AS IF L.A. DOESN’T HAVE ENOUGH PROBLEMS ALREADY: Oregon arsonist, climate educator couple arrested for impersonating firefighters in LA.

An Oregon couple was arrested Sunday for impersonating firefighters in the area burned by the Pacific Palisades near Los Angeles, California, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Times, citing law enforcement sources, identified the couple as Dustin Nehl, 31, and Jennifer Nehl, 44. Mr. Nehl’s social media accounts say he lives in Woodburn, Oregon; Mrs. Nehl’s say she lives in Jefferson or Scio, Oregon.

The couple allegedly drove a full-size firetruck emblazoned with “Roaring River Fire” into the recently burned area, claiming they were volunteer firefighters. Police were contacted when someone noticed the fire truck, which had California plates, did not look quite right, according to the Times. There is no “Roaring River Fire” in Oregon.

The Nehls combine a longstanding interest in fire, climate change and weather, according to media reports and the couples’ social media accounts.

Dustin Nehl was sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison and three years post-incarceration supervision for arson and possession of a destructive device related to damage caused in incidents from 2013 to 2016 to a country club and a water treatment facility in Woodburn, according to a contemporaneous report from The Woodburn Independent and The Oregonian.

The 21st century isn’t turning out as I had hoped.

CHANGE:

In case anyone needs a refresher, here’s how much US armament Biden gave to the Taliban in 2021:

“THE WOKETOPUS:” How Biden’s Administration Became a National Nightmare and What Trump Has to Do to Stop It From Happening Again.

Life in America has gotten worse because the bureaucracy in Washington, D.C., kowtowed to the priorities of woke elites rather than focusing on the issues Americans truly care about. Biden celebrated drag queens at the White House, pushed “racial justice,” and directed billions in funding to climate activists while Americans struggled with inflation, crime, and the sense that things are falling apart at the border and across the world.

None of this is an accident. In fact, Biden revealed his hand when he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian honor—to George Soros, the man who launched and helped fund the soft-on-crime “rogue prosecutor” movement. Due to Soros’ advocacy, prosecutors across the country routinely ignore certain crimes, enabling lawlessness. Yet, Biden considered Soros an American hero because of his “philanthropy” to “strengthen democracy, human rights, education, and social justice.”

As with so many leftist platitudes, these terms mask the true nature of what Soros does with his money—and it is extremely charitable (if not downright mendacious) to call his efforts to transform society a form of “philanthropy.”

George Soros founded the Open Society Foundations, and its money fuels the broader engine of woke activist groups that advised the administrative state under Biden.

These activists support a constellation of liberal issues that I summarize with the term “woke,” from critical race theory (the notion that America is systemically racist in favor of whites and against blacks, a notion driving efforts for “diversity, equity, and inclusion”), to gender ideology (the notion that an internal sense of “gender identity” overrides biological sex), to climate alarmism (the belief that human burning of fossil fuels is destroying the earth), to a preference for technocratic government by experts rather than by elected representatives.

It is the height of hypocrisy when the Left screams about “democracy,” all the while supporting a bureaucratic apparatus that intentionally insulates the Mandarins who actually write the rules Americans must live by, protecting them from the people’s elected representatives.

Yet this preference for experts to call the shots—even after the public health experts repeatedly lied and attempted to silence debate during the COVID-19 pandemic—forms a centerpiece of the comprehensive worldview of woke activists. It explains why former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe would say, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

This ideology is deeply rooted in America’s elite institutions, from academia to Hollywood to corporate boardrooms. It reared its ugly head most strongly after the death of George Floyd in police custody in 2020, when the legacy media ignored or covered for Antifa riots, parents watched teachers pushing CRT on kids, and companies rushed to release diversity, equity, and inclusion statements.

Read the whole thing.

Related: Biden’s Crowning Legacy: 20% Bidenflation And The Economic Carnage Left Behind. Biden Holds a Unique Distinction Among the Last Five Presidents—Highest in Both Annualized Inflation Rate and Total Inflation.

JONATHAN TURLEY: The final corruption of Joe Biden.

With only 15 minutes to go as president, Joe Biden snatched infamy from the jaws of obscurity.

With record-low polling and widely viewed as a “failed” president, Biden completed his one-man race to the bottom of ethics by issuing preemptive pardons to members of his own family.

The pardons were timed to guarantee that the media would not focus on yet another unethical act by this president. He need not have worried. For four years, the media worked tirelessly to deny or deflect the corruption scandal surrounding the Biden family.

The pardoning of James Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John Owens and Francis Biden brought an inescapable clarity to the corruption of what is known in Washington as Biden Inc.

Exit quote:

Biden sealed his legacy with a finality that escapes most presidents. While his diminished mental capacity will remain an issue for historians, his longstanding lack of ethics was conclusively established with these pardons. It was Biden’s final act of corruption.

Read the whole thing.

FINALLY, A PRESIDENT WHO IS HAVING FUN AGAIN:

🚨NEW: The best thing you'll watch tonight. Trump and JD Vance do the YMCA…but with swords. pic.twitter.com/zYPfsRiYWw

— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) January 21, 2025

THAT WAS THE QUADRENNIAL THAT WAS:

JOE BIDEN’S DISASTROUS PRESIDENCY IN 25 PHOTOS

I am not an artist, but I love the power of photos and the stories they tell.

Here are 25 photos I think tell the story of the Biden years.

Please share yours in the comments!

——

1. “A Socially Distant Cabinet” pic.twitter.com/LahxV8pRF1

— Ben Kew (@ben_kew) January 19, 2025

THE SUICIDE OF EXPERTISE: On Millennial Snot.

What is Millennial Snot? Where did it come from? How did it become the prevailing liberal voice? What exactly is the matter with these people? And are we going to have to suffer this obnoxious style forever?

The nerds who never got over high school

Liberals who have time to goof around on social media all day are probably nerds with more-or-less fake laptop jobs. They aren’t working class, otherwise they’d be working all day, but they aren’t terribly successful either, otherwise they’d have better things to do. The Bluesky-American sits awkwardly in the middle, and this feeds his resentment. He got good grades. He’s credentialed, and believes he’s smarter than his boss. He should be running things. If only society weren’t so dumb. If only society were fair, like when he was in school, when a kind teacher rewarded his intelligence and punished ne’erdowells.

Pity the “front row kid,” the wordcel who grinds his youth away for straight A’s only to find that the spoils of the market go to the back row goober who inherits his dad’s used car lot. If only there was some way to turn society upside down, so the front row kid could be on top. If only society could be more like grade school…

That would be a start, but the nerd doesn’t just want to be recognized for his intelligence. He also desperately wants to be cool. He wants to prove to the world that he won’t be shoved into a locker any more. He’s with it now, he uses the latest teen slang, he “understands the assignment.” This is how you get balding hetero professors saying stuff like “she ate and left no crumbs,” and “big mad” and other phrases that will sound embarrassingly dated in a few weeks.

The liberal has developed an argot that combines everything he thinks is cool. And what is that, exactly?

Libs know they’re smarter than you but they’re often not as successful as they’d like to be. The resulting inferiority and superiority complexes send the liberal into convulsions of contempt toward healthy, well-adjusted, normal people, along with an attendant parasocial identification with figures they think of as downtrodden underdogs. Underdogs are cool.

They hate the straight, successful white man, and love everything else – want to be everything else. So they talk like everything and anything else. Their speech and writing is characterized by diction, syntax, and tone that reflects their resentment, and their writing has evolved into a nauseating melange of underdog-speak. They’re LARPing as snotty teenage girls, sassy black ladies, tongue-rolling drag queens, blue-collar whites (paging hicklib Tim Walz), or potty-mouthed children. Underdogs, all.

Read the whole thing.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

BIDEN’S FINAL ACT AS PRESIDENT WAS A MASSIVE COVER-UP FOR THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY:

On his final day in office, Joe Biden issued controversial preemptive pardons for several high-profile figures, raising questions about the integrity of the pardon process. Among those pardoned were retired Gen. Mark Milley, accused of treason for actions during Trump’s final months, and Dr. Tony Fauci, who faced perjury allegations. Biden also pardoned several members of the January 6 Committee, which tampered with evidence and witnesses and committed obstruction of justice.

But if you thought that was the final disgrace of President Joe Biden, you were wrong. Literally, moments before he officially lost the powers of the presidency, the Biden administration revealed that Joe Biden had issued a preemptive pardon for his own family members. A “full and unconditional pardon” was given to his brother James B. Biden, his sister-in-law Sara Jones Biden, his sister Valerie Biden Owens, and her husband John T. Owens “for any nonviolent offenses against the United States which they may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through the date of this pardon.”

And: Biden’s FBI director expressed ‘vehement’ opposition to Leonard Peltier commutation.

Before former President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier on Monday, he received a warning from outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Peltier was convicted of killing two FBI agents in the 1970s.

Among other things, Wray told the White House that commuting Peltier’s sentence “would be shattering to the victims’ loved ones and undermine the principles of justice and accountability that our government should represent.”

In a statement, Biden said he was commuting Peltier’s sentence “so that he serves the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.” Peltier is now in his 80s.

Exit quote:

TWO CNNs IN ONE!

Shot: Jake Tapper Worries About Disinformation In Future Elections. CNN Just Lost A $5M Defamation Case.

Chaser: We Did NAZI That Coming: CNN Beclowns Itself Over Elon Musk’s Gesture From the Heart.

Network that just lost a $5M+ defamation lawsuit appears to have learned exactly nothing from the experience. https://t.co/opkXOcZk6Q

— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) January 20, 2025

Related:

Where's the media outrage???? pic.twitter.com/gwgvCS3ob0

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 20, 2025

BREAKING: Trump Signs Clemency Action for 1500+ J6 ‘Hostages.’

Another promise kept.

Donald Trump started his executive-order “shock and awe” at the Capital One Arena this evening, signing nine EOs with administration-wide impacts,. The first EO signed by Trump reversed 78 EOs and other directives by Joe Biden. He then left the indoor parade and rally to return to the Oval Office, where Trump issued a pardon for nearly all of the 1500+ January 6 defendants.  Six received commutations instead of pardons:

BREAKING

President Trump has granted full pardons to over 1,500 January 6th participants.

He has also granted six commutations to individuals whose cases, he says, require more research. He stated that upon further review, he may grant them full pardons.

His order directs the…

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 21, 2025

And: Trump Kicks Off Executive Order Blitz, Rescinds Biden Actions in Front of Fired-Up Arena Crowd.

President Trump signed a suite of executive orders before a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of supporters at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., Monday evening, rolling back nearly 80 Biden-era orders with a stroke of his pen just hours after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States.

The public signing ceremony kicks off a flurry of day-one executive action that’s expected to include 200 executive orders that will fulfill Trump’s campaign promises on immigration, climate policy, and the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

In addition to rolling back 78 executive orders issued by President Biden, Trump also withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreements, froze federal hiring and the drafting of new regulations, and mandated that all federal workers return to the office full time. He also signed orders barring the “government censorship of free speech” and the “weaponization of government” against “political adversaries of the previous administration.”

The man will have some serious writer’s cramp by the end of the day. In the meantime, though:

And if other journalists are not making this same observation then you know they were in on the cover-up of Biden's decline. https://t.co/qxw1Mf9woP

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 21, 2025

WINNING: Marco Rubio Confirmed as Secretary of State.

THAT WAS FAST: Trump officials shut down CBP One app.

Trump administration officials minutes after the new president took office on Monday shut down a mobile app for migrants to make appointments at the U.S.-Mexico border.

By shutting down the CBP One app, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials essentially canceled all outstanding appointments made by migrants without visas who sought to enter the United States through legal ports of entry.

The app shutdown is part of a series of moves by the incoming administration to crack down on the border, even as migration has decreased significantly in the past six months.

According to CBP numbers, U.S. officials encountered 96,048 foreign nationals at the border in December. About half, 48,722, presented at a port of entry to get formal admission into the United States.

Before November, the last full month with fewer than 100,000 encounters was January of 2021, the month when former President Biden was sworn in. That month, CBP encountered 78,414 people, only 3,098 of whom presented at ports of entry — the rest were encountered by the Border Patrol after crossing the border illegally.

CBP One was a key component of the Biden administration’s efforts to channel migrants through legal pathways to seek refuge in the United States.

President Trump is due to sign 10 executive orders on Monday related to the border, several of which seek to undo those pathways.

I’d say “faster, please,” but the newly sworn-in president and his team are certainly moving with due alacrity.

SCOTT JENNINGS: “Watching [newly sworn-in President Trump] indict these gangsters to their faces while they had to sit with him in an intimate setting… they had to sit there and take it. It was glorious.”

WATCH: CNN’s @ScottJenningsKY: ‘This was an incredible speech for Trump. Watching him indict these gangsters to their faces while they had to sit with him in an intimate setting… they had to sit there and take it. It was glorious.’ pic.twitter.com/9QqZCxvfLy

— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) January 20, 2025

THE POWER LINE INAUGURATION DAY IN PICTURES.

REPORT: Trump Inaugural Speech Promises ‘Revolution of Common Sense’ for America.

In an exclusive report, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published that incoming President Donald Trump is going to call for a “revolution of common sense” during his inaugural address in Washington D.C. on Monday.

WSJ reportedly received remarks Trump is allegedly expected to say during his first address as the 47th president of the United States.

“I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country,” Trump will supposedly say. “My message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization.”

Related: America braces for an avalanche of Trump executive orders on day one.

MINORITY REPORT: Biden Issues Pre-Emptive Pardons on Last Day in Office.

Just hours before Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47^th president of the United States, President Joe Biden issued pre-emptive pardons for a number of high-profile figures, shielding them from potential retribution by the incoming administration.

The pre-emptive pardons were announced Monday morning for Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, lawmakers and staff that served on the Jan. 6 Committee, including former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), and U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee.

In his 1956 novel Minority Report, later adapted into a 2003 movie directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, Philip K. Dick created the “precrime unit” that would predict future crimes to be committed by potential miscreants. But can a president issue a pardon before a sentence has been issued? At the Justice.gov Office of the Pardon Attorney is the following question and answer:

Can the President pardon someone before they are indicted, convicted, or sentenced for a federal offense against the United States?

It would be highly unusual, but there have been a few cases where people who had not been charged with a crime were pardoned, including President Gerald Ford’s pardon of President Richard Nixon after Watergate, President Jimmy Carter’s pardon of Vietnam draft dodgers and President George H.W. Bush’s pardon of Caspar Weinberger. President Donald J. Trump pardoned Joseph Arpaio and others after they were charged and convicted, but prior to sentencing. See Pardons Granted by President Donald Trump (justice.gov)

Fauci is no doubt thrilled to have gotten his precrime pardon, but issues a “what, me worry?” public statement: Fauci Issues Statement After Pre-Emptive Pardon. Conservatives Respond. “I really truly appreciate the action President Biden has taken today on my behalf. Let me be perfectly clear, Jon, I have committed no crime, you know that, and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me,’ he said.”

He doesn’t have to accept the pardon. If he did nothing wrong be a man and turn it down… But you know he won’t because everyone knows he’s guilty of so much. https://t.co/e2QKoHaUPb

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 20, 2025

UPDATE:

OK, I changed my mind. These pardons were worth it just so I could see Rachel Vindman throw a tantrum over not getting one. pic.twitter.com/HFzUmgaaZh

— Noam Blum (@neontaster) January 20, 2025

As for the January 6th committee members:

Jamie Raskin on presidential pardons:

“The seeking of pardons is powerful demonstration of the consciousness of guilt, or at least the consciousness that you may be in trouble.”

Biden just preemptively pardoned him for his role in the Jan 6th committee. pic.twitter.com/VajwMhgrGt

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 20, 2025

UPDATE (from Steve): To Gerald Ford’s credit, he didn’t issue a midnight pardon to Nixon and willingly took the political hit for it. It’s a completely different thing that Biden did, filled with spite for our institutions and, oddly enough, his own (already tattered) credibility.

MOVE ALONG, NOTHING TO SEE HERE, CITIZENS: L.A. officials stop use of disappearing Google Chats, citing Palisades fire.

For years, Los Angeles city employees could communicate through Google Chat messages that were automatically deleted after 24 hours.

Even after the practice, which was sanctioned by the city, was uncovered last year by a community group and good government experts questioned whether it violated public records laws, city officials declined to stop it.

This week, after wildfires devastated Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other communities, the city abruptly changed course. All one-on-one and group Google Chat messages will now be saved.

The news was announced by the city’s Information Technology Agency on Tuesday in an email to employees. The city enabled Google Chat history “in response to user requests related to the citywide emergency,” the email said, referring to the wildfires.

The email noted that those messages would now be “subject to production in legal proceedings, public records requests, and internal investigations.”

Well, good: The legal fight over the L.A. fires is already here. What previous lawsuits can tell us.

ROGER KIMBALL: Heading to Washington, DC to celebrate two zero hours.

Naturally, the first cause for celebration is the second inauguration of Donald Trump, an event that by my reckoning (and not mine alone) will mark the beginning of a new golden age for America.

At the same moment, however, we have a second zero hour in which to rejoice: zero hour for the country’s principal zero, the departure of Joe Biden from the White House, power and anything resembling a public platform.

Having proved that a mental incompetent, so long as he is fired by a rancid woke malice, can occupy the office of President of the United States, Biden will, as of noon tomorrow, find his power cables unplugged.

It’s been a grim couple of months with Biden. His peevish animosity, fired first by being pushed out of his presidential campaign in July, and then by Kamala Harris’s resounding loss in November, has been ranging far and wide. His incontinent spate of presidential pardons of criminals and lowlifes, beginning with his extraordinary get-of-jail-free-now-and-forever card for his cokehead son and bagman Hunter, made the world purse its lips. Really, pardoned back to 2014 for anything he did or may have done?

Biden also flew back to DC today — and in a perfect metaphor, exited Air Force One from the short steps:

Biden exits Air Force One — via the short stairs — for the final time.

The next time it is flown, it will be carrying President Donald J. Trump. pic.twitter.com/FLS6aFtcHt

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 20, 2025

TRUMP TO SUSPEND SECURITY CLEARANCES OF 51 FORMER CIA CONTRACTORS WHO FALSELY IMPLIED HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP WAS RUSSIAN FAKE.

DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE PARTY OF YOUTH AND ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Nancy Pelosi’s daughter goes scorched earth on Jill ‘Lady McBiden’ in the bitter feud between Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi daughter Alexandra has some choice words for First Lady Jill Biden as the family stews over her mother’s role in ousting President Joe Biden from his reelection campaign.

Pelosi’s daughter described the First Lady as ‘Lady McBiden,’ comparing her to Lady MacBeth, the evil wife controlling her husband’s kingdom from behind the scenes in the legendary Shakespeare play.

‘If I was Lady McBiden, I’d put on my big girl pants, play the long game and think about my husband’s legacy,’ Alexandra Pelosi told Politico.

Pelosi’s daughter reacted to the First Lady’s lament that the Bidens and Pelosi had been friends for 50 years, but was politically stabbed in the back after the president’s terrible debate performance in June.

‘We were friends for 50 years,’ said the first lady when asked about Pelosi by the Washington Post. ‘It was disappointing.’

Pelosi was a vocal proponent of Biden stepping out of the race, even going on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and raising doubts about whether he could continue even after he reasserted that he would stay in the race.

Pelosi’s daughter indicated that the Bidens should be grateful that her mother was still praising the president for his legacy.

‘There aren’t that many people left in America who have something nice to say about Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi is one of them,’ she said.

This new comedy satire of Downfall has been surprisingly fun to watch, as the clock ticks down on the Biden (p)residency: Watch: Biden Moving Out of White House — People Love It and Ask One Big Question.  “Is someone at the White House inventorying what’s going out the door? Given prior history with Democrats, particularly when the Clintons walked out with thousands of dollars worth of things they weren’t supposed to take, that might be a good idea. Whose chair is that, that the movers are carrying out there? Yes, and maybe do a thorough check that there isn’t anything funny left behind, since cocaine seems to have found its way into the Biden White House before without anyone ever figuring out how that happened. And is anyone checking if any classified documents are going out the door with Joe?”

AXIOS: Biden planning book with his narrative on presidency, election exit.

President Biden plans to write a book after leaving office, the White House confirmed to Axios, giving him an opportunity to try and shape the narrative around his presidency and the tumultuous weeks leading to his historic withdrawal from the 2024 race.

Why it matters: There’s a glut of reporting coming out on Biden’s fateful decision to run again in 2024 and ultimately step aside after his disastrous debate with President-elect Trump — most of it unflattering to the 82-year-old president.

• Biden’s own version of those events has hardly registered, beyond his contentious claims that he could have beaten Trump.

• If the book project comes to fruition, it will be a chance for Biden to lay out, in full, his views on what he accomplished and why he handled the 2024 cycle the way he did.

• NBC News first reported that Biden was planning a book. A White House spokesperson confirmed the plans but did not provide additional details.

Jill could really bring things full circle by hiring the perfect ghostwriter: Neil Kinnock, an admitted Biden supporter, is tanned, rested, and ready!

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Nearly two thirds of convicted rapists in Sweden are migrants or second generation immigrants.

(Via SDA.)

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

AOC on the verge of tears: "This is the eve of an authoritarian, 21st century fascism" pic.twitter.com/grLnsdDPcF

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 19, 2025

We know the withered and sclerotic Biden has no idea about much of what was issued under his name. Does AOC, age 35, remember how many things her Green Nude Eel were going to ban in 2019?

Although to be fair, her earlier efforts to fight global warming are now paying spectacular dividends! Coldest Inauguration Day in 40 years expected as polar vortex invades America.

OUT ON A LIMB: You don’t have ADHD – you’re just annoying.