After twelve years of pseudo-jurisprudential bollocks in the town where justice goes to die, Mann vs Simberg & Steyn is finally underway. Week Two will commence in Courtroom 518 of the DC Superior Court at 9.30am today, just in time for my stroke.
UPDATE! Surprise plot development!
Nevertheless, greetings from the diseased and depraved capital city of the United States! Amy K Mitchell will be here at the close of business with her evening Court Report, and Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer will have another of their acclaimed trial dramatisations.
If you seek a sane alternative to Michael E Mann's global-warming "hockey stick", there's always our handsome limited-edition trial souvenir: the SteynOnline Liberty Stick, made in the USA and showing both Magna Carta and the US Constitution. They're exclusively available here - and I sign and number each one.
~The big small weekend news was Ron DeSantis's decision to end his presidential campaign, and exit with a poignant Churchillian flourish:
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
- Winston Churchill pic.twitter.com/ECoR8YeiMm
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 21, 2024
I'm not sure you can apply to Sir Winston's observation to a strategic decision to withdraw from the contest before tomorrow's humiliating result. However, it does kinda sorta buck me up before another grueling week in the dank septic tank of American "justice".
~I rather like the way, in an otherwise unsympathetic report, this opening sentence characterises my case:
In the second most famous defamation trial of the week, University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann gets his day(s) in court to combat the alleged defamation he experienced from climate change deniers whose work sought to subvert the impact of his research by besmirching his reputation.
[NOTE: The Donald Trump/E. Jean Carroll case is the defamation case getting the most attention in recent news, supplanting December's nearly $150 million judgement against Rudy Giuliani for defamation.]
So really I'm only the third "most famous defamation trial" of the last two months. Great.
Otherwise, the main news of Aurora DeStefano's story is that some bonehead senator has come out for Mann:
Sharing an article originally appearing in The Guardian, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) virtually testifies on Mann's behalf, asserting that the description of Mann's antagonists ("detractors") isn't strong enough.
Whitehouse writes that "fossil fuel's flunkies and front groups...harassed, degraded, demeaned and defamed [Mann] for years, all in an effort to silence his voice about what their fossil fuel pollution is actually doing."
The name "Sheldon Whitehouse" rang a vague bell with me... Oh, yeah - from my testimony to the US Senate eight years ago:
Why is this relevant beyond the travails of one obscure immigrant? Because too many people within the climate cartel are demanding that dissent from the alleged "consensus" should be not merely a civil offense but a criminal one--and far too many legislators and bureaucrats are willing to entertain it. Your colleague, Senator Whitehouse, is among those who favor criminal penalties for those who disagree with him on climate policy. Earlier this year, you, Senator Markey, were rebuked by the President of the Cato Institute for 'an obvious attempt to chill research into and funding of public policy projects you don't like . . . You abuse your authority when you attempt to intimidate people who don't share your political beliefs.'
It's important to remember that Sheldon Whitehouse was an early proponent of the criminalisation of political opposition - which has now, entirely predictably, spread far beyond mere "climate change".
~My Antipodean climate-science chum Jennifer Marohasy made an appearance in both my book and my deposition. Perhaps for that very reason the insecure Mann took the precaution of marking the end of the first week by blocking her.
~On Friday, our old pal Anthony Watts hosted a Climate Roundtable that considered the Mann vs Steyn trial. It starts a little way in, but we think you'll enjoy the whole show:
~In other trial news, my first and second Statements of Claim against the UK media censor Ofcom have been accepted for judicial review by the High Court of England and Wales. The King's Bench Division will hear the case in March. So, after a quick post-Mann break for the Mark Steyn Caribbean Cruise, I will be jetting into London for yet another courtroom appearance. Many readers have inquired about how to support this landmark free-speech lawsuit against Commissars Michael Grade and Melanie Dawes over their throttling of honest discussion of the Covid and the vaccines. Well, there are several ways to lend a hand, including:
a) signing up a friend for a Steyn Club Gift Membership;
b) buying a near-and-dear one a SteynOnline gift certificate;
c) ordering a copy of my latest book, The Prisoner of Windsor (you won't regret it - ask Kathy Gyngell);
d) snapping up one of the above-mentioned limited-edition SteynOnline Liberty Sticks; or
e) lavishing upon your beloved a once-in-a-lifetime Mark Steyn Caribbean Cruise.
With the first two methods, one hundred per cent of the proceeds goes to a grand cause - and, in the rest, a significant chunk thereof. And, in all cases, you or your loved one gets something, too.
~Notwithstanding Mark's total exhaustion after the first week of trial, we had a very busy weekend at SteynOnline, starting with Mark himself back in the chair for our Clubland Q&A. Acclaimed Australian actor (and sometime voice of the Geico Gekko) Thomas Bromhead recreated Steyn's opening statement on Ann & Phelim's daily podcast, and Rick McGinnis's Saturday movie date was Barbara Stanwyck in The Furies. On Sunday Amy K Mitchell filed a DC trial Weekend Update, and Steyn's Song of the Week celebrated a Cole Porter classic.
If you were too busy spending the weekend cowering before Washington's alleged "polar vortex", we hope you'll want to check out one or three of the foregoing as a new week begins.
