News Nuggets 1022

DAYLEE PICTURE: Life in Semporna in Malaysia.  From Smithsonian Magazine.

Syria Government's Aleppo Assault Stalls from the Daily Telegraph [of the UK]
"The Syrian government's assault on Aleppo appeared to have stalled on Tuesday night as rebels claimed new victories against the increasingly demoralised troops of Bashar al-Assad."

China Knows the Party Can't Last Forever (Satyajit Das) from the Australian
"If the old illusion about China was that it was growing strongly then the new illusion is that it has the resources to stimulate its economy to maintain that growth. ... As growth slows, Beijing's options to re-ignite growth are increasingly constrained."

China and India Today: Diplomats Jostle, Militaries Prepare (Mohan Malik) from World Affairs Journal
" Tensions between the two powers have come to influence everything from their military and security decisionmaking to their economic and diplomatic maneuvering, with implications for wary neighbors and faraway allies alike. The relationship is complicated by layers of rivalry, mistrust, and occasional cooperation, not to mention actual geographical disputes."

Is Democratic Convention Keynote Speaker Julian Castro the Next Obama? (Eleanor Clift) from the Daily Beast
"A nearly unknown minority rising star is picked to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic convention. No, it’s not 2004—this year’s chosen one is Julian Castro, San Antonio’s mayor. Eleanor Clift on how he could mirror Obama."

Poll: Obama Leads Key Swing States, Nearly 9 in 10 Say Mind is Made Up (Jed Lewison) from Daily Kos
"The good news for President Obama is that he's leading these polls. The even better news is that the vast majority of likely voters say their mind is already made up, validating his campaign's decision to start advertising early and heavily in order to define the campaign—and Mitt Romney."

Obama Hits 50% In Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Quinnipiac University/CBS News/New York Times Swing State Poll Finds from Quinnipiac University 
"President Barack Obama hits the magic 50 percent mark against Gov. Mitt Romney among likely voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, with wide support for his plan to hike federal income taxes on upper-income voters, according to a Quinnipiac University/ CBS News/New York Times Swing State Poll released today.  This is the first measure of likely voters in these swing states and cannot be compared with earlier surveys of registered voters. Matching Obama against Romney in each of these key states - no one has won the White House since 1960 without taking at least two of them - shows: "

Why Not in Vegas? (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"Much of what is wrong with the U.S.-Israel relationship today can be found in that Romney trip. In recent years, the Republican Party has decided to make Israel a wedge issue. In order to garner more Jewish (and evangelical) votes and money, the G.O.P. decided to “out-pro-Israel” the Democrats by being even more unquestioning of Israel."

What follows are a series of devastating postmortems on Romney's foreign adventure.
Too Much Baggage: Mitt Romney Needs to Fire his Foreign-Policy Team. Yesterday. (David Rothkpf) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"If Romney were following the advice of his staff when he made either his London gaffe or his Israel blunder, he should fire them. If they didn't advise him to say these things, but failed to give him useful advice about what not to say, he should fire them. And even if they did give him smart things to say and useful guidance about what not to say, he should fire them ..."

How Romney Achieved the Impossible (Michael Hirsh) from the National Journal
"I'm trying to think if there is a precedent for the disaster that was Mitt Romney's little tour abroad -- culminating in a press aide's obscene explosion at the traveling press in Poland on Tuesday -- and it's really hard to come up with anything."

After Gaffe-Filled Foreign Tour, Europe Asks: ‘Is Mitt Romney a Loser?’ (Bruce Cumley) from Time Magazine
"Mitt Romney’s trip to Europe and Israel may not have been a complete disaster. Yet it was close enough to a risible calamity that the presumptive Republican candidate has to be glad it’s over — and dreaming of returning to American turf and topics less likely to blow up in his face like a loaded cigar. How bad was it?"

That’s Mitticulous! (Matt Miller) from the Washington Post
Miller is not one of the standard left-leaning pundits out there -- he is usually a nicely measured moderate in his views.  And his review of Romney's trip is extraordinary!
"Romney’s penchant for remarks and behaviors that are false, dumb, tone-deaf, ill-advised, pandering, implausible, awkward, regressive, out of touch or some blend of the above — and which unfold with no apparent awareness of their having the aforementioned qualities but instead are swiftly defended or sidestepped with an arrogance or haughtiness that compounds the offense — has brought us to the cusp of a linguistic breakthrough."

Mitt Romney Vice President Hunt Has Key Goal: Avoid #VeepFail (Howard Fineman) from the Huffington Post
"Romney's team are likely to take a political Hippocratic oath: Do no harm."

Harry Reid: Bain Investor Told Me That Mitt Romney 'Didn't Pay Any Taxes For 10 Years' (Stein & Grim) from the Huffington Post
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has what he says is an informed explanation for why Mitt Romney refuses to release additional tax returns. According a Bain investor, Reid charged, Romney didn't pay any taxes for 10 years."
If true, this would be something the Romney people would be wise to keep under wraps.  This is pretty cleaver on Reid's part.  Now Romney will continue to be peppered with tax questions until he releases his returns.


CITIES NUGGET!!
Pictures: Floating Cities of the Future from National Geographic
The pictures are quite amazing!
"A larger-than-life lure, the Plastic Fish Tower would attract plastic instead of marine life in an effort to reduce the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch."