SPEAKING OF FEMALE ACHIEVEMENTS: U.S. Woman Makes Olympic History; Media Shrugs Because She’s a Gun-Toting Conservative.

SINCE WHEN IS POLARIZATION A BAD THING?  Since the Marxists can’t have it all their own way!  Study: It’s the media’s fault the nation is polarized.

REALITY IS THAT WHICH DOESN’T GO AWAY WHEN YOU STOP BELIEVING IN IT: Once Again, No Female Marines Will Graduate from the Infantry Officer Course.

THIS: ‘Extreme Vetting’ Is Extremely Overdue.

WE NEED A WAR ON THINGS THAT DON’T WORK: How A War Hero Launched A War On Bad Math Instruction.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS AND THE CONTRACEPTION INSERTION: A case of intentional political poisoning.

IN NEW YORK, pensions of corrupt politicians are now subject to loss.

THE HORROR OF “LOOKISM” — IT’S EVERYWHERE, EVEN ON THE PRODUCE AISLE! “For each slender carrot or shapely avocado there’s another, uglier vegetable out there somewhere ― likely rotting in a crop field, compost pile or landfill.”

Carrot Lives Matter.

RAMPANT AGEISM: As More Older People Seek Work, They Tend to Be Put Into ‘Old-Person’ Jobs. “What’s also important to remember is that the older workers in this employment data are the winners in the labor market: They’re the ones who managed to find work. The truth is that many older would-be workers don’t.”

THE LONG-AWAITED PIVOT ARRIVES: FULL SPEECH: Donald Trump in battleground North Carolina. Excerpts:

I’d like to take a moment to talk about the heartbreak and devastation in Louisiana, a state that is very special to me.

We are one nation. When one state hurts, we all hurt – and we must all work together to lift each other up. Working, building, restoring together.

Our prayers are with the families who have lost loved ones, and we send them our deepest condolences. Though words cannot express the sadness one feels at times like this, I hope everyone in Louisiana knows that our country is praying for them and standing with them to help them in these difficult hours.

We are one country, one people, and we will have together one great future.

Tonight, I’d like to talk about the New American Future we are going to create together.

Last week, I laid out my plan to bring jobs back to our country.

On Monday, I laid out my plan to defeat Radical Islamic Terrorism.

On Tuesday, in Wisconsin, I talked about how we are going to restore law and order to this country.

Let me take this opportunity to extend our thanks and our gratitude to the police and law enforcement officers in this country who have sacrificed so greatly in these difficult times.

The chaos and violence on our streets, and the assaults on law enforcement, are an attack against all peaceful citizens. If I am elected President, this chaos and violence will end – and it will end very quickly.

Every single citizen in our land has a right to live in safety.

To be one united nation, we must protect all of our people. But we must also provide opportunities for all of our people.

We cannot make America Great Again if we leave any community behind.

Nearly Four in ten African-American children are living in poverty.I will not rest until children of every color in this country are fully included in the American Dream.

Jobs, safety, opportunity. Fair and equal representation. This is what I promise to African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and all Americans.

But to achieve this New American Future we must break from the failures of the past. . . .

The establishment media doesn’t cover what really matters in this country, or what’s really going on in people’s lives. They will take words of mine out of context and spend a week obsessing over every single syllable, and then pretend to discover some hidden meaning in what I said.

Just imagine for a second if the media spent this energy holding the politicians accountable who got innocent Americans like Kate Steinle killed – she was gunned down by an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times.

Just imagine if the media spent this much time investigating the poverty and joblessness in our inner cities.

Just think about how much different things would be if the media in this country sent their cameras to our border, or to our closing factories, or to our failing schools. Or if the media focused on what dark secrets must be hidden in the 33,000 emails Hillary Clinton deleted.

Instead, every story is told from the perspective of the insiders. It’s the narrative of the people who rigged the system, never the voice of the people it’s been rigged against.

So many people suffering in silence. No cameras, no coverage, no outrage from a media class that seems to get outraged over just about everything else.

So again, it’s not about me. It’s never been about me. It’s about all the people in this country who don’t have a voice.

I am running to be their voice.

I am running to be the voice for every forgotten part of this country that has been waiting and hoping for a better future.

I am glad that I make the powerful a little uncomfortable now and again – including some powerful people in my own party. Because it means I am fighting for real change.

There’s a reason the hedge fund managers, the financial lobbyists, the Wall Street investors, are throwing their money at Hillary Clinton. Because they know she will make sure the system stays rigged in their favor.

It’s the powerful protecting the powerful.

The insiders fighting for the insiders.

I am fighting for you.

The People Versus The Powerful. Hmm. Plus:

Finally, we are going to bring this country together. We are going to do it by emphasizing what we all have in common as Americans. We are going to reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, which sees communities of color only as votes and not as human beings worthy of a better future.

If African-American voters give Donald Trump a chance by giving me their vote, the result for them will be amazing. Look at how badly things are going under decades of Democratic leadership – look at the schools, look at the 58% of young African-Americans not working. It is time for change.

What do you have to lose by trying something new? – I will fix it. This means so much to me, and I will work as hard as I can to bring new opportunity to places in our country which have not known opportunity in a very long time.

Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party have taken African-American votes totally for granted. Because the votes have been automatically there, there has been no reason for Democrats to produce.

It is time to break with the failures of the past, and to fight for every last American child in this country to have the better future they deserve.

In my Administration, every American will be treated equally, protected equally, and honored equally. We will reject bigotry and hatred and oppression in all of its forms, and seek a new future built on our common culture and values as one American people.

This is the change I am promising all of you: an honest government, a fair economy, and a just society for each and every American.

But we can never fix our problems by relying on the same politicians who created these problems in the first place.

72% of voters say our country is on the wrong track. I am the change candidate, Hillary Clinton is the failed status quo.

Well, this just might shake things up.

Related: Trump, Pence to tour flood damage in Louisiana.

Obama, who received his briefing by phone during his vacation to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., has received criticism for not visiting the site of the severe flooding and storms, which has left 13 people dead.

A Louisiana newspaper on Thursday called for Obama to cut his vacation short, saying, “A disaster this big begs for the personal presence of the President at ground zero.”

Well, good luck with that. But somebody listened.

I’LL HAVE A BURGER, NEAT, WATER BACK: New Burger Is So Bourbon-Drenched, You Have to Be 21 to Order It.

THEY COST YOU LOTS OF READERS, AND THEY MAKE YOU MUCH LESS APPEALING TO WRITERS: Lots Of Newspapers Discovering That Paywalls Don’t Work.

AT AMAZON, save on bestsellers in Automotive.

Also, bestsellers in Health & Personal Care.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Free Speech in the 21st Century: Speech is Freer, But People Are Not.

21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS: Australia has to correct its GPS coordinates to account for continental drift.

An inch or so a year adds up, especially for self-driving cars which rely on precise positioning.

KNEEL BEFORE ZOD! ‘Apprentice’ Star Omarosa Warns: ‘Every Critic Will Have to Bow Down to President Trump.’

As Paula Bolyard asks, “What is it about being involved in the Trump campaign that makes his surrogates say the exact opposite of what needs to be said to convince skeptical, undecided voters that their candidate is rational, competent, ready to take the 2 a.m. call — and at this point, even reasonably sane?”

JOURNALISM: In the NYT, there’s Charles M. Blow with “Why Blacks Loathe Trump.” The most interesting thing is the way Blow made a show of his knowledge of the connection between black people and Islam but then had to do a correction. Well, it’s Charles Blow.

TRANSPARENCY: Soros Empire Concealed Ties to WH-Linked Liberal Jewish Lobby J Street, Hacked Documents Show.

UNEXPECTEDLY! U.K. Unemployment Falls After Brexit.

GREAT HEROINES WHOSE NAMES SHALL NEVER BE FORGOTT– WAIT, WHAT? HELL, ALL YOU WHITE WOMEN LOOK ALIKE ANYWAY: Dem candidates use photo of U.K. suffragettes to commemorate 19th Amendment. “Note to politicians: If you’re going to try and honor an American movement, it’s best to use photos of Americans.”

That sounds suspiciously nativist. And probably racist.

HUFFINGTON POST: The Culture Of The Smug White Liberal.

I have spent my life as a Democrat which probably isn’t that surprising considering that I am African-American. One of the things that always attracted me to the party were the ideals of equality, fighting for the little guy and our openness to differing opinions, but lately I have seen my party take a turn that makes me uncomfortable. Somewhere along the way we stopped fighting for the little guy and became the party of the smug, educated elites who look down on those with less education and deem them unable or unworthy of being able to make personal decisions for their own lives.

Smugness is its own reward.

NOW THEY TELL US: U.N. Admits Role in Cholera Epidemic in Haiti.

For the first time since a cholera epidemic believed to be imported by United Nations peacekeepers began killing thousands of Haitians nearly six years ago, the office of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has acknowledged that the United Nations played a role in the initial outbreak and that a “significant new set of U.N. actions” will be needed to respond to the crisis.

The deputy spokesman for the secretary general, Farhan Haq, said in an email this week that “over the past year, the U.N. has become convinced that it needs to do much more regarding its own involvement in the initial outbreak and the suffering of those affected by cholera.” He added that a “new response will be presented publicly within the next two months, once it has been fully elaborated, agreed with the Haitian authorities and discussed with member states.”

The statement comes on the heels of a confidential report sent to Mr. Ban by a longtime United Nations adviser on Aug. 8. Written by Philip Alston, a New York University law professor who serves as one of a few dozen experts, known as special rapporteurs, who advise the organization on human rights issues, the draft language stated plainly that the epidemic “would not have broken out but for the actions of the United Nations.”

Well, at least the Haitians could count on the Clinton Foundation.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Shot: How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet

—Headline of Joel Stein’s cover story in this week’s Time magazine.

Chaser: Why Older People Shouldn’t Vote—and Other Ideas Unpopular With My Parents.

—Joel Stein, also in Time magazine, today.

Curiously though, unless you read Stein’s nearly 4300-word article to the very end, you’d think that all “trolls” were on the right-hand side of the aisle. Which brings us to this headline at the Federalist: This 12-Year-Old Girl Went Hunting, And Now Social Justice Warriors Want To Murder Her.

This isn’t the 21st century I was promised.

MORE ON IRAN’S $400 MILLION: The State Dept has confirmed that the release of the American prisoners held by Iran was contingent on Iran getting the cash. Read the report. Timing mattered. Iran would release the prisoners, Washington would release the cash. The Obama Administration continues to deny the payment was a ransom. But now we know there was definitely a connection. Drip drip drip.

A BOOKSTORE DIES IN BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA: An independent bookstore. In business 33 years. The city’s minimum wage increase was the last nail in the bookstore’s coffin.