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BOOKS

Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, And Why It Matters, by Steven E. Koonin By Reviewed by Rupert Darwall

https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2021/05/20/unsettled_what_climate_science_tells_us_what_it_doesnt_and_why_it_matters_by_steven_e_koonin_778065.html

On January 8, 2014, at New York University in Brooklyn, there occurred a unique event in the annals of global warming: nearly eight hours of structured debate between three climate scientists supporting the consensus on manmade global warming and three climate scientists who dispute it, moderated by a team of six leading physicists from the American Physical Society (APS) led by Dr. Steven Koonin, a theoretical physicist at New York University. The debate, hosted by the APS, revealed consensus-supporting climate scientists harboring doubts and uncertainties and admitting to holes in climate science – in marked contrast to the emphatic messaging of bodies such as Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

At one point, Koonin read an extract from the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report released the previous year. Computer model-simulated responses to forcings – the term used by climate scientists for changes of energy flows into and out of the climate system, such as changes in solar radiation, volcanic eruptions, and changes in the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – “can be scaled up or down.” This scaling included greenhouse gas forcings.

Some forcings in some computer models had to be scaled down to match computer simulations to actual climate observations. But when it came to making centennial projections on which governments rely and drive climate policy, the scaling factors were removed, probably resulting in a 25 to 30 percent over-prediction of the 2100 warming.

1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project Peter W. Wood’s book is a must-read. Danusha Goska

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/1620-critical-response-1619-project-danusha-v-goska/

Recent years have seen eruptions of violence and hate in America: riots, looting, the tearing down of statues. Often those rioting are privileged white youth. One wonders, why are self-described “anti-racist” riots happening now? Today’s African Americans have power and wealth that would have been unimaginable to their ancestors. Americans have elected a black president, a black vice president, and there are many current and former black governors, senators, congressmen and women, SCOTUS justices, professors, journalists, entrepreneurs, millionaires and billionaires, bestselling authors, A-list film stars, influencers, trend-setters and adored entertainers and athletes. Interracial marriage is an accepted feature of American life; indeed, Prince Harry, Kim Kardashian, John Legend, Tiger Woods, Candace Owens, Clarence Thomas, George Lucas, Robert DeNiro, Serena Williams and Heidi Klum are just a few of the celebrities in current and former interracial love matches. Why then has race-informed rage inflamed so many?

One excellent guide through America’s agonized spasms is Peter W. Wood’s “1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project.” Peter W. Wood has a Ph.D. in anthropology and was a tenured professor at Boston University. He is president of the National Association of Scholars. He has written an easy-to-read guide to the 1619 Project. Almost like a pop-up book, “1620” expands into an anthology if one follows the many references to online essays that Wood provides.

Wood is never anything but courteous and cool-headed, but he also refuses to walk on eggshells. His prose is direct and unapologetic. For example, Wood writes that the 1619 Project is “an effort to destroy America by teaching children that America never really existed, except as a lie told by white people in an effort to control black people. It eradicates American history and American values in one sweep.” This effort to destroy America by distorting American history is of great import. “American history is important because … We Americans have so little to substantiate our common identity.” Similarly, Wood cites numerous scholars who are equally plainspoken. Allen Guelzo, for example, said “The 1619 Project is not history; it is ignorance.” Gordon S. Wood called the project “perverse and distorted.”

At the same time, Wood acknowledges that taking on the 1619 Project is a quixotic quest. “Criticisms of the 1619 Project seem as futile as moths beating their wings against a porch light.” Nikole Hannah-Jones is a celebrity and is “exempt from ordinary forms of accountability.” Regarding the 1619 Project’s slickly-produced advertisement, aired during the Academy Awards, Wood wrote, “Historians publishing articles that detail the numerous inaccuracies in the Times’ pseudohistory are up against a famous, popular, and distinctive singer-actress and a soundtrack that dictates what your feelings should be. It is no contest.”

The New York Times premiered the 1619 Project in August, 2019. The Project consists, inter alia, of newspaper and magazine articles, school curricula, live events, and a podcast. The 1619 Project, Wood notes, has, in a precious touch, its very own font. The goal of the 1619 Project is “to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States’ national narrative.” The 1619 Project is promoted by the National Education Association, The Zinn Education Project / Rethinking Schools, and The Pulitzer Center, among others.

Smart People Say Dumb Things: Bill Gates Edition By Norman Rogers

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/05/smart_people_say_dumb_things_bill_gates_edition.html

Bill Gates has written a book: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. Unfortunately, the book is a disaster. He doesn’t get past the introduction before making mistakes that negate the rest of the book. He claims Carbon Dioxide emissions must be reduced to zero to avoid a climate disaster. Assuming that CO2 can even cause a climate disaster, about half the CO2 emitted every year is reabsorbed by the Earth – by the oceans and by plants. Thus, you don’t need zero, a fifty percent reduction would stop the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere. It is vastly more difficult to cut out all emissions compared to cutting them in half.

Gates claims we have to deploy solar and wind faster and smarter. I wrote a book about wind and solar with the title: Dumb Energy. There is no smart deployment of wind and solar. They are very dumb and very, very expensive. It is routine for solar to cost five times more than electricity from natural gas. Heavy solar deployment makes it even more expensive due to the use of auxiliary batteries.

Gates says we need to create and roll out breakthrough technologies. That’s called the pie in the sky.

Bill Gates strikes me as a good guy, especially compared to the nasty guys running Apple, Facebook and Twitter. He is sincerely trying to help the poor people of the world through his foundation. He is simply out of his depth on climate and is probably talking only to the promoters of climate disaster. There are plenty of scientists that are climate skeptics.

You might think that having a lot of money frees one from the chains imposed by the need to please one’s employer, friends, family and social group. But, rarely do rich people take unpopular positions. Trump is one of the few. Rich people are as much slaves to political fashion as anyone else.

The same applies to scientists. It is unusual for a scientist to question popular wisdom among his peers. As for global warming, an employed scientist risks being fired if he expresses skepticism. Global warming fear is the source of vast funding for science. The hope is that giving money to the people that perpetrated the fraud can save us from it. Most of the scientists publicly skeptical of global warming are retired or otherwise independent of large institutions that hate dissent.

Biden Military Purges Critical Race Theory Critic From U.S. Space Force Removed from command for writing book on “Marxist goal of conquest and the unmaking of the U.S. Military.” Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/biden-military-purges-critical-race-theory-critic-lloyd-billingsley/

“You keep watch around the world to detect missile launches, space launches, and nuclear detonations while providing critical intelligence. All of you are pioneers in the newest branch of our armed forces.”

That was President Donald Trump in a November 26, 2020 video conference with officers from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Space Force, which was “very special to me, that new branch, because that was something that I felt was necessary.”

Representing the Space Force was Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, commander of the 11th Space Warning Squadron at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado. That squadron operates the Defense Support Program and Space Based Infrared System satellites that detect launches and provide early warning.

A 2006 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and a qualified F-15C  pilot, Lohmeier earned a master’s degree in military operational art and science and a master’s of philosophy in military strategy. In September of 2020, Lohmeier authored The Better Mind of Space, from Air University Press, views solely of the author but “cleared for public release and unlimited distribution.”

“Like the waning moon, the traditional mind of space is diminishing in vigor, power, and influence,” wrote Lohmeier, a USAF major at the time.  “There is a better mind of space emerging that is much larger than the Air Force. The emergent mind of space is like the waxing moon—its illuminated area is increasing, and the clarity and power of its influence is growing.”

Lt. Col. Lohmeier is also the author of Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military, which attempts to answers questions such as: “Is systemic racism a reality, or is much of our talk about race merely a rhetorical tool used to divide Americans? Why has the Defense Department suddenly shifted to a focus on extremism within the ranks? Is there really a white supremacy or white nationalist problem within our armed forces? Are the many Diversity and Inclusion trainings that are being conducted in our federal agencies helping solve these problems, or are they creating conflict where none previously existed? What is Marxism, and what does it have to do with all of this?”

As Lohmeier told Military.com, he was apprised of the option to have the book reviewed by the Pentagon prior to release but told it was not required. Lohmeier recently discussed Irresistible Revolution on the “Information Operation” podcast with L. Todd Wood. The critical race theory pushed by Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Lohmeier said, “will divide us. It will not unify us.”

New Book From Former NYT Reporter Eviscerates The Bogus Steele Dossier And The Journalists Who Peddled It by Jason Foster

https://thefederalist.com/2021/05/18/new-book-from-former-nyt-reporter-eviscerates-the-bogus-steele-dossier-and-the-journalists-who-peddled-it/

Out today, Barry Meier’s book contains a comprehensive, page-turning narrative of the massive media and political dumpster fire that was the Steele dossier.

This article was originally published at Jason Foster’s Substack “Stubborn Things” under the headline “New Book: Private Spies Infected Journalism with Steele Dossier, ‘A Media Clusterf**k of epic proportions.’”

When I first heard that a former New York Times investigative reporter was writing a book about “corporate intelligence firms” like Fusion GPS and Orbis Business Intelligence, I was skeptical. Would this mean serious, in-depth scrutiny of the way Glenn Simpson and Christopher Steele peddled too-good-to-check Trump dossier fantasies to their allies in the media? Unlikely.

After all, Barry Meier began working for The Old Gray Lady when I was still in high school. He has serious skins on the wall as a good old-fashioned investigative journalist, but his paper also allowed itself to become Fusion’s mouthpiece for procedural squabbles with congressional investigators seeking to uncover the truth about the dossier and its claims.

Plus, the scope of the book might mean only a chapter or two on Fusion and Orbis, with a litany of stories about the excesses and abuses of other firms.

I was wrong.

Meier has hammered the third nail in the coffin of the Steele dossier. Nail one was Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s April 2019 Report. Nail two was Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s December 2019 Report.

Space Force Commander’s Book About Marxist Takeover of Military Shoots Up to Number 1 After He’s Fired For Talking About It By Debra Heine

https://amgreatness.com/2021/05/17/space-force-commanders-book-about-marxist-takeover-of-military-shoots-up-to-number-1-after-hes-fired-for-talking-about-it/

A new book about the Marxist takeover of the military shot to number one on Amazon’s best seller list after the author, a former commander of a U.S. Space Force unit, was fired for promoting it.

Lt Col. Matthew Lohmeier, commander of 11th Space Warning Squadron at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, was relieved from his post after he appeared on a podcast to promote his book: “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military.”

“Irresistible Revolution is a timely and bold contribution from an active-duty Space Force lieutenant colonel who sees the impact of a neo-Marxist agenda at the ground level within our armed forces,” a description of the book reads.

Lohmeier, a former instructor and fighter pilot, was tasked with detecting ballistic missile launches.

He was fired on Friday for comments he made on national security expert L. Todd Wood’s podcast “Information Operation” last week, according to Military.com.

Josh Hawley’s Book Debuts As Top 10 Bestseller Despite Cancellation Attempts  By Jordan Davidson

https://thefederalist.com/2021/05/14/josh-hawleys-book-debuts-as-top-10-bestseller-despite-cancellation-attempts/

Sen. Josh Hawley’s new book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech” is selling at rapid rates following a cancellation attempt by Simon and Schuster in January for his stance on election integrity.

According to Publishers Weekly, Hawley’s book ranks sixth in the nation for hardcover frontlist nonfiction. Since the book was released on May 4, Hawley has sold nearly 21,000 copies and shows no sign of slowing down. In its first week on Amazon’s “Top 20 Most Sold & Most Read Books of the Week” list, Hawley’s book ranked number 15.

The Washington-based Regnery Publishing company made a deal with Hawley shortly after New York-based Simon and Schuster canceled their deal with the senator one day after the Capitol riot due to a “pressure campaign organized by leftist activists.” Their reasoning for pulling back on the deal, Simon and Schuster claimed without evidence, was that Hawley is linked to the storming of Capitol because he publicly questioned the 2020 election results.

Hawley’s book outlines how corporate America uses its influence to “cancel me and to cancel or control the speech, the communication, even the ideas of millions of Americans—all Americans, in a sense, because what the woke capitalists want, along with their allies in government, is to preserve their power over American politics and society.

Facebook’s ‘Fact Checks’ Suppress Debate The social-media site seeks to discredit a review of my book on climate science. By Steven E. Koonin

https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebooks-fact-checks-suppress-debate-11621194172?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

This paper published Mark Mills’s review of “Unsettled,” my book on climate science, on April 25. Eight days later, 11 self-appointed “fact checkers” weighed in with a 4,500-word critique on the website ClimateFeedback.org. Facebook is waving that fact check as a giant red flag whenever the review appears in anyone’s feed.

By branding Mr. Mills’s review with “very low scientific credibility,” the company directs its billions of users to a website that claims to discredit the review and, by direct implication, my book. This action adds to the growing suppression of open discussion of climate complexities.

ClimateFeedback bills itself as “a worldwide network of scientists sorting fact from fiction in climate change media coverage.” Its modus operandi is to label necessarily brief media statements as misleading or inaccurate, often because they lack context. While acknowledging that “global crop yields are rising,” for instance, they add the untestable claim that yields might have been greater absent human-caused climate change. The gang of enforcers who “fact checked” Mr. Mills’s review included professors from Stanford, UCLA and MIT.

The oddest element of Facebook’s action is that the “fact check” doesn’t challenge anything I wrote in “Unsettled,” but rather provides “context” for Mr. Mills’s statements.

The Great Reject By David Solway

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-solway-2/2021/05/13/the-great-reject-n1446584

We know from Klaus Schwab, Chair of the World Economic Forum that meets annually in Davos, Switzerland, and architect of the Great Reset which envisions the entire re-making of Western society into a globalist oligopoly, that the pandemic is largely a manufactured crisis. COVID-19 is not “an existential threat,” he writes in COVID-19: The Great Reset; in fact, it is “one of the least deadly pandemics the world has experienced in the last 2000 years.” Strategic chicanery has become the order of the day. According to Schwab, the COVID crisis must be weaponized to deceive and suppress a credulous population and to stifle dissent in order to bring about the total restructuring of Western societies. COVID is the stalking horse behind which the true purpose of the revolutionary scheme and prospectus advances.

World governments and public health organizations have complied with the Davos agenda, mobilizing a veritable arsenal of tactical ordnance in the service of the larger plan. The disease constitutes “our defining moment,” Schwab exults, as the world’s political and medical peerage prepared to launch a four-pronged attack on the free-market West: mask mandates, perpetual lockdowns, defective PCR testing protocols and controversial if not toxic vaccines. Almost everything government officials and public health authorities have stipulated and enforced has been engineered to create an unprecedented catastrophe.

Entire populations will be demoralized and deprived of agency, the entrepreneurial and self-employed middle class will be effectively phased out, and the ethos of individuality and self-reliance will succumb to a global collectivity. “You will own nothing and be happy” is the operative watchword. Only the political, technocratic and plutocratic elite will be spared, as Patrick Wood explains in Technocracy Rising: The Trojan Horse of Global Transformation. This in a nutshell is the Great Reset. It sounds like a conspiracy theory aching to be debunked—the BBC’s considers the Reset as a laudable plan to restore the world’s economy rather than a “baseless conspiracy…which claims a group of world leaders orchestrated the pandemic to take control of the global economy.” The BBC perspective, among similar take-down efforts by many other Leftist venues, is wholly predictable. But a reading of Schwab’s various books detailing the project, in particular COVID-19: The Great Reset and Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the complicity of major international players like Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau, Boris Johnson, Al Gore, Prince Charles, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and a host of others, as well as the backing of Time Magazine, Greenpeace International, BP, etc., make it abundantly clear that an insurrectionary program is afoot.

On the Hypocrites at Apple Who Fired Antonio Garcia-Martinez Much easier to ruin a career than mess with a corporate cash cow Matt Taibbi

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/on-the-hypocrites-at-apple-who-canceled

I’m biased, because I know Antonio Garcia-Martinez and something like the same thing once happened to me, but the decision by Apple to bend to a posse of internal complainers and fire him over a passage in a five-year-old book is ridiculous hypocrisy. Hypocrisy by the complainers, and defamatory cowardice by the bosses — about right for the Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style era of timorous conformity and duncecap monoculture the woke mobs at these places are trying to build as their new Jerusalem.

Garcia-Martinez is a brilliant, funny, multi-talented Cuban-American whose confessional memoir Chaos Monkeys is to big tech what Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker was to finance. A onetime high-level Facebook executive — he ran Facebook Ads — Antonio’s book shows the House of Zuckerberg to be a cult full of on-the-spectrum zealots who talked like justice activists while possessing the business ethics of Vlad the Impaler:

Facebook is full of true believers who really, really, really are not doing it for the money, and really, really will not stop until every man, woman, and child on earth is staring into a blue-framed window with a Facebook logo.

When I read Chaos Monkeys the first time I was annoyed, because this was Antonio’s third career at least — he’d also worked at Goldman, Sachs — and he tossed off a memorable bestseller like it was nothing. Nearly all autobiographies fail because the genre requires total honesty, and not only do few writers have the stomach for turning the razor on themselves, most still have one eye on future job offers or circles of friends, and so keep the bulk of their interesting thoughts sidelined — you’re usually reading a résumé, not a book.