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Best of the Web: Bernie Sanders crowd sizes dwarf 2020 Democratic rivals, consistently drawing 10,000 to 30,000 people


Comment: For comparison, Trump drew his largest crowd during the last US presidential election this week 4 years ago in Cleveland, Ohio, when an estimated 29,000 people turned up. A month later, in April 2016, around 28,300 people showed up to one of Sanders' rallies in Brooklyn Park.

For further comparison, apart from Elizabeth Warren, who had a couple of rallies with turnouts of 10-15,000 last autumn, it is rare for establishment-approved candidates for the Democratic nomination to draw more than a thousand people to their rallies.


bernie sanders rally tacoma
Bernie Sanders fills a stadium at last week's rally in Tacoma, Washington
Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign, much like President Trump, loves to boast about crowd sizes.

Having attracted tens of thousands of people to a Presidents Day event, the Vermont senator and 2020 Democrat has some bragging rights.

A press release from the Sanders campaign claimed over 50,000 cumulatively attended rallies in five states from Saturday through Friday. In addition, over 4 million viewed the livestreams of the events online, the campaign said.

"Bernie has built a multiracial, multi-generational, people-driven movement for change that has broad support across the country," Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir said in a written statement. "This is the kind of energy and excitement that will defeat Donald Trump in November and usher in the political revolution that this country badly needs."


Comment: These crowd numbers may just reflect liberal oases in a sea of Republican Red, but if that's the case, then it should also be reflected in Sanders being the Democratic nominee.

We'll get a good idea tomorrow, 'Super-Tuesday' - when some 14 states pledge their delegates behind candidates ahead of the Democratic Convention in June - if the DNC is going to rig it against Sanders like it did in 2016.


Black Magic

Best of the Web: 'They hate everything... and we whip up that hatred. Hate is what unites our camp' - Netanyahu's aide exposed in leaked recording

Netanyahu
© Amit Shabi/pool/Flash90/FilePrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with his then-aide Natan Eshel, on August 28, 2011.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's senior aide Natan Eshel said that "hate is what unites" the right-wing camp led by the Likud party and that negative campaigning works well on "non-Ashkenazi voters" in a leaked recording revealed by Channel 12 on Saturday.

Eshel, a former Netanyahu chief of staff who resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct, continues to work with the premier, leading the previous two coalition negotiations over the past year.

In the newly revealed recording, he can be heard discussing the party's campaign strategy with an unnamed person whom he is trying to recruit as a political adviser, according to the report. In the tape, Eshel says that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's decision to indict Netanyahu in three corruption cases actually helped the premier in his campaign. "He went up by 20 percent" Eshel recalls, though it was unclear what numbers he was referring to.

Comment: Numerous leaks, scandals as well as Israel's government policy over many years show that sentiments like this and similar are shared both by a significant proportion of the voting public and the Israeli establishment. It's also notable that this leak comes just before yet another election for Israel, following a year or more of the leading parties failure to form a government:


Snowflake Cold

Best of the Web: Comets, volcanic eruptions and 10 FEET of rainfall: 1861-1862, California's most devastating winter

california flooding 1862
© California Historical SocietySacramento under water, circa 1862.
There's been a lot of talk about weather records being broken this winter, but it was only January's epic snowfall totals that have made it into the record books so far. In January 2017, the Central Sierra Snow Lab (CSSL) near Donner Pass and many Tahoe Sierra resorts set new monthly snowfall tallies ranging from 20 to 25 feet.

But the current seasonal snowfall total of about 42 feet at the CSSL means we still have a long way to go to reach Top 10 status at Donner Pass, let alone exceed the 68 feet that fell in 1938. We are, however, closing in on the wettest year in the precipitation category, currently holding at third place behind 1982 and 1995, the first- and second-ranked water years since 1871. Remember, precipitation is rain and the water content of snow combined.

The signature weather pattern of this winter has been a seemingly relentless series of atmospheric rivers that transported huge volumes of water vapor from the Pacific Ocean into the West Coast. At CSSL, resident scientist Randall Osterhuber has measured about 100 inches of precipitation so far — the annual average is 55 inches — but warmer temperatures due to the subtropical origin of many of the storms has limited snowfall totals at elevations below 7,000 feet.

Comment: That was California during the winter of 1861-1862. Further north in Washington and Oregon that winter, they experienced all that rain plus an intensely cold freeze. Speculating on what caused that extreme winter, John Caldbick at HistoryLink.org writes:
[...] the protracted and severe cold weather of the winter of 1861-1862 was seen throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere and was not merely a local phenomenon. Scientists also learned that in May of 1861, a large volcano named Dubbi in the northeast African country of Eritrea had erupted. It was the largest volcano recorded on that continent since records had been kept, and it spewed a "sulfate aerosol veil" into the sky.

Subsequent studies conclusively established a link between massive injections of sulfates into Earth's atmosphere by volcanoes and widespread, if temporary, global cooling. Today the scientific consensus is that this was the most likely cause of the Northwest's most severe winter on record...
Indeed, this volcanic eruption on the African shore of the Red Sea occurred in May 1861. But just weeks later, the Great Comet of 1861 became visible to the naked eye...
For two days, when the comet was at its closest, the Earth was actually within the comet's tail, and streams of cometary material converging towards the distant nucleus could be seen. [...]

Emily Holder, wife of Joseph Bassett Holder, while stationed at Fort Jefferson, Florida:
"Its appearance was sublime, as it extended over nearly half of the heavens. Many wondered if the world was not coming to an end."
Great Comet of 1861
Great Comet of 1861, also known as C/1861 J1 or comet Tebbutt; drawing by E. Weiss
The US Civil War began in 1861, as did the Dungan Revolt in China, which left over 20 million dead in a decade-long inter-ethnic and religious war. There was also a major earthquake and tsunami off the Indian Ocean coast of Sumatra in 1861; the next most powerful and devastating of which would be the 2004 disaster at the same location.

According to censuses in Europe, populations there declined in numbers in the early 1860s, the first such declines since the early 1700s, suggesting that excess deaths occurred from cholera and plague outbreaks that overlapped with the above events.

1861-1862 seems then to have been something of a nexus point in the recurring rhythms of natural climate change. Today, the US isn't quite being torn apart by civil war, but the social climate is nevertheless being reflected in the natural climate.


Bullseye

Best of the Web: Europe & US use Russia-Poland discord to their advantage, first post-Cold War Polish leader Walesa tells RT

Lech Walesa
© Reuters / Kacper PempelFormer Polish President Lech Walesa
Poland and Russia must lay "old ghosts to rest" as the US exploits their bitter strife to its own advantage, former Polish President Lech Walesa - who led the fight against Communist rule - told RT.

Moscow and Warsaw need to bury the hatchet and sort out their troubled shared history as part of an open and honest dialogue instead, Walesa believes, adding that the endless quarrels that have lasted for decades have so far led the two neighbors nowhere.

"We can't change history," the former president told RT. Still, Walesa - whose Solidarity trade union movement led the struggle against the Communist rule and Soviet influence in his homeland in the 1980s - said it is high time the two nations laid "the old ghosts to rest" and started cooperating.

"We have this trail of mutual grievances, and until we deal with that we won't arrive at a compromise," he said, adding that the two nations are now engaged in a "useless struggle."

Comment: Walesa is spot-on. The West uses countries like Poland as pawns in their game of imperial chess. Any country that takes the US by their word in a diplomatic sense is probably laughed at behind closed doors by American leaders.


Clipboard

Best of the Web: Beginning of the end of America's longest war? US signs peace deal with Taliban to remove all troops from Afghanistan

afghanistan peace deal
© AP Photo/Hussein SayedU.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, left, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban group's top political leader shake hands after signing a peace agreement between Taliban and U.S. officials in Doha, Qatar, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020.
Updated at 10:22 a.m. ET

The U.S. and the Taliban have struck a deal that paves the way for eventual peace in Afghanistan. U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad and the head of the militant Islamist group, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, signed the potentially historic agreement Saturday in Doha, Qatar, where the two sides spent months hashing out its details.

Under the terms of the deal, the U.S. commits to withdrawing all of its military forces and supporting civilian personnel, as well as those of its allies, within 14 months. The drawdown process will begin with the U.S. reducing its troop levels to 8,600 in the first 135 days and pulling its forces from five bases.

The rest of its forces, according to the agreement, will leave "within the remaining nine and a half months."

The Afghan government also will release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners as a gesture of goodwill, in exchange for 1,000 Afghan security forces held by the Taliban.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to America's sons and daughters who paid the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, and to the many thousands who served over the past nearly 19 years," Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a statement celebrating the deal, which comes on the heels of a seven-day "Reduction in Violence" agreement in Afghanistan.

Comment: While it may seem all well on paper, it's hard to see the US giving up the lucrative drug trade in the region.

We believe Trump when he says he wants out, but will he be so committed post-reelection this November?

See also: Afghanistan's 'peace deal' riddle


Bullseye

Best of the Web: The left's insistence on pushing drag culture on children will only create resentment towards queers

tik tok drag queen child
© Tik Tok / ameliamarino89
Another day, and another piece of media is circulating the web that depicts a child in an uncomfortable situation. This time a drag queen dances suggestively for a small girl.

The video, uploaded on Tiktok, opens with a scantily clad male with his rear cheeks hanging out, crawling on hands and knees towards the child sitting in a chair. Taking on the air of a scene from a strip club, patrons of the restaurant clap and cheer. He then stands up with his short shorts, leaving little to the imagination, dances a bit, and then kneels next to the girl, as he says something to her while jiggling his booty.

This most recent event is yet another incident in a long list of them that have occurred throughout the past couple years. Girls at Pride events have engaged with men partaking in pup-play. A child drag queen named "Lactatia" of all things, stood for a photo op next to a naked man. Another drag kid named Desmond danced on stage in female attire as men threw money his way. A sexual predator was caught reading to children during drag queen story time. And another drag queen reading during a library event flashed his crotch towards the entire room.

Footprints

Best of the Web: Mad Dog Erdogan opens borders to release stream of refugees towards central Europe


Comment: And he's doing it ... just to spite Putin for not letting him blow Damascus to kingdom come.


Nizip camp
© Reuters/Umit BektasView of Nizip refugee camp near Turkish border in Gaziantep province, Turkey
Turkey is no longer able to contain millions of displaced Syrians and has reached "full capacity," Ankara's ruling AK party said in a fresh threat to open the floodgates into Europe as tensions over Idlib reach boiling point.

With Ankara vowing to go "all in" to halt a Syrian Army offensive to retake Idlib province from rebel militias, AKP spokesman Omer Celik suggested Turkey would soon allow hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees to pour into Europe, a threat repeatedly made by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the past.

"Turkey can not bear the pressure of the new refugees, we now say that Turkey is at full capacity," Celik told CNNTurk early on Friday. While the spokesman noted Turkey's refugee policy remains "the same," he said "We are no longer in a position to hold refugees" amid an expected influx of newly displaced Syrians.

An earlier report at Reuters cited an unnamed Turkish official who said much the same, although the official went further in stating that police, coast guard and border security officers had been ordered to "stand down" and allow the refugees to cross into Europe.



Comment: Asylum-seekers begin trek to Europe as Turkey opens the floodgates
Turkey has announced it will no longer hold back people who wish to go to Europe and seek asylum there amid an escalation in Syria. Some have been quick to rush towards coasts and borders before Ankara changes its mind.

Would-be irregular immigrants have started trickling closer to Europe. The hopefuls are gathering in the Edirne province, which borders Greece and Bulgaria, as well as on Turkey's Aegean coast close to the Greek island of Lesbos, AFP reported.

Anadolu Agency posted drone footage of groups of people walking across a field in Edirne, presumably filmed in the early hours of Friday morning.


Scenes of people carrying backpacks and waving to the cameras were shown by the Turkish media and spread on social media.



The ability of the potential migrants to reach Europe is not guaranteed even if Turkey does not reverse its decision. Bulgaria and Greece have erected walls along their land borders with Turkey in response to the migrant crisis. The EU stepped up maritime patrols in the Mediterranean to stop people from reaching its territory via sea routes.



Fireball 5

Best of the Web: Asteroid invasion: Since three years ago, Earth has had an additional moon! - UPDATE

New Mini-Moon seen orbiting around Earth on February 15, 2020
© Catalina Sky SurveyNew Mini-Moon seen orbiting around Earth on February 15, 2020.
In the skies above Earth, astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey have spotted what might be a new friend: an asteroid temporarily captured by our planet's gravity, what we call a minimoon.


Comment: Perhaps not temporarily! We may be watching history in the making.


It's named 2020 CD3, a small chunk of likely carbonaceous rock between 1.9 and 3.5 metres (6.2 and 11.5 feet) in diameter. And here's the kicker - the rock's trajectory indicates it's been in orbit for around three years already.

The near-Earth neighbourhood is a relatively busy place, with boatloads of asteroids zipping past. The precise numbers, however, are unclear; estimates put the number at millions, but as of February 25, the number discovered was only 22,211.


Comment: Indeed, and it's an increasingly busy place.


That's because asteroids are really small, we don't know where they are (so we don't know where to look), and they typically don't give off a lot of light, even when they're reflecting sunlight.


Comment: Some of them are small, but 'small' is highly relative in outer space.



Comment: "Yay, let's PLAY with it!"

Er, how about we wake up and smell the pooh hitting the fan?

We've long suspected that some (or most) of the 'slow-moving meteors' burning up in the atmosphere of late are in fact asteroids that had been previously captured by Earth's gravity.

The same phenomenon is apparently occurring with respect to other planets in our solar system, whose numbers of 'moons' grow by the year. Those new 'moons' are typically accounted for by 'better observation technology', but clearly the actual numbers of 'moons' are growing...

UPDATE February 28: RT reports that astronomers at the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii have released pictures of 2020 CD3. The image is actually a combination of three separate images using three different filters to capture the new moon. Lead astronomer Grigori Fedorets says he expects to find 'a population of these objects once the Rubin Observatory is operational'..and they may indeed!
Earth new moon, 2020 CD3
© Gemini Observatory/NSF's NOIARL/AURA/G. Fedorets



Light Sabers

Best of the Web: Israel bombs Syria: how long can this go on?

syria army
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia believe the war on terror has priority over and above any Israeli provocations. Syria and Russia are of necessity avoiding a 'battle between wars', a term used by Israel to sneak in and hit-and-run an enemy target not sufficiently important to trigger an all-out war. Eliminating jihadists on the Aleppo-Idlib front is far more critical to Syria than responding to Israeli attacks on the Syrian army's military capability and its destruction of military warehouses. Israel's military command understands Syria's priorities and is taking advantage of the situation. It has carried out hundreds of attacks in Syria on various targets in different Syrian cities, without changing the balance of forces and capabilities. But stopping Israel's arrogant violations of Syrian sovereignty will become an easy task when Damascus is ready to direct its guns towards Israel.

In fact, despite over 400 Israeli attacks on Syria since the beginning of the war in 2011, the Syrian army has now liberated most of Syria, with the exception of the north, occupied by Turkish and US forces. The Syrian army has moved north, knocking at the gates of Idlib for a month. Israeli attacks have not undermined a Syrian army that has shown its competence in fierce battles at Ghouta (east of Damascus), in Deir-ezzour (north-east) and in the north, clearing a large security perimeter around Aleppo.

Comment: See also:


Che Guevara

Best of the Web: 'OAS misled public': MIT study finds 'NO evidence of fraud' in Bolivia election that saw Evo Morales ousted in military coup


Comment: Which means the OAS and Chrystia Freeland's Lima Group rigged it. TEXTBOOK 'meddling in other countries' democratic affairs'...


evo morales
© Reuters / Mariana Greif
A new MIT study has found no evidence of fraud in Bolivia's 2019 election, despite allegations of serious irregularities by the Organization of American States (OAS), which led to the ousting of Evo Morales in a military coup.

John Curiel and Jack R Williams examined the OAS's report and published their findings in the Washington Post on Thursday. "As specialists in election integrity, we find that the statistical evidence does not support the claim of fraud in Bolivia's October election," they wrote.

The MIT researchers said the OAS had adopted a "novel approach to fraud analysis" and that its statistical conclusions would appear to be "deeply flawed."

Comment: Previously: