Russian Meddles Everywhere | An Army of Dropouts | Fur-ternity leave

‘The more I know about people, the more I like dogs. I simply like animals.’ – Vladimir Putin

“Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.” – Joseph Stalin

Russian Meddling (Africa Edition): Moscow and the Central African Republic (CAR) have signed a military accord, just three weeks after the murder of the three journalists we reported on yesterday. Details of the agreement weren’t announced, but it apparently concerns Russian military trainers working in the CAR. The journalists had been investigating whether those instructors were really working for Wagner, a shady private military group founded by a former officer in Russian military intelligence with ties to President Vladimir Putin. Russia’s defense minister said Tuesday the accord would “strengthen ties in the defense sphere” between Russia and the CAR. Russia was heavily involved in Africa during the Cold War, but retreated after the Soviet Union broke apart. Over the past year Putin has shown increasing interest in the continent, forging new ties with the CAR, Somalia and South Africa.

Russian Meddling (Syria Edition): US National Security Adviser John Bolton wrapped up a three-day visit to Israel Wednesday. Israel has been lobbying the US to insist that entrenched Iranian forces leave the area along Israel’s northern border with Syria. Bolton, who spoke to officials prior to leaving for Geneva to meet with his Russian counterpart, said Putin had told him that Russian interests weren’t aligned with an Iranian presence in Syria, and Moscow would just as soon see all Iran-backed forces go home. Those comments contradicted statements by other Russian officials who have maintained that Iran was playing a constructive role in Syria. In July Russia’s ambassador to Israel said that Iran’s withdrawal from Syria was “unrealistic” because Tehran is “playing an important role in our common efforts toward extermination of terrorists in Syria.”

Russian Sanctions: Sanctions keep getting piled on Russia, first from President Obama and the EU in 2014 as punishment for Russia’s takeover of Crimea, later under President Trump for Moscow’s actions in Syria, Ukraine and cyberspace. But Vladimir Putin’s government has been doing a pretty good job of ensuring the country’s macroeconomic stability. Unemployment is low, inflation is in check, and international reserves continue to grow. Sanctions are stunting Russia’s long-term economic prospects, but for now, it seems Putin’s hardly feeling it. (WaPo)

Snitches Get…Reduced Sentences: The current lawyer for Michael Cohen, President Trump’s ex-lawyer who pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts in federal court yesterday, says his client is more than happy to “tell everything about Donald Trump he knows.” Cohen claims some of the crimes he committed were at the direction of the president. Trump continues to maintain his innocence, and hard-core Trump voters believe him. One supporter said ” Everybody lies” and another said “They all break the law.” (BBC)

Swedish Assaults: Sweden’s general election is fast approaching (September 9). Immigration and crime are playing a big role in the campaign. Swedish national television, SVT, said that as a public service it counted all the court convictions for rape and attempted rape over the past five years, and 58 percent of the men convicted were foreigners. The Mission Investigation program, broadcast on Wednesday, reports the total number of offenders was 843, but the chief editor also pointed out the number of reported rapes in Sweden was far higher, so no conclusions could be drawn on the role of immigrants in sexual attacks. Hummm…wonder what will stick in voters’ minds— lots more rapes were reported than prosecuted, or—58 percent of rapists are foreigners! (BBC)

Starving Migrants: Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, is extremely anti-immigration. Very few migrants who have fled violence in their countries, hoping to seek asylum in Hungary, have even been allowed to apply. Far fewer are granted that status. Orban’s government now has a new tactic to get the migrants to leave whose asylum requests have been denied, but who are appealing their cases. Authorities are refusing food to those adult asylum-seekers. Furthermore, the migrants are not permitted to buy their own food, and outside groups are not allowed to donate food. Countries may soon be categorized as developed, developing, and uncivilized. (NPR)

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The Army’s New (And Old) Recruits: Earlier this month legislation was passed which calls for an increase of 4,000 active-duty soldiers in fiscal 2019. It’s the third year in a row the personnel target has risen. President Trump’s nominee to be assistant Army secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, E. Casey Wardynski, told Senators at his confirmation hearing Monday that he wants to target younger high school students and college dropouts to keep up with increasing personnel demands. “The Army… has been very focused on recruiting out of high school, 17, 18, 19-year-olds,” he said. “We have to market the Army more effectively before they get to 17.”

Meanwhile the Army started reinstating dozens of immigrant reservists who had been abruptly dismissed earlier this year. The foreign-born reservists were participating in a program that provided an expedited path to American citizenship in ex­change for cru­cial lan­guage and med­i­cal skills the Pentagon said the military needed. Some reservists filed a lawsuit over their dismissal, and the Army reversed its decision. (Army Times and WaPo)

Longest Bull Market Ever: The US stock market is seeing the longest-running upswing in its history, almost 9 1/2 years, with the technology sector accounting for 26 percent of the market’s value today. Since the S&P 500 hit bottom on March 9, 2009, the market has created $18 trillion in wealth. But the gains have been highly uneven, and economists can’t fully explain why Main Street hasn’t felt the benefits as much as Wall Street. (WaPo)

That’s Cold: The record for fastest person to ever jump ship has been held by Steven Redman who was the first to jump off the side of the Titanic after it was hit by the iceberg. Today that record was absolutely shattered by one man: Michael Cohen. After pleading guilty to 8 counts of fraud including fraud in relation to Donald Trump’s personal life and campaign, Cohen is now one of the most outspoken Trump opponents. His lawyer Lanny Davis even stated that Cohen definitely doesn’t want a presidential pardon because he doesn’t want to be “dirtied” by it. (Disclaimer: we made up the Titanic record. Please don’t email us and say it is wrong.) (WaPo)

A Quick Lesson On How Climate Research Proposals Get Approved: Some really smart scientists who went to college for a very long time huddle up and create the proposal, proposals over $50k get passed to the Department of the Interior where Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is in charge, and then Zinke then hands off this Hail Mary attempt to tackle Global Warming to the someone who is definitely trained to look over scientific proposals: his old football buddy Steve Howke. (Vox)

– “Company Is Offering ‘Fur-ternity Leave’ for New Pet Owners: ‘fur-ternity leave,’ or the ability to work from home for a week to welcome new dogs or cats.” Only in the “developed” world do pets get treated better than some humans elsewhere in the world. (NYT)

– “Coconut oil is ‘pure poison’, says Harvard professor: It is feted as a healthy choice but the oil, which is high in saturated fat, is ‘one of the worst things you can eat’ says expert” You put the lime in the coconut and…oh no. (Guardian)

– “Posting Instagram Sponsored Content Is the New Summer Job” When I was your age, I used to have to hike 3 miles uphill in the rain to get the perfect lighting for my #ad. (Atlantic)

-”Who needs democracy when you have data?: Here’s how China rules using data, AI, and internet surveillance.” (MIT)

– “Meet ‘Intrusion Truth,’ the Mysterious Group Doxing Chinese Intel Hackers: Since April last year, a group calling itself ‘Intrusion Truth’ has trickled out the real names of hackers working for Chinese intelligence.” (Motherboard)

– “Even As Cars Get Safer, Traffic Fatalities Still High” Maybe…we’re the problem. (NPR)

– “‘Peak Car’ and the End of an Industry: In Germany—the birthplace of the modern automobile—carmakers are anticipating the day when people stop owning cars.” This is uber news for Uber. (Bloomberg)

– “After the Bitcoin Boom: Hard Lessons for Cryptocurrency Investors.” (NYT)

“Ideas are far more powerful than guns. We don’t let our people have guns. Why should we let them have ideas?” – Joseph Stalin

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