*The Strong & The Weak | French & Their Cakes | Race in America

“If you dislike change, you’re going to dislike irrelevance even more.” – Eric Shinseki

“If you are in a position to hire, hire a veteran. They will be the best employees you have.” – Eric Shinseki

A Trump World View of “The Strong Do What They Can and The Weak Suffer What They Must”: President Trump continued his daily diatribe against European allies Tuesday on his way to the NATO summit in Brussels. Trump took to Twitter to reiterate that unequal defense spending is “Very Unfair” to US taxpayers. In stark contrast Trump is looking forward to his upcoming meeting with the Russian president, tweeting: “Frankly, Putin may be the easiest of them all — who would think?” Trump’s tweets set off some trans-Atlantic sniping with Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council. Tusk tweeted that Europe was a friend worth protecting, unlike other countries Trump has shown a preference for. “The US doesn’t have and won’t have a better ally than the EU. We spend on defense much more than Russia and as much as China. I hope you have no doubt this is an investment in our security, which cannot be said with confidence about Russian and Chinese spending,” Tusk wrote, adding: “Appreciate your allies. After all, you don’t have that many.”

US leaders may feel their nation is so rich and powerful it can afford to throw its weight around, but other smaller, poorer countries long for membership in NATO. Macedonia, the Balkan country, once part of the former Yugoslavia, has reached an agreement with NATO member Greece that will provide a path to its membership in both the military alliance and the EU. Before accession talks can begin, the country is required to change its name to the Republic of North Macedonia, which must be done via a referendum and constitutional change, along with a parliamentary vote in neighboring Greece.

– Chinese immigrant Sun Yian made a fortune by creating cutting-edge technology with Canadian talent, but he recently fled back to China after leaving behind over 1,500 workers across North America. His company, Istuary Innovation Group, made breakthroughs in facial recognition AI which has people worried about the repercussions of such technology falling into the hands of the Chinese government. (NYT)

– Tesla has reached an agreement with China to make a manufacturing plant in Shanghai – the first outside of the United States. The plant has an expected production rate of 500,000 vehicles a year, though the plant will not be functioning for at least another four years. (NYT)

– Mexico has been ridden with drug wars and crime for the better part of the past few decades, but recent reports show that almost forty percent of Mexican territories is prisoner to violence and fear. A large part of upcoming president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s political platform was based around ending the violence which plagued the nation, and his new chief of public security has stated that in six years’ time, Mexico will once again be “a country of peace and tranquility.” (Guardian)

– Nigeria has beaten out India to win the world’s top spot. Unfortunately, the category is for the most people living in extreme poverty. A report from the Brookings Institute notes that extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 a day, is increasingly an African phenomenon. (Washington Post)

– France’s President Emmanuel Macron spoke to a joint session of parliament Monday, fiercely defending his pro-business approach to governing. Since taking office, Macron has rapidly rolled out laws changing labor, railways, taxes and education. His poll numbers are dropping as critics claim his policies favor the rich. But Macron says “If you want to share the cake, you’ve got to have a cake.” Query: Is a reminder to “let them eat cake” the best idea? (NYT)

A program, known as the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI), was started during the George W. Bush administration for the purpose of recruiting immigrant troops with valuable language and medical skills. In return for joining the US military, legal, nonpermanent resident immigrants could earn fast-track citizenship. More than 10,000 such troops have joined the military, most of them in the Army. Extensive background checks are required, including criminal history and credit, a review of at least 10 years of finances, an exhaustive questionnaire and numerous lengthy interviews. Relatives, employers, and neighbors are also interviewed.

In recent years the Defense Department has tightened regulations, and thousands have been caught up in extra layers of security vetting. Now, before they can qualify for citizenship, the Trump administration is terminating a growing number of foreign-born troops who joined the US military under MAVNI. Margaret Stock, a retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel and immigration lawyer who helped create the program, said: “There’s no explanation for this except xenophobia.”

Dictionary definitions of xenophobia include “fear of the unfamiliar” and “deep-rooted fear towards foreigners”. For many Caucasians in America (a nation created by immigrating foreigners), the “unfamiliar” include anyone who doesn’t look like them. While America’s current government has double-downed on anti-immigrant sentiments and policies, private businesses sometimes strive not to discriminate, if only because it’s bad for business. Take Sonoco, a major international packaging supplier, who fired its employee, a white North Carolina man, after he demanded identification from the only black woman at a private community pool on the Fourth of July, and called the police when she refused. The woman, who accused the man of racial profiling, had posted a video of the confrontation on Facebook. Or Trilogy Residential Management, which fired its white manager of a Memphis apartment complex after she called police on the Fourth to complain about a man wearing socks in the pool. The man and his girlfriend, Camry Porter, a resident, had taken her two godsons swimming at the pool and were the only black people there. Porter also posted an account of the incident on Facebook.

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman was forced to terminate a 29-year-old aerospace engineer after he was identified as a member of a violent white supremacist group in a recent report by ProPublica and Frontline. Michael Miselis held a government-issued security clearance but in his off-time was a member of a racist Southern California group whose members have physically attacked their political foes in at least four different cities. Self-described Nazis and white supremacists are so emboldened by the current political leadership that they’re running openly for public office on the Republican ticket in at least five state and national races across the US.

– America’s workforce is aging. In the last 12 months, over 255,000 Americans 85 or older were working. That’s 4.4% of Americans that age, the highest number on record. Older workers are still quite valuable. Witness Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who’s 85. Or 87-year-old Rupert Murdoch, Warren Buffett, George Soros and Toni Morrison. Meanwhile, workers 30 and younger are staying out of the job market at rates not seen since the 1960s and 1970s. (Washington Post)

– Orcas have been on the endangered species list since 2005 and despite human efforts which have protected and grouped these mammals into pods, the Pacific Northwest has seen zero births in three years. As the years pass on, less and less of these majestic ocean dwellers continue swimming the ocean blue, which is highly concerning for ecosystems and environmentalists alike. (NYT)

– Silicon Valley hosts the greatest amount of technological advancements and new-age systems, but it seems as though there are also some very old, traditions. Many could view the socio-economic hierarchy which is ever present in the City by the Bay as a Caste-like system, with four classes: Inner Party of venture capitalists, Outer Party of skilled technicians, the Service Class aka Middle Class, and the Untouchables – the homeless and/or criminal. (WIRED)

– A six-figure salary may sound like a dream job to most, but not if you live in Silicon Valley. A recent report by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has shown that making less than 117,400 dollars a year is considered low-income, and anything under 73,300 dollars is impoverished for a place like San Francisco. Talent will leave San Francisco and it is inevitable that other cities will quickly grow as tech hubs as talent and capital become less concentrated in the Bay Area. (BBC)

– Long, fruitful lives are not a trend of the present despite what common answers are to the “average” lifespan of ancient civilizations. Recordings throughout history have shown that people actually can live to be quite old, though they are often unmentioned-creating generations of “invisible elderly” in the history books. (Aeon)

LAST MORSELS

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” – Frederick Douglass

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