DAVID FRENCH: It’s Time for an Iran-Deal Reckoning.

In other words, the Obama administration tried to do Iran an immense financial favor, one not required by the deal itself, to uphold the mythical “spirit” of the agreement (yes, that’s their off-the-record excuse). Iran had reportedly complained that it “wasn’t reaping the benefits it envisioned,” and the Obama administration attempted to help — even though it had publicly assured Americans that “Iran will be denied access to the world’s most important market and unable to deal in the world’s most important currency.”

Keep in mind, this attempted favor happened even as the Obama administration’s pie-in-the-sky hopes for the deal were crumbling before the world’s eyes. It was the administration’s hope that lifting sanctions, bringing Iran back into international markets, and providing it with immense sums of cold, hard cash would somehow make the jihadist regime want to “fully rejoin the community of nations.” Commerce and forbearance would work their magic, Iran would moderate, and we’d have peace in our time.

Instead, it was already clear that Iran wasn’t moderating one inch.

I know you’re never suppose to attribute something to malice which can be attributed to stupidity, but there’s no way anything this stupid could be due to anything but malice.

Or as I wrote the other day, “It might be time to start saying: ‘Just think of them as Iranian intelligence officers with American security credentials, and it all makes sense’.”

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Over Two Thirds of TBS Advertisers Absent Week After Samantha Bee’s Ivanka ‘Cu*t’ Slur.

SHE’S JUST NOT A NICE PERSON: MSNBC’s Joy Reid Threatened Colleague With Violence, Ex-Bosses Say.

“It was a very unhealthy work environment because of her attitude,” Eggelletion told Fox News. “She attacked me on a constant basis while I was there. I was even once threatened with physical violence during a break with her.”

Lee Michaels, then-national program director for Syndication One, confirmed to Fox News that the incident happened, saying, “It absolutely happened — 100 percent.”

Michaels told Fox News that he had to work hard to convince Eggelletion to stay at the station and not quit over Reid’s attack.

Reid refused to cover a story that Eggelletion suggested to her, to which he replied, “There was a dispute over it and I told her, ‘Go ahead and call the manager.'”

Reid allegedly replied, “If you ever speak to me like that again I’m coming over there and it’s gonna be me and you.”

If the roles had been reversed — a male staffer threatening a female — his career would likely be over.

DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE: Meet the New Weapon-Detecting Smartphone Case. “It also has facial recognition capabilities for that “extra creepy” technological edge.”

TYLER O’NEIL: No, the Supreme Court Religious Freedom Ruling Doesn’t Defend a ‘No Gays Allowed’ Sign.

MEATLESS CHICKEN IS NOT CHICKEN: KFC’s Adding Meatless Chicken To Its Menu To Meet U.K. Health Guidelines.

THE REAL MINIMUM WAGE IS ALWAYS ZERO: McDonald’s Is Planning to Add Self-Serve Kiosks Across the U.S.

Feel the Bern, kids?

PAUL SPERRY ASKS: Pre-Dossier Carter Page: Russian Spy … or FBI Honor Scout?

WINNING? Mexico Imposes $3 Billion in Retaliatory Tariffs from Cheese to Bourbon.

THIS IS CNN: Gearing Up for Possible Trump Ouster? CNN Hires Impeachment Expert as New Legal Analyst.

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Venezuela was named the most dangerous country to live for the second year in a row.

BLUE STATE BLUES: Californians May Have to Choose Between Showers and Laundry with New 55-Gallon Water Limit. “They’re now paying the price for decades of Democrat inaction on the problem.”

Urban water suppliers will monitor water usage by California residents, with the law stipulating that they “shall use satellite imagery, site visits, or other best available technology to develop an accurate estimate of landscaped areas.” Note the use of the word “shall,” which means they must do it.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the average American uses 80-100 gallons of water per day.

Plus, water rationing for thee but not for me:

Wealthy California residents, however, got a special dispensation from the legislature. There are to be special provisions for swimming pools, spas, “and other water features” that use a lot of water.

Read the whole thing.

Exit question: How many clean, nuclear-powered desalination plants could California have built for the money they’ve wasted on high-speed rail?

RED MEETING: Kim Jong Un terrified someone will kill him at Singapore summit.

SPENGLER: Israel Shows What Alliances Are For.

BEN DOMENECH: Why It’s Absurd To Pretend The Enlightenment Is Responsible For Racism.

But it sure is convenient, if you’re trying to trash its accomplishments.

BARNEY FRANK TO LGBT VOTERS: ‘People Have a Right to be Bigots,’ Don’t ‘Trash Them in Return.’

INTERESTING: California Desperately Needs A State Electoral College.

OUCH: Some Airbus Superjumbos Head to Scrapyards Due to Weak Demand.

Two of Airbus SE’s flagship A380 superjumbos are headed for the scrap heap after a search for new operators failed to secure firm bids.

Negotiations with British Airways, Iran Air and Hi Fly, a Portuguese charter specialist, ended without any deals, German investment fund Dr. Peters, which manages the planes, said in a statement to shareholders. The aircraft are already parked in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, where they will be filleted over the next two years by a specialist company and sold in parts.

It’s an inglorious end to the pair of double-deckers just a decade after they entered service, a fraction of the time commercial aircraft typically ply the globe.

There’s no established second-hand market for the A380, making a sale to a new owner harder. Further complicating any transaction was the perceived lack of commitment from Airbus to the aircraft in recent years, said Anselm Gehling, chief executive officer of Dr. Peters.

“Given the size of the investment, some airlines weren’t sure about the future plans for the aircraft,” Gehling said in an interview. “That’s a factor that has complicated negotiations.”

If you’ve ever been trapped in customs immediately after a fully-loaded A380 has disgorged, you won’t miss them.

DAVID HARSANYI: No, Donald Trump Hasn’t Been Especially Bad For ‘The Rule Of Law.’ “You don’t get to fabricate a new Constitution just because you don’t like the president.”

At National Review, Victor Davis Hanson has it right when he argues that “elites” often seem more concerned about the “mellifluous” tone of leaders rather than their abuse of power. “Obama defies the Constitution but sounds ‘presidential,’” he writes, “Trump follows it but sounds like a loudmouth from Queens.”

But while Obama’s agreeable tone had plenty to do with his lack of media scrutiny, many largely justified, and even cheered, his abuses because they furthered progressive causes. But not only did liberals often ignore “the rule of law” when it was ideologically convenient, they now want the president to play by a set of rules that doesn’t even exist.

Partisans always tend to conflate their own policy preferences with “rule of law” — or “democracy” or “patriotism.” Even taking that tendency into consideration, the pervasive claim that Trump undermines law typically amounts to little more than questions of how he comports himself. Rarely, if ever, does it have anything to do with the Constitution.

Except for perhaps the Fourth and Fifth amendments, for too many liberals the Constitution is to be ignored unless it can be used as a cudgel against the right.

MICHAEL WALSH: As the Wiseguys Turn: McCabe, Comey, and the FBI Boys.

It seems we’ve flipped the script: what began as an investigation into Russian “collusion” on the part of the Trump campaign and perhaps the president himself, is now steadily being revealed as the sham byproduct of the fixed-fight “probe” of the Clinton email “matter” that allowed the former secretary of state to head into the 2016 election “cleared” of any wrongdoing by the Obama “justice” department. Vengeful over her surprising (but not to me) loss, the Woman Scorned and her cronies in the former administration and the intelligence community then concocted the “collusion” narrative, obligingly peddled to the public by the Democrat-controlled media, to strangle the Trump presidency in its cradle.

And they almost got away with it.

Read the whole thing.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Gov. Candidate Blames ‘Progressive’ Policies For Making Calif. a Poverty-Stricken Racist Dystopia.

WELL PAST TIME: It’s Time for a Coup in Venezuela.

Nearly two decades of creeping authoritarianism and large-scale economic mismanagement have taken a staggering toll on Venezuelans. Moreover, with reports of low voter turnout in an otherwise stage-managed electoral process and rising military dissension, clearly the Maduro regime is “taking on water,” as Juan Cruz, the National Security Council’s senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs, said in May at a panel discussion hosted by the Council of the Americas.

But if time is running out, it’s less clear exactly for whom: the Maduro regime or those struggling for a restoration of democracy in that benighted country? After all, Cuba — which serves as Maduro’s ideological mentor — has demonstrated that a strategy of forcing out the discontented and subjugating the rest, while muddling along with a dysfunctional economy, can sustain an authoritarian regime for decades.

The question thus becomes, as the New York Times editorial board wrote, “how to get rid of Mr. Maduro before he completes the destruction of his country.”

A coup, as nasty as that would be, would almost certainly be an improvement. But unless it comes with a complete denunciation of “Bolivarian Socialism” and an expose of Chavez, Maduro, and even the military’s political and economic crimes, Venezuela will be right back here someday.

BLUE WAVE? Did California Democrats sleep through election day? “Final numbers on voter participation won’t be in for a while, but turnout seems unexceptional. With more than 97% of the precincts reporting, less than 21% of registered voters had cast ballots. That’s in line with the anemic turnout in the 2014 primary, and far, far below the five previous midterm election primaries.”

And this low turnout was despite the fact that California’s “jungle primary” system encouraged almost as many Democrats to run for California office as there are California Democrats.

WELL, GOOD: Trump consumer chief Mick Mulvaney ousts Obama-era advisory panel members.

Mark Hemingway tweets, “Now all he needs to do is tear the building down and salt the earth where it stood.”

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Big Immigration Meeting Today and Much, Much More.