LIKELY STORY:

NEW: The company behind a recent poll that showed Karen Bass with a 12-point lead over Nithya Raman for LA mayor & showed Bass collecting most of Spencer Pratt's prior support has admitted their poll was FAKE and was intended as a "social experiment" to see how a poll could…

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 17, 2026

“Median Strategies was created as a short term social experiment to examine how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification,” the company said in an email to The Times. “We are not seeking publicity or attribution for the individuals involved and are declining interviews.”

Well.

THEY’RE TRYING TO CLAIM THAT EVEN ASKING THE QUESTION IS TANTAMOUNT TO MURDER: How Endemic Is Fraud in Prestige Academia?

But the answer is “very.” And, as with the Bellesiles scandal in the early days of InstaPundit, the fellow guild members cover for the perp until doing so becomes utterly untenable.

ONE WAS MORE THAN ENOUGH, THANK YOU VERY MUCH: Jon Ossoff Sure Seems to Think He’s the Next Barack Obama.

SUNLIGHT IS THE BEST DISINFECTANT: A Liberal Journalist Just Exposed Fauci’s Toxic Relationship With the Media.

Toxic, corrupt, whatever.

I REVIEW THE NEW, “IMPROVED” BURGER KING WHOPPER: It takes two hands (unless you’re me.)

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

WELL, IT IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: NASA funds spherical ‘Aerobots’ that could explore the caves of Saturn’s moon Titan.

SENDING PRAYERS AND GOOD WISHES:

.@BradOnMessage is my dearest friend. Has been for 20 yrs. Wrote a bestseller together in & are in the process of writing our second when the rare cancer that stuck him 6 yrs ago did the unthinkable & came back–he's in surgery & could use all the prayers https://t.co/19leotcgHF

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) August 18, 2026

This, by the way, is the Brad Todd who wrote that terrific 109 Minutes essay right after 9/11.

WELL, IT’S A GOOD THING: Ancient Humans May Have Evolved a Remarkable Trick to Survive The Last Ice Age.

YES LISA, WOMEN DO STRANGLE:

Yes, women do strangle. Their methods of killing young children are often by suffocating or strangling. Do these women not read or do any research? Maybe start here: https://t.co/5jqUZYtwgA https://t.co/Ev5wut5Ir9

— Helen Smith (@HelenSmithPhD) August 17, 2026

SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: Rewriting History: Researchers Uncover a Forgotten Amazon Civilization That May Have Housed 3 Million People.

VICTORIA TAFT: Trump’s Messaging on the Mullahs Could Be as Powerful as a GBU-57. “He needs to keep up the information war. And all he has to do is tell the truth.”

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO: In-person, open-mike, no-holds-barred Town Halls in which citizens ask the senators or representatives why they voted they way they did in Congress on issues important to their state or district? Suddenly in August 2026, almost nobody in Congress is holding these VIP events.

ANSWERING A QUESTION THAT NEVER OCCURRED TO ME: Is layering deodorants worth it? We asked dermatologists.

NIFTY: Newest Drone Killer: AI Rifle Scopes. “‘Smart rifle’ technology seems to have finally arrived in the form of an “AI” enhanced scope that still requires you to pull the trigger, but picks the optimal time to actually fire to take out drones.”

Would it work on woodpeckers? Asking for a friend.

JON OSSOFF’S GROSS INSINUATION ABOUT TRUMP AND ASSISTANT GETS DEMOLISHED — INCLUDING BY TRUMP:

Robby Starbuck pointed out how Natalie Harp had survived bone cancer because of the Right to Try Act that Trump signed into law.

Natalie Harp is a bone cancer survivor who only lived because Trump greenlit the right to try an experimental treatment when you were terminal. I met her back then. She went to work for him after recovery. @ossoff is a vile coward for insinuating they’re having an affair. He… https://t.co/4LpsWGXCLN

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) August 17, 2026

“He should apologize to Natalie for doing this. I don’t think any of us would want our daughters talked about like this,” Starbuck said.

Then Trump himself nuked Ossoff into next week. His response was perhaps the best. He refused to give Ossoff the response he wanted.

President Trump called Jon Osoff 'Pee-wee Herman' 🤣 in response to Osoff taking shots at a far more successful Natalie Harp.

"You mean Pee-wee Herman?" pic.twitter.com/3bPXHUofFR

— J (@JayTC53) August 17, 2026

Instead, Trump just dismissed Ossoff as “Pee Wee Herman,” saying they had more important things to do than deal with Ossoff. So if Ossoff was trying to get his goat, that was the best response, treating him like the joke that he is.

Trump’s nicknames for his opponents have a tendency to be permanent – I hope it was worth it for those who program his teleprompter:

In all seriousness though, while I’m sure this felt good for Ossoff’s staff to write into the teleprompter and see their boss read it, this is such an unforced error—why brand yourself as “Guy who goes around spreading untrue rumors about female staffers banging their boss” ? —… https://t.co/DIozcq6XeL

— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) August 17, 2026

Tweet concludes, “it tells me everyone in the Ossoff campaign is letting the 2028 hype go to their head way too much and way too quickly. Not ready for prime time.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: All I Need Now Is a Letter of Marque and a Sloop of War.

GREAT MOMENTS IN HARD-HITTING JOURNALISM:

.@politico going full Fox Butterfield. Becerra is going to be the next governor precisely *because* no one knows what he thinks. And he intends to keep it that way, refusing to debate Hilton.

He's like what Nancy Pelosi said about Obamacare: pass it to find out what's in it. pic.twitter.com/0yHaMpSKid

— Joel Engel (@joelengel) August 17, 2026

Presumably, Becerra serves as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views, to coin a phrase.

SPY WORLD: Your Car May Be Tracked Without You Ever Knowing: An Iowa policy tells deputies to avoid mentioning Flock license plate readers to drivers or in reports.

IT’S ONE OF THOSE ISSUES EVERYBODY KNOWS ABOUT BUT NOBODY WILL DO ANYTHING ABOUT: US bases ‘ill-equipped’ to stop drone attacks, NORAD deputy says.

ICYMI: Pop Your Corn: It’s Billionaire Vs. Billionaire for the Future of California.

IF ONLY MORE DEMOCRATS WOULD HAVE STROKES LIKE HIS: Fetterman Torches His Own Party After Poll Exposes Its Socialism Problem.

KEEP YOUR FACE CLEAN: ELEMIS Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm Makeup Remover. #CommissionEarned

ANALYSIS: TRUE. In the Not Too Distant Future, We Won’t Be Able to Believe How Stupid Things Were.

HE LOOKS LIKE HE’S AUDITIONING FOR MEPHISTOPHELES IN ‘FAUST’: Palestinian-American Professor calls for “Death to Zionists Everywhere”, says they “Worship the Devil”