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[Tweets excerpted]: The judge is going over the verdict form question by question Simberg - defamatory? Lead Juror: Yes Provably false: Yes Simberg's statement false: Yes Simberg knew it was false: Yes Mann suffered injury: Yes Simberg Verdict Compensatory Damages: $1 Punitive Damages: $1000.00 Steyn's verdict Defamatory statements: Yes Provably False: Yes False Statements: Yes Published With Knowledge Of Falsity: Yes Entertaining serious doubts: Yes Reckless Disregard Mann Suffered Injury: Yes Compensatory Damages: $1 Punitive Damages: $1,000,000.00

On Wednesday, late in the day at 4pm Deep State Standard Time, Mann vs Simberg and Steyn finally went to the jury, and they retired to deliberate. So now we await their verdict - as, on this same day just a few blocks away, President Trump awaits the decision of a supposedly "conservative" Supreme Court on whether he can be permitted to appear on the ballot. I am exhausted by what passes for "justice" in America, and I expect he feels the same. In my case, the last phase of the trial - closing arguments - began yesterday after lunch:...

In the meantime, here are Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer with their dramatised reconstruction of the most recent events. In this episode, Dr Judith Curry takes the stand - a woman sorely traduced by the misogynist pig Michael E Mann, who spread false rumors that she was a slut who slept her way to the top. Simply click below: Mark is played by the Australian actor Thomas Bromhead, who in America is one of the voices of the Geico Gecko and also Rocket in I Got a Rocket, and in the UK and elsewhere is perhaps best known for the...

Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer are back with their dramatised reconstruction of Mann vs Simberg and Steyn, now installed in a far grander courtroom - 132 - at the District of Columbia Superior Court. Day Eight began with Steyn's continuing cross-examination of the plaintiff. Michael E Mann's misogyny regarding Judith Curry audibly shocked the courtroom, but he recovered sufficiently to assert that the best proof that he really is a Nobel Laureate was that he was one of only two people to receive a standing ovation at some climate beano in Hawaii. Then, at the end of the day, the...

Michael E Mann's sixth and final witness is some guy called John Abraham, from the University of St Thomas in Minnesota, who presented himself to the court as an "expert" in investigations, whatever that means. Perhaps he's worked with Hercule Poirot. Mr Simberg's lawyers and Steyn promptly announced they would "voir dire" him, which will take place today. "Voir dire" is an old Norman French term meaning "truly dire", which accurately sums up the American justice system. The courtroom is turning into a mini-Minnesota, with not only Mr Abraham on the scene but also Mark's favorite presidential candidate Michele Bachmann...

The action of making something obscure, unclear, or unintelligible. The Plaintiff's case hinges on making you, or rather the jury, believe — nay, they have to prove — that Mark and Rand knowingly falsified information and had an intent to ruin Mann's reputation. How are Mann's lawyers trying to do that? By making data falsification, fabrication, and every other journalistic standard, such as plagerism (which has been in the news of late, if we recall correctly), the exclusive domain of academia. These really smart people are the only ones who are educated enough to say what is right and what...

First things first. Those who have been watching online have already figured this out, but it is expected that Mark will cross-examine Michael Mann — mano a mano — TOMORROW. So be sure to tune in (Room 518). Second, welcome to the fight, Jack Posobiec! Thank you for the excellent coverage of the trial over at Human Events (at minute 38, but the whole show is great as usual). Jack joins a growing cadre of media (see John Hinderaker at Powerline here, Ricochet here, Heartland and John Droz here, and Phelim and Ann's latest here) who recognize the seriousness of...

~I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who got a mordant laugh out of this line in Joe Biden's Feast of the Insurrection sermon: "Political violence" is when the FBI kicks in the door of a fat old man with a cane and guns him down like an animal for putting up some spicy Facebook posts. What Joe Biden is saying is he'd like to retain a monopoly on the political violence in America. https://t.co/gqs8glCuRx — Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) January 5, 2024 So "political violence is never ever acceptable in the United States political system. Never, never, never....

~Surprise Development of the Week: German chancellor tests positive for COVID again, despite booster shots "Despite"? Meanwhile, back in the real world: EU countries destroy €4B worth of COVID vaccines A POLITICO analysis shows that more than 200M unwanted coronavirus jabs have been dumped. The Mark Steyn Show first reported on the dumping of Covid vaccines last year, but it's good to see the trend continuing. That "200 million" EU total is a considerable underestimate, given that certain countries - France, Greece, the Czech Republic, etc - have refused to cough up any data. Obviously not all the unwanted "boosters"...

@DVATW Mark Steyn has been a brave and courageous voice for many years. He has suffered several cardiac incidents since taking the jabs and appears to be white in the hair and confined to a wheelchair. This is very sad to see and I hope he can recover.

Prayers for Mark Steyn Today as he Again Faces the Leftist DC Courts and the Mann Lawsuit. He is being sued for challenging a leftist' lies about environment temperature increases. He has severe cardiac issues. Snd just had another heart attack and a sixth Stent placed. The horrorshow courts require his presence instead of video. Evil courts are killers

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, Israelis woke up to a sustained attack on multiple southern towns near the border with the Gaza Strip (half of the so-called "Palestinian Authority"). This isn't the usual vicious but random spasm of slaughter in which Hamas likes to engage. It appears to have been very well planned and executed, with thousands upon thousands of rockets barraging Israeli residential areas from the southern border to north of Tel Aviv. It is also an invasion: Hamas used bulldozers to demolish Israeli border barriers, enabling an unknown number of its assets to enter...

My grandfather, who was born when Charles Dickens was still alive and writing, left me his books, including copies of David Copperfield, Bleak House and Barnaby Rudge, which is good because at no point in either grade school or high school did Dickens appear on any reading list. Dickens was – and still is – one of the most famous novelists ever, but like Mark Twain and Tolstoy, I have no sense whatever that he's being read. Back at the end of World War Two, when David Lean was a young director presented with Dickens' Great Expectations as his next...

I mentioned on Monday that on his long-running Radio Derb John Derbyshire drew his listeners' attention to an observation of yours truly: I can't improve on Steyn—nobody can—so I'll just quote him from that piece. I always feel Derb thinks I'm a bit of a pantywaist on the hardcore issues, but in today's America even a reasonably sentient pantywaist should be able to get to the nub of the issue. Here's the bit Derb quoted: So two years later the American Right still talks about the justice system and the election campaign as if either term means what it does...

On the one hand, mask mandates are back. On the other hand, the Associated Press says that's all a conspiracy theory. On the other other hand, Covid hospitalizations are up - and there's a scary new variant from... (hurls dart at map of the world) Denmark and... (hurls second dart, backward over shoulder) Israel. On the other other other hand, that eighth shot is sure to work: snip I take it most of the above is just prepping the battlefield for next year's presidential election. But, as you know, I am more interested in the news that doesn't make the...

For the course of its six-year run, Tucker Carlson Tonight was without doubt the best show on American cable news - and, in defiance of the usual trajectory, got better and better as the years went by. Absent TCT, primetime at Fox is a lot more boring, predictable, and irrelevant to anything that matters. Tucker will do just fine, and we can't wait to see what's next for him - and 99 per cent of the things that will be leaked about him in the coming days will be total bollocks.Steyn was privileged to appear on the show every week...

It's Easter and Passover at SteynOnline. This column has become something of a tradition here at this time of year: my thoughts on Mel Gibson's big blockbuster from just shy of twenty Easters ago. Mel has spent the last decade getting a little crazier with every year that passes.... Surprisingly, there have been no attempts by Mr Gibson or anyone else to replicate the success of this film, but back in 2004 it was impressive not just cinematically but as an interesting business model for bypassing Hollywood: The headline on the Washington Post review summed it up: "'Passion' Is A...

Maybe it's age, but I'm starting to warm up to the God of the Old Testament big-time. That's the one you're not supposed to like. The one you're supposed to feel embarrassed by. Even outraged. To hear religion-hater Richard Dawkins (and his tedious hordes of mini-mes) tell it, the Old Testament God is the personification of all cosmic vice. In Dawkins' words, he is "arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction". My immediate response is: okay—maybe he was unpleasant at times. Who isn't? And besides, anyone who ever does anything big is "unpleasant" every once in a while. Goes...

Question: What's the connection between the Muslim call to prayer and Fred Astaire? Answer: Night and Day You are the one Only you beneath the moon and under the sun... Well, that's the way Cole Porter told it, some of the time: His biggest hit was supposedly inspired by hearing the muezzin summon the faithful in Morocco during one of Cole's Mediterranean wanderings. If so, it must rank as Islam's greatest contribution to American popular music (along with "What Is This Thing Called Love?"). Morocco-wise, it seems more attuned to the country's nocturnal near namesake in Manhattan: "The crowds at...

Two years ago today - February 17th 2021 - I was getting ready for another guest-hosting stint on the EIB Network when my friend Kraig Kitchin, the founder of Premiere Radio Networks and (since Kit Carson's death) Rush's acting "chief of staff", telephoned with devastating news: a year after his diagnosis of advanced lung cancer, Rush had died that morning. We had all known, since the day he announced his condition, how the story ends - but he had fought against it so hard just to be here for tomorrow's show, or the day after that, the news still came...