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Best of the Web: Washington Post: 'Elites should choose president', quietly edits headline after public outrage

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Thu, 20 Feb 2020 04:22 UTC

Comment: Democracy has already died, and the Washington Post helped kill it.

Keep this in mind as you watch the establishment select Joe Biden - a man who is showing signs of literal senility - to run against Trump this November...


Elites Should Run Elections
The Washington Post is taking heat over a Tuesday op-ed authored by Marquette University political science professor Julia Azari, titled "It's time to give the elites a bigger say in choosing the president."

Azari argues that the Democratic party's primary process is overly-complicated and convoluted, and the process of choosing the nominee should instead be placed in the hands of politicians instead.

After outrage ensued, the Post changed the headline to the far less inflammatory "It's time to switch to preference primaries."


Comment: The author of the WaPo article is clearly in the pocket of DNC political machine. That or she's ideologically possessed and spreading her poison where she can in service to a totally bankrupt political perspective.

See also:

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Yellow Vest

Best of the Web: Why I'm voting for Tulsi in Virginia

Daniel McCarthy
Spectator USA
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 22:29 UTC
tulsi gabbard
Tulsi Gabbard: what's not to like?
Four years ago I cast a vote for Bernie Sanders in the Virginia Democratic Primary. It was a triple protest: against a Republican party that I was certain would cheat Donald Trump out of the nomination; against Trump's own waffling on torture and foreign policy; and against Hillary Clinton, the hawkish liberal who at that time seemed the inevitable next president of the United States.

I am, obviously, a moderate swing voter. Since turning 18 my presidential votes have included a Republican nominee (Bob Dole), a third-party nominee (Pat Buchanan), a Democratic nominee (John Kerry), two write-ins (Ron Paul and Rand Paul), and another Republican nominee (Trump). Add my 2016 primary vote for Bernie, and you have an obvious pattern: I'm a NeverClinton, NeverBush voter. McCain and Romney were Bushes in everything but the blood; Obama was not enough of an anti-Clinton even in 2008. (Kerry was lousy, to be sure, but had the advantage of running directly against a Bush.) Bernie and Trump, by contrast, represent a break with the establishment politics of the past 30 years, or at least a serious attempt at one. Whatever their other faults, that is a great virtue.
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Russian Flag

Best of the Web: 'May God bless them': Putin says anti-government activists free to protest... so long as they obey laws

Bryan McDonald
RT
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 12:22 UTC

Comment: Putin's rolling series of interviews with TASS continues. In this episode (#7 of 20, to run until March 26), another masterclass in good governance...


Vladimir Putin
© TASS / Ruptly
There's only one thing able to unite Russia's notoriously divided 'non-systemic' opposition: hostility to Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin. Thus, they may take his faint praise for their activities with a pinch of salt.

Speaking to TASS news agency, Putin lauded the positive contribution the activists make to the life of the country. "May God bless them," the president said. "I feel that these people are essential. After all, you do understand this is not my first day on the job. So, I believe that they are needed very much. I can tell you that they do have an impact on daily life, locally in particular, on a municipal level in major cities, and so on."

He also noted that in any country, a certain part of society will always disagree with the government of the day. However, he advised Russian oppositionists to keep their activities within the confines of the law - otherwise, he warns, streets will burn and chaos will break out. Reiterating that "it is good that such people exist," he mentioned there are "certain rules for everybody to adhere to, even those who like the authorities and those who do not."

Putin also expressed his belief that history shows those who foment revolution, "as a rule, do not stay in power [for long]," with the Soviet Bolsheviks perhaps being a rare exception.


Comment: Interesting how quickly the West voices outrage at Russia's so-called victimization of protestors, yet the state endorsed police brutality Macron's administration has inflicted on the Gilet Jaunes barely registers in mainstream news.

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Tornado1

Best of the Web: 8 dead, hundreds of buildings destroyed as monster tornadoes tear through Nashville, Tennessee - UPDATE: Death toll increases to 25


13WBKO
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 07:56 UTC

Comment: The current death toll stands at 22, according to Fox News. And another 150, at least, were left injured.

UPDATE 5 March 2020 - The final death toll from two powerful tornadoes barrelling through downtown Nashville is 25.

Oddly, tornadoes in America's 'tornado alley' have generally been quiet in these climatically chaotic times, but when they hit...


nashville tornado
© Metro Nashville Police DepartmentDamage after the tornado tore through Nashville, as seen from a Metro Nashville Police Department police helicopter.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency confirmed the preliminary death toll as first responders search the wreckage. The number of injuries is unknown.

One twister hit downtown Nashville, collapsing about 40 buildings around the city. One was a concert venue that had just held an event for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders ahead of Super Tuesday voting.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper and the sheriffs of Putnam and Benton counties reported the fatalities across a landscape littered with blown-down buildings, snapped power lines and huge broken trees.

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Chart Bar

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

Joseph Simonson
Washington Examiner
Tue, 18 Feb 2020 13:05 UTC

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.

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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


Times of Israel
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 10:17 UTC
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:

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Snowflake Cold

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

Mark McLaughlin
Tahoe Weekly
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 15:50 UTC
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.

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Bullseye

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


RT
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 21:44 UTC
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.

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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

David Welna & Colin Dwyer
npr.org
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 07:20 UTC
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

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Bullseye

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

Sophia Narwitz
RT
Fri, 28 Feb 2020 23:12 UTC
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.
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