FASTER, PLEASE: Stem Cell Therapy Reverses Macular Degeneration.

CIRCLING THE WAGONS: Judicial Watch Fights Uphill Battle for McCabe Texts.

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog organization, has spent months pursuing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit demanding the release of texts McCabe exchanged with colleagues.

The FBI has so far refused to comply with a court order to produce the texts, handing over emails and other information to Judicial Watch but legally demurring on whether it even has access to the electronic messages, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in an interview.

“We do not believe that any reasonable search [of McCabe’s records] would have left uncovered the text issues,” Fitton told the Washington Free Beacon Monday. “This is just gamesmanship by the FBI. We’ve been asking questions about it, but we have been told to go jump in a lake, figuratively.”

“We know when an agency is being cooperative versus showing their arrogance and stonewalling, and the FBI is operating with complete arrogance,” he said.

There’s been a lot of that the last eight, nine years.

JOHN CLEESE, UPPERCLASS TWIT: MAGA Means Hating Monty Python.

Not necessarily, but certain former members have become tiresome.

OF COURSE: Facebook created a tool to hide your data from apps but it never launched.

Facebook’s policies prior to 2014 were much more lax than they are today. At the time, apps could scrape data from both their users and the friends of those users, unless you had your privacy setting sufficiently locked down.

The company actually built an “Anonymous Login” tool that was specifically created so that Facebook users could log into third-party services without making all of their data available to developers.

But the once-hyped feature never launched. Facebook quietly killed the project, allegedly due to lack of interest.

Whose lack?

21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS: US Air Force still struggling with stabilising airborne lasers.

That’s better than having no airborne lasers at all.

VIDEO: Dem Rep Thanks Andrea Mitchell For Advice To Hire McCabe.

More:

Despite the allegations of severe misconduct, Democrats and members of the media have fretted over McCabe’s lost pension. Mitchell, who hosts a show on MSNBC, offered “friendly member[s] of Congress” a strategy for McCabe to collect his check anyway.

“One suggestion from a McCabe supporter: if a friendly member of Congress hired him for a week he could possibly qualify for pension benefits by extending his service the extra days,” Mitchell helpfully tweeted.

Democratic lawmakers took the hint and started offering McCabe jobs en masse.

If it weren’t obvious that they all got the idea from Mitchell, Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan specifically thanked Mitchell on Monday’s edition of “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”

“Well, it’s your tweet, Andrea. It was your tweet that started all this,” Pocan said. “I just want you to know. We saw your tweet over the weekend and that’s what gave us the idea. So, thank you.”

“Well, that’s interesting to note,” Mitchell said modestly. “Thank you very much, congressman.”

Joe Simonson adds, “We tried finding out if an anchor or reporter offering advice to politicians is a violation of NBC’s policies, but they wouldn’t respond.”

That’s none of your business, prole.

MICHAEL MOORE TO DEMS: ‘Never Forget’ You’re ‘Electing the Jury for Impeachment.’

CHRIS MATTHEWS: “Mueller reminds me of the starfish which gets itself tightly around the clam and uses all its stuff to weaken and pry open the clam. Now, this is a battle to the death as far as the clam is concerned.”

OK then.

PROCUREMENT: Navy, Newport News Taking Steps Towards Two-Carrier Buy.

The Navy today moved towards signing the first two-carrier contract since the Reagan Administration, asking builder Newport News Shipbuilding for additional data on the cost-savings potential for buying CVNs 80 and 81 together.

The service released a request for proposal to the company this afternoon, with the hopes of receiving the necessary cost and schedule predictions by late summer or early fall and potentially reaching a two-carrier agreement with Newport News Shipbuilding by the end of the calendar year.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts told reporters today that it is still unclear what the final product would be after today’s RFP – whether it would be a construction contract for two aircraft carriers, or some other means of allowing for the Navy and its prime contractor to buy two ship-sets of materials at a time.

“If you’re building two of these, your return on investment and the sharing between the government and industry to drive towards affordability, I think, there’s a much better return on investment,” he said.

For example, “instead of buying one set of parts we buy two sets of parts.”

Here’s to hoping, but government spending rarely seems to work out that way.

SAD: Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Austin Explosion, Trump’s Opiod Speech, Mueller Drama and Much, Much More.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to Make a Clean Break with the Clingiest Social Networks.

If you’ve ever deactivated your account, you may have noticed that everything goes back to normal the next time you log in, as if nothing has happened. That’s because deactivating your Facebook account is not the same as deleting it. When you deactivate your account, you are just hiding your information from searches and your Facebook friends. Although nothing is visible on the site, your account information remains intact on Facebook’s servers, eagerly awaiting your return.

Even so, deactivating your account is still a complex process. Go into your settings and click General. At the bottom, you’ll find Manage your Account. From there, click on “Deactivate your account” and type in your password. Before you’re completely off the hook, Facebook shows you photos of all the “friends” you’ll miss (“Callie will miss you”, “Phoebe will miss you”, “Ben will miss you”) followed by a survey asking you to detail your reasons for leaving. Get through that, click Deactivate, and you’re good to go.

Now, to permanently delete your account, you’ll need to learn where the delete option resides. The easiest way to find it is by clicking the “Quick Help” icon in the top-right corner, then the “Search” icon. When you see the search field, type “delete account.” You’ll see a list of search results. Click on “How do I permanently delete my account?” and Facebook will give you the obscure instructions to “log into your account and let us know.” In this case, “let us know” is code for “delete my account,” so click on that link. From here, the final steps are clear: Enter your password and solve the security captcha, and your request to permanently delete your account is underway.

Yes, you read that right—it’s just a request. Facebook delays the deletion process for a few days after you submit your request, and will cancel your request if you log into your account during that time period.

It’s like trying to find the exit from the casino floor.

SHOT: Erdoğan Says Turkey is not in Afrin as an ‘invasion’ force.

CHASER: Erdogan Vows to Extend Offensive to East Syria, North Iraq.

Please don’t confuse a rapidly expanding offensive into neighboring countries with an invasion.

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Venezuela town issues own currency amid cash shortages.

Amid an acute national shortage of banknotes, the town of Elorza in western Venezuela has started issuing its own paper currency.

Local officials said that the currency would make it easier for residents and visitors to trade during the town’s festivities, which start on Monday.

They said rampant hyperinflation and a scarcity of bolivares, the national currency, had affected trade in Elorza.

The new currency can be bought at the mayor’s office via bank transfer.

The paper bills feature the face of independence hero José Andrés Elorza and, like the town, are named after him.

“People don’t have bolivares to spend, that’s why we have created bills of two denominations… and we’ve already sold 2bn bolivares worth,” mayor Solfreddy Solórzano, from the governing PSUV party, said.

That’s nice — but what is there to buy?

BREXIT: EU Agrees on Brexit Transition Terms but Ireland Issue Remains.

European Union and British negotiators on Monday agreed on the terms of the U.K.’s 21-month transition after it leaves the bloc next March, but left unresolved a thorny issue—the future of Ireland—that could derail the entire Brexit deal.

The new agreement opens the way for talks on the U.K.’s future economic and security relationship with the bloc, something the U.K. has long asked for. But while the transition was relatively easy to agree on, the most difficult phase of negotiations still lies ahead.

With just one year to go, the two sides must finalize the negotiations and get the deal approved by EU governments, the U.K. and the EU parliament.

The U.K. wants a much closer trade and economic relationship after Brexit than the EU says is possible for a country that won’t allow free movement of EU citizens and won’t follow the rulings of the EU top court.

Getting out from under Brussels’ thumb while maintaining a free trade relationship with Europe would be ideal for the UK, but it seems more likely that Britain will lose at least some access to the common market, while remaining mired in an EU-like regulatory state.

IT ISN’T BOMBSHELL IF IT ONLY CONFIRMS WHAT EVERYBODY KNEW: Ex-Obama Campaign Director Drops Bombshell Claim on Facebook: ‘They Were on Our Side.’

SALON: Millennials Aren’t Saving Because They Think Capitalism Will Fall.

The dark night of economic collapse is always descending in capitalist countries and yet lands only in the socialist ones.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: When Hillary Clinton Called You a Racist, Misogynist Idiot, She Was ‘Misinterpreted.’

I’M NOT SURE I WANT TO RISK ASKING THE VODKAWIFE… Let’s Settle This Once and for All: Women Do Not Love Jerks.

UH-HUH: U.S. Risks Return to Days of Segregation, Says Lee in DNC Fundraising Mailer.

BRUCE BAWER: The Upside-Down Morals of Today’s Britain.

HAVE YOU HUGGED A FRACKER TODAY? Crude Oil Prices Turn Lower on U.S. Drilling Activity.

Related: Oil prices slip but Saudi-Iran tensions limit losses.

BUT OF COURSE: A prominent Senate Republican is pushing a plan to inject $10 billion a year for three years into ObamaCare exchanges.

Two of them, actually. Neither name — Lamar Alexander or Susan Collins — will surprise you.

THE FUTURE IS NOW: Seth McFarland, Social Media, and Communist China.

PRIVACY: To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google.

In at least four investigations last year – cases of murder, sexual battery and even possible arson at the massive downtown fire in March 2017 – Raleigh police used search warrants to demand Google accounts not of specific suspects, but from any mobile devices that veered too close to the scene of a crime, according to a WRAL News review of court records. These warrants often prevent the technology giant for months from disclosing information about the searches not just to potential suspects, but to any users swept up in the search.

This comes courtesy of Dave Mark, who adds: “According to this story, and others I’ve read, Google can track your location, even if you take out your SIM card. Amazing.”

I’m not sure “amazing” is the word I’d use.