JEFF DUNETZ: George Santos Isn’t Lying, He’s Crazy.

BRAD POLUMBO: I‘m Gay. Leave Ivan Provorov Alone.

Meanwhile, at America’s Newspaper of Record: NHL Player Says If He Wanted To Support The Gays He’d Be Playing Soccer.

GOODER AND HARDER, SAN FRAN: San Francisco gallery owner who hosed down homeless woman gets arrested, tossed in jail. “Despite her frequently hostile behavior, [Shannon Collier] Gwin said he had a soft spot for the woman and had let her sleep in the entryway of his gallery for multiple days. He had called social services and police in an effort to get her help, but found they let her back out after several days and she returned.”

SANTA FE DA TO CHARGE BALDWIN, ARMORER IN “RUST” SHOOTING FOR INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER: “Baldwin and [Rust armorer Hannah] Gutierrez-Reed will have to make themselves available for depositions. That’s the last thing either need while prosecutors ready themselves for a criminal trial that could put the defendants in prison for years to come. Will it get that far? I don’t have the video of Abrams’ comments, but he raises a good point: this will first go to a judge for a preliminary hearing. That’s usually a pro forma step in most prosecutions, but we can expect Baldwin to fight the indictment especially hard right from the beginning. He has the financial resources for a full-court press, so expect some fireworks sooner rather than later in the hearing.”

JAY LENO’S GARAGE: 1971 Ferrari Daytona Convertible (Video).

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.

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

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.)

YOU MUST WEAR THE RIBBON!! NHL Player’s Refusal to Wear Pride Jersey Sends Liberal Media Into Fits.

NHL defenceman Ivan Provorov refused to wear a rainbow flag gay pride jersey for the Flyers vs. Ducks game tonight (because he is a Russion Orthodox Christian) and what the media is doing to him is the Seinfeld Ribbon scene in real time👇👇👇 https://t.co/QQKdmituL3 pic.twitter.com/sfe0bph5qo

— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) January 18, 2023

CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL: It’s Only Rock and Roll.

What at the time seemed like robust modern ideas about drugs and sex were in large part accidental prerogatives, conferred on the Baby Boom by its demographic might. In his autobiography, Wenner writes of managing his youthful “ambition and rebelliousness.” Youth brings those two things out in everybody. But they tend to be at odds. Elders capable of rewarding ambition do not look kindly on rebellion, and they outnumber the young. Today, for instance, only 31% of the population is under 24. Normally, adolescent rebellions end in a mix of emancipation and humiliation.

It was different for the Baby Boomers. Wenner, born at the very prow of the postwar Boom, turned 24 in 1970, when 46% of the country was his age or younger—an army of potential youth rebels large enough to tip the intergenerational balance. The more stridently youth put forward its demands, the more desperately grown-ups pled for “with-it” interlocutors. So for the early Baby Boomers, the ones born in the first decade after the war and today recently retired, adolescence had a different meaning than it has had for any American generation before or since. For them it was not a time of illusions, exclusions, and sputtering impotence. It was a time of camaraderie and effective conflict resolution that offered a set of best practices to last a lifetime. That is the story of Wenner, Rolling Stone, the 1970s, and the age of rock and roll more generally.

***

Wenner’s autobiography reads like a response to Joe Hagan’s Sticky Fingers, a better-written, more thorough, and more trustworthy life of Wenner published in 2017. Wenner grew up in California to parents who were striking it rich. They started a successful baby formula company before divorcing. His mother moved away to Hawaii when Wenner was in his early teens, telling him, “You’re on your own, Buster Brown.” It was a privileged kind of dysfunction. His father kept a ski house in the Rockies. His relatives lived on Park Avenue. Wenner was shipped to a Southern California prep school, carrying a terrible emotional imbalance: He was way oversupplied with self-importance and way undersupplied with love. He was sexually conflicted. He loved politics. He arrived at Berkeley in time for the Free Speech Movement—a brief outburst at which a bunch of earnest kids sang “We Shall Overcome” to protest the rules for the campus extracurricular-activities sign-up tables, implicitly comparing their provincial spat to what turned out to be the climactic struggles of the civil rights movement. Its standing as a significant historical event is unlikely to outlive the Baby Boom radicals who carried it out.

Here’s my review of Hagan’s Sticky Fingers from 2017, which, as the title implies, dishes up much dirt on Citizen Wenner.

DER APFEL FÄLLT NICHT WEIT VOM STAMM: Klaus Schwab’s Father Ran ‘National Socialist Model Company,’ Exploited Nazi Slave Labor.

Davos frontman Klaus Schwab’s daddy, Eugen Schwab, while the Third Reich was ravaging Europe in the 1930s and 40s, served as managing director of Escher Wyss Ravensburg, an engineering firm that constructed turbines and fighter plane parts for the regime.

While the elder Schwab worked in this capacity, the Nazis awarded Escher Wyss Ravensburg the prestigious title of “National Socialist Model Company” for all of its hard work in the service of the Führer.

To achieve this recognition, Escher-Wyss Ravensburg, under Eugen Schwab’s leadership, utilized Nazi slave labor and prisoners of war in its facilities.

Ravensburg itself, aside from the slave factory, was the site of numerous Nazi crimes against humanity, such as forced sterilization for the purpose of “racial improvement.” But to Eugen Schwab, that was just the cost of doing business with the Third Reich.

You want to make an omelet, you gotta break some eggs, right?

Flashback: Environmentalists are watermelons: Green on the Outside, Red on the Inside. “I call the book Watermelons because they’re green on the outside but red on the inside. After the Berlin Wall came down, the communist movement, the global leftist movement, was left in a bit of a quandary. They pretty much lost the economic argument. They needed somewhere else to go, and global warming has become the great proxy issue. It enables them to achieve many of the same aims as before but under a cloak of green righteousness. This book, although it is about global warming, is about something in fact much, much bigger than that. It is about a global takeover by fascism, communism, call it what you will; their aims are much the same. It is about control.”

JACINDA ARDERN RESIGNS AS PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND.

Flashback: Why Jacinda Ardern’s COVID-19 elimination strategy was doomed to fail. “New Zealand stands as a cautionary tale about the nature of coronavirus: No matter how hard you try to fight the virus by smashing businesses, civil liberties, and lives, the thing always seems to find a way to come back.”

‘ABSOLUTELY INSANE:’ Connecticut Law Would Axe Fitness Requirements for Female Firefighters. Firefighters say Dem-sponsored bill will put the public at risk.

Connecticut Democrats are working to lower the physical fitness requirements for female firefighters, saying that less onerous standards will make fire departments “more diverse.”

A law introduced earlier this month in the Connecticut State Assembly would let women skip the Candidate Physical Ability Test, a timed gauntlet used by fire departments across the country. The test, which only 10 to 15 percent of women pass, requires candidates to complete intense physical tasks while wearing a 50 pound vest. It’s designed to simulate the experience of navigating a fire in heavy gear—and to weed out those unable to do so.

The law, introduced by five Democratic lawmakers, would offer women an alternative test based on “revised physical standards,” with the goal of ensuring that “additional female candidates” qualify for firefighter positions, text from the bill states.

But some firefighters, including women, who have climbed the ranks of their departments without workarounds, say the bill will set merit-based hiring ablaze and potentially endanger Connecticut residents. “If you can’t handle a 50 pound vest, you’re not going to be able to rescue a child from a burning building,” said Leah DiNapoli, a retired firefighter in New Haven, Conn.

“A citizen in need of rescue doesn’t care if a firefighter is white, black, Hispanic, male, or female,” said Frank Ricci, a retired firefighter who served as the president of the New Haven firefighters union. “They care that they can do the job. This attempt to socially engineer public safety positions will only serve to endanger the public.”

As David Frum wrote in his 2000 book How We Got Here: The 70’s: The Decade that Brought You Modern Life (For Better or Worse), about the changing face of police departments during that decade:

Americans over a certain age are often surprised to see diminutive women patrolling their city’s meanest streets. The policemen of their childhood were tall, commanding figures. Have the cops shrunk? Well, yes. In March 1973, the federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration issued an order forbidding any local police department that received federal funds (that is, all of them) to maintain minimum height requirements—the rules disqualified too many women. In 1977, the Supreme Court seconded LEAA by striking down Alabama’s minimum height requirement as a violation of the 1964 act. The federal government lived up to its own principles. In 1971 it waived size and strength requirements for its own police forces. In 1977, New York City acceded to a judicial order and permitted women to apply for fire-fighting jobs. None of the applicants passed the department’s strength test so the judge ordered the strength test made easier until sufficient numbers of women could pass.

Well, better dead than rude, right?

HOW DARE YOU! Greta Thunberg Removed By Police From German Anti-Coal Protest.

UPDATE: Viral Video Of Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Being Detained Is Apparently Staged. “A new video shows Thunberg laughing with men in police uniform in front of cameras before being taken away:”

https://twitter.com/CatchUpNetwork/status/1615471704423424000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1615471704423424000%7Ctwgr%5E379581998c0479d36b0ea9b4ff3e00a6228c4c3e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdailycaller.com%2F2023%2F01%2F17%2Fviral-detained-climate-activist-greta-thunberg-staged%2F

Like John and Yoko in the late ’60s, Colin Kaepernick after leaving the NFL, and AOC during her Green Nude Eel phase, Greta’s got to keep coming up with ways to generate new headlines now that her initial novelty has worn off.

QUELLE HORREUR!!! The worry in Davos: Globalization is under siege.

In 2013, WEF organizers hailed the participation of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as a national leader who understood “global responsibilities.” Of course, Medvedev along with Russian President Vladimir Putin are now all persona non grata in Davos, as well as the coterie of Russian oligarchs and business elites who used to throw some of the most lavish parties on the sidelines of the forum. The war in Ukraine will shadow discussions, with a major delegation from Kyiv, including Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, in attendance.

A huge part of the forum has little to do with politicians or the doom-mongering of pundits. There will be dozens of discussions and events spotlighting all sorts of examples of innovation and collaboration in the private sector, on issues ranging from food security to youth education to forestry (WEF has pledged restore and plant a trillion trees around the world). WEF organizers speak rosily in technocratic jargon of how the forum’s attendees enable “systems positive change” and are nudging the world toward a happier, more sustainable future.

“There’s a cynicism around Davos, they can say it’s a talk shop,” Penjani Mkambula, who works on fortifying grains with minerals and vitamins in the developing world at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, told me. “But there are so many positives that emerge. A lot of partnerships get forged, a lot of work gets done and you sometimes only see the results years later.”

A lot of work gets done in a different way as well: Prostitutes gather in Davos for annual meeting of global elite — where demand for sexual services rockets during economic summit.

UPDATE:

OKAY, GROOMERS: Dallas Kids, Pols at ‘All-Ages’ Drag Show: Learn About Bl**J**s.

The event also had many people gathered outside including some armed ANTIFA, other drag queens and parents with their kids. Most notably were signs that said “protect drag from fascism.”

Antifa, eh?

GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS VISIT WHITE HOUSE; BIDEN, HARRIS CAN’T HELP BUT MAKE IT SUPER AWKWARD:

It was time for the President and vice president to take a photo with their guests.

Perhaps because the average height of the Golden State Warriors is somewhere between 6-foot-3.5 and 6-Foot-5, the president and vice president were standing on a stage. The President didn’t want to block them for the class photo.

He could’ve just stepped off the stage, but instead, Joe went rogue — much like he does with the handling of classified documents — and took a knee. For some reason, this drew a reaction from the crowd like he had just conjured several doves of thin air.

Yes. The bar is low.

But the awkward part was that Kamala Harris refused to do the same, and instead had to be helped off the stage backward by some Warriors personnel in the first row.

Clay Travis tweets, “Kind of surprised Kamala didn’t take a knee.”

Also at the same event: Biden forgets how to pronounce ‘Kamala’ Harris at White House event.

IT’S COME TO THIS: New Mexico State legislature candidate arrested for allegedly hiring people to shoot at the homes of his rivals.

This is very high on the list of things not to do when your run for office doesn’t turn out well. Solomon Pena is a 39-year-old Republican who ran for office in the New Mexico statehouse. His bid was unsuccessful and police say after he lost he hired several men to fire guns at the homes of local Democrats.

* * * * * * * *

Pena apparently had a rough run for office after his opponent pointed out that he had a record as a crook.

Pena’s candidacy came under scrutiny over the summer when Garcia filed a court challenge to disqualify him because he had been convicted in 2008 of stealing large amounts of goods from several big box retail stores in a reported “smash and grab” scheme.

Pena served nearly seven years in prison.

District Judge Joshua Allison ruled that a state law barring felons from holding office unless they are pardoned by the governor is unconstitutional so Pena remained on the ballot.

So this guy wasn’t turned into a criminal by the campaign. He was a criminal who ran for office and then reacted badly when he lost. Finally, he was also a Trump fan which will ensure this story gains even more attention.

Guys, let’s not take that “gangster government” meme literally, okay?

JOHN PODHORETZ: Compute! Compute!

Well, OK, that’s nice, only explain this: Why were said documents in a manila envelope labeled “Personal”? Classified information is, literally, the opposite of something that’s “personal.” Who wrote “personal” on them? Why were they in this office? We don’t know what they are, and we’re not supposed to know. But someone made the decision to hide them in an envelope marked with a misdirection. Trump faces prosecution because his behavior showed intent. Someone had intent here. Who? Why?

Compute! Compute!

Then it turns out that six weeks after the Archives were informed of these classified documents, Biden officials found some more—in his garage in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden was asked about this and said that, you know what else was in that garage? His Corvette. That answer either indicates that the president’s senility is no longer in question or that he has cleverly decided to deploy the concern that he is cognitively challenged, using the idea he’s senile as another form of misdirection.

Now, like Norman the robot trying to reconcile the paradox and failing, mainstream liberals began to shake and sputter.

Biden did it again yesterday: Oops: Joe Biden Just Torpedoed the Left’s Entire Jan. 6 ‘Insurrection’ Narrative.

That’s doubly true for his nonsense about how the defenders of “our democracy” on Jan. 6, 2021 were “outnumbered and in the face of a brutal attack,” but nonetheless, “our democracy held. We the people endured. And we the people prevailed.” The Jan. 6 protesters were not armed. Was there ever really any possibility that they would actually overcome the combined force of, as Joe enumerates them, “the Capitol Police, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, the National Guard, and other brave law enforcement officials”? They had no leader (with the highly questionable exception of Ray Epps), no plan, no goal, no weapons. They were let into the Capitol by police officers who held the doors open for them.

If Joe Biden were consistent and honest, and of course, those ships have sailed a long, long time ago, he would admit that there was absolutely no danger of the government falling on Jan. 6, 2021. The protesters didn’t have F-15s, or AR-15s either, for that matter, and now Old Joe has stated openly that without that kind of firepower, patriots don’t stand a chance against tyranny. But if that’s true, then the Jan. 6 “insurrectionists” never had a chance.

Norman coordinate! Norman coordinate!

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Race to zero: Can California’s power grid handle a 15-fold increase in electric cars?

ROGER KIMBALL: Wheels Within Wheels in the Case of Biden’s Docudrama.

TYLER O’NEIL: Blake Masters Slams Tucson School District for SPLC Curriculum, Warns About ‘Left-Wing Power Grabs’ in Education.

JEFF DUNETZ: Biden’s Rejection Of Martin Luther King Jr’s Legacy. “Yesterday, just by going to a breakfast that claimed to honor the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but run by Al Sharpton, President Biden advertised that he did not believe in Dr. King’s message of Justice and Tolerance. The breakfast was sponsored by Al Sharpton, a man who built his career on hatred and incitement of violence. Thus, Biden commemorated MLK Jr by supporting a man who disregarded Dr. King’s message.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE LAPTOP FROM HELL: Ex-Intel Official Admits He Knew Hunter Laptop Was Real, and That’s Not the Worst Part.

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Prostitutes gather in Davos for annual meeting of global elite — where demand for sexual services rockets during economic summit.