IT’S COMPLICATED: NASA Astronaut Explains What It’s Like To Poop In A $19,000 Toilet In Space.

NOT UNTIL I’M DONE BINGING ON “LOST IN SPACE”: Five Reasons for Conservatives to Boycott Netflix.

NARRATOR: “IT IS.” Morgan Freeman’s Legal Claims Against CNN for ‘Scandal-Mongering’ Actually Look Pretty Strong.

Live by fake news, die by fake news?

THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP: If ONLY Roseanne had hit the appearance of Sarah Palin or Sarah Sanders instead of Valerie Jarret.

MICHAEL WALSH: Behold the state of American “journalism” today.

PROCUREMENT BLUES: US Air Force Is Waiting a Year for Parts That It Could 3D-Print.

“I have airplanes right now that are waiting on parts that are taking a year and a half to deliver. A year and a half,” Will Roper, the assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in an interview.

Today’s 3D-printers could make short work of those deliveries, but some of those parts’ original manufacturers control the intellectual property — and so far, the service lacks clear policy for dealing with that.

The Air Force is already 3D-printing niche projects whose original suppliers no longer exist. The problem is with parts whose manufacturers are still around, but which no longer make the specific item in need.

Congress needs to look into altering and streamlining IP law.

PALEONTOLOGY: Fossilized Skull Of Half Mammal, Half Reptile May Rewrite History.

The discovery of the fossilized skull of a half-mammal and half-reptile creature may rewrite ancient history, specifically regarding the timeline for the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea.

The important find follows a similar one earlier this year of a dinosaur fossil in Egypt, which also provided scientists with more clues regarding the Pangaea split.

The fossilized skull of the reptile-like mammal was unearthed in a rock from the Cretaceous period, from about 145 million to 65 million years ago. The skull itself was 130 million years old, a finding that goes against previous theories on when the supercontinent Pangaea broke up.

The discovery of the fossil likely means that the Pangaea split likely happened more recently than scientists thought. The finding also suggests that a group of reptile-like mammals bridging the transition between reptiles and mammals saw a “burst of evolution” in several continents.

The science is never settled, but it is often fascinating.

CONSIDER IT DONE! In Late-Night Plea, Roseanne Begs Fans: Do NOT Defend Me or My ‘Egregious, Indefensible’ Tweet.

HOW MUCH IF YOU’RE JUST FEELING A LITTLE STABBY? CA Mayor To Offer $1K/Mo Stipend To “Those Most Likely To Shoot Somebody.”

MAKE ARMS SALES GREAT AGAIN: Lockheed Martin F-35 Fighter Poised To Become One Of America’s Biggest Exports.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Trump Blamed for Roseanne Remarks and Much, Much More. “‘The tone does start at the top, and we like to look up to our president and feel as though he reflects the values of our country,’ Jarrett says in an MSNBC special, on Tuesday night. ‘But I also think every individual citizen has a responsibility too, and it’s up to all of us to push back. Our government is only going to be as good as we make it be’.”

Chutzpah.

HMM: Iran Plotting With U.S. Allies to Skirt Trump’s New Sanctions.

Iranian leaders disclosed on Tuesday that they had recently held high-level meetings with European Union nations and leaders in India and Thailand to explore options for skirting new U.S. sanctions.

Iran’s efforts and the warm reception it is receiving from many nations has roiled leaders on Capitol Hill, where some lawmakers are already moving to confront these countries and ensure they face harsh repercussions for any breach of U.S. sanction law.

The State Department also is scrambling to respond to Iran’s efforts by building a counter-coalition aimed at isolating Tehran and any nation that works with Iran to skirt new U.S. sanctions, U.S. officials told the Washington Free Beacon.

Iranian Government Spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht disclosed on Tuesday that the nation’s top leaders, including Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, have met with European leaders and others in the region to discuss skirting new U.S. sanctions, which have targeted virtually every portion of Iran’s economy, including its contested nuclear and energy sectors.

This is the most dangerous anti-Trump virtue-signaling imaginable — so far, anyway.

BUT THE NARRATIVE! Great Barrier Reef Has Bounced Back from Near Extinction Five Times in the Last 30,000 Years.

Still, your SUV is to blame.

FINE BY ME: Turkey said to eye Russian Su-57 after US threatens to ban sale of F-35.

Turkish officials have warned that they will take retaliatory measures if Washington doesn’t fulfill orders of the stealth fighter, the first deliveries of which are expected in June, Ankara is reportedly in talks with Russia to prepare a backup option.

Yeni Safak news is reporting that Turkish officials have begun discussions about the possibility of purchasing Russia’s stealth, fifth-generation SU-57 fighter jet, should Washington renege on the F-35 deliveries. The report did not specify the level of the discussion and Ankara has yet to comment officially on the matter.

The SU-57 is still under development with the first deliveries to the Russian Air Force not expected until 2019.

Since Erdogan seems determined to align his country away from NATO and towards Moscow, perhaps he should be made to make do with Russian gear — which, starting in the First Gulf War, has failed spectacularly every time it has come up against Western troops.

UH-HUH. Netflix Exec: Productions From the Obamas Will Not Have a ‘Political Slant.’

CHANGE: GOP candidates rallying behind Trump.

Trump’s visit Tuesday to Nashville highlights the unmistakable trend: There is virtually no room between Trump and the Senate candidates hoping to maintain his Republican majority this year. And Republicans appear far more comfortable touting Trump’s leadership than Democrats do arguing against it.

Trump claimed that his sway drove Sen. Bob Corker from running for another term in Tennessee, and kept him out when he flirted with returning after all.

In his place is Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who faces only nominal opposition in August’s GOP primary. She is set to join nominees who have already emerged out of states including Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, by winning fights that centered on who the most staunch Trump loyalist would be.

It’s also telling that while Trump is primed to attack the likely Democratic candidate in Tennessee, Phil Bredesen, Bredesen is already on TV promising to “separate the message from the messenger.”

“Look, I’m not running against Donald Trump,” Bredesen said in a recent campaign ad.

I’d still feel better if the GOP Congress were busier fulfilling its promises, but this looks less and less like a blue wave.

GOOD LORD: Study Finds Puerto Rico Hurricane Death Toll 70 Times Higher Than Government Figure. “The Harvard study, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the new Maria death toll of 4,645 is still ‘likely to be conservative’.”

There are lies, damned lies, statistics, and damned government statistics.

BECAUSE LIGHT BEER: Why You Should Never Drink Light Beer.

FLYOVER SPOILERS: Those Ignorant Hicks Ruin Everything.

The truth is that the people who actually do know from childhood how meat is produced are the least likely to have qualms about it. It’s the people who grow up thinking meat comes from the meat factory on a styrofoam tray, already wrapped in cling film, who never thought about the connection between steer on the hoof and steak on the table.

Now, if one of these city kids then decides they’re against meat and want to be vegetarian — or vegan, even — it’s no problem for me. I was a vegan for some months (and yes, a woman was involved) and a vegetarian for about six years for various reasons, and was perfectly happy as an ovo-lacto vegetarian. Your body, your choice, as they say.

What annoyed me was the subtext, the underlying apparent motivation of the speaker, which pretty clearly could be summed up as “If those ignorant hicks only knew, they’d agree with me.”

Charlie Martin, so read the whole thing.

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM:

Earlier I reported that Venezuela’s inflation rate was a mere 14,000%. Normally I would regret the error, but that figure was probably still accurate as of six hours ago.

OVER AT PJM LIFESTYLE: How to Save Star Wars from “Solo II: Another Damn Star Wars Story.”

INTERESTING: North Korea sees US economic handouts as threat.

The North’s perceived thirst for U.S. economic aid has consistently been the message coming from Trump and his senior officials. All Kim needs to do, they suggest, is commit to denuclearization and American entrepreneurs will be ready to unleash their miracles on the country’s sad-sack economy.

“I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial nation one day,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has laid Washington’s roadmap out in more detail.

“We can create conditions for real economic prosperity for the North Korean people that will rival that of the South,” he said earlier this month in a televised interview. “It won’t be U.S. taxpayers. It will be American knowhow, knowledge, entrepreneurs and risk-takers working alongside the North Korean people to create a robust economy for their people.”

Pompeo suggested Americans help to build out the North’s energy grid, develop its infrastructure and deliver the finest agricultural equipment and technology “so they can eat meat and have healthy lives.”

Kim has emphatically not agreed to any of that.

Under Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy, international sanctions on North Korea are stronger than ever before. Sanctions relief would open the door for more trade with China, South Korea and possibly Russia — partners North Korea trusts more than it trusts Washington — and potentially unlock access to global financial institutions.

The last thing Kim wants is to give up his nuclear weapons only to have his country overrun with American businessmen and entrepreneurs.

Even if he kept his nukes, Kim can’t afford to allow the political, economic, and (most importantly) cultural contamination hordes of Western businessmen would bring.

HEALTH: Doctor slammed by med board for selling $5 homeopathic sound waves for Ebola. “Patients were downloading audio files of the ‘eRemedies’ on doctor’s website.”

NICHOLAS BALLASY: Congressman Predicts More ‘Displaced’ Children If ACLU Wins Faith-Based Adoption Lawsuit. “Kelly slammed the American Civil Liberties Union for suing the state of Michigan with the hope of making it illegal for the state to partner with religious adoption agencies like Catholic Charities.”

JIM BOVARD: After pointlessly groping countless Americans, the TSA is keeping a secret watchlist of those who fight back.

Naturally, the TSA’s official definition of troublemaking goes well beyond punching its officers. According to a confidential memo, any behavior that is “offensive and without legal justification” can land a traveler on the list, as can any “challenges to the safe and effective completion of screening.” Anyone who has ever “loitered” near a checkpoint could also make the list. So could any woman who pushes a screener’s hands away from her breasts.

The memo would be more accurate if it stated that anyone who fails to unquestioningly submit to all the TSA’s demands would be found guilty of insubordination. As an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, Hugh Handeyside, told the Washington Post, the policy gives the agency wide latitude to “blacklist people arbitrarily and essentially punish them for asserting their rights.” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-New Jersey) expressed similar worry. “I am concerned about the civil-liberty implications of such a list,” she said.

The watchlist would seem less perilous if the TSA were not one of most incompetent agencies on Earth.

It isn’t like Jim to be so generous in his evaluation of government agencies.

Related (From Ed): Reason TV’s Remy performs “The Longest Time (TSA Version):”