ROGER KIMBALL: The beautiful people turn their private jets towards Davos.

As the commentator CDR Salamander put it, we have reached the point where “any association with Davos should put an individual or organization under notice of suspicion… This wannabee [sic] gaggle of quasi-oligarchs and autocrat throne sniffers represents everything that is wrong with the human desire for control, power, and to crush the individual for fun and profit.”

Part of the problem is that the fancy people who congregate at Davos have not taken onboard Gertrude Stein’s admonition about knowing how far to go when going too far. It’s okay to swan into the mountain vastness of Davos on your private jet as if you were a Bond villain. But then don’t lecture the rest of the world about “carbon footprints” and “equity.”

I’ll believe global warning is a crisis when the people who tell me it’s a crisis start to act like it’s a crisis themselves. In the meantime, I don’t want to hear another word about Glenn Reynolds’ carbon footprint.

I HAVE THE SAME QUESTION: Russia Says It’s Expanding Military To 1.5 Million. “The question I have is: How is Russia going to equip and train these 500,000 new conscripts when they’ve hardly been successful providing equipment for their previous conscripts?”

THE BIDEN WHITE HOUSE IS AWFUL AT THIS STUFF BUT THE PRESS PLAYS ALONG: Biden Orders a Bacon Burger, Washington Post Wets Itself. “Everyone should be insulted by how stupid this administration thinks you are. This tweet is so f***ing cringe.”

READER FAVORITE: JLHT 40X60 Monocular Telescope High Power Monocular for Adults. #CommissionEarned

HOW TO MAKE WAR SUPPORT UPDATE: NATO Nations Train Ukraine

Illustrative graf:

Britain has used a thousand trainers to train nearly 10,000 Ukrainian troops in the last six months. Britain will train another 20,000 Ukrainian troops in Britain this year. Other nations have also contributed trainers to this effort. The Ukrainians appreciate this training effort and it makes a difference on the battlefield. This is especially true because Russia is sending more troops to Ukraine who have had little or no training. That means the Russians suffer higher casualties and the Ukrainian lose far fewer men.

That last sentence makes a bottom line point.

Related: NATO is providing specialized training on numerous weapons systems. Here are photos of three mentioned in the post. An M2 Bradley — photo snapped in South Korea. A critical defense system: the Patriot PAC-3 (anti-missile missile). Training on the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system has already proved its worth.

KISSINGER: Why I changed my mind about Ukraine.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum via Zoom, the 99-year-old said that although he was against Ukraine joining NATO before the invasion, it was now a desired outcome. “Before this war I was opposed to the membership of Ukraine in NATO because I feared it would start exactly the process we are seeing now,” he said. But now, “the idea of a neutral Ukraine in these conditions is no longer meaningful.”

Ukrainian neutrality was a key demand by Russia during the negotiations that took place in March last year. The 15-point draft included Kyiv renouncing its ambitions to join NATO and agreeing not to host foreign military bases or weaponry in exchange for protection from allies such as the US, UK and Turkey.

The negotiations broke down, with both sides’ positions hardening shortly after.

Neutrality hasn’t worked out very well for Ukraine. Assuming there still is a Ukraine after this war, it’s going to be part of some defensive alliance, whether that’s a grouping of NATO and non-NATO countries in Eastern Europe, or NATO itself.

ELIMINATIONIST BEHAVIOR: Texas A&M med school removes photos of white male alumni to show commitment to diversity.

AL GORE: LUNATIC.

Somebody help this man. Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual wankfest in Davos, Switzerland, the inventor of the internet and the scourge of massage therapists everywhere went on an unhinged rant that tells you all you need to know about the psychosis currently afflicting politicians all over the world. Gesticulating wildly, his face reddening, his voice rising, the former vice president of the United States became a man in the deadly grip of a panicked, violent, superstitious reaction to… the weather.

A decent human being would be ashamed to show his face in public ever again after this embarrassing display of childish, Thunbergian pique, but in front of the unctuous barking seals who make up the attendees at Klaus Schwab’s Klubhaus Gore was greeted with whoops and cheers for his messianic fervor. The cultish behavior of the so-called global elites was never more in evidence, a perverse clerisy of crackpots in charge of a global suicide sect.

Sanctimonious, smug, silly, and stupid. Also very, very dangerous. Be sure to watch the whole thing to see the true face of “climate” activists, whose goal is nothing short of the destruction of the fossil fuel industry, the reduction of the civilized way of life, and the political capture of Western governments all over the planet in order to install their punitive program of oligarchic rule.

Our global ruling class is now a social and intellectual monoculture. Like all monocultures, it is subject to waves of infestation by well-adapted parasites. In this case, those parasites are lefty activists, and what Elon Musk accurately calls the “woke mind virus.” A more socially and intellectually diverse ruling class would have greater resistance, but this is one area where boosting diversity obviously isn’t a priority.

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS: The Biden Classified Docs Special Prosecutor Must Look For Chinese Spies

World War II’s sobering rhyme, “loose lips sink ships,” reminded America that failure to protect national security secrets exacted a blood price. Even minimal negligence could give an enemy enough information to damage the U.S. and allied war effort and kill American soldiers and sailors.

Check it out.

HE FIGHTS: DeSantis Rails Against ‘Biomedical Security State’ as He Bans Vaccine and Mask Mandates.

REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS: The Whitewashing of Antisemitism, a Hatred of Many Colors.

It was a common occurrence on the streets of one of New York City’s Jewish neighborhoods: A man dressed in the long black coat and broad hat worn by Hasidic Jews was walking in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, his two young children in hand, when suddenly a black man ran up behind him and hit him hard on the back of the head.
Incidents like that one last May unfold repeatedly in New York, several of them in December alone – an outdoor menorah in Coney Island vandalized; a father and son wearing yarmulkas shot with a BB gun on Staten Island; a group of visibly Jewish boys chased by a gang firing a taser and shouting “Jews run! Get out of here”; a Hasidic man beaten outside a bus stop in Crown Heights.

Such attacks are part of a larger groundswell of antisemitism that has received wide notice across the country in recent years. But what has not gotten much attention is the reticence to even mention the ethnicity of antisemitic perpetrators unless they are white. It appears that discussion of this ancient hatred is being constrained by contemporary politics. . . .

“When anti-Jewish attacks are due to white supremacy, you get a clear condemnation,” said Bitton, executive director of Americans Against Antisemitism, a Washington-based research and advocacy group. “When it’s committed by others, it’s ‘inconvenient antisemitism,’ because it becomes difficult for some to understand that members of groups that are also victimized by hate crimes are no less capable of committing hate crimes.” . . . Data collected about antisemitic violence in New York, home to America’s largest Jewish population, shows clearly that when it comes to antisemitism, minorities are often, even disproportionately, perpetrators, not victims. Since 2018, according to New York Police Department crime reports, there have been 129 arrests of suspects in violent hate crimes against Jews; 92 of the suspects, or 72%, were members of minority groups. The crime reports don’t do a further breakdown – what proportion of the minority perpetrators may be black, Hispanic, Muslim or something else – but the available evidence indicates that a substantial number of the attacks are being perpetrated by young black men.

All humans are capable of being both victims and perpetrators of hate crimes. To deny that is to be racist.

“SPREADING MISINFORMATION” IS A CCP-LIKE PHRASE: Virginia Tech prof accuses student of spreading misinformation, threatens to delete discussion board posts.

Instead of providing an example of misinformation spread by Jones, Goldensher recommends a course on campus that focuses on the topic. The professor also shares that she has “a commitment to flagging” misinformation.

Jones then pushes back regarding the professor’s threat to remove posts from the discussion board.

“That really concerns me. It’s unconstitutional – plain, flat, simple – against Tinker v. Des Moines,” Jones said. “I’m really hoping that none of my posts ever get removed. That’s something that as a student I can’t tolerate.”

Jones continues by saying, “I’m not going to be limiting my speech. I’m not going to feel like I’m going to be undermined for my speech or mocked. I’m not going to be made a spectacle of in front of the class.”

Punch back twice as hard, as a famous opponent of campus wokeness once said.

CHANGE: Germany says it is no longer reliant on Russian energy. “Germany previously imported around half of its gas from Russia and more than a third of its oil.”

JUSTIN TRUDEAU’S CAMPAIGN TO RUIN CANADA CONTINUES: Maximum two drinks a week, Canada guidance advises. “In Canada, it should be Dry January all year round, according to new national recommendations that say zero alcohol is the only risk-free approach. If you must drink at all, two drinks maximum each week is deemed low-risk by the government-backed guidance. The advice is a steep drop from the previous recommendation, published in 2011. Those guidelines allowed a maximum of 10 drinks a week for women and 15 drinks for men. . . . It’s still an open question whether Canadians – who love their beer almost as much as they love hockey – will be convinced to drink less because of this guidance.”

‘APPLE HAS BEGUN SCANNING YOUR LOCAL IMAGE FILES WITHOUT CONSENT.’ I hope this guy’s mistaken, because I am close to 100% certain that the “child porn” for which claim they are scanning includes pictures like this…

…selected by people like this:

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Just Let the Democrat-Run Hellhole Cities Destroy Themselves. “There’s no remedy for the commie cities. They’re like addicts: they have to hit rock-bottom before they want to get better. Some of them seem to want to get there quickly.”

MORE FROM ARKANSAS LAW: Law professor amends complaint against UALR. “As part of his filing with the Claims Commission, Steinbuch notes prior complaints he’s made about the dean’s actions have been affirmed on two other occasions. Chancellor Christina Drale sided with Steinbuch in the instance of putting former President Bill Clinton’s name on a named professorship, and a university panel sided with him in a case where Steinbuch was told he couldn’t have guest lecturers for his classes when he observes Jewish holidays.”

They’ve been screwing with him for years and he’s demonstrating the chief power of a tenured professor regarding administrators: The power of someone you can’t get rid of to make your quality of life stink.

21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS: Recruitment team unwittingly recommends ChatGPT for job interview.

Like Sky News’s attempt to have the bot write an article about itself, its initial attempts at Mr Taylor’s writing brief were deemed “competent but dull”.

Only with more specific briefs did it improve, the answer which made the final cut having received the additional requirement to write in the style of American author and copywriter Dave Trott.

“It was much better – it was punchier, it sounded more opinionated, and it got shortlisted,” said Mr Taylor.

He added: “When I told the assessor that she had shortlisted ChatGPT, she was slightly crestfallen.

Plus: “[ChatGPT is] dramatising the gap between something that’s really good and something just pretty good.”

“Pretty good” is often good enough.

VOX POPULI, VOX DEI: Supermajority want Biden document scandal probed.

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Facebook, Instagram will lift ban on bare breasts — but only for trans, non-binary.

IT LOOKS LIKE THE THIRD-BEST RESULT AFTER ASKING A GENERATIVE AI TO PRODUCE AN IMAGE OF ARMS HOLDING POOP: Black Actress: White People Can’t Criticize Ugly New MLK Statue.

WELL, GOOD: How Russia’s War Against Ukraine Has Negatively Impacted Europeans’ Views of China.

LIGHTENING DEAL: Monitor Stand, Monitor Stand Riser 3 Height Adjustable. #CommissionEarned

GOODER AND HARDER, SAN FRAN: Office Vacancy Rate in San Francisco Hits an Even Higher High.

Having hit a pandemic-era high of 23 percent in the third quarter of last year, the effective office vacancy rate in San Francisco has since ticked up another 110 basis points to just over 24 percent, representing nearly 21 million square feet of vacant office space in buildings spread across the city, with 5.6 million square feet of space which is technically leased but unused and being offered for sublet, which is up from 5.2 million square feet of sublettable space in the third quarter, and the amount of un-leased and non-revenue producing space having increased from 14.7 to 15.2 million square feet, according to data from Cushman & Wakefield.

And is this just the start? From the comments:  “One wonders what effect the expiring leases will have on office vacancy in 2023-24? I’m told there are ‘a lot’ of leases out there ready to expire in 2023. The ‘other shoe’ are CMBS loans that need to be recast in 2023 and 24. The appetite by the banks and lenders for refinancing vacant office buildings is to put it mildly, ‘lean’. Commercial loan rates have gone from 4.0 – 4.5 to 6.0 & 7.5 % and some watchers expect to see banks going double digits by the end of ‘23. I guess we watch as this slow motion train wreck begins to take shape in the coming months. By the way, office vacancy in the SoMa and Mission have also reached new highs of 45%. Well that was a month ago.”

(Classical insult in headline.)

DEREK MULLER: Modeling and projecting USNWR law school rankings under new methodologies.

Plus: Law School Rankings Revolt Spreads To Medical Schools: #1 Harvard Will Not Send Data To U.S. News. Hey, they want to discriminate on race too.