Poor guy: Yesterday, Special Counsel Robert K. Hur released a report saying that, though his "investigation uncovered evidence that President [Joe] Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen," he will not be prosecuted, as "it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him-by then a former president well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."
The report has become a political liability for Biden, as it describes him as a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" with "diminished faculties in advancing age."
"Hur said the memory of the then-80-year-old president was so hazy during five hours of interviews over two days that it would be difficult to convince jurors that Mr. Biden knew his handling of the documents was wrong," reported The New York Times.
Biden's defense: "I was so determined to give the special counsel what they needed that I went forward with five hours of in-person interviews over two days on October 8th and 9th of last year, even though Israel had just been attacked on October 7th and I was in the middle of handling an international crisis," countered Biden in a statement.
He then convened a press conference to respond to the report, saying Hur made "extraneous commentary" about his mental fitness and that the report's authors "don't know what they're talking about."
Of course, during those same remarks, Biden mixed up the countries of Mexico and Egypt, seemingly proving Hur's point.
We all lose: Takes abound with how Biden's age and Donald Trump's many indictments will play for voters, but one thing is certain: Stunning percentages of American voters are unenthused by the options before them, and for good reason.
it's funny/sad/astonishing that we're in a situation where trump's multiple indictments were political advantageous to him, and biden's exoneration is politically terrible for him
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) February 8, 2024
Trump's indictments were advantageous to him in the primary; they're not in the general, which is the realm in which Biden's exoneration is bad for him.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 8, 2024
Scenes from Berlin:
OK, I know there's no perfect libertarian paradise, and Germans are repressed, uptight busybodies who wear suede suspenders and eat too many noodles, but Berlin? Those commie-hating overgrown art students are full of libertarian tendencies, even if you don't choose to glimpse it firsthand at their sex clubs.
Politics is the continuation of war, from the East Side Gallery:
My son, playing with a rather sparse East German toy kitchen, at the DDR museum, which showcases what life was like in the country before the Berlin Wall fell. Teach 'em young that commie toys aren't as fun:
Robot portraiture:
Julian Assange love:
Not pictured, but notable: Crunchy Waldorf schools (Rudolf Steiner founded the first in Stuttgart, after all, and the alternative education model has maintained a strong presence in Germany for years) and plenty of public drinking, on streets and in parks and on the train, as it's legal to do so (and people broadly manage to keep it together, perhaps because the northern Europeans enjoy tidying up after themselves a bit more than New Yorkers do).
QUICK HITS
- Rep. Ilhan Omar (D–Minn.) opposes minimum parking limits.
- In New York City, City Council member James Gennaro, a Democrat, just put forth a bill that would ban laundry and dishwashing detergent pods that contain polyvinyl alcohol over concerns that they're contributing to microplastic pollution. As someone who both prizes convenience and LARPs as a microplastic-fearing, seed oil–loathing redpilled Joe Rogany hippie, I am very conflicted.
- If you don't know what this references, you have made good life choices:
Imagine being told that this was the actual illustration for a news story pic.twitter.com/W8CWiTuobM
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) February 9, 2024
- Not wrong:
— Chris Freiman (@cafreiman) February 9, 2024
- Did The New York Times publish this piece, on the Catholic Church's AI ethics friar, with me in mind? Not ruling it out.
- Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was a softball interview in many ways, with a fair amount of initial self-aggrandizing from Carlson about his own bravery. Credit where due, though, for the part where Carlson questioned Putin about his imprisonment of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Much to say (Melissa Chen is especially good), but this is also spot-on:
"He spent first 30 minutes bitching over 800 years of historical grievances.."
Have you ever been to an Eastern European bar? You lucky it only lasted 30 minutes and only covered 800 years!
— Chris Arnade ???????????? (@Chris_arnade) February 9, 2024
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