $15 rise in prices. The real change has been the sharp reduction in output in Venezuela as a result of its political and economic crisis.

The country’s oil production has fallen from more than 2.2m barrels a day two years ago to 1.54 mbd in February, with reliable reports of a further fall in March. At current levels, output is less than half what it was when Hugo Chávez became president in 1999.

Prices would be higher still, without frackers:

US total crude oil output has risen from an average of 9.3 mbd in 2017 to 10.3 mbd in February. The EIA projection for 2018 is an average of 10.7 mbd with another year of growth in 2019 to more than 11 mbd. This means production this year will the highest ever, outstripping the 1970 record.

American capitalism: Providing the plenty which socialists can only promise.

ALLIES: Erdoğan Jailed 100 Expecting or New Moms in ‘Utterly Cruel’ Purge, UN Report Finds.

REDISTRICTING: Republican Rep. Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania won’t seek re-election. “Two-term Republican blasts state Supreme Court ruling on state’s districts as ‘obscene’.”

JAMES KIRCHICK: Stop Making Excuses for Louis Farrakhan’s Lunacy. “Why does an anti-Semite get a pass from the liberal left?”

Because he’s useful.

DANIEL HOROWITZ: Blueprint for the new conservatives.

Most of conservative media has already moved on from the spectacular political adultery of last week’s budget betrayal, built on top of an entire year of endless betrayals from GOP leaders. They are all focused on responding to the gun control agenda espoused at the “March for Life.” But what purpose does it serve to fight the Left when we don’t have a Right that is providing an alternative vision on guns or any other issue? The spending betrayal bill included gun provisions that violate every tenet of what was once a universal GOP principle.

Sure, it’s important to combat the Left’s dangerous lies about guns and public safety, but what’s the point of having raucous fans in the bleachers while the team on the field is throwing the ball in the opposite direction? We must win the fight for our own movement and our own party before we can fight the Left.

If you consider yourself a conservative member of Congress, by now you should be asking what the purpose is of serving in that body any longer. But if you deciding to run for re-election, you must ask yourself two important questions: Why are you running, and how will you ensure victory, even in a relatively safe Republican seat, if you continue to get tainted by the sins of the establishment – of both parties?

The only answer to both questions is to disengage from this bog, declare independence, and broadcast a new message and vision to voters. For far too long, we’ve avoided pursuing a new party because it is impossible to create new ground in one election cycle. But it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. To that end, it’s time for grassroots activists fed up with both parties to pursue a new movement, and it’s time for members of Congress who still believe in our founding principles to break away and help lead that movement.

Read the whole thing. And as Inez Stepman notes, “A quasi third party while maintaining ballot access via GOP is not a bad idea.”

VIDEO: Candidate for Sheriff in N.C. ‘Jokes’ About Taking Guns From Cold, Dead Hands. “Daryl Fisher was speaking to Michael Bloomberg’s gun-grabbing group, Moms Demand Action.”

Nothing to see here, just a candidate for an armed office joking about dead constituents. Move along.

OH, CANADA: Oil Sands Pipeline Shortage Takes Toll as Cenovus Cuts Output.

The Calgary-based producer said its Christina Lake and Foster Creek complexes have operated at reduced levels since February, in a statement released Thursday. Cenovus shares slipped as much as 6.1 percent in Toronto and fellow oil sands leaders Suncor Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. fell as well.

Heavy Canadian crude prices have been trading near the biggest discount to U.S. benchmark oil futures in more than four years as new oil sands production has come on line and the Keystone pipeline has cut shipments after a spill in November. Other pipelines are full and exporters shipping crude via rail have faced bottlenecks amid a backlog of grain shipments.

“We’re taking steps to respond to a critical shortage of export pipeline capacity in Western Canada that is beyond our control and is having a negative impact on our industry and the broader Canadian economy,” Chief Executive Officer Alexander Pourbaix said in the statement. The bottlenecks “clearly demonstrate the urgent need for approved pipeline projects in Canada to proceed as soon as possible.”

Indeed.

CHANGE: Gun maker Remington files for bankruptcy.

But there’s a silver lining:

The Journal reported that the gun industry is facing low demand and high stock after Donald Trump’s unexpected election to the presidency in 2016. According to the paper, firearms manufacturers boosted output in the run-up to the election, expecting that a Hillary Clinton victory would lead to a boost in sales ahead of tighter gun laws.

It’s a buyers’ market.

MORE NOOR:

Was the prosecution hoping for a mistrial?

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): The mysterious lack of information on the Las Vegas shooter is causing me to wonder if he was some sort of federal informant, too, or if one was sufficiently hooked in that it would be embarrassing to release. We’ll probably find out eventually.

YOU MIGHT NOT BE INTERESTED IN THE GLEICHSCHALTUNG, BUT THE GLEICHSCHALTUNG IS INTERESTED IN YOU: Lyft Commends Gun Control Protesters for Their ‘Bravery and Intelligence.’ “The company offered free rides to the March for Our Lives to show their support.”

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Are Israel and Iran Stuck on a Collision Course?

With respect to Israel, the Islamic Republic until recently maintained a policy of having sticks along Israel’s borders to poke at Israel (such as Hezbollah and Hamas) in order to deter Israel from ever considering an attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons plants at home. Now, the Revolutionary Guard appears to have become more ambitious, and is building a transnational Shia militia group in Syria and across the Middle East along with military installations, precision missile factories and Shia proxy forces that are answerable directly to the Revolutionary Guard and not to Assad. Their ambitions are to have Shia militias on Israel’s borders with thousands of precision missiles aimed at Israeli critical infrastructure. Just like North Korea has thousands of missiles threatening South Korea, Iran through its proxies can similarly try to threaten Israel.

The Islamic Republic has supplemented its moves on the ground with rhetoric calling for the liquidation of the state of Israel in 25 years. Iran leads the “Resistance” against Israel, a movement that includes Hezbollah, Hamas and growing numbers of foreign and local militias in Syria. Israeli leaders worry that the Islamic Republic has a long-term goal to surround Israel’s borders: in the north, Hezbollah and now Syria; in the east, Hamas joined by some disillusioned Fatah members in the West Bank (and maybe someday a post-Hashemite pro-Iran Jordan); in the south, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

At the moment, the Revolutionary Guard is riding high after its successes in Syria and elsewhere, which is stoking the fears of Sunni Arab states and Israel. But extrapolating current successes into the future is highly uncertain.

Incoming National Security Advisor John Bolton had a few bold things to say about Iran back in August.

BREAKING:

Plus: “Noor Salman’s lawyers say FBI hid these key facts until now out of embarrassment: it was due to FBI’s close relationship w/Mateen’s father that they didn’t arrest Mateen when they investigated him in 2013. Also, prosecution of Noor intended to protect real accomplice: FBI’s asset.”

Can’t anyone at the Bureau do their damn job?