CLAIM: North Korea’s next nuclear test could lead to collapse.

DENNIS PRAGER: Some on the Left Now Criticize the Students They Created.

Take New York Times columnist Frank Bruni. His latest column is filled with dismay over the way Middlebury College students attacked Charles Murray and a liberal woman professor who interviewed him (she was injured by the rioters).

I have no doubt that Bruni is sincere. However, sincerity is completely unrelated to wisdom or insight.

Here’s the problem:

It is the left that transformed universities into the moral and intellectual wastelands most are now.

It is the left that created the moral monsters known as left-wing students who do not believe in free speech, let alone tolerance.

It is the left that has taught generations of young Americans that America is essentially a despicable society that is racist and xenophobic to its core.

It is the left that came up with the lie that the university has been overrun by a “culture of rape.”

It is the left that taught generations of Americans that everyone on the right is sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, racist and bigoted.

It is the left that is anti-intellectual, teaching students to substitute feelings for reason.

It is the left that removed the portrait of Shakespeare hanging in the English department of the University of Pennsylvania because Shakespeare is a white male, thereby teaching college students that art is not measured by excellence or by the pursuit of truth but by race, gender and class.

Sadly, the entire nation must reap what leftwing educators have sown.

OIL WAR: Russia Warns of New Price War Due to U.S. Shale Gains as Kuwait Calls for Extension of OPEC Production Cuts.

In a written response to Reuters, Rosneft stated, “It became evident that U.S. shale oil output has become and will remain a new global oil price regulator for the foreseeable future.

“There are significant risks the (OPEC-led) deal won’t be extended partially because of the main participants, but also because of the output dynamics in the United States, which will not want to join any deals in the foreseeable future.”

Rosneft went on to speculate that “We think that in the long-term global oil demand dynamics and reduced investment during the period of ultra low prices will balance the market, but that the risk of a price war resuming remains.”

Rosneft noted the only guaranteed way to balance the market is for all producers to limit supplies – even though Russia itself has yet to make good on its pledged cuts.

Have you hugged a fracker today?

ED MORRISSEY: Senate Dems “paralyzed” over Gorsuch confirmation.

The problem for Democrats is as obvious as Gorsuch’s qualifications, and it’s that Gorsuch’s qualifications are so obvious. That hasn’t stopped Democrats from hammering Republican nominees to the Supreme Court in the past, such as John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Robert Bork. Gorsuch’s record gives them no real hook for those kinds of attacks on substance, and his personality makes it difficult to find a way to attack him personally, too. The charm offensive on Capitol Hill has been a rousing success.

So far, the only opening Democrats have is the Chevron doctrine, which Gorsuch has questioned. In Chevron, the Supreme Court held that where the law has ambiguities, deference has to be granted to federal agencies for interpretation. If Chevron got reversed by a later court more interested in forcing textual application of the law and forcing Congress to address ambiguities, it would cut sharply into the authority of these agencies, on which progressives rely for activist governance. (The irony of this, as Steven Hayward pointed out at Power Line, is that the environmentalists lost in the Chevron decision.)

Democrats are expected to hit Gorsuch on Chevron and on the application of stare decisis, as well as the usual issues of abortion and euthanasia, because … that’s all they’ve managed to dig up in six weeks — at least publicly. That esoteric issue won’t keep Americans glued to their TV screens during the confirmation hearings. If that’s all they’ve got, small wonder they’re “paralyzed.”

Senate Democrats have another problem. They had the Republicans over a barrel, or so they thought, when President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill Antonin Scalia’s vacancy. Republicans could either confirm a sort-of right-leaning judge who was squishy on the Second Amendment, or risk dealing with the next Wise Minority Statist that President Hillary Clinton would surely nominate.

Instead, the GOP accepted the risk and stood firm — and now the Democrats are the ones over a barrel. Their choices boil down to two extremes. They can step aside and allow the “Scalia seat” to be filled by a justice who is about as conservative as Scalia was. Or they can stonewall/Bork Gorsuch, and risk the Republicans employing the Reid Option. The Democrats would lose their filibuster for the entire four-to-eight years of President Trump, during which they could probably expect the vacancies of one or two liberal SCOTUS judges.

In their situation, you might feel paralyzed, too.

INCITEMENT TO RIOT: The ACLU Exec. Director Said ‘We’ll Do the Work in the Courts, You Do the Work in the Street.’

PRIVACY: Facebook bans creation of spying tools through data slurping.

Facebook has responded to reports that surveillance agencies are using the social network to create spying tools by updating its platform policy to ban such practices.

Rob Sherman, Deputy Chief Privacy Officer at Facebook, announced the changes in a blog post on Monday.

The executive said that alterations to the language in the Facebook Platform Policy make it crystal clear that the development of surveillance tools through slurping Facebook profile data is no longer acceptable.

“Today we are adding language to our Facebook and Instagram platform policies to more clearly explain that developers cannot “use data obtained from us to provide tools that are used for surveillance,”” Sherman says. “Our goal is to make our policy explicit.”

Over the past few months, the social networking giant claims to have taken action against developers which have taken advantage of the network’s rich range of user data to create, market, and sell spying tools.

Facebook, like government, hates competition.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Time for a Closer U.S.-Vietnam Relationship.

The United States has a curious history of forging particularly close relationships with countries with which it was once at war – just ask Germany, Japan, and the United States’ colonial parent the United Kingdom. Recent trends suggest that it is time for the United States to add Vietnam to that list. Officially Communist, Vietnam might seem like an odd partner for the United States. However, U.S. security interests in Southeast Asia, the clear preference of Vietnamese officials for closer ties, and the opportunity to improve governance and human rights protections in Vietnam should make a U.S. push for closer relations, an uncontroversial priority.

The top question to ask of any new international relationship is what interest it serves that would not be met otherwise. U.S. economic and security interests in Southeast Asia are immense, with over 60 percent of U.S. exports flowing throughout the broader Asia-Pacific region. Vietnam is strategically located next to the Southeast Asian trade choke points and the South China Sea. Given China’s role as both a top trade partner and frequent geopolitical rival of the United States, its reliance on shipments of oil and other goods through the South China Sea only magnifies the area’s importance.

Aside from the Philippines, which seem to have gone temporarily insane, China’s rising power should have neighboring nations drawing closer to the US. Closer ties serve their security interests and our economic interests.

THE STUPID PARTY: GOP does damage control over healthcare score.

During the run-up to ObamaCare’s passage seven years ago, Congressional Democrats used all sorts of trickery to game the CBO score. Peter Suderman wrote in December, 2009:

After the August recess, scores for the various reform proposals improved markedly. Not only were they cheaper, requiring less total spending, they were judged by the CBO to result in net reductions to the deficit. What happened?

In large part, the answer is that Democrats became more skilled at manipulating the CBO’s scoring process. Indeed, they have become so skilled at getting what they want out of the CBO that the office has taken to including strongly worded warnings that the various bills’ real costs may not actually match their estimates.

In the House, Democrats shifted an expensive, unpaid-for “fix” to doctor’s Medicare reimbursement rates over to a separate bill. And in the Senate, they backloaded the spending so that its full effects would not be felt in the 10-year window that CBO scores. In the latest Senate bill, 99 percent of the spending would occur in the last six years of the budget window.

Nor do the scores count the cost of state level Medicaid expansions—$25 billion in the Senate’s bill—or of the private sector mandates it imposes, which, according to Michael Cannon, a health policy analyst at the Cato Institute, could add an additional $1.5 trillion to the total.

The bigger issue is that in budgeting, there are multiple realities available: The various scores put forth by the CBO are based on what might be called “legislative reality” — a fictional world in which there are no changes to current law except the bill under consideration, and new legislation is executed to the letter.

Everybody in Washington knew the numbers were no good, but they were good enough to provide the political cover needed to ram through the legislation. The press, for the most part, played along.

Today, Congressional Republicans seem to have not proactively gamed the CBO, and now are stuck in reaction mode, playing defense against the media and their own budget office.

It’s almost as though they don’t want to have to pass this bill.

TEMPER TANTRUM: Rep. Gutierrez Handcuffed in ICE Office After Bringing Demands, Staging Sit-in.

HMM: To China, America Finally Looks Vulnerable.

When Chinese leaders gaze out toward the Pacific, their panorama is obstructed by a string of military airfields, naval anchorages, radar emplacements and listening posts sentineled by U.S. forces and their allies.

Breaking through what they regard as a hostile chain of containment is a national priority.

To do so Beijing must weaken the U.S. alliance network. Can Washington hold the line?

That’s the larger question hanging over the all-out struggle that Beijing is waging to prevent the installation of a U.S. antimissile battery in South Korea, meant to protect against a North Korean nuclear attack, which took a dramatic turn last week with the removal from office of South Korean President Park Gyeun-hye.

Pyongyang may well produce Donald Trump’s first international crisis. Its nuclear menace, along with missile defense, will be high on the agenda when he holds his first meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, tentatively scheduled for April in Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, according to Chinese officials.

Barack Obama infuriated Beijing with his military-flavored “pivot” to Asia. To the Chinese leadership it was yet more Cold War-style gamesmanship, and to test U.S. resolve they pushed back with bullying tactics against U.S. friends and allies, for instance sending a giant oil-drilling rig into waters off Vietnam protected by a flotilla of paramilitary vessels.

Obama’s Asia pivot was a dangerously empty gesture — enraging Beijing with his intentions but without enough credible force for them to fear his capabilities.

Now comes the tense part as Beijing, in part via North Korea, tests the new Administration and our longstanding alliances with China’s neighbors.

HOLIDAYS IN HELL: U.S. Airlines Cut Back Flights To Cuba.

On Monday, the Fort Lauderdale-based Silver Airways said it will drop its 22 weekly flights to Cuba next month. Frontier Airlines said it will cease its Miami-to-Havana service in June. Both companies cited weak demand and excess capacity.

They’re not alone. American Airlines recently dropped a number of its daily flights to Cuba. JetBlue is flying smaller aircraft to Cuba now, reducing its seats on those flights by 300 a day.

This despite the fact that Cuba saw a 74 percent rise in the number of U.S. citizens traveling there last year. The only explanation is that U.S. airlines simply overestimated the market – a lot.

A 74 percent rise from a very small number is still a very small number. The fact remains that a half-century of energetic socialism turned one of the Caribbean’s premier tourist destinations into East Germany with nicer weather.

RE-DISRUPTING THE NARRATIVE: Ferguson Documentary Disputed as New Footage Is Released.

The documentary, “Stranger Fruit,” which premiered Saturday, included previously unreported surveillance video of Mr. Brown visiting the convenience store several hours before his death.

The documentarian, Jason Pollock, claimed that the video showed Mr. Brown trading marijuana for cigarillos with store employees, then leaving the cigarillos behind for safekeeping. Mr. Brown returned to the store around noon to pick up his merchandise, Mr. Pollock said, not to commit a robbery.

But Jay Kanzler, a lawyer for the store and its employees, disputed the documentary’s claims and said the film had been selectively edited. He said that no trade had been made, that the employees had not kept the marijuana and that the later episode reported as a robbery was indeed a robbery.

Both Mr. Pollock and Mr. Kanzler said they believed that the small bag Mr. Brown was shown placing on the counter contained marijuana, and both acknowledged an attempt by Mr. Brown to barter with it. But the two sides disagree on whether a deal was reached.

The latest video showed the clerks taking the cigarillos out of a shopping bag and returning them to the shelf after Mr. Brown left the store, which Mr. Kanzler said indicated that there was no layaway arrangement.

This excerpt is from the New York Times writeup. That the report is a just-the-facts writeup might just be an indicator of which way the truth lies.

QUESTION ASKED: Are You Really Worse Off If You ‘Lose’ Your Health Insurance?

What I would really like is to be able to do is pay cash for most of my healthcare needs from whomever offers the best deal, and to shop around nationally for an inexpensive catastrophic plan to cover major medical expenses — you know, actual insurance.

TIM BERNERS-LEE: I invented the web. Here are three things we need to change to save it.

“Ban autoplay video” ought to have been at the top of his list.

OUT OF THE CLOSET: Membership triples for the Democratic Socialists of America.

The surge of activism sweeping the U.S. since Donald Trump’s election has energized the nation’s largest socialist organization, which has tripled in size over the last year to claim more than 19,000 dues-paying members. That’s a record for the DSA, which was founded in 1982.

“People really felt that they had to do something to combat the incoming Trump administration,” said David Duhalde, the deputy director of the Democratic Socialists of America’s national leadership, which helps coordinate chapters spread across 40 states. “We’re not only somebody you can resist Trump with, we’re somebody you can build a better world with.”

There’s no doubt that the grassroots group forms only a small part of America’s swelling ranks of activists. The American Civil Liberties Union amassed hundreds of thousands of new members after Trump’s victory. The fast-growing and liberal-centric “Indivisible” movement claims 4,500 associated groups compared with the 121 chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America. As far as political parties go, California alone boasts 8.7 million registered Democrats.

But unabashed socialism hasn’t had this big of a voice in American politics in decades, and many leftists say they feel energized.

Energetic socialists are the most worrisome kind, given that “democratic” is at best a temporary smokescreen for socialism’s inevitable endgame.

SHOT: SEAL Team 6 joins South Korea war drill for the first time.

CHASER: SEAL Team 6 is helping plan a ‘decapitation’ attack against North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.

Kim isn’t the only one who can send a message.

GOOD BOY: Monastery adopts a homeless dog, becomes Friar Mustache.

OH. WELL THEN. EU urges Turkey to stop ‘excessive statements’ after Nazi comments.

NOT EXACTLY A RINGING ENDORSEMENT: Voters Doubt GOP Replacement But Not As Much As They Doubted Obamacare.

WE CAN’T STOP HERE, THIS IS PUKE COUNTRY: The Stomach Flu Road Trip from Hell.

There are few things worse than traveling when ill — my wife sometimes tells the story of when she, her two younger brothers, and both parents were stuck in a one-bathroom airport hotel while the whole family was suffering from food poisoning.

DAVID SOLWAY: Yes, We Should Investigate Obama.

THEY’RE VANDALS, NOT ACTIVISTS: Video shows environmental activists defacing popular Trump golf course.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that the department received a call for service Sunday morning about grass being dug up around hole five at the golf club. The spokesman said the department sent a deputy to the scene to determine whether the damage constituted an act of vandalism or whether it was accidental.

The message was carved into the green using gardening tools and took less than one hour to accomplish, according to a member of the group who discussed the project with The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity.

The group consisted of four people, who accessed the course by scaling a fence and “walking down a steep hill laced with cacti,” the group member told The Post. “Tearing up the golf course felt justified in many ways,” the member said. “Repurposing what was once a beautiful stretch of land into a playground for the privileged is an environmental crime in its own right.”

Did they drive to the golf course in cars? On roads? While wearing clothes made of cloth? Before returning to where they live in buildings?

BEN SHAPIRO: Media Accuse Rep. Steve King (R-IA) Of Racism. They’re Lying. Read His Actual Words.

Ben may be right. But anytime you have to go on CNN to explain what you really meant, you probably should have found a better way to say it the first time around.

SOB STORY NYT HEADLINE TODAY: Preet Bharara Shunned Politics. His End Was Tinged by Them.

FLASHBACK FROM YESTERDAY: How (then-) U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Stiffed Reason’s Free Speech.

“Shunned” is almost the same as “silenced,” right?

GENUINE REFORM: End the Two-Tier Tax System for Health Care.