Sunrise — 7:10.

"I stopped my hormone regimen because I had doubts about the idea of marrying a straight man, since they’re generally less funny than gay men."

"However, I continued to have access to prescription estrogen, and would dabble for months at a time when I felt I wanted to mix things up. If this lifestyle sounds irresponsible or unsustainable, then this is because we operate within a conception of identity that forces us to conform to the same systems that privilege heterosexuality as the norm. Unfortunately, when it comes to gender-affirming care, it is indeed political, as long as we continue to treat people like they’re 'born this way' and therefore only valid insofar as they satisfy a standard of biological determinism. It’s political because politics should be able to account for lives that inevitably twist and turn and proceed, unbidden by convention or expectation. I never detransitioned, I just kept transitioning...."

From one of nine letters to the NYT — free link here — responding to the article "As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do," which I blogged here.

"Mr. Biden’s voice has grown softer and raspier, his hair thinner and whiter. He is tall and trim but moves more tentatively..."

"... than he did as a candidate in 2019 and 2020, often holding his upper body stiff, adding to an impression of frailty.... Mr. Trump, by contrast, does not appear to be suffering the effects of time in such visible ways. Mr. Trump often dyes his hair and appears unnaturally tan. He is heavyset and tall, and he uses his physicality to project strength in front of crowds. When he takes the stage at rallies, he basks in adulation for several minutes, dancing to an opening song, and then holds forth in speeches replete with macho rhetoric and bombast that typically last well over an hour, a display of stamina. 'It is the perception of how you communicate,' said Carol Kinsey Goman, a speaker and coach on leadership presence. 'When Trump makes those kinds of faux pas, he just brushes it off, and people don’t say, "Oh, he’s aging." He makes at least as many mistakes as Joe Biden, but because he does it with this bravado, it doesn’t seem like senility. It seems like passion.'"

From "Why the Age Issue Is Hurting Biden So Much More Than Trump/Both Donald J. Trump and President Biden are elderly men. But voters are much less likely to worry that Mr. Trump is too old to serve" (NYT).

Bedbugs and cat juice.

From "The ‘Unthinkable’ New Reality About Bedbugs/Another, much stronger species is headed north" (The Atlantic):

Bedbugs can survive a year or more without feeding. About as big as flattened apple seeds, they squeeze into tiny cracks in walls or in the joints of bed frames during the day; they crawl out at night, attracted by a sleeper’s exhaled carbon dioxide and body warmth. At the turn of the 20th century, an estimated 75 percent of homes in the U.K. contained bedbugs. Bizarre prescriptions for remedies have circulated down the years, including a recipe for “cat juice” in a pest-control guide from 1725. The formula called for suffocating and skinning a cat, roasting it on a spit, mixing the drippings with egg yolk and oil, and smearing the concoction into crevices around the bed....

"'No reasonable prosecutor': remember him? He’s back! No, not James 'Higher Loyalty' Comey. He’s sitting in a corner somewhere..."

"... counting his doubloons. But like some inky creatures of the deep, he emitted lots of spawn. They’re maturing now and taking after dear old dad. Remember the original sitcom. Despite the best efforts of every one from the country’s 'intelligence' chiefs to its fawning media, news emerged that Hillary Clinton had essentially run the State Department from an insecure server in her home. On that server, it transpired, there were thousands of classified documents (along, of course, with yoga routines and plans for her daughter’s wedding). Presented with a subpoena to turn in the classified docs — there were some 30,000 of them. Hillary simply BleachBit the lot and dared Comey to do something about it. He didn’t, of course. 'No reasonable prosecutor,' you see would pursue such a case. Now James Comey’s spiritual heir has strode into the limelight. Meet Robert Hur...."

Writes Roger Kimball, in "The Justice Department won’t prosecute Biden? Color me shocked/Don’t we have trials precisely to establish the guilt or innocence of a defendant?" (The Spectator).

"The White House announced that Joe Biden would deliver remarks at 7.45pm – giving the press just 23 minutes to prepare...."

"As it happened, many White House correspondents were at a meeting near the Watergate building about a mile and a half away. The Guardian was among four who jumped in a car, raced across town and sprinted up sedate Pennsylvania Avenue, greeting the Secret Service in a breathless and disheveled state. Perhaps the press were about to witness history. Was Biden set to announce peace in the Middle East or Ukraine? Was this his Bin Laden moment, a military strike that killed a top terrorist leader? Or after a devastating justice department report said his memory is shot due to old age, was he about to do a Lyndon B Johnson and announce he is not seeking re-election?"

Writes David Smith, on The Guardian, in "Biden was in a fighting mood for surprise speech – but he didn’t win/The president insisted he ‘put the country back on his feet’, but a last-minute fumble provided more fodder to his detractors."

"Do you think if there were a new administration... you would be able to reestablish communication with the US government?"

"Or does it not matter who the president is?"

Tucker Carlson asked Vladimir Putin.

Putin's answer: "It is not about the leader. It is not about the personality of a particular person. I had a very good relationship with say, Bush. I know that in the United States he was portrayed as some kind of a country boy who does not understand much. I assure you that this is not the case. I think he made a lot of mistakes with regard to Russia, too.... [T]he decision... to open the NATOs doors for Ukraine... happened during his presidency. He actually exercised pressure on the Europeans. But in general, on a personal, human level, I had a very good relationship with him. He was no worse than any other American or Russian or European politician. I assure you he understood what he was doing as well as others. I had such personal relationship with Trump as well. It is not about the personality of the leader. It is about the elite’s mindset. If the idea of domination at any cost based also on forceful actions dominates the American society, nothing will change; it will only get worse...."

Notice that Putin chose which former Presidents to bring up, and he brought up George W. Bush and Trump. Nowhere else in the interview is Trump mentioned by name. Carlson's "if there were a new administration" implies Trump, but Putin's answer refers to Trump in the past. So, Putin, invited to take a position on the American election, chose to distance himself. And yet he did say he had a "personal" and "human level" relationship with Trump.

"Mr. Biden’s performance at his news conference on Thursday night was intended to assure the public that his memory is fine and argue..."

".... that Mr. Hur was out of line; instead, the president raised more questions about his cognitive sharpness and temperament, as he delivered emotional and snappish retorts in a moment when people were looking for steady, even and capable responses to fair questions about his fitness.... [T]he stakes in this presidential election are too high for Mr. Biden to hope that he can skate through a campaign with the help of teleprompters and aides.... "

Writes The New York Times Editorial Board, in "The Challenges of an Aging President."

The Board recommends that Biden get out there interacting with voters and journalists, in spontaneous and unscripted settings, town halls and news conferences. The Board refrains from speculating that the reason Biden eschews opportunities to reassure us is that it wouldn't be reassuring.

For the second year in a row, Mr. Biden has even refused to do an interview before the Super Bowl, a practice that allowed presidents to speak to Americans informally before the country’s largest sporting event of the year, unpersuasively citing a desire to give the public a break from politics.

Give me a break, man.

Sunrise — 7:06, 7:07.

Putin: "the Poles overplayed their hand and forced Hitler to start World War II with them."

I at first thought this must be a mistranslation. But after watching video, I can confirm Putin really said it (I am native speaker of Russian): “the Poles overplayed their hand and forced Hitler to start World War II with them.” https://t.co/K0XSWPMwA8

— Ilya Somin (@IlyaSomin) February 9, 2024

"Nine in 10 parents rate their relationships with their young adult children as good or excellent, and so do eight in 10 young adults."

"Rather than feeling worried or disappointed about how things are going in their children’s lives, eight in 10 parents say they feel proud and hopeful. 'These parents, who are Gen X, are more willing to say, "Hey, this is good, I like these people, they’re interesting, they’re fun to be with,"' said Karen L. Fingerman, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies adults’ relationships with their families. As for the adult children, she said, 'You get advice from a 50-year-old with life experience who is incredibly invested in you and your success.'... In previous research, parents often expressed ambivalence about their continued involvement in their adult children’s lives. But the Pew study suggests that has changed, Professor Fingerman said, perhaps a sign they have come to embrace it."

From "Parents Are Highly Involved in Their Adult Children’s Lives, and Fine With It/New surveys show that today’s intensive parenting has benefits, not just risks, and most young adults seem happy with it, too" (NYT).

Word that doesn't appear in the article: "helicopter."

All the women Trump might pick for VP fit "the demeaning gendered stereotypes Trump basks in..."

"... whether it’s the steely, stilettoed vixen or the no-nonsense broad. Of the first sort, [Kristi] Noem and [Kari] Lake both look the part, which has always been top of mind to Trump, who told his female staffers to 'dress like women.' They’re impeccably groomed in the ready-for-TV mold of Ivanka Trump and Kellyanne Conway. Of the second type, there’s Mean Girl Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon fantasist whose relationship to the truth rivals that of the election lawyer turned criminal Sidney Powell, and the forceful but unthreatening Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Yes, these are all distasteful stereotypes...."

Writes Pamela Paul, in "Please Let It Not Be a Woman" (NYT).

Why is it okay to articulate these stereotypes... and what's so bad about them? Anyone who hopes to be seen as a possible President must be steely and no-nonsense. What's "demeaning"? These adjectives only sound demeaning when attached to the nouns the New York Times writer chose: "vixen" and "broad." Those terms are used to divide the women into 2 groups based on looks. And Trump is supposed to be the sexist here? The writer is expressing contempt for women if they glam up and if they don't. And that's in a column expressing the hope that all the female options are rejected.

By the way, did you know that "vixen," referring to a human woman, originally meant a quarrelsome shrew? 

"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 Oct. 8 and 9 of last year..."

"... even though Israel had just been attacked on Oct. 7 and I was in the middle of handling an international crisis. I just believed that’s what I owed the American people.”

Said President Biden's written statement, quoted in "Special Counsel’s Report Puts Biden’s Age and Memory in the Spotlight/After an inquiry concluded that President Biden was 'well-meaning' but had 'a poor memory,' he angrily fired back in an attempt at political damage control" (NYT).

And president’s lawyers wrote: "It is hardly fair to concede that the president would be asked about events years in the past, press him to give his ‘best’ recollections and then fault him for his limited memory. The president’s inability to recall dates or details of events that happened years ago is neither surprising nor unusual."

The "elderly man with a poor memory" holds a press conference to demonstrate that he is not "an elderly man with a poor memory,"

After a special counsel found Biden "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials" and called him an "elderly man with a poor memory," Biden held a brief — but angry and incoherent — press conference.

It did not go well, so we're sharing it in its entirety: pic.twitter.com/ncstumQj13

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 9, 2024

If you click on the image, you'll see it goes to RNC Research, at Twitter, where the text is:

After a special counsel found Biden "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials" and called him an "elderly man with a poor memory," Biden held a brief — but angry and incoherent — press conference. It did not go well, so we're sharing it in its entirety....

I don't agree that Biden seems "angry and incoherent." When I watched a partial clip last night, I had the impression that "[i]t did not go well," but sitting through the whole thing now, I'd say it's not that bad. It's typical Biden.

Sunrise — 7:00, 7:15, 7:16, 7:21.

Tucker Carlson interviews Vladimir Putin.

Ep. 73 The Vladimir Putin Interview pic.twitter.com/67YuZRkfLL

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 8, 2024