2.29 Fintan O’Toole in NYRB: “Trump is America’s biggest comedian. His badinage is hardly Wildean, but his put-downs, honed to the sharpness of stilettos, are many people’s idea of fun. For them, he makes anger, fear, and resentment entertaining. For anyone who questions how much talent and charisma this requires, there is a simple answer: Ron DeSantis. Why did DeSantis’s attempt to appeal to Republican voters as a straitlaced version of Trump fall so flat? Because Trumpism without the cruel laughter is nothing. It needs its creator’s fusion of rage, mockery, and poisoned imitation, whether of a reporter with a disability or . . . of Joe Biden apparently unable to find his way off a stage. It demands the withering scorn for Sleepy Joe and Crooked Hillary, Crazy Liz and Ron DeSanctimonious, Cryin’ Chuck and Phoney Fani. It requires the lifting of taboos to create a community of kindred spirits. It depends on Trump’s ability to be pitiless in his ridicule of the targets of his contempt while allowing his audience to feel deeply sorry for itself. ”
2.28 Mitch McConnell announces he will leave his leadership post. Franklin Foer in The Atlantic: “McConnell worshipped the Senate and was willing to sell his political soul to stay in it and lead it. A master of legislative maneuvering, he helped create a strange new principle in American politics, in which presidents can nominate justices to the Supreme Court only if the Senate majority leader feels like entertaining that idea. He then led Senate 
Republicans through two impeachments and two acquittals of Trump, the second after the January 6 insurrection. In a coincidence that Hollywood would not have allowed in a cheap potboiler script, McConnell announced his plans the same day that the Supreme Court granted a hearing on Trump’s ludicrous legal theory that presidents are unaccountable demigods who can rule at will. McConnell is the one man who, more than anyone else in Washington, made sure that Trump could walk free, run for president again, and then make his appeal for an elective monarchy to a Court whose conservative majority smirks at the idea of accountability.”
2.28 The Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump‘s immunity claim, likely insuring that he will not be tried on federal charges before November. , and “There is no excuse for the court to drag its feet. The issues have already been fully briefed multiple times, and the justices are well aware of both the legal arguments and the stakes. Unnecessary delays risk depriving voters of knowing whether Trump attempted to criminally subvert our democracy when they cast their ballots for president. This is not a question of interfering with the functioning of our democracy — it is one of allowing democratic accountability. ”
2.28 Richard Lewis dies at 76.
2.27 Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Australian ABC’s “Q+A” show: “When you see Trump with Putin, as I have on a few occasions, he’s like the 12-year-old boy who goes to high school and meets the captain of the football team. ‘My hero.’ It’s really creepy. . . .The scary thing is that for countries like Australia and many European countries, we may find ourselves not dealing just with two autocracies in Russia and China, but what is Trump’s America going to look like? This is a guy leading a party that is no longer committed to democracy as we understand it.”
2.21 Ivy comes to visit.
2.19 Nancy Pelosi on MSNBC: “What does [Vladimir Putin] have on Donald Trump that he has to constantly be catering to Putin? . . . I think it’s probably financial, or something on the come ― something that he expects to get.”
2.18 Connor (our benefactor), Shawn and I were among the 79,690 fans who attended the Rangers-Islanders Stadium Series game at Met Life Stadium. What a game! After training 4-1 in the 
second period and 5-3 midway through the third, the Rangers rallied, scoring twice on 6 on 4 advantages in the closing minutes to tie. Then, 10 seconds into OT, Artemi Panerin scored on a great individual effort, and the Rangers took home a big heart victory. Though cold, our worst fears about the weather were not realized; bundling up proved adequate. What fun! Larry Brooks in the Post: “The cavalcade of the history of the Battle of New York was on full display on a football field in New Jersey and through more than a half-century of hockey fratricide, there has never been anything quite like this. . . . “I had to hold back tears just because it was that much of a spectacle,” Panarin said through an interpreter after tracking the puck down off the OT draw and chipping it past Ilya Sorokin for the winner . . . .I have to say the atmosphere was electric and it was something I couldn’t compare anything else to. I’d like to thank the fans for giving it that electric wave of emotion.”
2.18 From one of Warren G. Harding‘s love letters to Carrie Phillips: “If it’s sex you want, Warren G. Harding will meet your expectations.”
2.17 The American Civil War Museum’s symposium on The Impending Crisis. Excellent talks by Richard Blackett , Adam I.P. Smith, Edward Ayers and Gary Gallagher.
2.17 Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post: “To imagine that [Fani] Willis struck a blow for strong Black women, or women in general, is to misapprehend the reality of her testimony and the larger situation. By engaging in conduct that allowed her sex life to become an issue, she played right into Donald Trump’s sexist hands. He consistently reduces women to the level of their sexuality and attractiveness. . . .Willis’s behavior simply reinforces this preexisting sexism. Her Perry Mason-worthy arrival in the courtroom and insistence on testifying were a prototypically Trumpian moment. But Trumpian is the antithesis of what we deserve from our prosecutors. We need prudence, judgment and self-discipline. The wise prosecutor absorbs criticism and moves on. [Nathan] Wade, Willis observed at one point, is “a Southern gentleman — me, not so much.” This may be what lawyers call an admission against interest.
2.16 Alabama’s highest court ruled that a person can be held liable if frozen embryos are destroyed.
2.16 Trump is found liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth, and ordered to pay a penalty of nearly $355 million plus interest, an amount that could wipe out his entire stockpile of cash. Trump is also barred for three years from serving in top roles at any New York company, including portions of his own Trump Organization. Trump’s sons receive a two-year ban, and must pay more than $4 million each.
2.16 Howard Chua-Eoan in Bloomberg: “Niall Ferguson’s piece on future conflicts . . .starts out with how Americans — despite recent military misadventures — find it hard to imagine being on the losing side. Here in England, the physical evidence of how close the country came to being engulfed by Axis forces is still visible: the scarred walls of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; the ruins of St. Dunstan-in-the-East; the fact that St. Paul is still standing when it was the target of so many Nazi air attacks. Niall looks at how fiction has envisioned Allied defeat — mainly through Len Deighton’s novel SS-GB. Niall says, “Deighton had come close enough to disaster in the Battle of Britain and the Blitz to make his depiction of Nazi-occupied London entirely plausible. Moreover, he was writing at a time when life in Britain had more than a whiff of defeat about it. Dogged by stagflation, the UK economy in the 1970s was the sick man of Europe.” The country had a resurgence in the 1980s, but many Britons today have a sense that the country is slipping backward. Adrian Wooldridge sees poor choices in the election the UK must hold by January 2025. “Tragedy or farce?” he asks. “Both the ruling Conservatives and the opposition Labour party are doing their best to prove that they’re not worthy of forming the next government.” Meanwhile, the local papers are raising the possibilities of a broader war — albeit speculatively in an indeterminate future — as Ukraine slips into despond, with an increasingly confident Vladimir Putin in Moscow and a feud in Kyiv that’s led to a reshuffle at the top of the nation’s defense establishment. Andreas Kluth has reversed himself on whether the Kremlin’s $300 billion held in foreign banks should be handed over to Ukraine. Yes, it’s time to give it to Kyiv. Amid World War II, London was a city on the edge, not knowing if or when the war would ever turn in its favor. You can see the trauma on walls today — like concrete DNA. But is fate etched permanently into cement? In his “finest hour” speech before the House of Commons in June 1940, Winston Churchill warned: “If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.” Germany’s forces were gathering for their aerial assault on the island and he did yet know how all would end. In Deighton’s alternative history, Churchill is executed by the victorious Nazis. We know what really happened. Around the corner from St. Paul’s and not far from the ruins of a bomb-blasted church is the post-war facade of Bracken House, built in the 1950s and headquarters of our friends over at the Financial Times. Churchill is certainly not a hero to everyone, but the face on the sun shining on that wall is his. Sol Invictus, for now.”
2.16 Aleksei Navalny, Putin critic, dies in gulag at 49.
2.15 A reporter from Sky News referenced Cameron’s article and asked Majorie Taylor Greene to comment on whether she’s an “appeaser for Putin.” Her response: “I think that’s rude name-calling and I don’t appreciate that type of language. . . .Frankly, he can kiss my ass.”
2.14 David Cameron, in The Hill: “I want us all — U.S., U.K., European and other allies — to support Ukraine in fighting against completely unjustified aggression. It is hard to think of a clearer case of one country being invaded by another without the slightest justification. Our joint history shows the folly of giving in to tyrants in Europe who believe in redrawing boundaries by force. I do not want us to show the weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s. He came back for more, costing us far more lives to stop his aggression.”
2.14 One person was killed and more than 20 were injured yesterday in a mass shooting that occurred near the end of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade route. Police said there were 21 people injured in the shooting : eight with “immediately” life-threatening injuries, seven with life-threatening injuries and six with minor injuries, according to CBS News. Children’s Mercy Hospital said it was treating 11 children between the ages of 6 and 15 for injuries resulting from the shooting. Nine of them had gunshot wounds; none were considered critical. Yesterday’s shooting was the 48th mass shooting in the United States this year
2.13 Suozzi beats Pilip, flips the Santos seat on Long Island.
2.13 Molly Jong Fast in Vanity Fair: “Many Democrats responded to the Hur report by completely losing their minds. What if this was like 2016 again? What if Democrats didn’t pick the right candidate to beat Trump? It was like everyone forgot how electable Biden was in 2020. It was like everyone forgot that Democrats have overperformed in every election since the very Trumpy Supreme Court overturned Roe. . . .Now, I understand why everyone’s so anxious; another Trump presidency could be the end of American democracy. But there’s also a reason why Republicans are so obsessed with trying to get Biden to drop out. It’s not because they are concerned about Biden’s mental acuity; it’s because they know that incumbency is a huge advantage and the economy is picking up. (Meanwhile, Trump is trying to look like an incumbent president—while taking credit, somehow, for the stock market’s rise.) Of course, it’s fair to say that Biden is an “elderly man”—he’s said so himself—and at 81, he’s the oldest person to run for reelection. Though it’s not like Trump is young: He’ll be 78 on Inauguration Day 2025, the same age Biden was when he was sworn into office. And Trump has had his share of verbal flubs too. Not to mention, some considered Ronald Reagan, at 73, too old to run for reelection; he won 525 electoral votes. The media’s decision to seize on bad polls, especially around Biden’s age, has ratcheted up Democrats’ nerves for months. Yet polls have been wrong before. Remember the red wave of 2022? Never happened. Biden may not be sexy, but he’s sturdy and he’s running against someone who has confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi. Biden will need to prove to voters that he’s up to the job, but as for the pundit class, he owes us nothing.”
2.13 Dinner with Jeff Burgess at Albany War Room.
2.13 Terrible new from CG.
2.12 Paul Krugman in the Times: “Until a few days ago, I was feeling fairly sanguine about America’s prospects. Economically, we’ve had a year of strong growth and plunging inflation — and aside from committed Republicans, who see no good, hear no good and speak no good when a Democrat is president, Americans appear to be recognizing this progress. It has seemed increasingly likely that the nation’s good sense would prevail and democracy would survive. But watching the frenzy over President Biden’s age, I am, for the first time, profoundly concerned about the nation’s future. It now seems entirely possible that within the next year, American democracy could be irretrievably altered. And the final blow won’t be the rise of political extremism — that rise certainly created the preconditions for disaster, but it has been part of the landscape for some time now. No, what may turn this menace into catastrophe is the way the hand-wringing over Biden’s age has overshadowed the real stakes in the 2024 election. It reminds me. . . .of the 2016 furor over Hillary Clinton’s email server, which was a minor issue that may well have wound up swinging the election to Donald Trump.”
2.12 Zeesham Allem on msnbc.com: “Biden should have exercised responsibility by declining to run for a second term and encouraging a full, competitive Democratic primary campaign. It seems it’s too late for that option at this juncture. Given that his age problem isn’t going away, he needs to proactively take the focus off of himself. Incidentally, the best way he can offset this problem is by doing something he should’ve done a long time ago anyway: backing some sweeping policies for badly needed reform, like “Medicare for All,” that can excite people — especially young people. If Biden can’t be lively, then he should make sure his ideas are.”
2.11 The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-23 in overtime, for the teams’ third Super Bowl win in the last five years.
2.11 Douglas Brinkley, quoted in the Times: “[Las Vegas] no longer has the charm of motorcycle gangs, fringe gamblers and desert drifters. It’s this corporate zenith of mass consumerism run amok. . . .The Super Bowl is a TV commercial extravaganza, a retail mall set up in the parking lots where the game is just one component.
2.10 In Conway SC, Trump says “he told European leaders they had to “pay up.” Then, he said, the president of “a big country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’” Mr. Trump said he asked the other president if the country was “delinquent” in its payments. The leader responded, “Yes. Let’s say that happened,” Mr. Trump said.“No, I would not protect you,” Mr. Trump recalled responding. “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You’ve got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”
2.10 Trump, at an NRA rally: “We have to win in November, or we’re not going to have Pennsylvania. They’ll change the name. They’re going to change the name of Pennsylvania.”
2.8 Biden: “My memory is fine.” Hindustan Times: “`I know what the hell I’m doing!” says Joe Biden, but in doing so botched up again, calling Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi the president of Mexico.”
2.8 Special Prosecutor on Biden: “An elderly man with a poor memory.”
2.7 New York Times: “I feel like the guy standing in the middle of the field in a thunderstorm, holding up the metal stick,” [Sen. Lankford] told reporters last week. A few days ago, he likened the process to having been run over by a bus — and then having it back up over him again.
2.7 Speaker Mike Johnson: “Democracy is messy.”
2.7 The New York Times on immigration reform legislation in Congress : The turn of events led to a remarkable Capitol Hill spectacle this week as a parade of Senate Republicans almost instantly repudiated a major piece of legislation they had spent months demandingA year ago they said, ‘We need a change in the law,’” said Mr. Lankford, frustrated by his Republican colleagues who had been up in arms about the border situation only to suddenly reject the new legislation. “Now the conversation is, ‘Just kidding, we don’t need a change in the law. We just need the president to use the laws they already have.’ That wasn’t where we were before.” The episode left Democrats amazed. “Just gobsmacked,” Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, wrote on social media. “I’ve never seen anything like it. They literally demanded specific policy, got it, and then killed it.”
2.6 The GOP-led House fails to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
2.6 Nikki Haley loses Nevada’s Republican presidential primary to “none of these candidates.”
2.6 A federal appeals court rejects Donald Trump’s claim of absolute immunity in the federal coup case. The ruling emphasizes that Trump is no different legally than any other citizen.
2.6 Toby Keith dies at 62.
2.4 Maria Popova in The Marginalian: “[M]uch of what we think is work at life — all the ways in which we try to bend reality to our will, all the ways in which we clutch at control (which only ever means the illusion of control) as an organizing principle — is in fact an escape from the true work, which is the work of letting go: letting go of the illusion, of the systems of belief and magical thinking by which we fancy ourselves in control.”
2.2 Carl Weathers dies at 76.
2.1 Paul Krugman in the Times: “Once upon a time, a president presiding over our current economy would have been strongly positioned for re-election. But we live in an age of hyperpartisanship, where the state of the economy seems to have much less effect on elections than it did a few decades ago. Indeed, many voters — especially Republicans — seem to base their evaluation of the economy on their politics rather than the other way around. Amid all the good news I’ve just laid out, 71 percent of Republicans say the economy is getting worse, while only about 7 percent say it’s getting better. So I don’t expect Biden to ride to easy victory on the strength of economic success. But the economy is doing well enough that Donald Trump is back to insisting that the unemployment numbers are fake and claiming, ludicrously, that he somehow deserves credit for a rising stock market.”