DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE GRIFTERS, AND “I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER WORD ABOUT GLENN REYNOLDS’ CARBON FOOTPRINT:” Members of Congress Received 8,000 ‘Free’ Trips, Some From Groups They Gave Tax Money. “Members or staffers took about 2,600 trips to foreign destinations vs. about 5,490 trips to domestic destinations. Half the foreign trips went to just five popular overseas destinations: Israel (939); Berlin, Germany (103); Tokyo, Japan (100); Paris, France (102); and Brussels, Belgium (76).”

I’ll believe global warming is a crisis when the people who tell me it’s real start to act like it’s real themselves, to coin an Insta-phrase. I know most congresspeople are Luddites themselves, but shouldn’t some of their staffers introduce them to Zoom?

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN! Microlino EV, Adorable Two-Seater, Going into Production in Europe.

The bubble-shaped Microlino 2.0 is headed into production in a matter of weeks, despite delays and disruptions prompted by the pandemic. Micro Mobility Systems has revealed that production will begin in March 2022, following the model’s favorable debut at the Munich IAA Mobility show last fall.

The Isetta-styled EV, designed and engineered by a Swiss company, is slated to be produced in Turin, Italy, and to go on sale in Switzerland later this year before a wider rollout in Europe. The two-seater will feature a 25-hp motor drawing power from a choice of three batteries, offering 6.0-, 10.5-, and 14.0-kWh capacities, which are expected to be good for 60, 109, and 143 miles of range, respectively.

Micro Mobility Systems says that it is already producing pre-production examples for testing and process optimization, despite some component shortages. The company projects that the first customer examples will be delivered in April or May. The configurator is expected to go live in February, with the company reporting more than 24,000 reservations in fall 2021.

I need a chiropractor after looking at the above photo, but that’s a body style I’ve not seen for a long time — a long time:

RUSSIAN FORCES ‘FIRE ROCKETS AT SECOND NUCLEAR FACILITY:’ Warning of ‘large-scale ecological disaster’ as missiles hammer Kharkiv physics institute with atomic reactor inside… two days after attack on Zaporizhzhia power plant.

SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST:

● Shot: Q&A: Has the IPCC’s bleak warning of climate breakdown been heard? Report by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said half of the world’s people are ‘highly vulnerable.’

—Headline, the Grauniad, yesterday.

● Chaser: President ‘has four years to save Earth.’

—Headline, the Grauniad, January 17^th, 2009.

● Hangover: Artists must confront the climate crisis – we must write as if these are the last days.

—Headline, the Grauniad, November 12^th, 2021.

● The D.T.s: ‘Humiliating:’ 2004 Guardian Report Peddling Climate Doom By 2020 Frozen Out.

The eco-extremists at the liberal Guardian should realize by now that the internet is forever. The outlet freaked out over 17 years ago about a frosty future thanks to a ridiculously inaccurate Pentagon prediction.

The Guardian published a report in 2004 sounding the alarm bells over a “secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs” and obtained by sister newspaper The Observer. Here was the harrowing message, according to The Guardian: “[M]ajor European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020.”

It’s now 2021, and major European cities are still intact and a Reuters report this year flushes The Guardian’s frets about a little ice age in Britain down the toilet. Reuters trumpeted: “Britain’s climate getting warmer, sunnier and wetter – Met Office.” Travel website Touropia has an updated report headlined, “25 Best Cities to Visit in Europe.” Even the waterway-dominated Venice, Italy is No. 17 on the list. Ouch.

—NewsBusters, December 17th, 2021.

You have to give the Grauniad points for keeping at it, though. And yet, I’m keeping all the lights on; if only to do my part: ‘Promise?’ Illustrated warning of what Washington, DC might look like if climate change isn’t addressed backfires:

(Classical reference in headline.)

AS ALWAYS, LIFE IMITATES SCTV: “Russia Too Big To Be Isolated:” Kremlin On Sanctions By US, Europe.

Is true! Just look how many countries fit into the mighty colossus that is the Soviet Union!

DON’T GO FULL ‘LIBERTY CABBAGE’ ON RUSSIA:

● Russian soprano Anna Netrebko out at the Met Opera.

● Quebec Restaurant removes word ‘poutine’ from menu to protest Putin’s war in Ukraine.

● Stolichnaya vodka rebrands as Stoli to distance itself from Russia.

(Classical reference in headline.)

WORLD WAR III IS NOT ONLY STRANGER THAN WE IMAGINE; IT IS STRANGER THAN WE CAN IMAGINE: Ukraine: Transgender women weep as authorities classify them as ‘men’ who must stay and fight.

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT! Apple investors vote for ‘civil rights audit’ but reject China forced labor proposal.

TWITTER THREAD ON 2020 AND ITS AFTERMATH: “The Democrats saw an opportunity with the emergence of Covid to crush a roaring economy under a president they didn’t like. So they, & their base, did everything in their power to impose crushing restrictions on small businesses…Locking people up at home not only tanked the economy & drove up prices, it completely disrupted the global manufacturing & supply chain that was in place. You can’t just flip that on and off like a light switch.”

Read the whole thing; it’s tough to argue with, based on the healthcare profession’s pivot in the summer of 2020…

● NPR: Dozens of public health and disease experts have signed an open letter in support of the nationwide anti-racism protests. “White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19,” they wrote.

● ‘Did I miss the memo?’: Hospital workers in full PPE applaud George Floyd protesters as they march past.

…And the more recent pivot by the DNC-MSM, such at the Atlantic. The change is subtle, but see if you can spot the difference in tone between the first two and last two headlines:

● Parents Are Losing Their Minds Over Masks in Schools.

—Atlantic headline, August 18th, 2021.

● Mask Mandates Don’t Need to Make Sense.

—Atlantic headline, February 20, 2022.

● Now Is as Good a Time as There’ll Ever Be to Leave Your Pandemic Bubble.

—Atlantic headline, March 3rd, 2022.

● Speech Therapy Shows the Difficult Tradeoffs of Wearing Masks.

—Atlantic headline, March 2, 2022.

As Ace of Spades writes, at the start of a lengthy post on that last headline, “The masking mandates that the corrupt US and state and local governments forced on children, under pressure from the corrupt teachers unions have imposed developmental disorders on children that they may never recover from. The early years of development are critical ones. You don’t get those back. These are critical years of development in which children’s brains are wired to rewire themselves like crazy. Their brains will reconfigure themselves during these years like in no other point in their lives, ever. There is no ‘Do Over’ switch on a child’s formative years.”

OLD AND BUSTED: Asian Murder Hornets.

The New Hotness? Big, Invasive Parachuting Spiders Will Begin To Cover Entire East Coast, Experts Say.

WAS IT OVER WHEN NATO BOMBED PEARL HARBOR? We have a winner! Actress Patricia Arquette scores the dumbest tweet of the week (screenshot):

IT’S COME TO THIS: Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne quitting Los Angeles for UK to avoid soaring tax rates.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: The Video Of The Fired Diane Feinstein Staffer Dancing In Her Office On Psychedelic Mushrooms While Smoking A Joint Is Must-See TV.

Video has emerged showing Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s former aide dancing in her office while smoking a joint and high on psychedelic mushrooms jamming out to “I Like It” by DeBarge after he was terminated from his role last month.

Jamarcus Purley, who holds degrees from Harvard and Stanford, was fired last month from his role as a legislative correspondent at Feinstein’s office, according to Latino Rebels. In an act of rebellion, Purley decided to have one last hoorah at the office.

In the video posted to Youtube, Purley is first seen lounging at a desk with a suit on, beginning to dance as he smokes a large blunt. Purley then pulls his feet onto the chair and begins dancing again before almost falling off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzyYkVqfCbM&feature=youtu.be

Isn’t the real news here that people are still listening to DeBarge in 2022?!

I’M OFF TO FLORIDA TO HUNT THE DEADLIEST PREY OF ALL — THE IGUANA: People are shelling out hundreds of dollars in Florida to hunt iguanas with air rifles.

F FOR FAKE: Orson Welles and Search for the Real Self.

Welles had high standards and he distinguished between what he considers to be a good and bad film. If he didn’t have such discipline and power, he wouldn’t have made films that exude human capability toward greatness. But the questions he poses in F for Fake aren’t that we should doubt Mozart, Beethoven or Picasso but we should think for ourselves, that we should be free of someone else’s opinion about Art. He knows that de Hory and Irving were scoundrels but the immorality of their actions is accidental for what he wants to accomplish. What’s more fascinating than the fact that both forgers are unethical is the idea of authenticity, and whether someone like de Hory was capable of being authentic. De Hory’s masks were duplicating with every fake that he painted, and we have to ask how much will trickery (that has serious consequences) change the evolving person over the course of their lifetime?

For Welles, the search for authenticity in art is the search for the authenticity of the self. Don’t ask him to reveal himself, because as he says in F for Fake, quoting Picasso, “Art is a lie. A lie that makes us realize the truth.” Welles’ concealment of himself is an illumination of the other. By concealment, he lifts the veil of existence and becomes the aesthetical vessel through which we’re humanized and invited to explore what  makes us human.

Welles never intended F for Fake to be his last movie, but sadly, it was — at least until the long delayed posthumous 2018 Netflix release of Welles’ self-indulgent The Other Side of the Wind, shot off and on over many years in the 1970s. As Kyle Smith wrote at the time of its release, “You’d be better off watching instead the movie about the movie: They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (the title refers to one of Welles’s mordant self-observations) explores the relentless, almost purposeful squandering of talent that is the Welles tragedy.”

RULES FOR THEE: NY Gov. Hochul Warns Against ‘Bullying’ Those Who Still Wear Masks.

Related: CNN Wails Over DeSantis Calling Out Mask ‘COVID Theater.’

OLD AND BUSTED: Manned NASA Missions to the Moon.

The New Hotness? Your name can fly around the moon on NASA’s Artemis 1 mission. “You can send your name on a trip around the moon with just a few clicks of your keyboard. NASA is inviting people to put their names on a flash drive that will launch on the agency’s Artemis 1 mission, which will send an uncrewed Orion capsule around the moon and back a few months from now.”

That’s what happens when NASA loses the thread: NASA’s new chief scientist to focus on earth, climate.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21st CENTURY, YOU KNOW: A ‘molecular drinks printer’ claims to make anything from iced coffee to cocktails.

JIM TREACHER: Sure, Let’s Punish Cats and Crippled Athletes for Being Russian. It makes sense if you don’t think about it:

Sure, the Paralympics are being held in a country that unleashed a deadly plague on the world and is currently committing genocide against the Uyghurs. But so what? It just feels good to show that rotten prick Putin what we can do to his disabled athletes. Standing up to those who cannot stand.

Oh wait, you know what else Russians like? Cats. Let’s punish Russian cats!

The 21st century is not turning out as I had hoped, to coin an Instaphrase.

PARTYING LIKE IT’S 2020: Say, has anyone heard from Anthony Fauci lately?

Related: NYC lifts school mask mandate, proof-of-vaccine rules on restaurants, gyms, entertainment venues.

VODKAPUNDIT HARDEST HIT: Anti-Russia Protests Hit Wrong Target.

It gives some idea of the depth of international opposition to Russia’s war on Ukraine when an international brand of vodka is loudly declaring that it isn’t Russian after all.

Following last week’s shocking invasion of a sovereign nation, Russia is increasingly being seen internationally as a rogue state, and Western countries have finally levied economic sanctions against Russia in an effort to make Vladimir Putin see sense. Non-governmental sanctions are also being applied, with retailers removing Russian products from sale – however, not everything is as Russian as it first appears.

Well-meaning retailers across the US and in parts of Europe have been taking vodka brands like Smirnoff and Stolichnaya off the shelves in solidarity with Ukraine, even though those brands no longer have any connection to Russia. Indeed, Stolichnaya went to the trouble of publicly announcing over the weekend that it was definitively NOT a Russian product and was instead a Luxembourg-registered company that makes its spirit in Latvia.

In a statement, Stoli Group said it “unequivocally condemns the military action in Ukraine and stands ready to support the Ukrainian people, our teams and partners. For decades, Stoli Group has supported the marginalized and those at risk of unwarranted aggression. We stand now with all Ukrainians and Russians calling for peace.”

Stolichnaya has been famously disputed since the break-up of the Soviet Union, when it was privatized and various parts sold off. The Luxembourg-based Stoli Group was set up by Yuri Shefler, who left Russia to avoid Putin’s baleful influence, and probably has a sincere feeling of empathy for Ukraine at present.

The other big “Russian” vodka, Smirnoff, hasn’t been actually Russian since founder Pyotr Smirnov’s son Vladimir legged it from Russia during the 1917 October revolution, which brought the Bolsheviks to power. These days it is part of the Diageo stable and distilled in at least a dozen countries.

Earlier: Don’t Go Full ‘Liberty Cabbage’ on Russia.

20 MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: In 2011, the Huffington Post asked: Could A Small Nuclear War Reverse Global Warming?’

That seemed like a major escalation from Obama’s “science” “czar” John Holdren’s desire to shoot rockets full of pollution into the upper atmosphere to reverse global warming in 2009:

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Missing Persons Edition.

BUT NO MEAN TWEETS, PART DEUX: New Government Data Show Real Wages Declining, Not Rising, Under Biden.

SO, SECOND LOOK AT PUTIN?

● CNN, ABC News And CBS News Curb Russia Broadcasts Amid Censorship Law And Media Crackdown.

● CBC and BBC suspend reporting from inside Russia in face of ‘fake’ news law, blocking of Western websites.

● Facebook And Twitter Have Been Blocked In Russia.

And from America’s Newspaper of Record: Putin Receives Nobel Prize In Medicine For Ending COVID Pandemic.