NEWS YOU CAN USE: You Don’t Have To Be A Jerk To Succeed In Law And Life.

CHIEFS WIN THE SUPER BOWL. Is there anything Taylor Swift can’t do?

ATTACK AND DEFENSE: My latest Substack essay is on the prospects for a 10/7 attack on America, and what to do about them.

As always, if you like these essays, please sign up for a paid subscription.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Yes, really: Disinvited from California Super Bowl party just for cheering the Chiefs. “We’ve lost our bloomin’ minds, Part 999: A friend of ours in California was invited to please stay home from a Super Bowl watch party there because he and his wife favored the Chiefs. You know, because this unacceptable allegiance might have made some 49ers fans at the football fête uncomfortable. Comfort is overrated, people, and becoming more so all the time.”

OPEN THREAD: Ring out the weekend.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Polaris Dawn private astronaut mission slips to mid-2024.

WHEN JOBS GO SOUTH: This small New York village made guns for 200 years. What happens when Remington leaves? “Remington is consolidating its operations in Georgia, a state the company says is friendlier to the firearms industry.”

YES, YES I HAVE: “Have you noticed that Michelle Obama was, less than 24 hours ago, up to #3 in the betting markets for likelihood of being the next U.S. President? She was at about 7%. Now it is Gavin Newsom who is #3 at about ten percent. At the same time, the NYT Editorial page, other MSM sources, and Hillary Clinton all seem to be turning on Biden, on the issue of age of course. I would not place too much emphasis on that seven percent number, or that ten percent number, as I suspect there is private information at work here.”

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: New prosthetic hand provides realistic sense of temperature.

I’M SURE THEY WANT TO PULL A TORRICELLI, BUT IT’S TOUGH: Could Democrats replace Biden as their nominee?

Both parties have moved away from the era when insiders in proverbial smoke-filled rooms could be kingmakers at the national conventions, and Biden has dominated every primary he’s competed in thus far. . . .

Still, the DNC Charter does make provisions in case the party’s nominee is incapacitated or opts to step aside, and an anti-Biden coup at the convention is theoretically possible, if highly unlikely. So how would it work?

Biden has said he will remain in the race and there is no indication otherwise, but the only plausible scenario for Democrats to get a new nominee would be for Biden to decide to withdraw.

He could do so while serving out the remainder of his term in the White House, as Lyndon Johnson did in 1968.

If Biden were to drop out between now and August, it would most likely create a free-for-all at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.

If Biden calls it quits before he wins the majority of the Democratic delegates, it likely wouldn’t make a difference. Any new candidate who tried to enter the race would be unlikely to get on enough of the remaining ballots and therefore couldn’t win enough delegates.

Ultimately the decision would likely come down to the convention delegates who were initially pledged to Biden.

It takes a majority of the roughly 4,000 pledged delegates to win the party’s nomination. Under recent reforms, the party’s more than 700 superdelegates — Democratic lawmakers and dignitaries — are allowed to vote only if no one wins a majority of pledged delegates on the first ballot, so their votes could be crucial in a contested convention.

Related: “Jill Biden and his other advisers come up with ways to obscure signs of senescence — from shorter news conferences to almost zero print interviews to TV interviews mainly with fawning MSNBC anchors…. [T]he Biden crew clearly has no plan for how to deal with the president’s age except to shield him and hide him and browbeat reporters who point out that his mental state… is a genuine issue.”

But it is, and they can’t hide it anymore.

It was an issue in 2020 too, but they could hide it. Flashback: The ‘cabal’ that bragged of foisting Joe Biden on us must answer for his failed presidency.

BILL ACKMAN DISCOVERS THE GELL-MANN AMNESIA EFFECT:

I am sure all of us have had the experience of reading a story about a subject you know well and finding it replete with inaccuracies and falsehoods. One then turns the page and reads an article about a subject one knows less well and makes the mistake of believing that this…

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) February 11, 2024

I’ve enjoyed watching him gradually become red-pilled.

OUT: FOLLOW THE SCIENCE, PEASANTS! IN: He Hunts Sloppy Scientists. He’s Finding Lots of Prey.

SELF-DEFENSE: Work With What You Have. I’d like to learn stick-fighting, although I’d rather have a sword cane and give some young punk the surprise of his life.

SPACE: Mars helicopter Ingenuity’s final resting place named after ‘Undying Lands’ in ‘Lord of the Rings.’

BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS: Jessica Simpson posted an ad for milk — and some fans got upset. Here’s why there’s so much drama over dairy lately.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Quitting smoking at any age brings big health benefits, fast: Study.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Couple to Throuple: How polyamory is becoming a ‘new normal.’

There’s certainly an ongoing media effort to normalize it.

FLASHBACK: Homeland Security: Mixed Results.

PUNISHING THE TRUTHTELLERS: Teacher who exposed school’s ‘Woke Kindergarten’ program put on leave.

LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED: UPenn begins turning over documents in House committee’s anti-Semitism investigation.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: NEW: Court Filing Alleges Fani Willis Lied About Start of Wade Fling.

ROGER KIMBALL: Examining the Controversy Surrounding Tucker Carlson’s Interview with Putin.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: White House Report Card: Biden repeatedly shows he’s losing it.

THE PRAVDA PRESS: WATCH: Media Defend Biden After Special Counsel Trashes His ‘Poor Memory.’

A PRICE TO BE PAID: Miffed Musk relocates Neuralink from Delaware after Tesla pay package ruling.