OORAH: Marines lead all services in binge drinking, sex partners.

Dr. Sarah Meadows, a senior sociologist at RAND who helped lead the study, said although it is useful in making policy decisions at the Department of Defense, people should be careful when drawing conclusions or casting judgement on one branch or another.

“We’re not trying to blame anyone for this, but the Marine Corps does tend to stand out,” she said. “Each of the services has their own culture.”

Meadows said one of the reasons the Marines stand out is simple demographics.

“Marines tend to be young men,” she said. “Compared to young men on college campuses, it’s pretty similar.”

They’re going to want some of that toxic masculinity, next time they need a beach stormed.

DRAIN THE SWAMP: Follow the Money in Florida: 34,873 Public Employees with $100,000+ Salaries Cost Taxpayers $5.5B.

When our team of auditors at OpenTheBooks.com reviewed the most highly compensated employees at every level of government in Florida, we found more than 35,000 state and local government employees brought home six and seven-figure salaries, costing taxpayers $5.5 billion annually.

Since last year, the headcount of these high-compensated Florida government workers jumped by nearly 4,000 employees.

The list of high earners includes an airport director accepting retirement payments and a working salary; a city attorney making $436,918; a junior college president making $386,578; and a county administrator making $346,722. There are even 26 small-town, village, and city managers out-earning every governor of the 50 states.

I know the argument is that local governments want to attract the “best people,” but does anyone believe that they do?

FAKE NEWS: ‘Nat Geo’ Photographer Admits Viral Photo Of Polar Bear ‘Dying From Climate Change’ Is False.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Manafort Trial Begins Today and Much, Much More. “Manafort is not on trial for anything related to treasonous RUSSIAN-collusion, he is on trial for working for President Trump’s campaign and for being a sleazy political consultant, which is a crime every other person is guilty of inside the beltway.”

THE MOST PREDICTABLE CRISIS EVER: The Pension Hole for U.S. Cities and States Is the Size of Japan’s Economy. “Many retirement funds could face insolvency unless governments increase taxes, divert funds or persuade workers to relinquish money they are owed.”

In Kentucky, a major pension plan covering state employees had about 16% of what it needs to fulfill earlier promises, according to the Public Plans Database, which tracks state and local pension funds, based on 2017 fiscal year figures. A fund covering Chicago municipal employees had less than 30% of what it needed in that fiscal year, according to the same database. New Jersey’s pension system for state workers is so underfunded it could run out of money in 12 years, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts study.

When the math no longer works the result is Central Falls, R.I., a city of 19,359. Today, retired police and firefighters are wrestling with the consequences of agreeing to cut their monthly pension checks by as much as 55% when the town was working to escape insolvency. The fiscal situation of the city, which filed for bankruptcy in 2011, has improved, but the retirees aren’t getting their full pensions back.

“It’s not only a financial thing,” said 73-year-old former Central Falls firefighter Paul Grenon, who retired from the department after a falling wall punctured his lung, broke his back and five ribs, and left him unable to climb ladders. “It really gets you sick mentally and physically to go through something like this. It’s a betrayal, as far as I’m concerned.”

But Medicare for All will totally work.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A LONGER LIST: Pentagon Creates ‘Do Not Buy’ List of Russian, Chinese Software.

“What we are doing is making sure that we do not buy software that’s Russian or Chinese provenance,” she said. “Quite often that’s difficult to tell at at first glance because of holding companies.”

The Pentagon started compiling the list about six months ago. Suspicious companies are put on a list that is circulated to the military’s software buyers. Now the Pentagon is working with the three major defense industry trade associations — the Aerospace industries Association, National Defense Industrial Association and Professional Services Council — to alert contractors small and large.

It’s amazing that this didn’t happen sooner.

WITH ALACRITY: How Trump Turned Around Obama’s Anemic Economy.

GDP growth is an abstraction. What people actually feel are jobs and “job security”—are they afraid of losing their job in the near future? And here, it could be argued, Republicans have an even better argument. Not only is unemployment down to 4 percent, but most Americans believe the U.S. economy is improving. In fact, the job market is so hot that, for the first time ever recorded, there are more job openings than unemployed workers to take them.

That feeling is buoyed by stories about employers dropping requirements for college degrees. According to at least one analysis, the share of job postings requiring a college degree is falling as employers struggle to find workers to fill open jobs. Some businesses are even hiring job seekers who fail the drug test, making drug treatment part of the employee package. That’s a job market that’s growing, not shrinking.

As President Trump tweeted, “Private business investment has surged from 1.8 percent the year BEFORE I came into office to 9.4 percent this year — that means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!”

I had been assured by some very smart people, around 2009 or so, that business climate is a myth.

NON-STARTER: Bill Kristol Considering Run For President In 2020.

THE DEMOCRATS’ RISING NEW STAR: The Unserious Face of an Unserious Movement.

Speaking to a friendly Trevor Noah, [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez revealed that she does not know the difference between a one-year and a ten-year budget; confused the recent increase in defense spending with the entire annual cost of the military; implied that the population of the United States was around 800 million strong; and, having been asked to defend her coveted $15 minimum wage, launched into a rambling and inscrutable diatribe about “private equity” firms that would have been a touch too harsh as a parody on South Park. If anything, she was worse this time than she had been during her appearance on Firing Line a few days earlier, on which newly revamped show she demonstrated her obliviousness to the fact that the United States economy exploded during the 1990s, to the manner in which unemployment numbers are calculated, and to even the most obvious facets of the Israel–Palestine question about which she has assured her supporters she is so passionate.

“It’s really weird!”

It is, yes. Especially given that, before her two interviews aired, Ocasio-Cortez had taken to exhibiting that jealous penchant for credentialism that so stains the world’s wannabe socialists, and to boasting about her intellectual prowess. At the beginning of July, she tweeted with self-satisfaction — and a noticeably premature use of the word “other” — that she was “Wondering how many other House Democrats have a degree in Economics like I do?”

Graduated fourth in her class at Boston University, which costs $72,618 annually to attend.

BLUE WAVE? Texas GOP, Cruz Claim They’re Running Scared: Could O’Rourke Really Win? “Democrat raised more than $10.4 million in the second quarter to fund his race to unseat Ted Cruz, while senator pulled in $4 million.”

NO GOOD DEED… Manchester bomber was rescued by the Royal Navy from Libyan warzone and evacuated back to Britain – three years before he slaughtered 22 people at a pop concert.

BRUCE BAWER: Lying about Amsterdam.

In an interview with the Dutch daily Trouw, that city’s official ombudsman, Arre Zuurmond, had complained that its “city centre becomes an urban jungle at night.” There are, in AFP’s words, “illegal car and bike races zooming through the streets, open drugs sales and general mayhem.” As Zuurmond put it: “Criminal money flourishes, there is no authority and the police can no longer handle the situation….Scooters race through the pedestrian areas. There is a lot of shouting. Drugs are being bought. There is stealing. People pee and even poop on the streets.”

Who are the culprits here? Zuurmond was clear on that one: “enticed by cheap travel, groups mostly of young men – mainly from elsewhere in the Netherlands or Britain – frequently roam the inner city’s canal-lined streets at weekends, on pub crawls or to celebrate stag parties drawn by easy access to drugs and the notorious Red Light district.” Zuurmond singled out for concern the downtown square called Leidseplein, where, he claimed, “The atmosphere is grim, and there is an air of lawlessness.”

Sorry, but this is all the purest of nonsense.

You’ll never believe who the real culprits are.

A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LOVE MCDONALDS: How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald’s Monopoly Game and Stole Millions.

HMM: MH370 Was ‘Manipulated’ Off Course to Its End, Report Says.

Monday’s 449-page report offered little to solve modern aviation’s biggest mystery — and stopped short of apportioning specific blame. There’s nothing to suggest the plane was evading radar, or evidence of behavioral changes in the crew, it said. Significant parts of the aircraft’s power system, including the autopilot function, were probably working throughout the flight, the report said.

“We are unable to determine with any certainty the reasons that the aircraft diverted from its filed planned route,” Kok Soo Chon, chief inspector of the MH370 investigation team, told reporters in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur. “The possibility of intervention by a third party cannot be excluded.”

If true, was it a deadly prank, or perhaps a dress rehearsal for something bigger?

PATRICK POOLE: Coptic Christian Bishop Found Murdered in Egyptian Monastery.

The cleansing of Christians from the Middle East has been one of the most underreported stories of the last decade.

SCRAPPLEFACE: Despite GDP Jump, Boss Bumps Trump’s Q3 Goal.

BOONDOGGLE. NEXT QUESTION? A $100 Billion Train: The Future of California or a Boondoggle?

RAYMOND IBRAHIM: The Dhimmi in the Mirror. “Which leads to the real question: If Christian minorities living under Islamic authority have little choice but to speak well of their “coexistence” with Islam, why are Western leaders, politicians, and talking heads of all varieties — who are not under Islamic hegemony — also behaving like cowed dhimmis?”

FASTER, PLEASE: Pentagon moves to cut procurement red tape in a bid to catch up with technology.

THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES ALWAYS GETS THE LAST, BITTER LAUGH: Disabled People Are Decrying The Plastic Straw Ban.

Critics argue that alternatives for single-use plastic straws — such as plastic lids or metal straws that can’t bend — are extremely difficult for people who have limited motor skills. Paper straws, others point out, can become soggy and disintegrate before a handicapped person is even able to finish their drink.

“The disability community is concerned with the ban because it was implemented without the input of their daily life experience,” said Katherine Carroll, a policy analyst for the Center for Disability Rights. “[I]t seems the blanket bans are not taking into account that they need straws.”

Moral posturing on a trendy non-issue based on bad science takes precedence over the needs of the disabled.

DEVIN NUNES: American People ‘Will Be Shocked’ by What’s in Redacted Portion of FISA Application. “The sooner the president declassifies this, the better.”

Well then, he should do that at once.

OH: U.S. Military Sites in Europe Are Dependent on Russia for Electricity.

Flashback: He used to rule Germany. Now, he oversees Russian energy companies and lashes out at the U.S.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Was the moon landing FAKED? Buzz Aldrin appears to admit he never visited the lunar surface.

MEDICARE FOR ALL TO COST $32 TRILLION: “If Bernie Bro were a language, how would you say ‘sticker shock’ in it?”

Also at the PJM Live Blog: Jeff Sessions casts shade on the SPLC.

MICHAEL LEDEEN: Why the CNN Reporter White House Ban Doesn’t Bother Me.

When I worked in the Reagan administration—first at the State Department, later at the White House—I talked to plenty of journalists. I never spoke “off the record” and I still don’t believe in it (if you don’t want to discuss a subject, just shut up. If you do, put your name on it). There were some unpleasant moments, one with William Safire of the New York Times, who once asked me about a diplomatic matter of some sensitivity. He asked a question that suggested he had been misinformed, so I said he needed some background. He wouldn’t listen, and insisted I just answer his question. I said if I did that, he would be misled, so I declined, and thereafter refused to talk to him. I didn’t think he was entitled to set the agenda, nor did I think he had some sort of “right” to use my time as he saw fit. So I locked him out. Note that I wasn’t at all hostile to Safire’s politics. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I feel the same about the exclusion of a CNN reporter from a White House event.

Read the whole thing.