At the Saturday Night Café...

... you can write about whatever you want.

"Here’s the [Hur] report’s biggest revelation: Biden held on to classified top-secret national-security documents..."

"... after he left the vice-presidency, and he did it intentionally. This was no accident. Biden had those documents for this specific reason: He believed he had been right on American policy in Afghanistan (and that President Barack Obama had been wrong), and he wanted to paint himself as the visionary hero (and Obama as the heel) in the historical narrative. That’s why Biden shared some of their contents with his ghostwriter — though Hur acknowledges that Biden may have disclosed that classified information inadvertently, citing Biden’s 'lapses in attention and vigilance.' Here’s the single most important piece of evidence in Hur’s report: In a recording made by the ghostwriter in February 2017 — a month after Biden left the vice-presidency — Biden says he had 'just found all the classified stuff downstairs.'...  He kept those sensitive documents and said nothing for five more years. Not until 2022 — after the FBI executed its search warrant on Trump at Mar-a-Lago — did Biden’s people alert the authorities...."

Writes Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor, in "The Real Biden Documents Scandal (It’s Not the Old-Man Stuff)" (NY Magazine).

In an alley next to the Palace Güell in Barcelona, Spain...

... my son Chris photographs that mural and this poster....

A closer look:

10 pages?!!

I'm reading "75 Hard Has a Cultish Following. Is It Worth All the Effort?/Thousands of people each year partake in the 75-day program meant to build 'mental toughness,' according to its creator, but health experts caution the program may be too rigid and intense" (NYT).

Two 45-minute daily workouts. One gallon of water. 10 pages of a nonfiction book. A diet. No “cheat meals” or alcohol. For 75 days. And if you mess up, you have to start from the beginning.

Sound like a lot? It’s supposed to be. The program, called 75 Hard, is meant to build mental toughness. Some say that rigidity is what makes it great, and others say that makes it problematic...

How do you get 10 pages of a nonfiction book as a grueling challenge? That's just sad. That should be part of a program called 75 Easy. Two 5-minute daily workouts. One quart of water. Only one drink and one dessert per day. For 75 days.

"Aleksei A. Navalny’s political allies on Saturday confirmed his death...."

The NYT reports.

Kira Yarmysh, Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, said in a statement on X that Russian investigators had transferred Mr. Navalny’s body from a penal colony in the Arctic to the nearby town of Salekhard, where it is being examined....

In their statement about his death, Russian prison authorities said that its causes were “being determined.” Local investigators said that they launched a “procedural check” into Mr. Navalny’s death....

"In recent years, I’ve come to believe that the decision to treat the pacing of cognitive jobs like manufacturing jobs was a mistake."

"We seemed to have forgotten that life in the mills and factories was miserable.... And yet, as more of us shifted into the comparable comfort of office buildings, we carried over the same flawed model forged on the factory floor.... The process of producing value with the human brain — the foundational activity of many knowledge sector roles — cannot be forced into a regular, unvarying schedule...."

Writes Cal Newport, in "To Cure Burnout, Embrace Seasonality" (NYT).

"In the real world, Mr. Trump is a former president who lost an election and has been denying it ever since."

"In the dock, he is a defendant required to submit to the proceedings of law. He is a courtroom sketch, rendered in two shaky dimensions, with hooded eyes and a glum look. But outside the court, he recasts himself as the defiant fighter. Appearing on camera at his own properties, arrayed in flags, he is in control. He is vested with authority. He is, the set dressing seems to suggest, still the president. His appearances may be inaccurate or irrelevant or unhelpful to his legal defense. But they are forceful, a perception he always sought...."

Writes James Poniewozik in "For Donald Trump, the Recriminations Will Be Televised/The former president’s trials aren’t being aired. That isn’t stopping him from turning them into a political reality show" (NYT).

If tomorrow all his things were gone he'd worked for all his life, and he had to start again, with just his children and his wife, he'd thank his lucky stars to be living here today, because the flag still stands for freedom, and they can't take that away....

Sunrise — 6:44.

"Trump Ordered to Pay $355 Million and Barred From New York Business."

"The ruling in Donald J. Trump’s civil fraud case could cost him all his available cash. The judge said that the former president’s 'complete lack of contrition' bordered on pathological."

The NYT reports.

"One thing Mr. Trump likes about a 16-week federal ban on abortions is that it’s a round number. 'Know what I like about 16?'..."

"... Mr. Trump told one of these people, who was given anonymity to describe a private conversation. 'It’s even. It’s four months.' When discussing prospective vice-presidential candidates, Mr. Trump often asks whether they are 'OK on abortion.' He is instantly dismissive when he hears that a Republican doesn’t support 'the three exceptions.'"

From "Trump Privately Expresses Support for a 16-Week Abortion Ban/In supporting a 16-week ban with exceptions, Donald Trump appears to be trying to satisfy social conservatives who want to further restrict abortion access and voters who want more modest limits" (NYT)(free access link).

The 3 exceptions are when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest and when it is necessary to save the life of the mother. 

"In a Fox News town-hall event in January, a week before the Iowa caucuses, a socially conservative voter asked Mr. Trump to 'reassure me' that he would protect 'every person’s right to life, without compromise.' Mr. Trump declined to reassure her. 'I love where you are coming from,' he told the voter. 'But we still have to win elections. And they have used this — you know, we have some great Republicans and they are great on the issue, and you would love them on the issue. And a lot of them have just been decimated in the election.'"

"For those who generally have faith in Willis, she was understandably enraged and gave a master class in how to defend oneself in a public setting."

"For others, her protestations were over the top. Even so, the fact that there was even a hearing into Willis and whether she has a financial conflict of interest in the case was a windfall for Trump. Obviously, it would be an enormous boon for him if Willis or the entire Fulton County district attorney’s office is disqualified. But even if neither Willis nor her office is disqualified and her office is allowed to continue prosecuting this case, the damage done to the public’s perception of the case is incontrovertible...."

From "Fani Willis just gave Donald Trump exactly what he wants/The fact that there was even a hearing into Willis' alleged financial conflict of interest is great news for defendant Trump" (MSNBC).

That's MSNBC, take note.

"It will also be a chance for her to prove herself on the world stage in an election year in which her running mate, President Biden, faces questions about his age."

"While no one in the White House would say this too openly, Ms. Harris’s challenge in the campaign is to demonstrate that she is up to the job so that voters will not worry about re-electing an 81-year-old president who would be 86 at the end of a second term."

From this NYT front-page piece:

 

I'd like to see her handle herself answering tough questions, not merely delivering the scripted platitude in the subheadline — "global partnerships are critical to U.S. security, not a burden to be lightly discarded."

"We have no reason to believe state propaganda. If this is true, then it’s not 'Navalny died,' but 'Putin killed Navalny,' and only that."

Said Leonid Volkov, Aleksei A. Navalny’s longtime chief of staff, quoted in a NYT article that seems to need a better headline, "Aleksei Navalny, Putin Critic, Dies in Prison, Russian Authorities Say/The opposition leader, who was poisoned in 2020, had spent months in isolation" (NYT).

What good would it do Putin to lie about this? Does the NYT know that it's not a lie? What good would it do the NYT to report this as a fact if it were not verified?

Also in the NYT:

"More of our children want to explore, learn about, challenge, change, or move inside and outside the bounds of masculinity and femininity."

"Many kids seem to get that with increased access to an evolving gender spectrum, more people can experience more joy. In the trans community, I’ve heard this idea described as 'genderful.'"

Said Joji Florence, founder of the proposed Miss Major Middle charter school, quoted in "Proposed NYC ‘trans’ and ‘queer’ charter school would encourage 9-year-olds to ‘explore their gender’: ‘Indoctrinating’" (NY Post).

There's also this from evolutionary biologist Colin Wright: "If you’re a parent who doesn’t know much about gender ideology and you hear that a kid can be themselves, not judged, it looks so progressive and fantastic. It sounds really good. These parents probably think the school is about just being yourself, free to be you and me, but it’s absolutely not what’s happening. They’re saying you can’t just be an effeminate boy and masculine girl. It’s saying, 'If you’re an effeminate boy, you’re actually a girl.'"

How does he know that?

Today's garnering.

I was reading "Vera Wang, 74, flaunts age-defying appearance in hooded gown at the BAFTA Gala 2024" —in the NY Post (and marveling at the photographs) — when I encountered that word:

"The fashion designer, whose impressive appearance at 74 years old continues to garner attention, arrived at London’s swanky Peninsula Hotel in a stunning white gown."

Others may get attention, but Vera Wang garners attention. The comments over there are funny. No one seems to agree that she has defied age.

By the way, did the Post get the flaunt/flout distinction right? Yes. She may be flouting age, but she's flaunting age defiance.

"You are dead to me. Please get off Twitter and just stay on Substack."

Tweeted Elon Musk at Matt Taibbi, reported at Mediaite.