Fuhgeddaboudit

Biden Will Remember This, Super Bowl Prep

There’s a pile up on memory lane. Robert K. Hur, the special counsel who investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents, released a report exonerating the president. But that exoneration included a political hit job, targeting the Biden campaign's biggest vulnerability: the perception that he's too old for the job. Hur described Biden as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." (You had me at well-meaning.) If nothing else, we now sure as hell know Biden doesn't control the Justice Department. Biden, who should have brushed it off with a one-liner instead responded with an angry press conference that included a gaffe or two. And then the salivating media, suffering from an incurable case of bothsidesism, went into overdrive. NYT (🎁): Eight Words and a Verbal Slip Put Biden’s Age Back at the Center of 2024. I suffer from a notoriously poor memory. Before hosting a dinner party, my wife regularly reminds me of the name of a key guest and adds details such as, "We've know him for more than 20 years, he's been to our house many times, he's one of your closest friends, and he's a longtime subscriber." Though my open Internet tabs have turned my memory to mush, I do remember how terrible the Trump presidency was and I remember what a great job Biden did turning things around at home and with our allies. And he did that long after his verbal miscues became an issue. The Atlantic (🎁): What Biden’s Critics Get Wrong About His Gaffes. That said, this special counsel's report, and the broader response to it, is politically damaging. It's "but her emails" on steroids. But that news came just before the election. These headlines are coming months (or about a billion psychic damage years) before the election. You know who has a worse memory than both Biden and Trump? The electorate. And like it our not, in the end, this election isn't about Biden. Like everything else in today's politics, the election is about Trump. His opponent is American democracy. And don't you forget it.

2

I Can't Contain Myself

Maybe the worst part of the special counsel Biden story is that it forced me to lead with politics on the Friday before my 49ers are playing in the Super Bowl. Their week in Vegas has already included a remarkably bad practice field and a hotel fire alarm. I pretend to be an expert on the news, but I'm actually an expert on the 49ers. The key to the game will be the Niners ability to stop the run. Drilling down, there is one key thing to watch. Can the Niners maintain their contain? For non-obsessives, contain means keeping runners from getting around the edge and forcing them back to the middle of the field. It's been the 49ers' biggest weakness in recent weeks and the Chiefs will test it early. The key for the Chiefs? Same as it ever was: Mahomes. I could list a few hundred other keys to the game, but I'm already late to my tailgate party.

+ The Yahoo Sports newsletter has a good preview of the game. Flipboard has a nice collection of pregame articles. In case you want a commercial preview (though that's like watching a trailer for a movie you know you're going to see), here’s what you can expect from Super Bowl ads this Sunday. Axios takes a bite out of a major controversy. America's divide: Boneless vs. bone-in chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday. I'm a lifelong vegetarian, but anytime I hear the phrase bone-in, I'm for it. Speaking of which, the Super Bowl winning team has been offered a free 'Orgiastic Blowout' from a Nevada brothel. (In this case, I'd settle for Disneyland. Although, it would give new meaning to Bang Bang Niner Gang.)

3

Mountain Doo

"The municipality, which covers most of the Everest region, has introduced the new rule as part of wider measures being implemented. Due to extreme temperatures, excrement left on Everest does not fully degrade. 'We are getting complaints that human stools are visible on rocks and some climbers are falling sick. This is not acceptable and erodes our image.'" Mount Everest: Climbers will need to bring poo back to base camp.

4

Weekend Whats

What to Watch: Expats starring Nicole Kidman is an excellent series on Prime. It features great cinematography of Hong Kong (where it's not being shown).

+ What to Doc: A cool look back at the night Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones pulled off an amazing feat. Getting the biggest stars in the world together to record We Are the World. The Greatest Night in Pop. As a bonus, watch the documentary Quincy. From Sinatra, to Thriller, to Hip Hop, this guy did it all.

5

Extra, Extra

Border Patrol: "The biggest spectacle in Washington this week was the unraveling of an immigration deal in Congress, a border security bill that Republicans pushed for, only to turn against it because former President Donald Trump didn’t want any legislation that might help President Biden stay in the White House this fall. But more complicated and consequential is what’s been happening on immigration far from Washington." Vox: 7 questions about migration and the US-Mexico border, answered.

+ This Comes from the Top: The biggest real news to come out of the Biden memory press conference was when he called Israel's response in Gaza, "Over the top." That criticism is unlike to move Bibi. "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed the military to plan for the 'evacuation of the population' from Rafah alongside the defeat of Hamas in that southern Gaza city." Here's the latest from CNN.

+ Tough Love: "The truth is that Trump, for all of his tough-guy posturing, spent most of his career failing to push people around and bend them to his will. That is, until he started dealing with Republican politicians." McCay Coppins in The Atlantic (🎁): Why Republican Politicians Do Whatever Trump Says. (It's the question of our era.)

+ Cost of Climate: "That enormous sum is the estimated cost of the damage from the atmospheric river that’s been pummeling California since Sunday—after a previous atmospheric river deluged the state last week." When Rain Costs $11 Billion.

+ T Rex: Sam Altman wants to raise up to $7 trillion for his new AI chip project. Yes, that's a T for trillion. (I asked ChatGPT how to respond. It suggested I start with, "Wow, $7 trillion is quite ambitious!")

+ The One Percent: "By arresting more than 1% of his country’s population, President Nayib Bukele, who won reelection to a second five-year term Sunday, is trying to break the chain of violence that has ravaged El Salvador for decades. But many worry that debilitating poverty, long-term trauma and government failures to protect their children could instead fuel a future wave of gang warfare."

+ Omar Listenin': Hawaii Supreme Court quotes "The Wire" in ruling on gun rights: "The thing about the old days, they the old days."

6

Feel Good Friday

"How the cartoonist Raina Telgemeier, the author of Smile, Sisters, and Guts, turned the anxious kid into a hero for the 21st century." The Atlantic (🎁) The Magic of Raina Is Real. (I recently had dinner with her and I can confirm.)

+ "Heyward’s passion for giving back began publicly in 2014 with the creation of The Heyward House. The program benefits underprivileged children and their families through a variety of programs, with an emphasis on fighting hunger, combating cancer, encouraging childhood literacy and providing support for students and teachers. The organization also launched Craig’s Closet, named in his late father’s honor, which provides free business attire for interviews, formal events, internships and more." Steelers’ Cam Heyward named Walter Payton Man of the Year.

+ Getting bummed? Here's a video series that might help. An Optimist’s Guide to the Planet, a series that "captures Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s search for people across the globe who are helping drive humanity toward a brighter, more sustainable future." (I'd settle for an optimist's view on my open tabs.)

+ Reversal: Guinness awards record to French man who made Eiffel Tower from matchsticks.

+ Summer McIntosh ends Katie Ledecky’s 13-year win streak in 800m freestyle. The win is something else. But that win streak is beyond comprehension. Seriously, consider this: "Ledecky, the three-time defending Olympic champion in the 800m and one of the most dominant swimmers in the sport’s history, owned the top 29 times ever in her trademark entering Thursday’s race."

+ WaPo (🎁): At 116, She Has Outlived Generations of Loved Ones. But Her Entire Town Has Become Family.

+ One big benefactor of the AI boom: The tiny island of Anguilla.

+ There is such thing as a free lunch. And people are in favor of it. Free school meals overwhelmingly popular with voters, survey finds.