Some optimism checked by reality

This morning and yesterday I stumbled upon two legal proceedings I knew nothing about, one because I read WattsUpWithThat, Anthony Watts’ remarkable website that acts as a clearinghouse for skepticism about climate change and global warming. The other was a newspaper I received in the mail, and I have no idea which mailing list placed me on the list of recipients. (It could be that I subscribed to National Review, a conservative outlet, for a brief time a couple of years ago.) It is a newspaper, that is, large pages using real paper, pages that can be turned and folded. It is called The Epoch Times. (It is online, of course, but they sent me a real newspaper.)

First, WUWT: I will describe it briefly, but this subject is for people who read and process larger that average volumes of information. You know who you are.

The WUWT link is to an article by the Manhattan Contrarian, a new source to me, and one which I will add to the blogroll today. Two days ago the Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council (CHECC) filed an opening brief challenging the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding that carbon dioxide and methane etc. are pollutants, and therefore fall under the EPA’s jurisdiction. I cannot pretend to understand all of the legal machinations that are needed to overturn a capricious ruling like this, other than to say that it fell on the legislative branch, and not the judiciary, to authorize EPA to make this monumental ruling. That was not done. That is what led to the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling that EPA cannot regulate CO2 (without congressional authorization).

Manhattan Contrarian presents the initial brief brought by CHECC (92 pages) and an amicus brief he joined with the CO2 Coalition, (47 pages). As with all legal documents, there is a lot contained in these briefs that is necessary for court proceedings but does not concern us, such as matters of standing and jurisdiction. In the CHECC document I skipped ahead to page 20, where we find that EPA’s initial Endangerment Finding was based on three lines of evidence: temperature records, physical understanding of climate, and modeling. In the ensuing 20 pages, CHECC dismantles each of the three, finding them without scientific support or rigor, even referring to an EPA “argument from ignorance” fallacy at one point. (A shortened summary of the arguments begins on page 40.)

Where will this take us? I am heartened that the brief was filed, and yet cognizant that the powers behind climate change are not democratic forces that respond to rule of law. Their agenda has nothing to do with climate, and their power seems entrenched everywhere. They are capricious, misanthropic, and indifferent to the massive harm their movement will inflict on humanity. In fact, inflicting that massive harm seems to be their agenda.

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I was not aware of Missouri v Biden, a censorship lawsuit. According to Epoch Times, there are now nearly 67 officials or agencies named in this lawsuit (47 New Biden Admin Defendants Named in Censorship Lawsuit). They are accused of violating plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights by participating in a “censorship enterprise”. Government agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and the US Election Assistance Commission. among others are named. Big tech firms like Facebook, Twitter and Google have been subpoenaed, allegedly censoring anyone who committed “misinformation” about COVID 19, and “departing from the government’s messaging on vaccines”.

I quit Facebook shortly after March of 2020, as I knew I would censored if I hung around. Some time later I attempted to reopen a Facebook account merely to be able to monitor larger groups that publish there. I used a new Protonmail email, but found that I was banned and would not be able to post for weeks as punishment. I do not Tweet, and use Google only because I must to be able to follow and comment on YouTube. But the censorship going on during that intense propaganda campaign was deep and profound, affecting all of us and even now hanging like a black cloud.

According to this lawsuit, that censorious campaign originated in government, and Facebook et al were all acting in accord with a concealed government edict. Thus started (and continues) one of the darker chapters of US history. It was as if we were in a dark cave populated by ghosts and ghouls. The oppressiveness was unparalleled in my lifetime, as if fascism, real fascism, once a gloved iron fist, became a machine gun.

I was favorably (and surprisingly) impressed by The Epoch Times. I have little use for journalism as it exists, as its guiding light, called “objectivity” prevents it from rabbit-holing, searching for truth. Consequently, I’ve not read newspapers for years. People ask me, when I say that, how I stay informed. I explain that that is how I stay informed, by avoiding newspapers. Maybe I should not be so stubborn.