CHANGE MORE OF THE SAME: Twitter co-founder Biz Stone returns to the company as other top staffers flee.

Stone posted his return to the social media company in a Medium post on Tuesday, writing that he’ll be “filling the ‘Biz-shaped hole'” he left there.

“My top focus will be to guide the company culture, that energy, that feeling,” Stone wrote, adding: “You might even say the job description includes being Biz Stone.”

Culture, energy, and feeling don’t seem to be what Twitter is lacking.

BRITISH PETROLEUM CEO: Abundant supplies of oil and gas are now a fact of life.

Well. I guess we drilled our way out of that problem.

BREAKING: Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina collapses during DC race, gets CPR, taken away in ambulance.

Reportedly he was still breathing when taken away.

THE RUSSIAN HACK: It sounds like a Hillary conspiracy theory, and it is.

R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr:

How did we find ourselves at this comic pass with the Democratic Party warning us of the Russian menace — the Democratic Party whose members have included Alger Hiss and, more lately, Bill Ayers? Well, turn to the recently released bestseller written by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign.” All the pundits are talking about it, and there are things to admire in it. For instance, turn to Page 395. There you will find this revelation: “Hillary declined to take responsibility for her own loss . Hillary kept pointing her finger at Comey and Russia . That strategy had been set within twenty-four hours of her concession speech . For a couple of hours [Hillary and her aides] went over the script they would pitch to the press and the public. Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument.” Now it is the “centerpiece” of the mainstream media and the Democratic Party’s campaign against Donald Trump.

Read the whole thing.

I’d just add that if Democrats had constantly shown this much concern about the Russians, we’d have won the Cold War ten years sooner.

IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN THEY DO IT: Obama Gave Classified Intel to Russia.

Chief executives share intel when it suits them, but it’s less often that the leader of one country reminds another that “After my election I have more flexibility” to deliver on things his own people might not approve of.

UH-OH: South Korea’s Moon says “high possibility” of conflict with North as missile crisis builds.

The comments came hours after the South, which hosts 28,500 U.S. troops, said it wanted to reopen a channel of dialogue with North Korea as Moon seeks a two-track policy, involving sanctions and dialogue, to try to rein in its neighbour.

North Korea has made no secret of the fact that it is working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the U.S. mainland and has ignored calls to halt its nuclear and missile programmes, even from China, its lone major ally.

It conducted its latest ballistic missile launch, in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, on Sunday which it said was a test of its capability to carry a “large-size heavy nuclear warhead”, drawing Security Council condemnation.

“The reality is that there is a high possibility of a military conflict at the NLL (Northern Limit Line) and military demarcation line,” Moon was quoted as saying by the presidential Blue House.

Moon is thought to be more dovish than his predecessor.

IT’S CALLED “MSNBC”: Former Radical Describes Leftist Activism as ‘Cult,’ Saw ‘Murderous Rage’. “I see seemingly reasonable people wishing death on others … “

HMM: Trump Asked Comey to Drop Flynn Investigation, According to Memo Written by Former FBI Director.

President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to back off the investigation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn shortly after Mr. Flynn had resigned, according to two people close to Mr. Comey.

The people said they had seen a memo written by Mr. Comey that documented a meeting with the president during which Mr. Trump told the director that he hoped he could find a way to drop the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe of Mr. Flynn.

“I hope you can let this go,” Mr. Trump told the former FBI director, according to the memo, which was described in detail by a person close to Mr. Comey. A second associate confirmed having seen the memo and the thrust of its contents. Both requested anonymity to describe the law enforcement record.

The memo isn’t the only one that documents Mr. Comey’s encounters with the president, according to one of the people. There are “a number of encounters with the president that concerned him, and he wrote very detailed memos about those instances,” the person said.

Given that the FBI may already be at war with the Trump White House, it’s going to take more than two anonymous sources and zero physical evidence to give this story credence.

Or as Charlie Martin says, “Show Me the Memos!“

QUESTION ASKED: Will Venezuela’s Government Survive 2017?

The Maduro government enjoys little, if any, public support, and it doesn’t have the money to spend its way out of the problem. Maduro’s approval ratings hover around 21-26 percent, according to the most recent polls. And anecdotal evidence suggests that the actual level of support for Maduro is even lower. His support comes from a strong inner circle and a system based on political patronage. The members of his inner circle need Maduro to stay in office to maintain their livelihoods. Others get access to jobs and other benefits in exchange for their affiliation with the government. Public employees have reported that they must participate in pro-government rallies and show support for Maduro or risk losing their jobs. Now, even neighborhoods like El Valle in Caracas that strongly backed former President Hugo Chavez are turning against Maduro. His inability to continue meeting the promises made by Chavez has caused Maduro to lose this group’s support.

So far, Maduro has resisted resignation and a negotiated exit from power, believing he can withstand the protests against him. Previous negotiations failed in part because Maduro refused to concede on any of the opposition’s major demands. At this point, a change in constraints would be necessary to prompt a change in Maduro’s behavior. This would happen if Maduro feels personally threatened by the unrest. If Maduro believes that his security forces can no longer protect him or that his personal safety is in jeopardy, he will be forced to rethink his stance on leaving office.

If the military and other security forces can no longer keep the protests in check, it will be a game changer for the Maduro government.

Perhaps the final question is whether the security services remain loyal until the bloody end, or turn around and go full Ceaușescu.

GOOD MORNING: Start it off smart with Liz Sheld’s morning brief.

I DON’T KNOW ART BUT I KNOW WHAT I LIKE: A Lowrider Lawnmower Styled After Vintage Cars.

VIDEO: Now Sean Spicer Can’t Say If Jerusalem Is Even in Israel?!?

The Western Wall flubs, if that’s what they were, were embarrassing enough.

CHANGE: Million-dollar Strads fall to modern violins in blind ‘sound check’

As the violins played solo and with orchestral accompaniment, 55 listeners rated which instrument in each pair projected better by making a mark on a continuous scale with one violin, labeled simply A, on one end and the other violin, labeled B, on the other. The researcher then averaged all those evaluations, and found that subjects generally thought the new violins projected better than the old ones—although the researcher left it up to listeners to decide what that meant. The effect was unambiguous, Fritz says.

The team then performed a similar test in New York City without the orchestra and with a different set of Strads and new violins. Again, the 82 listeners in the test reported that the new violins projected better. This time, Fritz and colleagues asked subjects which of the two violins in a pairing they preferred. Listeners chose the new violins over the old, they reported yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The New York City study also showed that listeners’ preferences correlated with their assessment of projection, suggesting the loudness of an instrument may be a primary factor in the quality of its sound.

So, will the study cause Strad prices to plummet? No, Curtin says, as the value of the instruments is based on much more than just their sound. But it does suggest that violinists can get a top-quality instrument without spending a fortune on an Old Italian, he says. (The record price for an instrument by a modern maker is a relatively cheap $132,000.) “It’s good news for players,” Curtin says.

It’s good news for audiences, too.

NO. Will ‘RompHims’ Catch on This Summer? You Decide.

There are photos at the link which could have you questioning your sanity.

BUT OF COURSE: Convicted Puerto Rican Terrorist, Whose Prison Sentence Obama Commuted, Going Home to Parade.

RETAIL BLUES: Wary Vendors May Mean the End for Sears Holdings.

In [CEO Eddie] Lampert’s blog post, he calls out one specific vendor, One World, which he notes is a subsidiary of Techtronic Industries, a conglomerate based in China with over $5 billion in revenues. He said that the company, which Sears has purchased from for nearly a decade, refuses to meet the terms of its current agreement.

“One World has informed us of their intention to take the very aggressive step of filing a lawsuit against us as they seek to embarrass us in the media to force us to let them out of their contract,” he wrote.

Lampert argues that Sears has lived up to its agreements, paying One World more than $868 million since 2007 for various tools it sells the retail chain. He also noted that his company has paid its bills on time.

The problem is that while Sears may be able to force vendors to honor existing contracts, the reasonable fear that the chain at some point won’t pay its bills means this probably won’t be an isolated incident. Lampert has basically been publicly pleading for vendors to support his company, and that support is clearly wavering.

Sears has had a difficult enough time getting customers into its stores. Now the company is on the verge of having difficulty getting product on the shelves.

AND THEY DON’T PRODUCE ANY GOODS OR SERVICES: Union Bosses Make More Money Than Private Sector CEOs.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: 10 Insufferable SNL Revelations from THR Interview.

AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR: Marines are back in Afghanistan’s most violent province, and their mission could expand.

IT’S THEIR WAY: MSNBC Host Learns North Korea Story Is Fake News — Keeps Pushing It Anyway.

Video at the link.

VIDEO: Angry Crowd Boos Former Hugo Chavez Minister and Forces Him to Leave Venezuelan Bakery in Miami.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How Tech is Changing Your Beauty Routine.

I KEEP ASKING THE VERY SAME THING: How can we ‘Move On Together’ if Hillary Clinton won’t go away?

BIG LIFT: SpaceX Launches Super-Heavy Communications Satellite.

The 23-story-tall booster soared off its seaside launch pad, which once hosted NASA’s space shuttles and Apollo moon rockets, at 7:21 p.m. EDT (2321 GMT). It was the sixth of more than 20 missions SpaceX plans to fly this year.

Perched on top of the two-stage rocket was the 13,400-lb. (6,100 kilograms) Inmarsat-5 F4 communications satellite, the heaviest spacecraft yet to be delivered by a Falcon booster into a geostationary transfer orbit some 22,300 miles (35,800 km) above Earth. [Photos: SpaceX Launches Inmarsat-5 F4 Satellite]

The satellite separated from the Falcon 9’s second stage right on time, about 32 minutes after liftoff.

“It’s been a great afternoon and evening,” said SpaceX mission commentator John Insprucker. “All you can ask for today.”

Getting F4 into its intended orbit emptied the Falcon’s fuel tanks, leaving no propellant for the booster’s first stage to attempt a landing on either a drone barge or the ground.

Maybe the Falcon Heavy, due to launch later this year, will be able to put a similar payload into geosynchronous orbit and then return the first stage for recycling — but the SpaceX data sheet doesn’t say.

CHARLIE MARTIN: Analyzing the Trump/Russia Intelligence Story.