MICHAEL WALSH: Wolves in Lamb’s Clothing.

What ought to worry the GOP about the Lamb victory is not the victory itself—Lamb had been leading handsomely in the polls, running as a “conservative”—but the stealthiness of the campaign, which is all part of an emerging new Democrat strategy. As House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) noted, “the candidate who is going to win this race is the candidate who ran as a pro-life, pro-gun, anti-Nancy Pelosi, conservative.”

So behold the emerging Campaign ’18. For months now, Democrats have been recruiting youthful military vets, some of them anti-abortion, and committed to a generational change of the Democrats’ geriatric leadership. In an area like Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district, which historically has been home to white, working-class, blue-collar cradle Democrats, this is a winning idea. In order to take back states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Democrats finally are realizing that the Pelosi-Schumer-Clinton axis of evil no longer holds any appeal, but that clean-cut, all-American types like Conor Lamb very much do. A party that has never had any problem compromising its transient “moral” principles won’t hesitate to run right at conservative Democrat voters, even it means betraying their professed ideals in order to support the national party with votes in Congress when it matters. “By any means necessary” is the Democrats’ slogan for a reason, after all.

No matter how “conservative” these congressional Democrats run as candidates, once in office they can be counted on to vote Yea in favor of the leadership’s most extreme measures.

FAT CHANCE: On Climate Change, Please Address the Science, Not the Politics. “Once and for all, stop poisoning the debate.”

JOHN ELLIS: My Daughter Joined the School Walkout, and This Conservative Dad Is OK with That.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Here’s how you access the super creepy data Facebook has on you.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Hate Speech Isn’t Free Speech. And Guess Who Decides What Is and Isn’t Hate Speech?

JOHN HAWKINS: The 7 Lies That Will Keep You from Ever Reaching Your Potential.

INSURRECTION: Undocumented immigrant appointed to state post in California.

Lizbeth Mateo, a 33-year-old attorney and immigrant rights activist, will serve on the California Student Opportunity and Access Program Project Grant Advisory Committee. The committee advises the California Student Aid Commission on efforts to increase college access for California students from low-income or underserved communities.

“While Donald Trump fixates on walls, California will continue to concentrate on opportunities,” de León said in a news release. “Ms. Mateo is a courageous, determined and intelligent young woman who at great personal risk has dedicated herself to fight for those seeking their rightful place in this country.”

If Mateo is here illegally, her rightful place is at the back of the legal immigration line.

Given California’s official lawlessness, a case could be made for Congress to act under the Guarantee Clause.

FRACK THAT: Crisis-hit Venezuela could soon tip the oil market ‘decisively into deficit,’ IEA says.

“Within the OPEC countries, the biggest risk factor is, and will likely remain, Venezuela,” the IEA said in its closely-watched report published Thursday.

“Without any compensatory change from other producers it is possible that the Latin American country could be the final element that tips the market decisively into deficit,” the Paris-based organization added.

While Venezuela boasts the world’s largest proven oil reserves, crude production in the state has been steadily declining in recent years. The South American country continues to slog through an economic crisis precipitated by years of government mismanagement and exacerbated by a prolonged oil price slump.

Following years of sharp output losses, Venezuela’s crude output is projected to tumble to 1.38 million barrels per day (mb/d) by the end of 2018, according to the IEA. That would represent the oil-dependent state’s lowest level of output in approximately 70 years — with the exception of the 2002-2003 strike.

Oil has been holding steady slightly above the $60 ceiling I expected frackers to impose on the market — but that’s because of production cuts which OPEC and Russia have actually adhered to for once. However, that also means there’s plenty of slack on the production side for when the worst comes to Venezuela. Prices might go up again, but a ’70s-style oil shock seems unlikely at worst.

THANKS, OBAMA: The Justice Department under Barack Obama directed the FBI to drop more than 500,000 names of fugitives with outstanding arrest warrants from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

DO IT AGAIN: Nearly 30 Percent of Gitmo Transfers Confirmed or Suspected of Returning to Terror.

FRACK THAT: Cold snap could trigger gas supply emergency in UK if Putin orders Russian gas giants turn off taps due to spy scandal.

The European Left — up to and including former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder — has worked long and hard at ensuring energy dependence on Russia.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN:) Richard Fernandez observes:

BREAKING: ‘Mass casualties’ reported after brand new pedestrian bridge at FIU in Miami collapses [photos, video].

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: Media Can’t Figure Out if Tillerson Proves Or Disproves Their Russia Conspiracy Theory.

Owning the Narrative is a powerful thing, but occasionally the power resides in purely opportunistic flexibility.

AMERICAN CARTEL: Here Are The Politicians That Took Opioid Tycoons’ ‘Dirty, Bloody Money.’

OxyContin’s manufacturer and its billionaire owners gave millions of dollars to political candidates — who often held powerful positions — and organizations, but the opioid profiteers’ tentacles of influence reach much farther, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found.

The Sackler family and Purdue Pharma, which is widely blamed for playing an essential role in starting the opioid epidemic, have given more than $1.3 million to U.S. candidates and another $1 million to political organizations since OxyContin’s creation, according to Center for Responsive Politics data, but that’s just the surface of how deep the pharmaceutical titans’ influence runs.

“It’s blood money, literally,” Public Citizen’s Health Research Group founder and senior adviser Sidney Wolfe told TheDCNF. “It’s money earned off people’s lives being spent. This is dirty, bloody money.”

It’s difficult to tell exactly how far Purdue’s influence reaches, because the pharmaceutical industry pays front organizations to do most of its lobbying and that often occurs at the state level.

Dig deep into this one — it’s worth your time.

This is the seventh article in Ethan Barton’s ongoing series, and yet you get the feeling that he’s just scratched the surface.

Much more to come, I’m sure.

UH-HUH: Mexican Ambassador to U.S. Says Mexico Doesn’t Have a Border Patrol.

Well, somebody in Mexico is arresting all those illegal immigrants heading north from Guatemala.

ED MORRISSEY: Settle down, Democrats.

Democrat Conor Lamb appears to have narrowly edged out Republican Rick Saccone in a district that went for Trump by 20 points, which certainly gives Republicans a headache they didn’t need and Democrats a reason to brag.

Does that translate to a blue wave in November, though? Almost certainly not. (Although that doesn’t mean a blue wave isn’t coming in November, either.) Using special elections as a harbinger for regularly scheduled contests ignores significant differences between the two, and the singular nature of most special elections.

Here are three key reasons to resist the urge to either pop champagne for Democrats or declare the GOP dead — at least on the basis of PA-18.

Read the whole thing.

SAUDI CROWN PRINCE BIN SALMAN: If Iran Gets Nukes, We’re Next.

And it’s a safe bet, bordering on an open secret, that Saudi financial support for Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program came with a few strings attached.

NIKKI HALEY: UN Security Council ‘Will Not Survive’ if Russia Not Held Accountable for UK Poison Attack.

It’s more collusion, I tell you.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT: Turkey Approves Election Law Seen Boosting Erdogan.

“QUIETLY”: South Korea quietly orders 90 more Taurus bunker-busting missiles.

The contract for the missile system, made by German company Taurus Systems GmbH, was signed late February, said Kang Hwan-seok, spokesman for the DAPA.

The latest contract for the Taurus missile is the second of its kind since 2013, when the DAPA ordered 170 Taurus missiles to arm the fleet of F-15K fighter aircraft. Each missile costs about $1.8 million.

The missile is a core asset of South Korea’s “Kill Chain” pre-emptive strike systems against North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs upon imminent threat.

The precision-guided missile has a range of 500 kilometers and is said to be able to destroy North Korea’s major underground facilities, including Kim’s hideouts, with pinpoint accuracy.

Sleep tight, Li’l Kim.

IT’S COLLUSION, I TELL YOU! Treasury Sanctions Russian Cyber Actors for Interference with the 2016 U.S. Elections and Malicious Cyber-Attacks.

SCENES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Antifa Radical Charged with Hateful Vandalism Raises Over $80k Thanks to L.A. Times Article. Ismael Chamu allegedly spray-painted people’s cars and fences with “F— White People” and other epithets.”

VOX: A gun control plan that has any hope of getting us down to European levels of violence is going to mean taking a huge number of guns away from a huge number of gun owners.

They have no intention of taking anyone’s guns, except that’s exactly what they intend to do.

Molon labe.

BILL GERTZ: Shadowy Terrorist Group Emerges in Iraq.

White Flag is an armed group operating in areas of northwestern and central Iraq since late last year and appears to be a union of Kurdish terrorists and former ISIS fighters, according to U.S. defense and military officials.

“It’s kind of a hodge-podge of people and a white flag with a lion on it is their emblem,” said a military official familiar with the region.

Little is known about the new organization and some reports from the region say White Flag has adopted the Islamic State jihadist ideology.

But so far the group has not conducted suicide bombing attacks, a key ISIS terror tactic, and the lack of such attacks is raising suspicions White Flag may be a front group for Iraqi factions vying for power.

The military official said intelligence on the group is sketchy but preliminary indications are it poses a threat to the areas of Iraq where it has operated. White Flag, however, does not currently have capabilities for conducting terror attacks outside the country.

Then the time to start killing them is now, rather than blithely dismissing them as they “jayvee” and allowing the group to metastasize.

I’LL WAIT FOR VERSION 2.0: Startup Offers ‘100 Percent Fatal’ Procedure To Upload Your Brain.

Nectome, a startup founded by two MIT graduates who studied artificial intelligence, says they have created a method of perfectly preserving the human brain using a high-tech embalming process. “Our mission is to preserve your brain well enough to keep all its memories intact: from that great chapter of your favorite book to the feeling of cold winter air, baking an apple pie, or having dinner with your friends and family,” the company writes on their website.

Nectome adds that it believes science will create technology that will be able to digitally “recreate your consciousness” within the next 100 years and their service is the first step in making sure your mind is ready for that breakthrough. The unnerving twist to this digital immortality is that the company reportedly needs your brain to be alive and active when the embalming starts.

According to MIT Technology Review, Nectome says their plan is to focus on people suffering from terminal illnesses.

All kidding aside, if you’re dying and can afford the procedure — why not?

And I’d wager that in 100 years’ time, that either the putting old memories into new bodies will be commonplace, or Skynet will have forbidden it.

Not that I expect to be around that long, unless they’ve developed a bionic liver by, say, 2040.