DAYEE PICTURE: Giraffes and gazelles in Namibia. From National Geographic.
China's "Heart Attack" In June: Beijing Overstated Q2 Growth (Gordon Chang) from Forbes Magazine
"China’s economy faltered in June, showing definite signs of contraction. The downturn last month almost certainly means Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics overstated growth when it announced on Friday that the country’s economy expanded 7.6% in Q2 from the same quarter last year."
Should anyone be surprised at this point?
Where is the Political Savvy Hiding in China? (Tom Plate) from the Japan Times [in English]
"China does not need any more problems, particularly self-created ones. And this is why I — who like many Americans sincerely wish China good fortune — am worried: Some of the new problems seem largely self-created. Here are a few problems that China doesn't need and which it could ease by unilateral action:..."
North Korean Military Chief is Removed in Possible Sign of Power Struggle from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Official reason is illness but analysts suspect Ri Yong-ho, a key mentor of Kim Jong-un, was sidelined for political reasons."
Are Millennials the Screwed Generation? (Joel Kotkin) from Newsweek
"‘Boomer America’ never had it so good. As a result, today’s young Americans have never had it so bad."
Democrats Threaten GOP with ‘Fiscal Cliff’ (Lori Montgomery) from the Washington Post
"Senior party members say they are prepared to weather an event that could plunge nation back into recession if 2013 arrives without a compromise on taxes."
GOP to the Uninsured: Drop Dead (Matt Miller) from the Washington Post
"Fifty million uninsured Americans would be the immediate casualties of the GOP’s “let them eat the emergency room” mentality. But all of us would be at risk. In America — alone among wealthy nations — everyone is a pink slip or job change or new illness away from finding they have lost coverage or are uninsurable. This is the shameful reality behind the GOP’s rhetoric on health care. Republicans don’t want to spend a penny to insure the uninsured."
Mitt Romney's Painfully Bad Week (David Frum) from CNN
"By any measure, the Mitt Romney for president campaign has had a painfully bad week. What went wrong?"
Red Alert for Romney (Charlie Cook) from the National Journal
"The Romney campaign risks defeat by not promoting its candidate as a three-dimensional, trustworthy human being."
Obama Campaign Goes For The Jugular On Romney's Taxes (VIDEO) (Sam Stein) from the Huffington Post
"All three videos hit at the same theme: Romney's obstinacy on tax returns has become a crippling problem for his campaign and one that Democrats are intent on compounding."
Status of Bain and Romney’s Tax Returns (Mark Halprin) from Time Magazine
"Pause for two beats and pay Prizzi’s Honor-style homage to the ruthless killing machine that is the combined White House-Chicago operation. They have parceled out their opposition research in a manner both strategic and tactical, selecting specific news organizations at times of their choosing to maximize the drip-drip-drip of the twin stories."
Conservative Pundits: Is Romney Hiding Something? from Talking Points Memo
"It’s a bad sign for Mitt Romney when conservatives begin to question why he won’t release his tax returns."
Most likely scenario: the tax returns don't show that he has done anything illegal or out of the ordinary for the super-rich. What I suspect they will show is that Romney has lied or dissembled about something in his public utterances. In what area? I suspect we will know soon enough because I can't see that he will be able to keep those returns hidden for much longer.
Romney’s Problem of his Own Making (Eugene Robinson) from the Washington Post
"Mitt Romney has every right to cloak his personal and professional finances in secrecy — and voters have every right to assume he has something embarrassing to hide. If this seems unfair, Romney has only himself to blame. Through a series of miscalculations, Romney has managed to turn what should have been a minor hiccup into what may be a defining moment, and not in a good way."
Romney’s Bain Yielded Private Gains, Socialized Losses (Anthony Luzzatto Gardner) from the Bloomberg News Service
"Romney was fabulously successful in generating high returns for its investors. He did so, in large part, through heavy use of tax-deductible debt, usually to finance outsized dividends for the firm’s partners and investors. When some of the investments went bad, workers and creditors felt most of the pain. Romney privatized the gains and socialized the losses."
Five Reasons Condi Rice will Not be Mitt Romney's VP Pick (Blake Hounshell) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"... here are 5 reasons why Mitt Romney is not going to pick Condoleezza Rice as his running mate, no matter what Matt Drudge would have us believe. As Red State's Eric Erickson colorfully put it, "I don’t know who is hitting the crack rock tonight in the rumor mill, but bull shiitake mushrooms.""
HANYDMAN NUGGET!!
How to Clean Paint Brushes Using Fabric Softener from Stylist.com
"...we've got a tip on how to clean bristles that have been dipped in latex paint."
GHOSTS NUGGET!!
Nine Most Haunted Places from the Huffington Post
"Here is a small sample of that book--a selection of nine pictures and brief accompanying texts to help us decide, from a scientific approach, whether there really are haunted places--or only haunted people."
ANTHROPOLOGY NUGGET!!
A Bone Here, a Bead There: On the Trail of Human Origins (John Noble Wilford) from the New York Times
"Dr. Stringer, an authority on modern human evolution, calls it “a fantastic time” for the field amid new revelations."
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