CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN: The FBI Marks the Largest Year-to-Year Decline In Violent Crime Since, Well, Ever.

WOLFGANG IS A PARODY ACCOUNT…:

It’s only a little bit facile to say that the implicit claim of his defenders was that he was a scholar because he identified as a scholar https://t.co/IQiKBmC2xr

— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) August 18, 2026

…but I had to double-check to make sure.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: NSA sat on election threat reporting over Trump ‘deep state’ label, memo shows. “In a tense March 2020 meeting just months before the presidential election, the National Security Agency’s (NSA) deputy director blocked the release of a long-delayed report on foreign targeting of U.S. elections—not because the intelligence was flawed, but because he feared it would brand the agency as part of the ‘deep state.'”

THIS IS THE SAME THING DISNEY DID TO STAR WARS:

Nike has lost nearly 80% of its market cap over the last 5 years. When the stock was near its peak, Ethan Strauss wrote the definitive take on how the company was fumbling the bag.

They were a brand defined by Michael Jordan’s competitiveness and machismo, and with a heavily… https://t.co/AVFGtT5FST pic.twitter.com/A2SMgwmJuM

— Daniel Friedman (@DanFriedman81) August 17, 2026

ADHERING TO OUR ENEMIES: Iran’s Not-So-Subtle War on U.S. Morale and the Left’s Abetting of It.

YES: Teens Need Sleep. Schools Can Afford to Give It to Them. “Medical experts have been clear for years: sleep cycle changes during puberty make it hard for teenagers to learn in the early morning. Later school start times have been linked to better sleep, improved mental health, stronger academic performance and even safer driving.”

A FLOATING TREASURE TROVE OF DATA:

Holy $#*! Well my friends, I've managed to get in touch with brilliant international wildlife photographer Chris Bray on Christmas Island and he just grabbed some shots of Ship 40 for us! Take a look at this!🤯

Lot's more to come so follow him from the link. 👇 pic.twitter.com/zNJP68E1dy

— Marcus House (@MarcusHouse) August 18, 2026

ROBERT SPENCER: El-Sayed Oversaw Animal ‘Slaughterhouse,’ and This Is Not Just a Story About Killing Dogs. “Ultimately, the question is, when I die and I stand before God and go through everything I did in my life, I don’t want to say I did it the easy way instead of the Shariah-compliant way.”

DECLINE IS A CHOICE: Colorado regulatory burden, affordability drives business exodus.

Furman says 98 large businesses have left Colorado since 2019, taking nearly 14,000 jobs with them. These aren’t failed companies or departures caused by mergers and acquisitions, she explains, but companies relocating operations to other states, with Texas, Florida, Utah and Tennessee among the biggest beneficiaries of the Colorado exodus.

Furman points to burdensome employment mandates, energy and environmental rules, paid family leave and permitting hurdles as examples of regulations that individually may seem manageable, but collectively impose substantial compliance costs, especially for businesses without dedicated legal or human-resources departments.

The consequences are showing up in state rankings, with Colorado falling from 11th to 25th in overall business competitiveness. Furman notes Colorado still does well in areas such as technology, workforce and quality of life, but argues those strengths are increasingly giving way to affordability and regulatory problems.

Surely, the next round of taxes and regulations out of Denver will make it all better.

SQUIRREL!

At this point you have to assume the Russiagate nonsense was concocted as much to deflect from the Dems’ dealings with China as it was to sabotage Trump.

— The Drunk Republican (@DrunkRepub) August 18, 2026

Related:

This bears repeating:
ERIC SWALWELL WAS “ELECTED” WITH THE HELP OF THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY.
Forget the sex part. Did Pelosi give him a pass?

— TheMorningSpew2 (@TheMorningSpew2) August 18, 2026

Democrats covered for Swalwell until he stopped being useful. But what was he useful for?

THE FRAUD IS BAKED IN: Over 5% of One Minnesota County’s Registrations Used Corrupt Vouching ‘Authentification.’

THE LINE BETWEEN NEWS AND SATIRE BARELY EXISTS:

"Outstanding Refugee" winner Salman Elmi was just arrested for $1 million in Medicaid fraud, 8 felonies, and a sex trafficking ring pic.twitter.com/t07e1p6uTr

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 18, 2026

CHANGE (IT BACK): Tech companies are fighting the AI “slop” they helped create.

It appears in everything from fake biographies and questionable recipes to music, videos, social media posts and online reviews.

In response, technology companies are beginning to remove spam and low-quality content, label AI-generated material, and give users more control over how much AI content they see. Companies such as LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok and Substack have introduced different methods for identifying, removing or limiting this material.

The problem is complicated because many of the same companies trying to control AI slop also created or promoted the tools that make it possible. AI-generated content can increase engagement, but excessive amounts of low-quality material can eventually become a liability because users have difficulty finding the content they want.

But the real problem might be that as AI-generated slop increasingly pollutes the internet, newer models risk being trained on the slop generated by older models — a phenomenon known as Model Collapse. It’s in Big Tech’s interest to stop that from happening.

SANE ENOUGH TO FLEE, SANE ENOUGH TO STAND TRIAL:

>Illegal alien comes here from Tajistakistan

>Murders his derkaderka roommate

>Is not punished

>is allowed unsupervised jaunts into town

We can’t share a country like this. https://t.co/RK4jcypMSr

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) August 18, 2026

Sure, you’ll have to wait for the next crime — but is there any doubt if he comes back there will be a next crime?

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: GOP’s Case for Making Midterms About Law and Order Just Got Stronger. “All this was accomplished while prog/commie judges keep putting violent criminals back on the streets and leftist activist thugs try to thwart the efforts of law enforcement all over the country. That’s a big part of the story that Republicans should be telling. One side is trying to get rid of the murderers and rapists while the other wants to get rid of the people who get rid of the murderers and rapists.”

SHUT UP, THEY EXPLAINED: Senior Russian banker fired after scathing speech on wartime economy.

The independent Russian outlet the Bell reported, citing sources, that Klepach was fired on orders from the Kremlin and that his dismissal was directly linked to his May address.

Klepach’s dismissal highlights the Kremlin’s growing insistence on loyalty within Russia’s upper ranks, amid reports that Putin has increasingly surrounded himself with officials reluctant to challenge his views.

Alexandra Prokopenko, a former adviser to the Russian central bank and a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, described Klepach as a respected economist who was unafraid to voice views that diverged from the official line.

“Klepach’s dismissal – he is one of Russia’s best macroeconomists – is unlikely to delay the looming crisis he has been warning about,” Prokopenko said. She said Klepach’s forecasts were “based on assessments of reality rather than a desire to please anyone” and were often more pessimistic than the official figures.

Does anybody believe the official figures, including people inside the Kremlin?

INCENTIVES, HOW DO THEY WORK?

If I understand things correctly, Iran boarded a vessel that was using their toll lane and took the ship over

They then made an announcement that they seized a ship that was trying to navigate the Strait and hadn’t paid Iran

The US can’t and won’t escort a ship using Iran’s…

— IQ 589 | Cody Penn-Dent | Effluencer (@codypd) August 17, 2026

ICYMI: Trump Reveals YUGE Win on Drug Prices.

I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT: Poland Says Major Russian Provocation Could Be Months Away.

Tomczyk said Poland’s government and military are no longer treating a confrontation with Russia as an unthinkable scenario.

Warsaw is actively planning for how the country would operate under the worst possible conditions, even as officials hope those preparations never have to be put into practice.

“We are preparing for war, hoping that it will never begin,” Tomczyk said.

Poland’s preparations extend well beyond its armed forces. According to the deputy minister, Warsaw is also strengthening the country’s energy sector and critical infrastructure against the possibility of future aggression.

Si vis pacem, para bellum, as they say.

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.

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

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.”

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.

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

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.