THE FRIENDLY SKIES: Do I Even Need to Tell You What United Did to a $42,000 Specialty Wheelchair?

A REAL KREMLIN AGENT, A FAKE HATE GROUP, AND SCHROEDINGER’S HEALTH COVERAGE BILL: All that and more in Liz Sheld’s morning brief.

SHOT: North Korea supplies high-voltage electricity to border fence.

North Korea has installed high-voltage electric fencing at its border with China, posing even more challenges for people seeking to leave the country or smuggle goods in from the outside world.

The fence had already been installed along the Tumen and Yalu rivers, but the barricade was not being supplied with electricity until recently, North Korean reporters collaborating with Japan-based Asia Press said.

One North Korean reporter in Yanggang Province told Asia Press on July 4 the electric fences have put an end to what was once regular activity at the border.

CHASER:

PEAK OIL: Houston’s Talos Energy makes ‘significant’ find in Mexico’s waters.

It seems there’s hardly anywhere not awash in the stuff.

IT’S A PITY THEY CAN’T BOTH LOSE: Why Is Russia Aiming Missiles at China?

Though the Kremlin has been careful not to voice long-term concerns about China, perhaps the most telling examples of Moscow’s continued uneasiness regarding the growing military might of its neighbour have been large-scale Russian military exercises held in the Eastern MD. As Dr. Roger N. McDermott, senior fellow in Eurasian military studies at the Jamestown Foundation, concludes in his analysis on the large-scale Vostok (“East”) 2014 exercise involving some 100,000 personnel, “Vostok 2014, much like its earlier incarnation in 2010, contains strong evidence that the Russian General Staff continues to consider China a potential threat to Russia.” Given the persisting concern, basing Iskander-M OTRKs in regions bordering China’s Northern Theater Command is a logical move from Russia’s perspective. Indeed, the system’s ability to deliver a wide range of cluster munitions makes it particularly suitable for use against People’s Liberation Army (PLA) armor and infantry in the event of an armed confrontation.

The short version is that Russia doesn’t have enough civilians to keep Siberia ethnically Russian, so well-armed troops will have to do.

IT’S THE GOLDEN AGE OF MUSCLE CARS, BUT… Fiat Chrysler to close Dodge Viper plant in August.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What’s With All the Satanic Crap Everywhere?

I’m old enough to remember when openly worshiping Satan was limited to late night public access cable.

HMM: Navy Fired Whistleblower Who Uncovered Serious Fuel Safety Risks.

The Navy fired a civilian whistleblower who uncovered life-threatening safety risks to pilots and others from the improper testing of aircraft fueling equipment and jet fuel itself that could degrade aircraft engines, cause engine surging and, in worst-case scenarios, flameouts.

The firing came June 8, the same day Rep. Walter Jones (R., N.C.) sent the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), an internal federal government watchdog, a letter asking it to investigate the whistleblower’s remaining concerns about his treatment at his workplace, the Navy’s Fleet Readiness Center-East (FRC-E).

The whistleblower, Glenn Schwarz, is one of Jones’s constituents, and FRC-E in Cherry Point, N.C., is located in his district.

More to come, I’m sure.

OH: The awesome, unstoppable revolutionary electric-car revolution that doesn’t actually exist.

Going by the ballyhoo, you’d think EVs were an unstoppable juggernaut. But it’s one that has yet to even get started. In his 2011 State of the Union address, then president Barack Obama predicted one million electric cars on the road by 2015. Four years later, there wasn’t even a third that many. California offered so many different subsidies for electric vehicles that low-income families could get rebates of up to US$13,500, but it still isn’t even close to reaching its target of having zero-emission vehicles make up 15 per cent of California auto sales by 2025, being stuck at three per cent since 2014. Ontario’s Liberal government last year announced to much laughter its plan to ensure that every family would have at least one zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) by 2024, and Quebec made a plan to make ZEVs worth 15.5 per cent of sales by 2020. Let’s see how that’s going: Currently, ZEVs make up 0.16 per cent of new vehicle sales in Ontario and 0.38 per cent in Quebec.

I love the idea of electric, but until the problems of range, cost, and recharge speed are solved, I’m sticking with my diesel.

WHAT REAL OPPRESSION LOOKS LIKE: Bangladeshi Muslim Husband Chops Off Wife’s Fingers Because She Won’t Drop Out of College.

THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS WITH TYRANTS: Apple to Build China Data Center to Meet New Cybersecurity Law.

Apple will build its first Chinese data center in the southern province of Guizhou to house data for customers of its iCloud service. The data include photos, documents, messages, apps and videos uploaded by Apple users throughout the mainland, the company said Wednesday.

The center will be operated by a company owned by the Guizhou provincial government, and whose chairman was a local government official until last year.

Of course.

KREMLIN STOOGE: US Approves $3.9 Billion Patriot Missile System For Romania.

MICHELLE MALKIN: The crisis in America’s crime labs.

Law journals and scientific publications are filled with similar horror stories that have spread from the New York City medical examiner’s office and Nassau County, N.Y.’s police department forensic evidence bureau to the crime labs of West Virginia, Harris County, Texas, North Carolina and jurisdictions in nearly 20 other states.

It’s the wrongfully prosecuted and convicted who suffer the heaviest deprivations — and taxpayers who must foot the astronomical bill for all the costs and damages incurred by crime lab corruptocrats and their enablers.

As I’ve been chronicling in my newspaper columns and CRTV.com investigative reports, many state crime labs and police departments are particularly ill-equipped and inadequately trained to interpret DNA evidence, especially “touch” or “trace” DNA — minute amounts of DNA of unknown origin often transferred through incidental contact — which has resulted in monstrous miscarriages of justice against innocent people.

The aura of infallibility conferred on crime lab analysts by “CSI”-style TV shows exacerbates the problem when juries place undue weight on indeterminate DNA evidence of little to no probative value. Just last week, North Carolina’s Mark Carver, who was convicted of murdering a college student based on dubious touch DNA that was likely the result of investigators’ contamination, won a new court date for a hearing that may set him free.

Costly errors and gross misconduct will continue as long as politicized prosecutors operate with a “win at all costs” agenda and stubbornly refuse to admit their failures.

Read the whole thing.

NO. #BringBackObama?

RAND PAUL ON SENATE HEALTH COVERAGE BILL: I’ll vote “no” as it stands now.

DO IT AGAIN: Illegal immigrant who sneaked into US 7 times was drunk during deadly crash, prosecutor says.

Douglas County [Nebraska] prosecutors said in court Tuesday Nemias Garcia-Velasco, 32, was deported in 2009 and 2011 and “voluntarily returned” to Mexico five times in 2005, the Omaha World-Herald reported. He was convicted of making a false claim to U.S. citizenship in 2005.

Garcia-Velasco’s bail was set at $2 million. Prosecutor Ryan Lindberg in court on Tuesday requested a high bail for the illegal immigrant because he feared the man might flee the country — again.

“If this is someone who bonds out, I don’t think we’ll see Mr. Garcia-Velasco again,” Lindberg said.

Well, maybe not in Douglas County.

MARK ELLIS: Unearthed 2004 Trump Op-Ed Recalls Early Days of Reality TV Craze.

WINNING: American LNG exports blow past 2016 tally.

April’s exports alone quintupled on the year to 50.6 billion cu. feet, according to data released at the end of June by the Energy Information Administration. Latin America and the Caribbean account for 44% of exports, and Asia for 28%, said Executive Vice President Anatol Feygin of Cheniere Energy, the sole company constructing and operating LNG export terminals in the lower 48 states.

The U.S. now exports its LNG to 23 countries. Poland began imports in June, and Japan’s Chubu Electric Power imported the first American LNG derived from shale gas in January.

The shale revolution has made the U.S. the world’s top producer of natural gas. The Obama administration greenlighted projects to help export LNG from the mainland, such as a Louisiana terminal that began exports in February 2016. By the end of last year, America had turned from an importer into a net exporter.

Its 2016 exports amounted to a paltry 4% of top exporter Qatar’s total, according to statistics from BP. But tougher competition will be unavoidable as more large-scale LNG export projects come online in the second half.

Have you hugged a fracker today?

THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP: Lawmakers Cite Evidence Russia ‘Colludes’ With US Green Groups to Block Fracking.

GIVING BACK: Woman picks up $405 restaurant tab for group of firefighters.

A woman who was eating at a Denny’s in Southern California picked up the $405 bill for a group of firefighters after they finished battling a massive blaze.

The City of Colton Fire Department shared an image of the receipt on Facebook Sunday, thanking the woman who paid for the meals of about 25 firefighters who had finished fighting a fire in the city.

“After all of the firefighters finished fighting the La Cadena Fire in La Loma Hills this evening, they were sent to Denny’s for dinner. While eating, an anonymous woman told the Denny’s staff that she wanted to buy all of the firefighter’s meals,” the Facebook post says.

“We are all honored to serve the citizens of our communities,” it added.

In addition to picking up the tab, the woman bought $100 worth of dessert for the firefighters.

Nice.

GET BACK TO WORK: McConnell Delays Senate’s Summer Vacation by Two Weeks.

“THEY DIDN’T HAVE THE JUICE”: New Information In A Bizarre Story About A Quest To Hunt Down Hillary Clinton’s Deleted Emails.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: My Son Is ‘ Transparent and Innocent,’ This Is ‘Greatest Witch Hunt in Political History.’

OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: State EV Rebates on Hiatus in California (Unless You’re Poor).

According to the Center for Sustainable Energy, California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate program has almost run out of funding — for a second time — after Governor Jerry Brown neglected to include it in the state budget.

As a result, the program can no longer offer rebates to purchasers of zero-emission vehicles and has placed those who made a purchase after June 30th on a refund waiting list. It’s bad news for anyone in California who wanted to by an electric car. Well, unless you’re poor, because the State of California really wants to convince low-income households to buy electric for some reason.

This isn’t the first time California has showed a bias toward low-income individuals in regard to EV purchasing. Earlier this year, the state mandated that Volkswagen reserve a portion of its charging network for disadvantaged neighborhoods — instead of the higher traffic or commercial areas electric vehicles are more likely to occupy.

The state is also considering the California Electric Vehicle Initiative, which would apply additional incentives directly at the time of purchase, rather than forcing taxpayers to wait for a refund. That bill provides $3 billion in state incentives on top of the federal rebates based on manufacturer quotas. If passed, it would also set aside $500 million per year in cap and trade program funds to ensure that disadvantaged communities, schools, transit buses, and freight benefit from the electrification push.

California’s current EV program reimburses shoppers after the purchase of plug-in electric or fuel cell vehicles. Current state-based rebates range between $1,500 and $5,000, depending on the type of vehicle and the income of the buyer — prioritizing higher rebates for lesser incomes.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with aiding the poor, why California thinks green vehicles are an essential aspect of that endeavor is bewildering. Electric vehicles provide numerous advantages, but affordability is often not among them.

California’s common people voted for this, and now they’re getting it — cars they don’t want which plug into charging stations they don’t need paid for with debt they can’t afford — good and hard.

UPDATE: Link was broken before. Fixed now — sorry!

THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP: Yes, Trump Jr. Was ‘Collusion Curious,’ But Where’s the Outrage About Hillary’s Ukraine Collusion?