*Mysterious Satellite | Hobbit Homes For Sale | InJustice League

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InJustice League: The Trump administration is bringing another authoritarian leader into the fold –Viktor Orban, prime minister of Hungary. It is a clear pivot from the State Department’s posture over the past six years, when Orban was being shunned by the US as punishment for steadily eroding his country’s democratic checks and balances.

Some European diplomats and analysts view Trump’s new embrace of Orban as indicative of a push to divide the EU bloc. Orban has close ties to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, and the director of the NYU campus in Prague said of the pivot: “It legitimizes Russian influence in Hungary.” Others counter by pointing out past strategies didn’t work, and blame those policies for the US “losing strategic influence” to Russia and China in many regions of the world. What is inarguable, however, is that in Trump’s administration, support for human rights and democratic institutions abroad is not a top priority.

Hobbit Homes For Sale: Home prices in New Zealand have gotten too hot. So hot that parliament had to pass a law to cool them down. Seems an influx of foreign money had priced native New Zealanders out of the market. There’s a loophole. The Overseas Investment Amendment Bill still allows the Rich and Famous to buy into new apartment complexes and get their Uptown Funk on. (CNN)

Orange is the New Green and Yellow: If he wins, it could be awkward governing from his jail cell. True, but he is leading in the polls. Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Lula for short, is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption and money laundering after what he says was a rigged trial engineered by his political enemies. Don’t they all say that? (Guardian)

Supreme Leaders Say The Darndest Things: Here’s something American’s don’t see every day—or ever. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei admitted Monday he’d made a mistake in 2015 when he allowed the country’s foreign minister to negotiate the nuclear deal. Mohammad Javad Zarif and his counterparts from six other countries, including then US Secretary of State John Kerry, hammered out the agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. President Trump pulled the US out of the deal in May 2018. (Reuters)

Troubled Bridge Over Water: After the horrific bridge collapse two days ago in Genoa Italy, the Washington Post reminded readers of some other bridge failures, including in the US. Definitely one of the eeriest happened last year in Kenya. The $10 million Chinese-built Sigiri Bridge was almost finished when it was personally inspected by President Uhuru Kenyatta. He tweeted that the bridge “will significantly reduce deaths and make it easier for the residents to access markets, schools and hospitals.” Two weeks later it collapsed. (WaPo)

Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Open Candy Crush: According to The German Lifeguard Association (DLRG), one of the biggest dangers to young swimmers is not Jaws (the shark from Jaws) or jellyfish or strong tides or Jaws (the shark from Jaws 2), it’s their parents. Specifically, their parent’s obsession with their phones. “Too few parents and grandparents are heeding the advice: when your children and grandchildren are in the water, put your smartphone away,” Achim Wiese, the DLRG’s spokesman, said. (Guardian)

Putinik: Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Arms Control, Yleem Poblete, raised awareness of a new Russian threat during a conference in Geneva last Tuesday. Poblete explained that there is a new Russian satellite displaying “very abnormal behavior” for both a satellite (“[The satellite’s] behaviour on-orbit was inconsistent with anything seen before from on-orbit inspection or space situational awareness capabilities”) and a Russian (it’s not on Facebook).

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Manafort Mans The Fort: Lead prosecutor Greg Andres delivered a dispassionate 90 minute closing argument Wednesday in the tax fraud/money laundering case against President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Andres led the jury step-by-step through voluminous documentary evidence, arguing that Manafort hid more than $16 million in income and fraudulently obtained $20 million in bank loans despite being a trained lawyer and knowing the law. Defense counsel Kevin Downing’s closing argument blamed Manafort’s deputy and prosecution witness, Rick Gates, for all the wrongdoing, and claimed Gates lied on the stand about his boss to save himself from prison. Jury deliberations begin Thursday morning. (NYT)

Trump Targets His Political Opponents: With words steeped in irony, President Trump has revoked the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan for exhibiting “erratic conduct and behavior”. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders displayed more histrionics than usual Wednesday when she read to reporters in the White House briefing room Trump’s prepared statement excoriating Brennan. Sanders also repeated the names of other potential ‘revokees’ as she read from the president’s lengthy enemies list. (Guardian)

– “I read six sycophantic pro-Trump books — and then I read Omarosa” It would have been seven, before Omarosa was fired. (WaPo)

– “Pacific islands have an obesity problem. The Tongan leader thinks a weight-loss competition could help” Want to make it really interesting? How about Pacific Islanders vs. Buddhist Monks. (WaPo)

– “Over 20 people overdosed in one New Haven park today: 23 people were believed to have overdosed on some form of K2 that may have been laced with opioids.” (CNN)

– “War on Millennials: Southwest Is Banning Emotional Support Snakes” Insert Samuel L. Jackson joke here. (VICE)

– “Can Neuroscience Predict How Likely Someone Is to Commit Another Crime?” Find out this Fall on ABC’s new cop drama: Mind Crime. (Tonic)

– “Meet the Indiana dad who hunts Russian trolls” In Soviet Russia, dad jokes you! (CNN)

– “The unreality of luck: Optimists believe in good luck, pessimists in bad. But if it’s all a matter of perspective, does luck even exist?” 8 million rabbits want their feet back. (Aeon)

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.” – Ernest Hemingway

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