PATRICK POOLE: The Latest Rundown on the Mike Flynn Deep State Hit Job.

WEIRD THAT THE DEMOCRATS KEEP SCREAMING “FASCISM,” BUT THE NOMINEES THEY FOUGHT HARDEST AGAINST ARE THE MOST LIBERTARIAN: Labor nominee Puzder calls it quits.

TRUMP’S LABOR DEPARTMENT NOMINEE, ANDY PUZDER, WITHDRAWS. Puzder’s ex-wife: ‘I have become the victim of the media’s malice.’

And apparently, so has Puzder.

WHERE THE LEAKS ARE COMING FROM? Surprise: At the End, Obama Administration Gave NSA Broad New Powers.

RATS ON THE WEST SIDE, BEDBUGS UPTOWN: Rare disease carried by rats leaves 1 dead, 2 clinging to life. “The three cases of leptospirosis were identified in a one block radius of the Concourse section of the Bronx over the past two months, the Health Department said.”

FAKE NEWS:

THE WAR ON MEN: Sex Offenders Are Still Locked up After Serving Their Time. Why?  Richard Bernstein in Real Clear Investigations reports on the troubling trend:

Some 20 states have civil commitment programs for people deemed sexually violent predators. Records show that more than 5,000 Americans are being held this way nationwide. Those numbers have roughly doubled over the previous decade or so, as judges, governors and state legislators have reacted to public concern about violent sexual crimes.

Civil confinement lies at the fraught intersection of crime, sex, and politics, in which sexual crimes, and just the possibility of sexual crimes, are treated differently from other offenses. Murderers, armed robbers, drunken hit-and-run drivers, insider traders, and other criminals are released when their prison sentences have been served.

States operating these programs defend them as necessary to protect the public, especially children, against dangerous sexual predators. The Supreme Court has upheld them, ruling that as long as they are narrowly tailored, with their “clients” subject to regular reviews, they serve a legitimate public interest in keeping potential dangerous offenders off the streets.

But critics of civil commitment argue that men are being locked away (and almost all of the detainees are men), often effectively for life, on the basis of subjective predictions of what a former sex offender might do in the future. They assert that this is a flagrant violation of the 14th Amendment’s requirement that no person shall be deprived of his freedom without “due process of law.”

Recidivism rates for sex offenders are typically lower than for people who commit other types of felonies. But statistics don’t matter when politicians and judges are trying to mollify the mob.

BRAVE NEW WORLDS: Astronomers discover 60 new planets including ‘super Earth’.

One planet in particular, Gliese 411b, has been generating plenty of attention. Described as a “hot super Earth with a rocky surface,” Gliese 411b is located in the fourth-nearest star system to the Sun, making it the third-nearest planetary system to the Sun, according to the U.K.’s University of Hertfordshire, which participated in the research. Gliese 411b (also known as GJ 411b or Lalande 21185) orbits the star Gliese 411 (or GJ 411).

Despite the “super Earth” label, Dr. Mikko Tuomi from University of Hertfordshire’s Centre for Astrophysics told Fox News that Gliese 411b is too hot for life to exist on its surface.

Gliese 411b doesn’t actually appear to be all that super.

BIRD FLU SAVAGES FOIE GRAS BUSINESS IN FRANCE: The H5N8 avian flu virus has forced French duck and foie gras producers to kill over three million poultry. Duck and goose liver pate is a gourmet food. It’s also a steady business. Almost 20 years ago I wrote a long column on disease threats to U.S. agriculture. There are a lot of them. Hoof and mouth disease (foot and mouth disease) worries U.S. cattle raisers, and for good reason.

I’M NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS: Study: Zika’s Persistence in Body Fluids Surprisingly Long; Prolonged time to clearance may influence diagnosis, prevention. “The medians and 95th percentiles for the time until the loss of detectable Zika virus RNA detection were 14 days (95% CI 11-17) and 54 days (95% CI 43-64), respectively.”

TRUMP: ‘The Israelis are Going to Have to Show Some Flexibility’ on Peace Process.

PRINCE POTEMKIN WOULD APPROVE: Jim Dunnigan analyzes Russian aircraft carrier operations off Syria. He has numbers, including accident rates. War isn’t funny. Aircraft accidents aren’t funny. But if U.S. Navy carrier sailors want to snicker, as the world’s best they’ve earned the right.

RELATED: India’s having issues with its carrier aircraft. This analysis gets into the weeds, but it also involves Russian aircraft that don’t perform. It also mentions one of India’s major military problems: corruption in its procurement bureaucracy.

YOU CAN’T SAY THAT ON TELEVISION: Former ESPN Commentator Sues After Being Terminated for Venus Williams ‘Gorilla’ Remark.

Guerrilla, gorilla, potayto, patahto.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Will I Go Bald? “It turns out that hair loss is very complicated genetically.”

Plus: “Male pattern baldness affects around 80 percent of men by the age of 80 years.”

KIM’S LONG ARM: Police Hunt Women Suspected of Poisoning Kim Jong Un’s Brother.

The women approached Kim Jong Nam in Kuala Lumpur’s international airport on Monday and later fled in a taxi, Lee Cheol-woo, chairman of the intelligence committee in South Korea’s parliament, told reporters on Wednesday after meeting the nation’s intelligence chief. South Korean officials believe he was poisoned with either a needle or a spray, Lee said.

Putinesque.

NOW OUT FROM STEVEN HAYWARD: Patriotism Is Not Enough: Harry Jaffa, Walter Berns, and the Arguments that Redefined American Conservatism.

WHEW! Court OKs Federal Officials Taking Control Of Private Lands To Save Endangered Frogs That Don’t Live There.

It seems like only minutes ago I was reminding you we have more government than we need and less than we pay for.

GOOD: New HIV infections in U.S. falling rapidly, CDC says. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used blood test results to help date the infections. Their calculations showed new infections dropped by nearly 18 percent over six years, the CDC reported Tuesday. Though health experts expected a decline, they welcomed the confirmation.”

INFRASTRUCTURE: Nearly 56,000 bridges called structurally deficient.

More than one in four bridges (173,919) are at least 50 years old and have never had major reconstruction work, according to the ARTBA analysis. State transportation officials have identified 13,000 bridges along interstates that need replacement, widening or major reconstruction, according to the group.

“America’s highway network is woefully underperforming,” said Alison Premo Black, the group’s chief economics who conducted the analysis. “It is outdated, overused, underfunded and in desperate need of modernization.”

We have far more government than we need, and a hell of a lot less than we pay for.

BUT OF COURSE SHE DOES: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Pushes False Neo-Nazi Narrative.

What are her thoughts on surveyors’ marks?

CHANGE: Human Gene Editing Receives Science Panel’s Support.

BUT OF COURSE: Wegmans faces boycott over Trump wines.

The Gates-based grocer is being called on to remove Trump Winery products from its Virginia stores, where it sells 237 different wines from 58 wineries in that state.

The Stop Trump Wine group has asked Virginians to boycott grocers, retailers, restaurants and other organizations doing business with Trump Winery.

“Events during Donald Trump’s campaign made it clear that Eric Trump, the president of Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia, shares the views of his father,” according to the group’s website. “Let’s demonstrate through economic action that the residents and businesses of Charlottesville will not stand for the hatred espoused by Eric Trump and those like him.”

How’s that workin’ out for ya?

[Second link was broken, fixed now — sorry!]

FROM JOHN PODHORETZ, A WARNING TO OUR FECKLESS POLITICAL CLASS: Beware Triggering the Coup Theory: Time for a national deep breath.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: The United States has slipped to its lowest level in world rankings of economic freedom.

In the latest report, the U.S. ranks 17th out of 180 countries with an economic freedom score of 75.1 out of 100. Last year, the U.S. ranked number 11.

Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand topped the list, with respective scores of 89.8, 88.6 and 83.7. Other countries that placed ahead of the U.S. included Canada, Taiwan and Britain, among others.

The Heritage report said countries with scores between 80-100 are considered economically “free,” while countries scores between 70-79.9 are considered “mostly free.”

“Land of the mostly free” is not how I was raised.

COMPLAINING ABOUT “CULTURAL APPROPRIATION” IS AN EASY WAY TO SELF-IDENTIFY AS AN IDIOT: Teen With Cancer Fires Back at Accusations of ‘Cultural Appropriation’ For Wearing a Turban.