n2doc
n2doc's Journal
Take the right position on Israel and you can raise 1/4 million, Senate candidate is advised
by Philip Weiss
Everyone’s sending this around today. It’s part of a fundraising memo for Michelle Nunn’s campaign for Senate in Georgia, published at Vox. Say the right thing on Israel and you can raise a quarter-million dollars.
Matthew Yglesias says we all know about this, but journalists are inhibited to describe the importance of this money because it’s an “anti-semitic trope.”
Jewish donors are very important to Democratic Party finances, some of these donors have strongly held hawkish views on Israel, and the financial clout of AIPAC is the stuff of legend. At the same time, talk of rich Jews throwing their financial muscle around to influence policy in favor of Israel touches far too many anti-semitic tropes to be regularly mentioned in political discourse. But the concrete world of political fundraising doesn’t leave a ton of time for beating around the bush, so we get a little window here into how it looks to the finance people: if Nunn wants to maximize her donations, she needs to take the right stance.
Right. Everyone knows it, no one can talk about it.
more
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/position-candidate-advised.html
S.&P. Says Argentina Has Defaulted
Source: NYT
The ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has found that Argentina has defaulted after it failed to make a $539 million interest payment due on its discount bonds.
The action came Wednesday afternoon as representatives for the country and New York hedge funds sought to reach a last-minute agreement on Argentina’s debt. Yet after more than five hours of mediated talks on Wednesday, neither side appeared closer to a deal.
Late Wednesday, the court-appointed mediator to the talks, Daniel A. Pollack, said, “Unfortunately, no agreement was reached and the Republic of Argentina will imminently be in default.”
Read more: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/30/s-p-says-argentina-has-defaulted/
Deep sea octopus mom tends her eggs longer than any animal on Earth
Call it extreme parenting: Scientists announced the discovery of a deep sea octopus mom that faithfully guarded the same clutch of eggs for a record-breaking 4-1/2 years.
"This is the longest brooding or gestation of any animal on the planet," said Brad Seibel, an animal physiologist at the University of Rhode Island.
"Elephants gestate for 20 to 21 months and some deep sea sharks carry their embryos around internally for a couple of years, but nothing is longer than this."
The long brooding period represents the far end of an underwater parenting spectrum. On the opposite end lies the "broadcast spawn" strategy, when an animal releases hundreds of thousands of eggs into the water and hopes for the best. Most of those eggs and juvenilles get gobbled up by predators, but because there are so many of them, a few do make it to adulthood.
more
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-deep-sea-octopus-mom-20140729-story.html
Toni Atkins will briefly be California's first openly gay governor
With California's governor, lieutenant governor and state Senate president pro tem all out of town for part of Wednesday, newly elevated Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) finds herself briefly serving Wednesday as acting governor.
Atkins is the first openly gay person to serve as California governor, even if it is for less than the full day. Gov. Jerry Brown is flying back to California from a trade mission in Mexico on Wednesday night.
Atkins, who just became speaker in May, said she couldn’t help but think about “how a young girl who grew up in poverty in Virginia ends up as speaker and therefore gets the opportunity to be acting governor.”
“I wish my parents could see this,” she added. Both of her parents are deceased.
more
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-assembly-speaker-becomes-acting-governor-of-california-20140730-story.html
Goldman Sachs Managing Director Nicholas Valtz Found Dead
By Laurence Arnold
Nicholas Valtz was born in Paris, earned letters as a fencer at Harvard University, loved fast cars and worked his way up to managing director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in New York.
At 39, married with two young children, he still found time for fresh adventures.
“He was new to kitesurfing,” his brother, Zeke Valtz, said yesterday in an e-mail. “But he engaged new activities and endeavors with enthusiasm.”
On the morning of July 20, Valtz left his home in Bridgehampton, New York, on Long Island’s eastern end, to spend time on his latest sport. Kitesurfing, also known as kiteboarding, combines elements of windsurfing and paragliding.
After he didn’t return home, family members went searching. They found his body in Napeague Harbor, a popular spot for kiteboarding. Police in East Hampton, New York, said his body was found floating in the water secured to his kite.
more
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-22/goldman-sachs-managing-director-nicholas-valtz-found-dead.html
Cambodians are increasingly being executed for sorcery
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — It was like a scene from a medieval witch hunt: a victim, accused of a crime that has never been committed, is surrounded by a mob. Terror ensues, before an inevitable death.
On a balmy afternoon, Pov Sovann was sitting outside his house in a tiny town in rural Cambodia, chatting with his relative. Like on most days, there wasn't much to do besides occasionally tending livestock and watching villagers pass by.
Then, without warning, a group of about 200 people approached him. Armed with wooden sticks and stones, they yelled at him, accusing the 36-year-old of black magic.
With sorcery, the increasingly agitated mob shouted, Sovann had brought death upon six families in the village — each of which had relatives pass away without prior history of disease over the past two years, local newspapers reported.
more
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/cambodia/140702/cambodians-executed-sorcery
Peace Corps removing volunteers amid Ebola outbreak
Source: LA Times
The Peace Corps is removing more than 300 of its volunteers from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea as an Ebola outbreak that has left hundreds dead worsens in West Africa.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the Peace Corps said it is temporarily removing volunteers from the affected countries. It did not offer a possible return date.
A Peace Corps spokeswoman also said Wednesday that two of its volunteers have been quarantined after coming in contact with an Ebola victim who later died.
The news came just days after two American charity workers contracted the disease in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. Patrick Sawyer, a 40-year-old consultant with the Liberian government, was also revealed to be the first American to die of the disease, relatives said Tuesday
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-fg-africa-ebola-peace-corps-volunteers-20140730-story.html
Ebola epidemic 'out of control' says charity
Global medical charity Doctors Without Borders has given warning that the Ebola crisis in West Africa is "unprecedented, absolutely out of control", as states across the world took steps to prevent its spread.
Bart Janssens, the charity's director of operations, warned there was no overarching vision of how to tackle the outbreak, in an interview with Belgium's La Libre Belgique newspaper.
"This epidemic ... can only get worse, because it is still spreading, above all in Liberia and Sierra Leone, in some very important hotspots," Janssens said.
"We are extremely worried by the turn of events, particularly in these two countries where there is a lack of visibility on the epidemic. If the situation does not improve fairly quickly, there is a real risk of new countries being affected.
"That is certainly not ruled out, but it is difficult to predict, because we have never known such an epidemic."
more
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/07/ebola-epidemic-out-control-says-charity-2014730143330618539.html
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayMember since: Tue Feb 10, 2004, 01:08 PM
Number of posts: 47,953
