Commentary
I had decided I wasn’t going to comment on the Word Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, appropriately referred to as “the regular smug gathering of our intellectual superiors and social betters” by Brad Slager in Red State, but the material was so goofy I just couldn’t resist.
The participants include some 600 world leaders, corporate bigwigs and professional thinkers, who gather to tell us how we should live our lives.
It’s by invitation only, that they are able to attend, after a tight review that each exceed their industry standards within a list of metrics. They must be interested in their role as a global citizen and have a track record of outstanding leadership, setting the bar for business best practices. And, of course, they must be able to pay the estimated cost of $250,000.
They arrive in business jets that fly in from around the world, providing vivid evidence that they really aren’t that concerned about greenhouse gases.
Many of the same jets will be seen at Phoenix area airports next month when the Valley of the Sun again hosts the Super Bowl.
Even so, Al Gore and John Kerry, the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum of the climate change hoax, were there to again raise money to help fund underdeveloped countries fight climate change, while continuing to try to scare the bejesus out of us.
As I watched Gore launch into an unhinged doomsday rant, shouting with his eyes bulging, his face red, waving his arms, I saw a man with heart attack potential.
“We’ve turned the atmosphere into “an open sewer,” he said, that’s “boiling the oceans, creating atmospheric rivers and the rain bombs and sucking the moisture out of the land creating droughts, melting the ice and raising the sea level and causing waves of climate refugees, ultimately affecting humanity’s ability for “self-governance.”
Except for his loud rant, his chicken little speech failed to generate any serious widespread media coverage.
I had to laugh – While speaking about New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to ban gas stoves, comic commentator Jimmy Failla, appearing on Fox News, said, “I don’t know why we need gas stoves anyway … if you listened to Al Gore, the fish are coming out of the ocean fully cooked.
John Kerry’s remark, got a few laughs, too. “It’s pretty extraordinary that we, a select group of human beings, are able to sit in a room and come together and actually talk about saving our planet,” he said. “It’s so almost extraterrestrial to think about saving the planet. If you said that to most people, most people would think you’re just a crazy tree-hugging, lefty-liberal do-gooder.”
Senators Chris Coons, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema were there along with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and FBI Director Christopher Wray, participating in panel discussions, but not making any news. Sinema’s long wool vest that had her resembling a sheep, however, was noted by some reporters. Obviously, they didn’t have their global profiles checked.
Ukraine President Zelenskyy appeared via video to raise more money, of course, for his effort to beat back Russia.
Some things didn’t make the news
While reading a transcript of Matt Taibbi’s conversation with Walter Kirn, I found their discussion about the Davos remarks made by Vera Jourova, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, one of so-called intellectuals who view everything globally, particularly interesting.
Interesting, because they, too, feel that these globalists seem to see themselves as somehow guaranteeing and guiding the future of the planet, and not only when talking about the environment. Taibbi and Kirn poked fun of them throughout their conversation.
Jourova’s remarks came from her panel, The Clear and Present Danger of Disinformation, moderated by … wait for it … the ousted CNN loser, Brian Stelter.
Commenting on Jourova’s insistence that we need to understand the language of case law … what qualifies as hate speech, and predicting we will have this in the U.S. … Kirn humorously said she sounded like a Dresden brothel dominatrix.
‘She talks about language as though it’s the great programming tool for society,” said Kirn. “That if programming is done correctly the people will helplessly move as a group in the direction they wish us to.”
“It’s straight out of Orwell,” suggested Taibbi. “They’re moving in this direction of having everybody speak in the same kinds of words (aka Woke). Eliminating the variability of language.”
With my concern for the preservation of the First Amendment and free speech, I was interested in what Kirn, a prolific writer, had to say. Kirn asked, “It’s like saying that they’re going to legislate against bad actions. What’s bad, and what are actions? I don’t know that speech itself as I define it, is the thing we should be policing in the world.”
“To me,” responded Taibbi, “it’s totally un-American. We have always fought for the right to speak our minds. We’ve always thought of that as a virtue.”
That captures some of the humor of Davos. I’ll leave you with this observation from Kirn:
“I have a general observation about Davos. They never disagree about anything. You’d think that while discussing the most allegedly important topics in the universe, they’d argue once in a while, they’d have a debate or two, but apparently all matters are settled. Maybe that comes from behind closed doors, up on the slopes or on the chairlift.”
May God continue to bless the United States of America
