BREAKING: The Mann v. Steyn trial is now postponed until June
Stay tuned for updates and check out what’s at stake below
“Strategic lawsuits against public participation,” or “SLAPP suits,” aim to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.
After 11 long years, the lawsuit against Mark Steyn et al. over the accusation of fraud, specifically scientific fraud, is coming to an end. Michael Mann’s warning shot across the bow sent chilling shock waves through a lot of people who disagree with him. Anything he considers a personal attack, we were to believe, means he will come after you in court. The amount of money, time, effort, and stress to defend against such things takes its toll on whoever has to defend. I must confess, every time I see something he says that I disagree with, (lately, he seems to be advocating for one-party rule, as he, in effect, wants to get rid of the GOP… I would relax if I were him, they probably are doing it to themselves) I walk away. I did so when he was at Penn State mostly because I sat and broke bread with him a couple of times and found him to have what I think is a lot of light in him, (which, when I say it, gets some of my allies mad). And Penn State people, despite everyone screaming at our football coach, do tend to stick together.
Though I see the football coach just fired his offensive coordinator despite PSU being the second-highest-scoring offense in the Big 10.
But at the Penn Center, he has certainly upped his ante and revealed his true agenda-driven colors. Some of Mann’s tweets are mind-boggling, but he has a lot of people cheering him on.
But where would Dr Mann be without his “Hockey Stick“?
One has to understand. When someone has essentially made his life a one-sided pursuit on a single issue, he no longer owns the issue, the issue owns him. So, the accusation of fraud is viewed by the person as a personal and damaging attack — a threat to his life. I kind of laughed at first, but when my mom was alive, she called me up one night crying, asking why so many people hate me. I said Mom, stay off the internet. But over the years, there have been things written about me that had nothing to do with intent or reality. It is like Rocky tells his kid: it is not how hard you can hit, it is how hard you can get hit and keep getting back up. I’ve got enough problems when the weather hits me, the other stuff you have to leave on the side. And it comes down to the matter of who you serve. If you serve yourself or some idea that makes you the hero of a war, real or imagined, well then things like accusations of fraud would damage you if not in the real world, but in the perception of persona.
In the end, they are distractions, and as my walk with the Lord has grown, I realize they can take me away from what I was made to do, which is not to save the planet but to nail the forecast.
The whole issue could have been settled if Mann had shown his work. I want you to read the winter forecast we have out, it’s on the previous blog. I show the reasons (and believe me, there are many more than usual in the standard El Nino year, part of them likely due to what both Mann and guys like me find near and dear, the warming of the planet) that this is not your normal warm winter El Nino event. Perhaps it will turn out that way despite what I have said, but I don’t think you will see a discussion with so many of these other things listed than, oh, there is a big El Nino, here is what happens
But right or wrong, the reasons are shown.
It is like doing a proof in math. You have to show the steps.
I am suspicious of Mann’s conclusion because he refused to show his data. It is like Hunter Biden’s laptop. We still don’t know what the heck is on it in totality, but no one gets a chance to see it, or when it was most crucial to come to a huge conclusion about who would be president back in 2020. Is that election fraud? You tell me. If there is a concerted effort to hide things that can lead to at least questioning the missive, what is that?
So, while this may seem like a scientific catfight, what is bothersome to me is something Dr Mann may not know. In the 1970s, there was a saying at PSU: “Ridge in Spain, warm up and rain”. What that meant is if Europe is warm, then much of the central and eastern US is warm, and model snowstorms, now known as eye candy, would bust. In fact, the temperatures of the planet are biased warmer than normal when there is warmth in these parts of the world because it also means it is warmer in other parts. This is known as teleconnections. Nothing in the weather operates independently of other aspects. What you see in your backyard is part of a myriad of events that have been evolving. The problem is that the Polar Urals are usually cold when that is the case as there is always compensating cold. So is the western US. So for me, I would have liked to see how the sampling sizes were determined and where. But that is because I KNOW THE WEATHER. The weather is not a tool for an agenda, it is the end all. So, ideas that the medieval warm period was local right off the bat to any meteorologist that forecasts globally should have them scratching their heads as to how that could happen given what we see.
Simple solution: show all the work.
So why is it not shown? If you are right, what have you got to hide?
Again, if we had seen all the COVID data, a lot of people may have reacted differently. But you see if your agenda is such that something is just a means to an end, and as the years have gone by, it’s obvious what that is given where we are in this debate, then you try to say trust the science, I am the science. My word is good enough.
I’ll give you an example. See this:
.png)
This is a map of all the global weather stations on the planet. Not many in the Arctic and over the ocean where water vapor would skew temps the most. The satellite sees it.
But what about where people live, as 95% of them do, in that map saturation?
It’s only .07 C above average, not .7 C. Humans can’t possibly know how bad it is getting because they can not detect it. Yet they are told that, but no one will reveal a chart like this. So, one has to suspect another reason.
Mark Steyn has had a rough haul the past few years with health. I am sure fighting this off has cost him much, not only financially, but in adding to his health woes. In a way, it has caused him immense damage. No one can say if it contributed to it, as one has plausible deniability (funny, where have we heard that before?). I have been involved twice in situations where I was being sued, and it is really a test. My cases were small beans compared to this, yet there he his, with no lawyers, defending himself in what is known as a hostile court for conservative ideas with his accusers having multiple lawyers. It is not a pretty picture of what this has done. But even if he loses, Dr Mann has won, and I suspect he knows it. After all, if a big mouth like mine has to think twice before challenging him, imagine what other folks have to do. It’s a form of soft tyrannical censorship.
I find it fascinating. I have seen some horrible things he has said about Dr Judith Curry, who also has some Penn State roots. And I have always wondered about why Dr Curry did not go after him. They were cringe-worthy. And given the notoriety of Dr Mann, they had to be damaging to Dr Curry. But somehow, she decided to walk away.
There is some kind of almost otherworldly anger in these people on the climate issue. The Washington Post once said that the world is turning into an anger incubator. I have always been taught anger destroys your soul as you weren’t designed for it. It may motivate you to a point, but in the end, it is gratitude for who you are and what you are given, mainly life, no one said you had to be born. But once there, in a position of authority, real or imagined, you are entitled to not being questioned. Mark Steyn has always seemed to be a happy warrior. In some respects, perhaps this is coming down to someone who has spent a lot of time in that anger incubator (see his tweets) suing versus a happy warrior. I don’t know what damage Mark has done to Mann since he seems to be at the top of his chosen profession. I guess the court will decide.