Free Republic

When American climate alarmists claim to have witnessed the effects of global warming, they must be referring to a time beyond 14 years ago. That is because there has been no warming in the United States since at least 2005, according to updated data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In January 2005, NOAA began recording temperatures at its newly built U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN). USCRN includes 114 pristinely maintained temperature stations spaced relatively uniformly across the lower 48 states. NOAA selected locations that were far away from urban and land-development impacts that might artificially taint temperature...

Some years ago, Dr. Tim Ball wrote that climate scientist Michael Mann “belongs in the state pen, not Penn State.” At issue was Mann’s famous “hockey stick” graph that purported to show a sudden and unprecedented 20th century warming trend. The hockey stick featured prominently in the IPCC’s Third Assessment Report (2001), but has since been shown to be wrong. The question, in my view, is whether it was an innocent mistake or deliberate fraud on Mann’s part. (Mann, I believe, continues to assert the accuracy of his debunked graph.) Mann sued Ball for libel in 2011. Principia Scientific now...

SAN FRANCISCO — The Democratic National Committee on Saturday quashed a push from climate activists and some national party members who want a 2020 presidential primary debate devoted exclusively to the climate crisis. The national party committee voted 222-137 at its summer meeting in San Francisco against a resolution that effectively would have rolled back debate rules set by Chairman Tom Perez and freed presidential candidates to participate in a climate-only debate. The move drew rebukes from the Sunrise Movement and other activists who say the party leadership is ignoring young voters' priorities. "The Democratic Party needs the energy and...

Despite not voting for the Green New Deal in the senate this past winter, Vermont Democratic Socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders introduced a Green New Deal of his own on Thursday as part of his 2020 campaign platform. The price tag for the global warming defeating -racial injustice combatting - pro-socialism on steroids catch-all bill is a whopping 16 trillion dollars and zero cents. As noted by the New York Times, the proposed bill by Sanders would declare "climate change a national emergency; envisions building new solar, wind and geothermal power sources across the country; and commits $200 billion to help...

The Department of Justice on Thursday unsealed a 252-count federal indictment charging 80 defendants, many of whom are Nigerian nationals, with conspiring to steal millions of dollars through online scams. The indictment was unsealed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California and was made public shortly after authorities arrested 14 of the defendants across the United States, with 11 of these defendants apprehended in the Los Angeles region. The majority of the defendants are outside the country, with many likely in Nigeria. The defendants involved in the case were charged with attempting to defraud individuals of...

Walmart sued Tesla for "gross negligence" on Tuesday, claiming that the electric car company's energy division installed solar panels that went up in flames on its store rooftops. The fires caused millions of dollars in damage, the lawsuit alleges. The retailer said fires broke out at seven store rooftops between 2012 and 2018. One location in Ohio had to be closed for eight days, Walmart said in the complaint. The lawsuit claims Tesla never provided Walmart with an explanation for the "root cause" of the fires. "The number of defects, however, is overwhelming and plainly indicative of systemic, widespread failures...

There will be some hiccups on our path to a more environmentally-friendly future. Some hiccups, like exploding electric cars, will be bigger than others. So, I’m willing to excuse France for the very, very predictable failure of their solar panel road. On the off chance you have not been thinking about the solar panel road—cheekily dubbed Wattway—over the last several years, allow me to refresh your memory. n 2016, the French government in conjunction with the company Colas built a one-kilometer long road covered in solar panels in a small village in Normandy for $5.2 million. Protected with silicon and...

Gov. Ron DeSantis has agreed to allow Florida to join a national electronic center to exchange voter registration data with other states, an effort long-sought by county supervisors of elections. DeSantis said Wednesday Florida will become the 29th state to participate in the Electronic Voter Registration Information Center, known as "ERIC," a consortium of states known that share voter registration information. DeSantis announced the move during an appearance with county election officials at the Orange County supervisor of elections office in Orlando, saying the effort will ensure the integrity of voter-registration lists. “It’s my judgment it makes the most sense,...

White House hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) will attend a CNN town hall focused on climate change next month after previously saying a scheduling conflict prevented her from participating in the event. The California Democrat was hammered by environmental groups, including the Sunrise Movement, after Harris was the only one of nine initial Democrats invited to the town hall who did not confirm her attendance. “We were happy to change our schedule to accommodate such a critical conversation,” Lily Adams, the Harris campaign’s communications director, said in a statement to The Hill. “As Senator Harris has said, this is a...

ST. CROIX — Six of the ten contestants who participated in Sunday evening’s Miss Universe U.S. Virgin Islands were women from outside the USVI, most with no known ties to the territory and some of whom had participated in other pageants just months prior. The competition, held in a banquet room at the Divi Carina Bay Casino, was the qualifying event whose winner will represent the U.S. Virgin Islands on the world’s biggest and most prominent pageantry stage: Miss Universe. But what was a relatively engaged audience turned somewhat raucous when not one of the four local young women who...

The world’s most-cited researchers, according to newly released data, are a curiously eclectic bunch. Nobel laureates and eminent polymaths rub shoulders with less familiar names, such as Sundarapandian Vaidyanathan. Vaidyanathan, a computer scientist at the Vel Tech R&D Institute of Technology, a privately run institute, is an extreme example: he has received 94% of his citations from himself or his co-authors up to 2017, according to a study in PLoS Biology this month1. He is not alone. The data set, which lists around 100,000 researchers, shows that at least 250 scientists have amassed more than 50% of their citations from...

Obvious and repulsive hypocrisy on the part of wealthy and connected people telling us that we must sacrifice our standard of living – indeed, our very way of life – finally is being called out. They want us to bear the entire burden, while their jet-setting lifestyles remain untouched. The alarmists are getting more and more shrill about their predictions of doom due to the increase in an atmospheric trace gas, CO2, purportedly able to act as the control mechanism for world climate. (Meanwhile, their climate models, the sole basis for their doomsterism, don’t know how to reckon with the...

A cozy alliance between insurers and law enforcement has turned the justice system into the industry’s hired gun and left innocent customers facing prison.... These tactics can be applied with impunity, thanks to legislation in all 50 states restricting the ability of customers to sue insurers for wrongly accusing them of fraud

Rep. Rashida Tlaib Friday rejected Israel’s offer to allow a “purely humanitarian” visit to her elderly Palestinian grandmother in the occupied West Bank. The firebrand critic of Israel tweeted that she would not “bow down to their oppressive & racist policies.”

Fox News contributor Dan Bongino pushed back Monday on Sen. Bernie Sanders calling President Trump "an idiot" for denying the effects of climate change. Bongino responded with laughter on "Fox & Friends," accusing the Democratic senator from Vermont of believing in the "money fairy" for proposing a "Medicare-for-all" plan that he estimates will cost up to $40 trillion over a 10-year period. "We're talking about a guy who can't do first-grade-level math and Donald Trump is an idiot?" Bongino asked, later questioning what jobs Sanders has held outside of politics. It's unclear what prompted Sanders to tweet about Trump and...

In the interest of fiscal and environmental responsibility, Mayor Lori Lightfoot should declare Jackson Park off-limits to construction and spare the hundreds of historic trees slated for clear-cutting. Trees help Chicago offset global warming. Recent United Nations and Science reports prioritize massive tree planting to absorb and sequester CO2. Destroying Jackson Park’s mature trees releases stored CO2 into the atmosphere. Saving them saves Illinois taxpayers $199 million. **SNIP** Building the OPC in a South Side neighborhood replaces unused buildings and empty lots, and facilitates business development. Choosing an already accessible location is infinitely fiscally and environmentally smarter than taxing Illinois...

Search for “climate change” on YouTube and before long you’ll likely find a video that denies it exists. In fact, when it comes to shaping the online conversation around climate change, a new study suggests that deniers and conspiracy theorists might hold an edge over those believing in science. Researchers found evidence that most YouTube videos relating to climate change oppose the scientific consensus that it’s primarily caused by human activities. The study highlights the key role of social media use in the spread of scientific misinformation. And it suggests scientists and those who support them need to be more...

Move could result in loss of transparency The political action committee that sustained and supported Andrew Gillum's 2018 campaign for governor of Florida appears to be shifting a significant percentage of its activities to a nonprofit, according to new campaign finance filings. As a consequence, many of the political activities undertaken by him would come under an entity that has fewer requirements for both donors and for expenditures. Forward Florida was a PAC established specifically for Gillum and was initially funded by large checks from megadonors George Soros and Tom Steyer.

A new independent audit found multiple errors and flaws in the rollout of California’s automated “motor voter” system California’s ambitious effort to automate voter registration at Department of Motor Vehicle offices produced almost 84,000 duplicate records and more than twice that number with political party mistakes, according to an audit released Friday by state officials. The analysis covered just the first five months of the new “motor voter” program, which was launched in April 2018. It found a wide array of problems with the rollout of the DMV system, including a limited amount of testing as well as inconsistent and...

A federal lawsuit accuses the brother of former Vice President Joe Biden, hedge fund manager Michael Lewitt and others of attempting to defraud a Tennessee business. ... It says the plaintiffs founded Diverse Medical Management to reform failing rural hospitals, and Jim Biden promised to sell the health care plan to investors. It says Biden and Lewitt then urged the plaintiffs to borrow $10 million from Lewitt that would be repaid by investors. But the investors never materialized. It says Lewitt then threatened to sue the plaintiffs for not making payments on the borrowed cash.