This missed opportunity would become one of David Bowie's biggest regrets. The post The David Bowie and Elvis Presley collaboration that never happened first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

“He changed everything.” The post Bob Dylan’s favourite Jackson Browne song first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Two iconic bands. The post ‘Radio Head’: The Talking Heads song that gave rise to one of alternative rock’s most iconic bands first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

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Despite the pervasive angst among Democratic insiders about the hazards of nominating President Biden for a second term‚ he is all but certain to be at the top of his party’s ticket next November. The only elected incumbent ever denied the nomination of his party for reelection was President Franklin Pierce‚ and that occurred long before the modern primary system reduced party conventions to coronation ceremonies. It’s clear that the Biden campaign plans to win enough delegates during the primaries to secure the nomination well before he arrives at the Democratic National Convention. If they succeed‚ it will be difficult to deny him the nomination. Because there is no credible way to run on his record‚ he intends to slander Donald Trump — and his 74 million supporters — as enemies of democracy. The Democrats made a Faustian bargain with Biden early in the 2020 primary season after Bernie Sanders won the first three contests in Iowa‚ New Hampshire‚ and Nevada. Fearing that the Vermont Senator might win the nomination and lose the general election‚ party elders asked Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) to endorse “working class Joe” in South Carolina‚ where his lead had sunk to single digits. This revived Biden’s campaign‚ enabling him to win the Palmetto State and most of the Super Tuesday primaries. Combined with claims that he planned to serve only one term‚ this cleared Biden’s path to the nomination and the White House‚ whereupon all talk of a bridge presidency promptly ceased. Now the Democrats are stuck with an incumbent whose poll numbers are comparable to those of the hapless Jimmy Carter. The similarities between Biden and Carter are remarkable. Carter’s feckless foreign policy led to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and Biden’s obvious weakness prompted Putin to invade Ukraine. Carter abandoned Iran to the Islamist theocracy of Ayatollah Khomeini and Biden abandoned Afghanistan to the tender mercies of the Taliban. Domestically‚ both Carter and Biden gave us high inflation‚ high interest rates‚ and economic pessimism. Both pledged to restore unity and end political turmoil. In this regard‚ Biden’s record is even worse than Carter’s. As Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson spells it out it in the New York Times: Whatever advantage Mr. Biden held over Mr. Trump on the issue of who would be more likely to bring about order‚ stability‚ and calm‚ it has surely been erased at this point. Indeed‚ many voters have begun to look back longingly at the Trump era. While‚ according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll‚ voters said by a 30-point margin that Mr. Biden’s policies have hurt them personally more than helped‚ by a 12-point margin‚ the same voters were more likely to say that Mr. Trump’s policies helped them. It appears‚ however‚ that Biden’s reelection campaign will ignore such danger signs and rely heavily on the kind of divisive rhetoric that characterized the speech he delivered last week near Valley Forge. Because there is no credible way to run on his record‚ he intends to slander Donald Trump — and his 74 million supporters — as enemies of democracy. This speech was riddled with ridiculous claims such as the following: “Trump and his MAGA supporters not only embrace political violence‚ but they laugh about it.” Biden repeated Trump’s name no fewer than 44 times‚ usually in passages that also included “MAGA” or “insurrection.” This vitriol‚ mind you‚ was angrily spewed by the man who promised us “unity.” (READ MORE: Can Trump Really Win in 2024?) Evidently‚ Biden and his handlers have forgotten how badly the public responded to his notorious Independence Hall speech. Several polls indicated that most voters disapproved of that angry oration. A Trafalgar survey‚ for example‚ found that 56.8 percent said it constituted “a dangerous escalation in rhetoric.” Likewise‚ according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll‚ 54 percent of respondents believed the speech “was an example of fear mongering.” There is no reason to believe the voters received Biden’s Valley Forge speech more favorably. Moreover‚ his semi-coherent delivery reminded the public of another issue that worries Democrats — Biden’s age. A recent ABC report indicates that this is a very real voter concern: Three-quarters of Americans (74 percent) said Biden was too old to run for another term in a survey conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post in September. That number represented a 6 percent increase since May‚ a month after Biden launched his second White House bid … A CNN survey out of New Hampshire — which will hold the first presidential primary in January — found 56 percent of likely Democratic primary voters said age was their biggest concern regarding Biden. The poll‚ conducted by the University of New Hampshire‚ was released last week. Nonetheless‚ despite warnings from respected Democrat operatives like David Axelrod and Douglas Schoen‚ the White House continues to claim that the 81-year-old Chief Executive is still as sharp as ever. Granted‚ this isn’t a high bar to get over‚ but some of their claims fail the laugh test. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre‚ for example‚ delivered this thigh-slapper last summer: “Oh‚ my gosh‚ he’s the President of the United States‚ you know‚ he — I can’t even keep up with him.” Jean-Pierre is unaware that‚ as President‚ Biden wields infinitely more power than any Roman emperor could possibly have imagined. And yet‚ just before his wife led him off the stage last Friday‚ he shouted: “I UNDERSTAND POWER.” That is‚ of course‚ the problem. It is why‚ in the absence of an act of God‚ Joe Biden will be the Democratic presidential nominee for 2024. It doesn’t matter that he can’t do the job. It’s unlikely that he has been doing it for the last three years. But he is surrounded by people whose personal influence will evaporate overnight if someone else occupies the Oval Office. Consequently‚ they will do everything in their power to make sure he gets another term. The plan is to arrive at the Democratic National Convention with enough delegates to win on the first ballot. Then‚ they will do whatever it takes‚ legal or illegal‚ to defeat any and all Republican and third-party candidates. This is the real threat to democracy. The post The Democrats Can’t Disgorge Biden appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Israel is fighting for its life. The Hamas war means that terrorist rockets are still raining down on Israeli civilians. The war may yet spread to Lebanon thanks to Iran’s other main Iranian proxy force‚ Hizballah‚ which has been making minor attacks against Israel regularly. If Iran orders it to go to war‚ Hizballah will do so. If Israel survives‚ it will be no thanks to Israel’s Supreme Court. The court insisted that its arbitrary standard of review was essential to democracy. That’s nonsense. It’s safe to predict that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be tossed out of office when Israel’s war against Hamas is done in the Gaza Strip. Not only will his government be held accountable for its failure to prevent the Hamas attack‚ Netanyahu will be thrown out over his effort to reform the Israeli court system. The instability of Israeli politics‚ and Mr. Netanyahu’s tenuous hold on power‚ is reflected in the fact that Israel has had five general elections in four years. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Goodbye and Good Riddance to 2023) Late in 2022 and in early 2023 there were more than thirty weeks of protests against Netanyahu’s judicial reforms in which hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets. The protesters claimed that Mr. Netanyahu’s reforms would end democracy in Israel. The resistance to his initiatives went so far that some army reservists refused to report for duty. President Biden‚ of course‚ sided with the protesters and some in the Israeli media who condemned Netanyahu’s ideas. In a July 23rd telephone call Mr. Biden pressured Mr. Netanyahu to abandon his proposed reforms. With one exception‚ Mr. Netanyahu’s reforms — some proposed and one enacted — would have enhanced democracy‚ not destroyed it. The one that was enacted has just been overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court. If Israel had a constitution this would have precipitated a constitutional crisis. But it doesn’t‚ so the situation is worse. Instead it has its “Basic Laws‚” some of which go back to the nation’s founding. Israel’s parliament — the Knesset‚ which has only 120 members — can amend the Basic Laws but is hesitant to do so. The current crisis results from the unfortunate combination of several aspects of its government: its Basic Laws‚ its parliamentary form of government‚ its imperial judiciary‚ and Mr. Netanyahu’s government‚ which is cobbled together from several conservative and religious factions. Netanyahu proposed several judicial reforms. One would have enabled the Israeli parliament to overturn any Supreme Court decision by a simple majority vote. Amid the protests‚ Netanyahu dropped that proposal. In a parliamentary system of government such as Israel’s and the United Kingdom’s (from which Israel borrows much of its law) a prime minister is chosen by a parliamentary majority. There are no circumstances‚ like the one we presently have‚ in which one party holds half of the legislature and the other holds the prime minister’s post. Israel’s parliament is a unicameral body. That means that‚ had Mr. Netanyahu not dropped it‚ that proposal would have effectively established the prime minister as a dictator had it been enacted. It wasn’t. Israel’s judicial system is badly in need of reform. Consider the just-reversed change to Israel’s Basic Laws that took away the courts’ ability to strike down any government administrative actions — from cabinet minister appointments to any other administrative action — on the basis that they are “unreasonable in the extreme.” (READ MORE: The Colorado Supreme Court vs. Trump) We’re familiar with most of the standards that judges must apply in U.S. cases. A finding of guilt beyond reasonable doubt is the standard in criminal cases. In some civil cases the standard is the “preponderance of the evidence.” In judging cases against administrative actions‚ the U.S. standard focuses on the abuse of the officer’s discretion granted by Congress. That means‚ for example‚ under the Administrative Procedures Act‚ that the court decides the case based on evidence of whether the administrative act by any U.S. government official goes beyond or abuses the discretion that Congress gave that office (or officer) under a specific statute. That’s a safe and well-established standard of judicial review. It is routinely applied by U.S. federal judges who have many decades of precedents to rely on. The “reasonableness” standard is vague and entirely subjective. Under the U.S. Constitution‚ it wouldn’t last ten minutes. Taking the “reasonableness” standard away from Israeli courts reduced their power to act arbitrarily‚ and it should have stood the test of judicial scrutiny but for the court’s intent to keep its arbitrary power. The “reasonableness” standard gives that Court so much arbitrary power that any judge should realize is too subjective to apply to any case. According to a Reuters report‚ quoting the Israeli Supreme Court’s summary of the case‚ the court said the government in passing the amendment to the Basic Law “completely revoked the possibility of carrying out judicial review of the reasonableness of decisions made by the government‚ the prime minister‚ and the ministers … The court held that the amendment causes severe and unprecedented harm to the core characteristics of Israel as a democratic state.” The court insisted that its arbitrary standard of review was essential to democracy. That’s nonsense. Democracy depends on checks and balances on each branch of government‚ not a judiciary that can act arbitrarily outside the law. This reminds me of the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that former president Trump shouldn’t be on the ballot because he engaged in an “insurrection” without any evidence that he had been convicted of such a crime. Israel’s Supreme Court has set up a conflict between any political administration’s ability to act and the Court’s vague and entirely arbitrary standard of “unreasonableness.” The only way to resolve that conflict would be for the Knesset to pass a law that replaces the “unreasonableness” standard with a real standard by which courts could properly judge administrative actions. Our Administrative Procedures Act could be a model for such a reform. (READ MORE: Biden Is Bankrolling the Ayatollahs) But that would not prevent another judicial ruling to preserve the “unreasonableness” standard‚ which the Israeli Supreme Court could again strike down. It’s unlikely that the Israeli Supreme Court would allow such a new law to stand‚ but it should. The “reasonableness” standard gives that Court so much arbitrary power that any judge should realize is too subjective to apply to any case. The majority of the Israeli Supreme Court is too protective of that standard of review to give it up. Israel will be able to defeat Hamas‚ and probably Hizballah‚ in the ongoing war. Its democratic form of government cannot survive while its courts insist on their imperial power.     The post Israel’s Implacable Court appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.