POLLING: Franklin & Marshall has Clinton up by 11 (49%-38%) in Pennsylvania.

The crosstabs — above is just one example — aren’t kind to either candidate.

CINDY SHEEHAN: “The Khans’ Grief Is Being Used by a Party That Is Treacherous.”

Slate asks, “Will the Democrats fail the Khan family the way they failed Cindy Sheehan?”

Yes. That’s what happens when you become, as Thomas Sowell would say, mascots of the anointed.

Related: Obeidallah Goes Berzerk As CNN Guest Recalls Khan Ties to Clintons.

FURTHER ON UP THE ROAD:

Shot: “When crooked Hillary puts [judges recommended by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.] on the Supreme Court, we’ve got ourselves another Venezuela, folks,” Trump warned. “We’re going to have a Venezuela and it’s going to be bad.”

— “Trump on Supreme Court picks: It’s me or Venezuela,” the Washington Examiner, today.

Chaser: Venezuela Reaches the End of the Road to Serfdom.

— Kevin D. Williamson, NRO, today.

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: Gay Syrian man beheaded and mutilated in Turkey.

Another of Mr Sankari’s friends, Diya, said the United Nations was also failing to protect the gay community in Turkey.

“I get threats over the phone… It does not matter if you are Syrian or Turkish, if you are gay you are everyone’s target. They want sex from you and when you don’t they just tag along… Who is next?” Diya said.

In June, Turkish police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse gay activists who tried to hold an LGBT rally in Istanbul, despite a ban on the Gay Pride parade.

Unlike in many Arab countries, homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey but analysts say homophobia remains widespread.

It may not be illegal, but in Erdogan’s Turkey the law doesn’t mean much.

CATHY YOUNG: Lena Dunham Is a Faux ‘Sexual Assault Survivor.’

She certainly was an odd choice to speak at the Democratic National Convention this year, when there are plenty of real sexual assault accusers who could have been asked.

MENTAL FLOSS: EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG. “So have we all just been consumer victims of the flossing-industrial complex? More and more it seems that Woody Allen’s Sleeper was a documentary.”

OBAMA’S NATO: Turkey’s Tilt Toward Moscow.

The bases for this Russian-Turkish rapprochement are manifold, but the primary impetus is Bashar al-Assad’s near-restoration in Syria. In the past, Assad had been the major obstacle to improved ties between Russia and Turkey. The countries’ poor relations reached a boiling point when Turkey shot down an Su-24 Russian fighter jet last November. The situation in Syria has changed dramatically since that episode, however. The Russian-Iranian offensive in support of Assad has checkmated Turkey, shutting Ankara out of northern Syria. Now, Moscow and Tehran are in the midst of an operation to restore Assad’s control over Syria’s second city of Aleppo. Even an obstinate leader like Erdogan cannot ignore the hard reality that Assad is here to stay.

Thus, in a remarkable about-face five weeks ago, Erdogan apologized to Putin for the Su-24 shoot-down and asked the family of the killed pilot to “excuse us.” Two weeks later, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim stated that Turkey might even entertain normalizing relations with Syria someday.

What to make of this sudden change? By sidestepping the question of Assad, Erdogan is attempting to unlock cooperation with Russia on his other major priorities — the defeat of the Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK) and the consolidation of domestic power.

Turkey prefers the strong horse.

QUESTION ASKED: Can Hillary Clinton give a straight answer on emails?

Media fact-checkers have offered harsh reviews of Mrs Clinton’s response. The Washington Post gave it four “Pinocchios”, its lowest rating. Politifact labelled her statement “pants on fire”.

“Clinton is cherry-picking statements by Comey to preserve her narrative about the unusual setup of a private email server,” writes the Post’s Glenn Kessler. “This allows her to skate past the more disturbing findings of the FBI investigation.”

“Allowed to skate past” covers all of the Clintons’ shenanigans, legal and illegal, going back more than 30 years.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Did Black Lives Matter Just Oust NYPD’s Police Chief?

DAN MARKEL UPDATE: The Adelson Family (Through Their Attorneys) Deny Any Involvement In Dan Markel’s Murder.

DEVELOPING: One Killed, Several Injured in London Stabbing Rampage.

THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED (CONT’D): Study: 98% Of Head Lice In 42 States Now Resistant To Common Treatments.

LEFT WING ACADEMICS RAIL ABOUT INSIDIOUS WHITE PRIVILEGE: Here’s an insidious privilege they conveniently ignore.

STILL DON’T: Tinder Social Will Be The Orgy Hookup Tool You Didn’t Know You Needed.

POPULAR SCIENCE: Artificial leaf scrubs carbon, makes fuel. Good pun, too: faux photosynthesis. Nest step is faux-tosynthesis.

WHO’S WINNING IN SYRIA?: StrategyPage’s Jim Dunnigan says for now the only real winner is Israel.

THE DOWNSIDE OF BREXIT: Scotch whisky producers in tariffs warning.

It warned levies to those markets could rise to 20% as a result of Brexit.
SWA called for a trade policy that was “as open and free trading as possible”.

The industry body also urged the UK government to provide clarity on future trading arrangements as soon as possible.

More than £3.8bn worth of Scotch was exported last year, almost a third of which was shipped to the EU.

Having completed a post-referendum consultation with its membership, SWA said Scotch would continue to benefit from existing zero tariffs in countries such as the US, Canada and Mexico.

Here’s to continued free trade with our British friends. If the EU wants to impose tariffs on Scotch, I say let them — and we’ll be more than happy to make up the difference.

SCIENCE: New Study Says Emails Are to Blame for Emotional Exhaustion.

AT AMAZON, save in Arts, Crafts & Sewing.

Plus, deals on bestselling Game Downloads.

THIS WEEK’S NY OBSERVER WAR ON HONESTY COLUMN: Number 9 in the series.

THE FORCE AWAKENS: So Many Australians Are Claiming ‘Jedi’ as Their Religion That It’s Becoming a Problem.

You’ll never guess who thinks that Australian Jedis are a problem: Atheists.

GOVERNMENT IS JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR THINGS WE CHOOSE TO DO TOGETHER: Parks Service Accidentally Destroys Historic Pearl Harbor Home.

DOWN THE MEMORY HOLE: It’s been right at a month since FBI Director Comey sold out.

MORE MUSH FROM THE WIMPS: Ben Rhodes’s Favorite Journalists Ignore Scandalous Iran Story, Tweet About Trump Instead.

CHEATING IN THE OLYMPICS: 388 BC –and earlier.