IRAN HAS BECOME EMBOLDENED DESPITE OBAMA’S SO-CALLED NUCLEAR AGREEMENT: That’s what President Trump said this past Tuesday in Youngstown, Ohio, and he’s right.

Iran’s violent troublemaking is both old news and breaking news.

By one count, in 1996 the regime was involved in at least 17 international conflicts, most of them in the Middle East or Central Asia, but its malign tentacles touched even South America. Today Tehran’s tentacles engage well over two dozen conflicts, and likely more since several conflicts in Africa and Asia are wars within wars within wars. It’s no matter, creating violent trouble is Tehran’s business. That’s the regime’s past and present.

Next time Obama’s rotten Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action comes up for certification –that should be in October– Washington needs to tell Tehran that the very bad deal is simply too flawed to work.

OH, GOODY: Case of Zika Virus, Likely Spread by Mosquito, Is Reported in Texas.

I QUESTION THE PREMISE OF THIS CNN HEADLINE: Democrats say they’re ready for a culture war as Trump bans transgender people from military service.

Guys (and the 70 other optional genders on Facebook) – you are the culture war. And have been for over a century now. Or as Fred Siegel wrote in his 2014 book, The Revolt Against the Masses: How Liberalism Has Undermined the Middle Class, “The best short credo of liberalism came from the pen of the once canonical left-wing literary historian Vernon Parrington in the late 1920s. ‘Rid society of the dictatorship of the middle class,’ Parrington insisted, referring to both democracy and capitalism, ‘and the artist and the scientist will erect in America a civilization that may become, what civilization was in earlier days, a thing to be respected.’”

So how has that been working out for all concerned?

HE’S NOT CULTURALLY APPROPRIATING FROM MARK RIPPETOE, TO JUDGE FROM THIS PICTURE: ‘Privileged’ Justin Trudeau accused of colonialist attitude over boxing match.

THE ANSWER IS, “OF COURSE!” John Ringo emails: “I’m doing a crowdfund video with some former vets (professionals in the biz) in the Black Tide Rising universe. (Under a Graveyard Sky, etc.) Any chance for a bump on the link?”

The link is here.

WELL, YES, THE FBI’S GENERAL COUNSEL IS A “TOP FBI LAWYER:” A top FBI lawyer is under an investigation for allegedly leaking classified information.

CONRAD BLACK: Why Trump Must Win. “Everyone who follows American affairs should understand that the country is now in what amounts to a second, but non-violent civil war. . . . Most have never seen such an immediate and no holds-barred battle between the Washington power structure and a new administration, because there has never been one.”

CHANGE: “The Republican-led House has voted to make a $1.6 billion down payment for President Donald Trump’s long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.”

BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE STUPID: Winnipeg Man Has Vanity Plate Referencing Star Trek Recalled Over Complaints Of How Racist It Is. Well, SJW people are stupid, anyway.

AT AMAZON, deals galore at the Amazon Baby Store.

Plus, save in Industrial and Scientific

THE VERY VERY BAD IRAN DEAL:

In a speech in April 2016, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis (at the time he was merely a retired general) said the U.S. should recognize Iran not as a nation-state but “a revolutionary cause devoted to mayhem…”

Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action did not slow Iran’s military build-up — so it wasn’t very comprehensive.

SPACE: Japanese company preparing for country’s first private rocket launch.

I NOTICE IT’S ALWAYS WOMEN IN THESE SORTS OF ARTICLES. WHY? ‘Yes, I Have Herpes—And No, It Didn’t Ruin My Love Life.’

ANNALS OF SEXIST GENERALIZATIONS: “We recognize an unfortunate truth—that many of the young bros running today’s most successful tech startups are arrogant boors.”

I KNOW SOME PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO LIVE FOREVER: Being Neurotic Might Help You Live Longer.

ROGER SIMON: Imran Awan Case Needs Special Counsel 100X More than Russiagate.

“WELCOME TO THE TEA PARTY, DEBRA MESSING!” Republican Wants To Raise Taxes, Democrat Freaks Out.

Psst, attention Steve Bannon: Repeal the Hollywood tax cuts, if you want to really stick it to the lefties in Hollywood.

LIFE AMONG THE RULING CLASS: Harvard Magazine Personal Advertisements’ Many Synonyms For “Rich” or “Thin.”

TRUMP’S SECRET WEAPON: THAT ELITES HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES NOT SO ELITE, AND EXPERTS NOT SO EXPERT. Trump’s war against elites and expertise. The insane, foaming-at-the-mouth response to his election from the “elite, expert” class is itself refutation of the idea that these are the people with better judgment.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21st CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Now Science Knows Just How Much Pee Is in a Public Pool.

But can science instantly determine that it’s just a Baby Ruth bar tossed into the pool at the Bushwood Country Club to keep the bathers calm?

IN THE MAIL: From Encounter Books, Uber-Positive: Why Americans Love the Sharing Economy, and How Progressive Cities Fight Innovation, and also, Unlocking Precision Medicine.

Plus, fresh Gold Box and Lightning Deals. Updated hourly!

MIAMI HERALD: Wasserman Schultz kept paying tech expert suspected of stealing House computers.

When a computer expert who worked for congressional Democrats was accused of stealing computers and data systems in February, members of Congress cut him loose within days, leaving Imran Awan with no supporters five months later.

Except for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The Weston Democrat has not explained in detail why she continued to employ Awan until Tuesday when she fired him — after he was arrested on bank-fraud charges at Dulles International Airport in Virginia attempting to board a flight to Pakistan.

And she has not elaborated on what work Awan did for her after he lost access to the House computer network.

She declined to answer questions about Awan in Washington on Wednesday, and her spokesman, David Damron, accompanied her to the House floor while instructing a reporter that Wasserman Schultz would not take questions about her former employee.

Background: Wasserman Schultz aide arrested trying to leave the country. “A senior House Democratic aide confirmed Awan was still employed by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) as of Tuesday morning. But David Damron, a spokesman for Wasserman Schultz, later said that Awan was fired on Tuesday.” Why was he still on the payroll?

Related: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Tries to Distance from Staffer Who Took $100k from Iraqi Politician.

Flashback: House IT Aides Fear Suspects In Hill Breach Are Blackmailing Members With Their Own Data.

Congressional technology aides are baffled that data-theft allegations against four former House IT workers — who were banned from the congressional network — have largely been ignored, and they fear the integrity of sensitive high-level information.

Imran Awan and three relatives were colleagues until police banned them from computer networks at the House of Representatives after suspicion the brothers accessed congressional computers without permission.

Five Capitol Hill technology aides told The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group that members of Congress have displayed an inexplicable and intense loyalty towards the suspects who police say victimized them. The baffled aides wonder if the suspects are blackmailing representatives based on the contents of their emails and files, to which they had full access.

“I don’t know what they have, but they have something on someone. It’s been months at this point” with no arrests, said Pat Sowers, who has managed IT for several House offices for 12 years. “Something is rotten in Denmark.”

A manager at a tech-services company that works with Democratic House offices said he approached congressional offices, offering their services at one-fourth the price of Awan and his Pakistani brothers, but the members declined. At the time, he couldn’t understand why his offers were rejected but now he suspects the Awans exerted some type of leverage over members.

“There’s no question about it: If I was accused of a tenth of what these guys are accused of, they’d take me out in handcuffs that same day, and I’d never work again,” he said.

This stinks.

Another flashback: Wasserman Schultz Threatened Capitol Police Chief For Gathering Evidence On Her IT Staffer’s Alleged Crimes.

GOOD THING WE DIDN’T MAKE SOME SORT OF DEAL WITH THEM A FEW YEARS AGO THAT WOULD MAKE IT EASIER TO GET NUCLEAR WEAPONS. . . . Uh oh.