Oct 22

Opening statements in the whittled-down “Exxon Knew” trial


By Roger Roots

For Lysander Spooner University, Antigovernment News, and Justice Travelers

Lower Manhattan, New York, New York. Oct. 22. It was supposed to be the trial of the century.

But a New York Daily News article published on October 21 was entitled “The incredible collapsing ‘#ExxonKnew’ climate change lie”

The “Exxon Knew” case began with much fanfare after 2012 when a group of 20 Democratic state attorneys general conspired at a secret meeting in La Jolla,California to bring about the demise of the largest oil company in the world.

There were startling headlines. ExxonMobil had concealed the science of global warming from the public, it was said. There were supposedly whistleblowers and recently-unearthed company memos from the 1970s or ‘80s revealing Exxon’s (or Mobil’s) attempted coverup. A book, and then a movie entitled “Merchants of Doubt” told how the fossil fuel giants were secretly funding “climate denial” research to confuse the public about the supposedly well-settled science of catastrophic climate change.

Subpoenas flew and teams of investigators poured over ExxonMobil’s memos and emails for 3 years. Exxon turned over 4 million documents. It became known that the New York Attorney General’s investigation was being funded by environmentalist interests and even Michael Bloomberg and the Rockefeller Foundation.

But by 2018, when the “Exxon Knew” litigation began in earnest, the story had been exposed as mostly a work of science fiction. ExxonMobil has never spent more than the paltriest sums on skeptical science. In fact the oil giant has spent billions promoting and supporting the “consensus” theory. Exxon’s websites have made clear for years that the company “believes” in the climate change religion. ExxonMobil advocates carbon regulations and even supports the Paris Accords.

(Interestingly, ExxonMobil’s refusal to defend itself from the alleged consensus science begs the question of whether ExxonMobil has violated its fiduciary duty to its shareholders to fully investigate the weaknesses behind climate alarmism. The company may well face shareholder lawsuits in the future over its failure to challenge the climate doomsday narrative.)

By 2019 the “Exxon knew” allegations had fizzled into mere claims that Exxon used sloppy accounting in its own appraisals of its oil and gas reserves in light of likely future CO2 regulations.

TRIAL BY JUDGE NOT JURY, IN STATE RATHER THAN FEDERAL COURT

The setting for this whittled-down trial is the old New York Supreme Court building in lower Manhattan. (In New York, trial courts are “supreme” courts and what most Americans would call a state supreme court is known as the Court of Appeals.) The judge, Barry Ostrager, is trying the case himself, as both Exxon and the State have opted to forego a jury trial.

The diminished scope of the “Exxon Knew” case did not seem to deaden the hubbub surrounding the trial on Tuesday afternoon. The courtroom was packed, with more watching a feed from an overflow room on the third floor of the courthouse. Reporters and lawyers were everywhere.

A youngish State attorney led the proceedings in a rapid yet monotone delivery. Exxon kept two—or maybe three—sets of books regarding the future valuation of many of the company’s assets, he stated. While Exxon reassured the public that it was preparing for higher future regulatory costs, the company’s actual operations assumed that climate change regulations would stay constant and low.

This is all that remains of the once-heralded “Exxon Knew” allegations.
ExxonMobil’s lead attorney said Exxon did nothing wrong. “Absolutely nothing.” “For many years, ExxonMobil has recognized that climate change is real and must be addressed.” The mentions of future $80-per-carbon-ton costs were merely cash flow sheets for future projects which did not exist yet. Such figures were never on any balance sheet and no investor ever relied on them.

Trial continues tomorrow with witness testimony.

Oct 21

“I can’t think properly,” mumbles Julian Assange as he fights extradition to U.S.

The great Julian Assange, who has struggled for years to bring government crimes to light through his Wikileaks website, is currently held in England’s Belmarsh prison awaiting extradition to the U.S. to face “conspiracy” to disclose classified information charges.

(His alleged “coconspirator,” Chelsea Manning, is also being held–without sentence or charge–in U.S. jails for “contempt of court” for refusing to testify against Assange before a federal grand jury.)

At an extradition hearing in London on October 21, Assange said he couldn’t understand the proceedings.

Government judges told Assange that his lawyer could explain everything to him.

But Assange continued to ramble.
“I can’t think properly,” he said.

Oct 21

Americans continue to cite government as their greatest problem

A new Gallup poll is out. As governments have grown increasingly large and powerful, Americans have cited government as the biggest problem in their lives for two consecutive years.

Oct 20

Australian government is at war with free press

Australian papers are uniting to produce stories this week with most of their content redacted.

The plan is in response to recent raids and assaults on the press by the Australian government. The government has imposed increasing “national security” restrictions on the press in recent years.

Last year a court order prevented media from reporting that the former Vatican treasurer, Cardinal George Pell, had been found guilty on child sex abuse charges.

Some Australian outlets reported that an unidentified person had been convicted of spreading the news about Pell.

The subject came to a boil again in June when police raided the head office of the ABC in Sydney and the home of a News Corp editor on suspicion of receiving national secrets.

See here.

Oct 17

Bundy paralegal Rick Koerber sentenced to 14 years in federal puppet show hearing

Salt Lake City. October 15. Anti-Government News Bureau. The immense power of the federal justice department was on display as “the Free Capitalist,” Rick Koerber, received his sentence on Tuesday.

Rick Koerber rose to prominence throughout the early 2000s as a libertarian radio host and investment guru. Rick educated thousands around the American west. But when the real estate market collapsed in 2008, Rick’s investment business—and his investors—lost millions.

Rick called investors, kept them informed and spent a year liquidating assets to make the investors as close to whole as possible.

But Rick’s enemies in the government tried to bring criminal charges against him repeatedly. Several grand juries looked into Rick’s investment business and refused to indict him. The State of Utah investigated and concluded no crime was committed.

Prosecutors committed prosecutorial misconduct and several judges pronounced the claims against Rick dismissed with prejudice. But when federal prosecutors saw Rick working as a paralegal for the Bundy defense team in Oregon in 2016, they renewed their attempts to convict Rick of investment fraud.

After three trials, a jury convicted Rick Koerber in 2018. Now a federal judge brought in from New York sentenced Rick to more than 14 years in federal prison.

“Fraud” allegations are about deceiving victims. Prosecutors admitted they sent letters to all purported victims of Rick’s investment business, but that no purported victim showed up to speak for the prosecution. There were several who showed to speak for the defense, however. They had lost money but wanted to inform the court that Rick had treated them honestly.

Faculty from Lysander Spooner University were in the audience to support Rick, who had been a keynote speaker at LSU’s “The Struggle for Freedom” symposium in downtown Las Vegas on December 16, 2017. We watched as each ‘victim’ tried to tell the court they had not actually been victimized at all. The judge, Frederick Block of the Eastern District of New York, stopped and silenced each of them. Block told each ‘victim’ they could not speak at all unless they said they were a victim.

Finally, one witness, Jason Vaughn, stepped to the podium and said he was indeed a victim—OF THE PROSECUTION!. The judge immediately silenced him and marshals dragged him from the courtroom in front of shocked observers. Judge Block then halted all further discussion by victims, scolding defense lawyers that it was “insulting.”

After silencing all voices of the public and turning the hearing into a stage presentation about fictional “Ponzi schemes,” Judge Block sentenced Rick Koerber to more than 14 years in federal prison. The judge denied requests to release Koerber pending the outcome of his appeal.

We stand in support of Rick Koerber and demand justice for him.

Oct 11

Remember those claims that government had to take over the internet to ensure equal access? California’s PG&E just showed why “Net Neutrality” is a bad idea

Shortly after the development of electricity as a viable means of household energy, governments sought to regulate it. Soon every state required electricity providers to get permission from “public utility” commissions. Then came government control over pricing, profits and implementation. Today’s electrical companies are essentially monopolies—with government licenses.

Later studies debunked the government arguments—too late. A study by Walter Primeaux, “Total Deregulation of Electrical Utilities: A Viable Policy Choice,” in Unnatural Monopolies (1985), showed that communities with competing electric companies had average prices that were 33 per cent lower.

Today it is almost impossible to start a rival utility and compete with modern power firms. You will be stopped by the government.

This week, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)—the government-licensed monopoly utility in many areas of California—simply shut off electricity to a million Californians upon a claim that it hoped to prevent wildfires. (There was wind in the forecast.)

PG&E was bankrupted last year when its power lines were blamed for causing deadly wildfires. The company has lost, or is on track to lose, over a billion dollars. Now PG&E is, well, somewhat unresponsive to customer needs. And there are no competitors.

Groceries have rotted, shops and businesses have shuttered and lost millions, cars and lives are at a standstill.

If ever there were a lesson for advocates of “net neutrality”—a government takeover of the internet to ensure “access”—it is this tale. If internet providers ever become government-sponsored monopolies they will be able to shut down their services at any moment—and consumers will have nowhere else to go.

Oct 06

Ecuador government begins arresting shopkeepers for price increases

In a free market, rapid price increases are quickly fixed by suppliers who, seeking quick profits, hurriedly get more product to market. This growth in supply then leads to rapid reductions in prices.

A sure way to ENSURE that consumers will be deprived of plentiful, cheap goods, on the other hand, is for governments to deploy troops to arrest retailers who price their goods in a way that government dislikes.

But governments worldwide are often oblivious to these basic laws of economics.

Now, in Ecuador, government agents have begun arresting storekeepers whose prices are higher than the government likes. See here.

Oct 04

Remember that professor who mocked academia by publishing preposterous joke “studies” in peer-reviewed journals? He is now being fired by Portland State University

Contemporary higher education is suffering a crisis of legitimacy. Government funding and bias have so corrupted it that larger and larger proportions of society view modern universities as unnecessary overfunded wastelands of government propaganda. A recent Pew Research poll found that only half of all Americans now have a positive view of colleges and universities and that 59 percent of Republicans believe colleges are bad for America.

Now Peter Boghossian–1 of 3 liberal college professors who recently placed a number of fake research papers in peer-reviewed academic journals in order to demonstrate that almost any preposterous “study” can get published in so-called “grievance studies” journals as long as the study supports government expansion or political correctness–is facing disciplinary charges at Portland State University.

Boghossian is a whistleblower of a sort. He plagiarized large sections of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and almost got it published in academic journals simply by changing “Jews” to “white males.” (The research paper would have been published in a peer-reviewed journal except that reporting by the Wall Street Journal disrupted the hoax before it was completed.) Boghossian also concocted a ridiculous “study” which sought to show a connection between dog parks and “rape culture.”

Boghossian is paying a price for so thoroughly embarrassing modern academia and the peer review process. PSU claims that he failed to get Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for his research and fabricated data when he and his team claimed, for their dog park article “to have tactfully inspected the genitals of slightly fewer than 10,000 dogs whilst interrogating owners as to their sexuality.”

Here is a Reason podcast interview of Boghossian discussing his work and his travails.

Oct 03

Worldwide, scientists who disagree with climate doomsday messaging are attacked, fired, defunded and ostracized

Tony Heller documents numerous cases where expert scientists who disagree with governments’ theory of manmade apocalyptic global warming are fired from their positions, stripped of support and funding, and violently attacked.

“This is how “consensus” is maintained – through the same thuggery used to silence Galileo hundreds of years ago. A return to the Dark Ages, by the same people who tell us they are “progressives.””

University of Washington climate professor Cliff Mass has recently described years of mistreatment on the UW campus. Mass has been sanctioned, admonished and silenced repeatedly for opposing a political initiative aimed at imposing a carbon tax on the residents of Washington.

At times, groups of graduate students have openly hissed, shouted and screeched at Professor Mass as he walked across campus. The UW administration has done nothing to protect him; and has actually targeted him for persecution.

Oct 02

Chinese must now pass facial recognition test to access internet

The Epoch Times reports that the Chinese government now requires residents to pass a facial recognition test to apply for an internet connection.

In addition, no cell phone or landline number can be transferred to another person.