IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Breaking: Referendum to Split Calif. Into 3 States Will Be on Ballot.

Say, did I mention I have a paper on state secession?

HMM: Wells Just Reported The Worst Mortgage Number Since The Financial Crisis.

A HIGHER LOYALTY — TO THE POLLS? Comey: I Announced The Hillary Investigation Because Polls Showed Her Ahead.

A lot of people did a lot of things because they thought Hillary had it in the bag. Their fear of consequences has a lot to do with the absurdly over-the-top reaction to Trump’s win.

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: McCabe ‘Lacked Candor’ Under Oath.

That’s bureaucratese for “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

IT’S COME TO THIS: New Yorker Columnist: Chick-Fil-A Is Evil And Must Be Banned From Our Holy City.

O CAPTAIN!  MY CAPTAIN!  On this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre.

PRONOUN WARS: A self-described radical feminist (of the kind now being called “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists” or “TERFs”) is thuggishly attacked by a male-to-female transgender. At the latter’s trial for “assault by beating,” U.K. District Judge Kenneth Grant admonishes the victim to refer to her transgender attacker as “she.” She balks: “I’m used to thinking of this person who is a male as male.”

It is interesting to see that not all feminists are buying into the new thinking (and that indeed there is now a term for those who don’t).  The Left coalition is under considerable strain.

FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME SHOULD BE MANDATORY FOR EVERYONE: Gay rights advocates want Illinois schools to be required to teach LGBT history.

#FAKENEWS: Everyone thought conservative policies were killing Texan women. Turns out the numbers were wrong.

Apparently, there were several issues with reporting and various actors using bad information to make their claims. In their words, “approximately half of obstetric-coded deaths showed no evidence of pregnancy within 42 days, and a large majority of these incorrectly indicated pregnancy at the time of death.”

“Maternal death, a major marker of the health of a nation or state, is defined as ‘the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy…from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy…” according to the study. Researchers examined the statistics from 2012, the year Texas had the highest recorded maternal mortality in recent history, and reviewed records to determine whether the state’s mortality count was accurate –– it wasn’t.

But this can’t wipe the false headlines away.

It won’t even stop people from making the claim. Because, you know, narrative over truth.

AT AMAZON, Spring Savings on Men’s Shorts.

BREAKING: BLASTS REPORTED IN SYRIA AFTER TRUMP LAUNCHES ATTACK ON ‘MONSTER’ ASSAD (VIDEO).

THE SCOOTER LIBBY PARDON:

In the case of Mr. Libby, our view is that President Trump did the right thing. It is shocking that the aide to Vice President Cheney was ever prosecuted, particularly because the American government — what used to be called in court the “People of the United States” — already knew who committed the leak the prosecutor was appointed to investigate. The injustice was so abject that one juror wept as the verdict was read, and two stated they hoped Mr. Libby would be pardoned.

Related: Jake Tapper Falsely Claims Scooter Libby “Leaked” Noted Anti-Semite Conspiracy Theorist Valerie Plame’s Name to Press; Refuses to Correct.

This is CNN.

OPEN THREAD: Go wild on a Friday night.

I’M EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Trump Orders Air Strikes On Syria Over Chemical Weapons Attack. Britain and France are also launching strikes.

THE LONELY LIVES OF SCIENTISTS: “On Twitter and in the pages of scientific journals, psychologists, neurologists and neuroscientists are forging alliances over the question of whether pleasure we get from art is somehow different from the pleasure we get from candy, sex or drugs.”

SYMPATHY FOR THE DONALD: Are Democrats Creating Sympathy for Donald Trump?

I’ve been wondering whether a backlash would develop against the Democrats’ crazed, ceaseless attacks on President Trump. No one has ever seen anything like it: the ridiculous smears, the nightly barrage of television “comedy,” over-the-top attacks by former government officials like John Brennan and James Comey, endless investigations into nothing in particular, calls for impeachment (grounds? who needs grounds?), absurd accusations of “treason,” and so on. It is unprecedented in American history, and maybe voters are starting to think the Democrats have gone too far.

Not to mention a daily reminder that if Democrats take back either house of Congress, it all gets dialed up waaay past 11.

ANALYSIS CORRECT:

● Shot: ABC’s Meghan McCain Zings Comey: He Just Wants to Be a ‘View’ Co-Host.

—Scott Whitlock, NewsBusters, today.

● Chaser: Chris Wallace: There’s Nothing Factually New in James Comey’s Book, But It’s Notable For “How Bitchy” It Is.

—Ace of Spades, today.

EVERGREEN HEADLINE: The Left Needs to Chill Out About Christianity.

SKYNET SMILES: Elon Musk Worries That AI Research Will Create an ‘Immortal Dictator.’

I BLAME GLOBAL WARMING: Why Is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Shrinking?

THE HORROR. THE HORROR. Los Angeles Times reporters take to Twitter to complain about the paper’s new El Segundo HQ.

Perhaps the folks at PJM HQ, which has been in El Segundo since 2005, can arrange a nice welcoming gift.

WHAT IS IT WITH TIME-WARNER-CNN-HBO EMPLOYEES AND AIRPORTS? CNN contributor Symone Sanders accused of disorderly conduct at LaGuardia airport:

As for the current incident, there could be more to this story that hasn’t come out yet. So far it doesn’t appear Sanders herself has spoken about it. But if the report is accurate, this is the second time in less than a year Sanders has lost it in an airport. Cursing people out in a line, especially in front of children, seems pretty unhinged.

Yes, but as these things go, perhaps not as unhinged as Lena Dunham threatening to dox airline employees. Last September, she wrote on Instagram that “I’m at the airport. And I think people now know, when I’m at the airport, they have to f—ing watch out for me, because I hear and I see all.”

Charming. When do airports begin to drop their Orwellianly ubiquitous CNN telecscreens?

IN TODAY’S WORLD, THAT SEEMS MORE LIKE THE BARE MINIMUM, AT LEAST FOR PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW THE NEWS: 14 Drinks a Week? US Alcohol Guidelines Should Be Lowered, Study Says.

HMMM: Michael Cohen arranged a $1.6 million hush payment to a Playboy model who says she was impregnated by Republican donor Elliott Broidy.

UPDATE: GOP Fundraiser Who Agreed to Pay Playboy Model $1.6 Million Over Pregnancy Resigns.