Poor man: Yesterday, Particular Counsel Robert Okay. Hur launched a report saying that, although 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 is not going to 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 change into a political legal responsibility for Biden, because 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 Occasions.
Biden’s protection: “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 an announcement.
He then convened a press convention to answer the report, saying Hur made “extraneous commentary” about his psychological health and that the report’s authors “don’t know what they’re talking about.”
In fact, throughout those self same remarks, Biden combined up the international locations of Mexico and Egypt, seemingly proving Hur’s level.
All of us lose: Takes abound with how Biden’s age and Donald Trump’s many indictments will play for voters, however one factor is definite: Beautiful percentages of American voters are unenthused by the choices earlier than them, and for good purpose.
it is humorous/unhappy/astonishing that we’re in a scenario the place trump’s a number of indictments had been political advantageous to him, and biden’s exoneration is politically horrible for him
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) February 8, 2024
Trump’s indictments had been advantageous to him within the major; they are not within the basic, which is the realm by which Biden’s exoneration is dangerous for him.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 8, 2024
Scenes from Berlin:
OK, I do know there isn’t any good libertarian paradise, and Germans are repressed, uptight busybodies who put on suede suspenders and eat too many noodles, however Berlin? These commie-hating overgrown artwork college students are stuffed with libertarian tendencies, even in the event you do not select to glimpse it firsthand at their intercourse golf equipment.
Politics is the continuation of conflict, from the East Aspect Gallery:
My son, taking part in with a reasonably sparse East German toy kitchen, on the DDR museum, which showcases what life was like within the nation earlier than the Berlin Wall fell. Train ’em younger that commie toys aren’t as enjoyable:
Robotic portraiture:
Julian Assange love:
Not pictured, however notable: Crunchy Waldorf faculties (Rudolf Steiner based the primary in Stuttgart, in spite of everything, and the choice training mannequin has maintained a robust presence in Germany for years) and loads of public ingesting, on streets and in parks and on the prepare, because it’s authorized to take action (and folks broadly handle to maintain it collectively, maybe as a result of the northern Europeans get pleasure from tidying up after themselves a bit greater than New Yorkers do).
QUICK HITS
- Rep. Ilhan Omar (D–Minn.) opposes minimal parking limits.
- In New York Metropolis, Metropolis Council member James Gennaro, a Democrat, simply put forth a invoice that might ban laundry and dishwashing detergent pods that comprise polyvinyl alcohol over issues that they are contributing to microplastic air pollution. As somebody who each prizes comfort and LARPs as a microplastic-fearing, seed oil–loathing redpilled Joe Rogany hippie, I’m very conflicted.
- If you do not know what this references, you might have made good life selections:
Think about being informed that this was the precise illustration for a information story pic.twitter.com/W8CWiTuobM
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) February 9, 2024
(Context right here and right here.)
— Chris Freiman (@cafreiman) February 9, 2024
- Did The New York Occasions publish this piece, on the Catholic Church’s AI ethics friar, with me in thoughts? Not ruling it out.
- Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was a softball interview in some ways, with a good quantity of preliminary self-aggrandizing from Carlson about his personal bravery. Credit score the place due, although, for the half the place Carlson questioned Putin about his imprisonment of Wall Road Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. A lot to say (Melissa Chen is very good), however that is additionally spot-on:
“He spent first 30 minutes bitching over 800 years of historical grievances..”
Have you ever ever been to an Japanese European bar? You fortunate it solely lasted half-hour and solely lined 800 years!
— Chris Arnade ???????????? (@Chris_arnade) February 9, 2024