KABUKI UPDATE: Watch as Bernie Sanders officially endorses Hillary Clinton.

GIVING THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT, GOOD AND HARD: Life on the line in Venezuela as economic crisis worsens.

The robbers demanded a cellphone from a 25-year-old in black shorts. Instead of handing it over, Junior Perez took off toward the entrance to the pharmacy. Eight shots rang out, and he fell face down.

The dozens of shoppers in line were unmoved. They held their places as the gunmen went through Perez’s pockets. They watched as thick ribbons of blood ran from the young man’s head into the grooves of the tiled walkway. And when their turns came, each bought the two tubes of rationed toothpaste they were allowed.

“These days, you have to put the line above everything,” said pharmacist Haide Mendoza, who was there that morning. “You make sure you get what you need, and you don’t feel sorry for anyone.”

Socialism is about caring.

[Forgot the link — fixed!]

BREAKING: DC police arrest 5 people suspected of firing shots at officers.

No injuries reported.

HMM: A lot of holes in GOP presidential ground game in key states.

Some examples of Republican shortfalls: Ohio Republicans thought they were going to see 220 paid staffers by May; in reality there are about 50. Plans for Pennsylvania called for 190 paid staffers; there are about 60. Iowa’s planned ground force of 66 by May actually numbers between 25 and 30. In Colorado, recent staff departures have left about two dozen employees, far short of the 80 that were to have been in place.

AP learned of the specific May staffing aims from Republicans who were briefed earlier this year; the RNC did not dispute them. Current totals came from interviews with local GOP leaders over the past two weeks.

The gulf between what state leaders thought they could count on and what they’ve actually got comes as RNC’s ground game is asked to do more than ever before. Presumptive nominee Donald Trump is relying on the party to do most of the nuts-and-bolts work of finding and persuading voters in the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds.

“This is a race we should win,” Ohio GOP chairman Matt Borges said, citing a voter registration boom. “Now, we have to put the people in the field.”

Clock’s ticking.

MCCHRYSTAL IS OUT: Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal: I would decline ‘any role’ with Donald Trump.

I’M WITH HER: Intelligence director won’t deny Clinton classified briefings.

Last week, FBI Director James Comey admitted that Hillary Clinton and her staff “were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”

CHANGE: How the Revolutionary Guard is trying to tighten its grip on Rouhani.

The listing of the IRGC as one of three organs that must vet appointees to sensitive positions, alongside the judiciary and the Intelligence Ministry, is among the other key criticisms directed at the parliamentary bill. Nikbakht told Al-Monitor, “Iran’s Constitution accepts the formation of a body known as the IRGC, and the Intelligence Organization is one of the subgroups of this body. The ratification of this bill in a way limits the powers of the government, meaning that in addition to acquiring permission from other organizations, another intelligence entity that has no links to the government in terms of duties can now play a role [in the hiring of people]. Nonetheless, the [IRGC Intelligence] Organization does have a legal mandate and was for instance, in relation to the arrests after the 2009 presidential election, in charge of pursuing misconduct.”

According to Nikbakht, the involvement of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization in the hiring process for some government positions could lead to conflicts in the management of the country, given that it is a military organization that operates under the supervision of the supreme leader.

We had been assured by no less than Barack Obama and John Kerry that the nuclear deal would empower Iranian moderates.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: More U.S. troops to Iraq seen as tipping point, Pentagon sources say.

Tipping points are usually only clear after the fact. But Pentagon officials who just a few months ago were openly pessimistic that Mosul could be liberated this year now see more fight in the Iraqi Army.

And in his remarks in Baghdad, [Defense Secretary Ash] Carter made it clear he would not hesitate to ask for even more troops if it would speed the defeat of the Islamic State.

“At every step in this campaign, we have generated and seized additional opportunities to hasten ISIL’s lasting defeat,” Carter said. “These additional U.S. forces will bring unique capabilities to the campaign and provide critical support to Iraqi forces at a key moment in the fight.”

It’s always reassuring to see President Ash Carter on the scene.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Iran Violates the Deal. Now What?

The report from the German FBI—the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution spoke of Iran’s support for terrorists inside Germany including Hezbollah and Hamas. But just as alarming was the finding that Iran made at least nine recent attempts to acquire technology for nuclear arms development. Though it claimed the majority of those attempts were thwarted by German intelligence, the agency said there was no doubt the Islamist regime would continue “its intensive procurement activities in Germany using clandestine methods to achieve its objectives.”

The implications of this report cannot be overestimated.

This means that despite all the happy talk from the United States and its Western allies about compliance with the terms of the nuclear pact, their confidence is unfounded. Instead of merely reaping the enormous benefits that have accrued to it from the ending of sanctions and waiting patiently for the pact to expire in ten years before resuming their push for a weapon, Iran has never stopped working to achieve its nuclear ambition.

A nuclear-armed Iran seems to have been Obama’s goal all along. The US, not so much.

QUESTION ASKED: Is Drinking Red Wine Really Better For You?

I say, “Why take chances?” Drink plenty of red and white.

QUESTION ASKED: Can AI Take The Guesswork Out Of Beer Brewing?

If AI is going to take over everything, I can’t think of anything better to do than sit around drinking beer.

21ST CENTURY CRIME: Ruling could make sharing passwords for subscription services a federal crime.

KABUKI UPDATE: Sanders to campaign with Clinton Tuesday.

You probably didn’t see that coming. Or this:

The Clinton campaign said Sanders would join the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee during an event in Portsmouth, N.H. The two will discuss “building an America that is stronger together and an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.”

Clinton has taken several steps toward Sanders in recent days, including by calling for a public option to be added to ObamaCare.

There’s been a lot of talk about the “public option” all of a sudden.

BOOM: President Obama Calls for ‘Public Option’ in Affordable Care Act.

Writing as Barack Obama, J.D., in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the president lauded the health-care overhaul and excoriated its opponents, arguing the law has sharply reduced the number of America’s uninsured and improved coverage for those who had it.

“The Affordable Care Act is the most important health care legislation enacted in the United States since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965,” he wrote. “Although partisanship and special interest opposition remain, experience with the Affordable Care Act demonstrates that positive change is achievable on some of the nation’s most complex challenges.”

The article appeared as a ‘special communication’ in which he offered evidence, findings, and a description of their relevance. Among its most striking sections were those in which he acknowledged the law’s shortcomings and advocated responses to them. In his call for a public option, he noted the existence of parts of the country with limited insurance competition, where customers may have no choice but to swallow high premiums.

If the President actually cared about “choice,” he’d call on Congress to scrap his signature law and then allow insurers to sell plans customers actually want, to customers in every state.

21ST CENTURY OLIGARCHS: Kim Kardashian Makes Her Dad Proud With $45 Million Mobile Game Fortune: “Not Bad for a Girl With No Talent”

We seem to be transforming into a post-talent nation.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM UPDATE: Pastafarian lodges complaint with ACLU over right to wear pasta strainer.

Last year a Massachusetts woman won a similar battle with her local DMV.

BREAKING:

Fed. judge rules that Virginia delegate to convention cannot be bound to vote for Trump on first vote. pic.twitter.com/tUoVPGIzXE

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) July 11, 2016

CAVEAT EMPTOR: Everything we love to eat is a scam.

Fraudulence spans from haute cuisine to fast food: A February 2016 report by Inside Edition found that Red Lobster’s lobster bisque contained a non-lobster meat called langostino. In a statement to The Post, Red Lobster maintains that langostino is lobster meat and said that in the wake of the IE report, “We amended the menu description of the lobster bisque to note the multiple kinds of lobster that are contained within.”

Moving on: That extra-virgin olive oil you use on salads has probably been cut with soybean or sunflower oil, plus a bunch of chemicals. The 100 percent grass-fed beef you just bought is no such thing — it’s very possible that cow was still pumped full of drugs and raised in a cramped feedlot.

Unless your go-to sushi joint is Masa or Nobu, you’re not getting the sushi you ordered, ever, anywhere, and that includes your regular sushi restaurant where you can’t imagine them doing such a thing, Olmsted says. Your salmon is probably fake and so is your red snapper. Your white tuna is something else altogether, probably escolar — known to experts as “the Ex-Lax fish” for the gastrointestinal havoc it wreaks.

Ugh.

KABUKI UPDATE: Clinton picks up progressive endorsements ahead of joint appearance with Sanders in New Hampshire.

It’s the most gripping Will They/Won’t They since Sam & Diane.

THE INTERNET OF OFF-ROAD THINGS: Jeep and Ram Owners in Houston Targeted by Laptop-Wielding Thieves.

Surveillance video from a Houston garage shows a Jeep Wrangler being methodically commandeered by a man using a laptop and tablet. After last year’s remote-control Grand Cherokee incident, this is another hacker-related headache for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

The Houston Police Department’s Auto Theft Division released the video on June 22, but the theft itself occurred on April 20. The video doesn’t show the first suspect, who — according to police— raised the Wrangler’s hood and seemingly cut off the vehicle’s audible alarm. A second suspect walks up to the vehicle 10 minutes later, pulls out a laptop, and is soon able to open the vehicle’s door, kill the four-way alarm lights, then start up the Jeep and drive off.

As a former Wrangler owner, I don’t understand the want or need to cram computerized goodies into what is supposed to be a tough & simple off-road vehicle.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Is the economy shortening Americans’ lives?

It has long been known that high-income people in the U.S. tend to live longer than those lower down the income ladder. But a growing body of research shows that millions of Americans are, for the first time in more than a century, seeing their life expectancy slip. And, while the reasons for that decline are complex and not yet fully understood, the contours of an explanation are starting to take shape: Despair is shortening their lives.

“One thing we’re seeing is that people who are poor live a lot less — a striking amount less — than the rich,” said Diane Whitemore Schanzenbach, an economist with Northwestern University and director of The Hamilton Project, a think tank focused on boosting the country’s economic prosperity. “There are real disparities across the income distribution.”

Under Obamanomics, income disparity is up, labor force participation is down, and wages for the working poor are stagnant.

That all sounds a lot more like “despair” and a lot less like the “hope and change” we were promised.

YA THINK? ‘Terrorists’ smuggled into Europe with refugees, Merkel says.

ASIA PIVOT: China illegally cordoned off a huge part of the South China Sea for military drills—and will likely do so again.

MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR SOCIALISM: Sanders’ dark horse candidacy stripped socialism of its fringe labels and, culturally speaking, ended the Cold War.

I’m so old I remember when we’d won the Cold War.

HMM: Pressure grows on Clinton aides to lose security clearances.

It’s not clear if Clinton or her longtime aides Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan still hold active security clearances. The information is protected under the Privacy Act and absent permission from each person, the only way it can be made public is if State sees an overriding public interest in disclosing it — an unlikely scenario.

None of the aides implicated in the probe — Abedin, Sullivan and Cheryl Mills — are still employed at State. That makes it unlikely that they continue to hold security clearances, awarded on a need-to-know basis.

But department spokesman John Kirby said earlier this week that former officials could still face “administrative sanctions” for past actions — sanctions that could in theory make it incredibly difficult to be approved for security clearance in the future.

Clinton isn’t going to let a little thing like “administrative sanctions” force her to get rid of her favorite Yes Persons.