THE DEFENSE OF PSU SCIENTIST PROFESSORS

AND THE DISMISSAL OF DR. GRAHAM SPANIER

PART II of the Not So Common Threads Series.

Part I of this "not so common threads series" exposed the bias of Louis Freeh due to his association with Opus Dei, and a burning desire to turn attention to Penn State and away from his church, the pedophile priests and fellow Opus Dei Robert Hanssen. Perceived conflicts between science and religion are well known. It is not my purpose to dismiss the importance of either or to attack religious people. I can believe in God and trust science.

The Integrity of PSU has been attacked in more ways than you likely know. Any university is a place for research and exploration of ideas. Universities should be free from ideological attack by political interests. When professors and researchers are threatened with removal by political parties a line has been crossed that should never be breached. Your opinion of research results does not alter the fact that research is an inviolable interest of the public and the university system.

When Gov. Tom Corbitt called Dr. Graham Spanier to Harrisburg to meet with PA Republican office holders who demanded Spanier fire PSU Climate Scientists and researchers, it was a violation of everything a university is supposed to be. Your opinion concerning Anthropogenic Global Warming is not the issue. The issue is the freedom and importance of research at public institutions of higher learning and the academic integrity of your university.

Dr. Spanier has long maintained that Gov. Corbett was behind the charges against him. It is clear that Corbett in collusion with John Surma orchestrated the ambush of Spanier and Paterno at an "emergency" meeting of the Board of Trustees.

The connections and parallels in the references below are compelling, and they are not mine. The last campaign for Governor held more than usual importance to Penn Staters since the makeup of the Board of Trustees and a potential reversal of the narrative concerning the Freeh Fiction became possible with Corbett's defeat.

Corbett in collusion with John Surma ambushed Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier. The "emergency" meeting of 11/9/11 allowed Surma who led the meeting to dispatch the two most credible voices capable of stemming the tsunami of blame leveled at PSU. Both Joe and Graham knew the Kelley Presentment was a bald-faced lie. But Corbett had to stop Joe and Graham from speaking out against that lie.

When AG Kelley put equal sized images of Tim Curley and Gary Schultz on stage beside the poster of Jerry Sandusky the presentment lie made the Penn State Scandal out of what is still rightly 'the Sandusky Second Mile' Scandal.

Again we know why Surma set out to destroy Joe Paterno from The Surma Vendettas Part I and Part II. But why would Tom Corbett be so bent of the defamation and dismissal of Dr. Graham Spanier?

President Graham Spanier was the 32nd member of the Board on Nov 9, 2011, and the only board member who spoke out in defense of Penn State when he urged fellow members to stand behind Coach Paterno, Tim Curley, and Gary Schultz. Thus, Graham Spanier was the only member who stood publicly for what was right; and they forced his resignation for it, in large part due to Tom Corbett's personal animosity for an imagined political opponent. Spanier's defense of his administrators has caused Mike McQueary to charge Spanier with defamation in the civil trial underway in State College this week.

Graham Spanier with Joe Paterno

Spanier was a most effective PSU President for 16 years. The FOR THE FUTURE campaign success reminds us his 16-year tenure as President just keeps on giving. We have to wonder why it had to stop.

Penn State sets $2 billion goal for campaign to help students

4/23/2010 University Park President Graham Spanier announced that Penn State will aim to secure $2 billion by 2014 to ensure that the University can continue to offer an outstanding education to students from every economic background while benefiting the public through research and service.

Penn State raises more than $2 billion in For the Future campaign

Previous SMSS articles gave information indicating the battle between Corbett and Spanier over funding led to Corbett's ambush that sidelined Spanier. But here it is clear that Spanier was hugely successful in fundraising outside of government. So why did Tom Corbett view Graham Spanier as a political opponent?

Climate Change was part of the race between Wolf and Corbett.

Climate Change Stokes Billionaire's Campaign Against Corbett.

Steyer, 56, intends to spend up to $100 million through his NextGen Climate Action super-PAC to convince voters that climate change is the most important issue in the fall elections.

If a Governor Wolf were to take on Corbett for his conflict of interest in the 11/9 meeting that led to Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier being sidelined when they alone could have cast serious doubt on the narrative about a PSU cover-up it would put Corbett in a very difficult position. Climate Change tied to the Sandusky Scandal like this opens the possibility of another look by the Governor's office.

Climate Change and the Sandusky Scandal are connected because Penn State has some of the most prominent climate scientists in the country.

SELF-DESCRIBED CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN DR. RICHARD ALLEY

Penn Stater's should be proud of Dr. Richard Alley, who received the Nobel Prize for work on climate change. Dr.Alley is an environmental scientist, PBS host, book author, polar ice expert, bicycle enthusiast, geologist, Nobel Prize winner, Johnny Cash impersonator, former oil company employee, and—according to The New York Times’ Andy Revkin—a “cross between Woody Allen and Carl Sagan.” (without Woody's baggage)

Dr. Alley is an Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences in PSU's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. His research interests focus on glaciology, sea level change, and abrupt climate change, and he frequently discusses earth sciences on major media outlets, including NPR, BBC, and PBS. Alley is widely credited with showing that the earth has experienced abrupt climate change in the past—and likely will again, based on his meticulous study of ice cores from Greenland and West Antarctica.

Graham Spanier defended PSU climate scientists to legislators

who threatened to reduce funding for PSU if they were not removed.

It is quite likely that Dr. Spanier’s defense of Penn State Climate Scientists played a part in what led to his dismissal - I learned in Sept 2016. Then attorney general of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli, who had sought to indict Dr. Mann  was a friend and political ally of former Attorney General then Governor Tom Corbett. Mann was under attack in the bogus "Climategate - hockey stick" flap making headline news at the time.

A Spanier led Penn State hired Dr. Mann for the Department of Meteorology and PA Republicans led by Corbett and invested in coal and fracking wanted Spanier to fire climate scientists whose research was perceived as a threat to their interests. Dr. Spanier gave a solid defense and refused to fire the noted scientists and professors.

What effect did this have on Corbett's plan that removed Dr. Spanier as PSU President? Corbett's fight with Spanier over PSU funding was tied to the defense of PSU scientists by the Republican state legislators. Corbett thought Spanier was supporting climate change action and Corbett was the beneficiary of fossil fuel industry support along with The Second Mile support. The demand to dismiss PSU scientists from Republicans was motivated by the financial interests of their fossil fuel industry supporters.

CLIMATE SCIENCE AND THE SANDUSKY SCANDAL

This American Thinker article is evidence of what the Spanier defense of the faculty at PSU did to incur the wrath of Corbett and fossil fuel funded legislators who wanted to de-fund PSU if Mann et. al were not fired.

CLIMATEGATE & the SANDUSKY SCANDALS -COMMON THREADS In this American Thinker article the bogus "Climategate" attack compares favorably with Spanier's defense of Dr. Mann and the Freeh Fiction on Spanier's non-existent "cover-up" for Sandusky. Identical tactics are used.

Reading the text below leaves no doubt. The author claims Spanier chose PSU employees as "investigators" but you can read below how Dr. Pell initiated the RA-10 process

UNPRECEDENTED ATTACKS ON ACADEMIC RESEARCH AT PSU

The Climategate and Jerry Sandusky Scandals: A Common Thread

By T.S. Weidler July 31, 2012

America, it's time to meet your newest top-secret government employee: a professional cover-up artist with a radical agenda.
Graham Spanier is the former PSU president who was fired during the Jerry Sandusky investigation for failing to properly investigate Sandusky when the pedophilia allegations first surfaced.
Spanier's "investigation" of Jerry Sandusky was so thoroughly inept that it got him fired. When it was completed, Spanier stated that he had "complete confidence in how they have handled the allegations against Sandusky," and he was fired very shortly thereafter.
The recent Freeh report indicates that the investigation was conducted for the purpose of finding nothing. In other words,it was a cover-up.
It wasn't the only time Spanier rigged an inept investigation for the purpose of finding nothing. In 2010, his investigators found that Penn State climatologist Michael Mann had done nothing wrong when he invented his "hockey stick trick," to "hide the decline" and lend false credibility to climate change theory.
The difference between the Mann investigation and the Sandusky investigation is that one covered up a sex offender and the other covered up a fraud.
The Climategate "Investigation"
The methodology, however, was equally bad. The "Climategate" investigation was conducted by five Penn State employees. The five internal investigators were given a list of four specific allegations of academic fraud, and they proceeded to dismiss the three most significant allegations outright, without investigating them at all. (this is an offensive lie against PSU)

These attacks on PSU should cause every Penn State alumnus great concern. These are attacks on the academic integrity of your Alma Mater. You should know beyond doubt that 16-year President Graham Spanier has complete integrity. PSU's inquiry into Dr. Mann appears to be unprecedented since this type of inquiry is typically initiated from within an academic institution - not from allegations by email and telephone from elements outside the university. Read the Final Investigation Report Involving Dr. Michael Mann:

On Nov. 24, 2009, two days after receipt of numerous outside allegations, Dr. Pell initiated the process articulated in RA-1O by scheduling a meeting with the Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (Dr. William Easterling), the Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Research of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (Dr. Alan Scaroni), the Director of the Office for Research Protections (Ms. Candice Yekel), and the Head of the Department of Meteorology (Dr. William Brune).

At the time of initiation of the inquiry, no formal allegations accusing Dr. Mann of research misconduct had been submitted to any University official. Therefore, the emails and other communications were reviewed by Dr. Pell, and from these she synthesized four formal allegations. To be clear, these were not allegations that Dr. Pell put forth but rather her best effort to reduce to reviewable allegations the many different accusations that were received from parties outside of the University. The four synthesized allegations were as follows:

Did you engage in, or participate in, directly or indirectly,

any actions with the intent to suppress or falsify data?

any actions with the intent to delete, conceal or otherwise destroy emails, information and/or data, related to AR4,as suggested by Phil Jones?

any misuse of privileged or confidential information available to you in your capacity as an academic scholar?

any actions that seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research, or other scholarly activities?

Here we have an unprecedented attack on a Penn State professor and scientist undoubtedly initiated by the same deniers who spawned the CEI and National Review attacks coming from those associated with the fossil fuel industry funded groups. Like Corbett and Freeh going after Joe, Tim, Gary, and Graham with a few email snippets, the "Climategate" fiction based on a few out of context email snippets put PSU and Dr. Mann in this unprecedented position of a formal inquiry. This report on the Inquiry is 19 pages in length and goes into great detail concerning the methods and documentation used to arrive at this unanimous conclusion:

Conclusion of the Investigatory Committee as to whether research misconduct occurred:

The Investigatory Committee, after careful review of all available evidence, determined that there is no substance to the allegations against Dr. Michael E. Mann, Professor, Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University. More specifically, the Investigatory Committee determined that Dr. Michael E. Mann did not engage in, nor did he participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions that seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research, or other scholarly activities. The decision of the Investigatory Committee was unanimous.

If you reject this unanimous conclusion by the academic panel, you are saying that the academic integrity of your alma mater is questionable, and the academic officers who did this inquiry are not to be trusted.

My belief is that my University of Tennessee exhibits the highest possible academic integrity. I believe that is the same with Penn State. The panel of distinguished professors who reviewed the complaints from outside Penn State did not have to do this. There was obviously some significant outside pressure coming from political elements in PA who wanted to see Dr. Mann discredited. Dr. Mann was unanimously cleared and vindicated.

See Appendix B below for the record of 1073 email files that were used by the Deniers who invented the "Climategate" FRAUD.

The National Review called Dr. Mann "the Sandusky of Climate Science" and that makes the connection clear. Dr. Mann's defamation lawsuits continue as dismissal motions fail. After the PSU investigation cleared Dr. Mann of charges that he misused grant money and falsified data, the fossil fuel funded deniers continued to harass PSU Climate Scientists.

Disinformers step up efforts to intimidate, harass,

and attack Mann, Alley, & PSU

The well funded Deniers go beyond slander to outright harassment -see CEI to sue RealClimate blogger over moderation policy and HERE where NASA’s James Hansen, explains the strategy. - And this quote from Dr. Mann.

“I am now inundated with broad FOIA requests for my correspondence, with substantial impact on my time and on others in my office. I believe these to be fishing expeditions, aimed at finding some statement(s), likely to be taken out of context, which they would attempt to use to discredit climate science. The input data for global temperature analyses are widely available, on our web site and elsewhere. If those input data could be made to yield a significantly different global temperature change, contrarians would certainly have done that — but they have not.” Dr. Mann

Delingpole actually brags about the latest intimidation strategy:

"I am glad to report that Michael Mann is about to get a very nasty shock. On Monday, Mann will find that all 27 of his colleagues at the Earth System Science Center at PSU received a tempting email inviting them to blow the whistle on anyone fraudulently misusing federal grant funds for climate research. Under US law whistleblowers stand to make very large sums of money: based on a percentage of misued government funds - in this case perhaps as much as $50 million." - Mr. Delingpole

There was no “very nasty shock” to Dr. Mann or his colleagues, including PSU's Richard Alley, since they are all already more than aware of the inane tactics of the disinformers (see Alley explains “The Biggest Control Knob: Carbon Dioxide in Earth’s Climate History”). And no, there aren’t any “whistleblowers” who will make a nickel off this intimidation strategy, but then that isn’t really the point of Delingpole's email. Of course, the "whistleblower" letter with an invitation to monetary reward got no takers at Penn State.

READ the entire piece linked above to comprehend the scope and effect of these unprecedented attacks on PSU Climate Scientists. Climate Deniers funded by Exxon and KOCH Industries care nothing about the depth and accuracy of the research. They have only 2 combined goals - cast doubt and cause inaction.

SEE: MERCHANTS OF DOUBT for free on Youtube - Dr. Mann is in this documentary reading the emails generated in the attacks on Penn State's integrity. The content of the email read by Dr. Mann is obscene and threatning.

See key deniers like - Ultra Conservative Republican Congressman from South Carolina Bob Inglis -someone those who distrust the scientists can trust OR

THE SKEPTIC magazine publisher, Michael Shermer. One of 6 prominent conservative or libertarian deniers who studied the science in depth. Shermer read all of the complete email chains used by perpetrators of the 'CLIMATEGATE" fraud. Prior to that experience he was a staunch libertarian climate change Denier himself.

When Dr. Spanier stood up for the academic integrity represented by these scientists and Penn State cleared them of the bogus charges made up from email snippets taken out of context - the parallels to what Freeh did to Penn State, Spanier, and Paterno are clear.

Mann sued the people responsible for his defamation and Spanier has gone on the attack suing Louis Freeh for defamation.

Mann has lawsuits in progress against the Competitive Enterprise Institute - a fossil fuel funded political "think-tank", and The National Review.

Professor Mann cleared by PSU of any violations in the bogus "Climategate" blowup.

Another Win for Michael Mann June 13, 2016, Case drags on for years as the defendant defamers continue to stall with dismissal motions to no avail.

Steyn’s request that the suit be dismissed was itself dismissed, as a similar request was in 2014. The judge’s patience with Steyn’s antics seems to be wearing thin, as the ruling notes that “Only one thing has changed since the court last considered this issue on April 11, 2014 – the date.”

A Win for the Climate Scientist Who Skeptics Compared to Jerry Sandusky

In 2012 writers for The National Review and fossil fuel funded think tank CEI accused Mann of fraud comparing him to Jerry Sandusky—Mann files a defamation suit. The defendants moved to have the case thrown out, but DC Superior Court Judge Weisberg rejected the motion, opening the way for a trial. Public figures like Mann & Spanier have to clear a high bar to prove defamation, Weisberg argued that Mann's complaint may pass the test, and brushed aside the defendants' claims that the fraud allegations were "pure opinion".

THIS IS THE KEY ELEMENT IN MANN'S CASE: Judge Weisberg Superior Court

Accusing a scientist of conducting fraudulent research, manipulating data to achieve a predetermined or political outcome, or purposefully distorting the scientific truth are factual allegations. They go to the heart of scientific integrity. They can be proven true or false. If false, they are defamatory. If made with actual malice, they are actionable.

Steptoe & Johnson LLC, representing National Review writer Mark Steyn, withdrew as his counsel, and also plan to drop TNR as a client.

Parallels between the Freeh attack on PSU and attacks on PSU's climate scientists were drawn by The National Review and the fossil fuel industry-funded "think tank" Competitive Enterprise Institute when they called Mann "the Sandusky of Climate Science."

These charlatans and deniers fraudulently produced false "evidence" just like Freeh, taking email fragments out of context from 5 of 480 scientists to claim temperature measurements were manipulated.

Freeh used a few email fragments out of 3.5 million documents to accuse Joe Paterno, Graham Spanier, Tim Curley, and Gary Schultz of a cover up.

The tactics are too similar to ignore.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Claiming scientists 'cook the books' to keep research and grant money flowing?
Here's a question to consider: Use your own Occam’s Razor. What is more likely?

1) A diverse multi-national group of Climate Scientists across the globe have conspired to manufacture a non-existent threat to the planet using data available to everyone in order to keep research grants that certainly do not make them wealthy.

2) Well paid "experts" with little or no scientific background, from think tanks funded by the wealthiest and most powerful industry in history, do the job their fossil fuel paymasters pay them handsomely to do. They use deceptive practices attacking the scientists and the science with false information to create doubt and thwart action so the fossil fuel industry can continue to make billions of dollars without interference.

257 Billion Profit in 2014 with obscene subsidies is sufficient reason for fraud.

So far the evidence is clear in the case of Penn State's own Michael Mann. "Climategate" has been exposed as a fraud and defamation cases move forward. CEI and The National Review used the deceptive practice of taking out of context email snippets to create "Climategate" casting doubt on Dr. Mann's credibility and his research just at the time of the Copenhagen Conference. Read the entire timeline

DR. MANN'S ORIGINAL HOCKEY STICK DATA WAS GROUND-BREAKING IN 1998

As time passes the "CLIMATEGATE" fraud becomes more and more evident. Since 1998 temperatures have continued to rise rapidly. As evidence accumulates it becomes difficult to believe anyone still thinks the hockey stick is an inaccurate picture of the reality.

At this very date, 16 consecutive hottest months on record should be clear and convincing but we still suffer from doubt spawned by fossil fuel industry paid deniers who pretend the data stopped in 1998.

Setting the Record Straight on Misleading Claims about Michael Mann

There are many elements in the deniers inquisition of selected climate scientists. Their tactics are confusion and misrepresentation. If there are 20 studies that offer the same conclusion the deniers pick the one with the least certainty and ignore the continued observations and measurements that further strengthen the model. It's obnoxious and misleading. The point is to confuse and mislead - rather than inform and enlighten.

The Hockey Stick and Climate Wars by Michael Mann

The global warming denial machine's predatory "Serengeti strategy" of singling out individual scientists and scientific findings for attack has been applied relentlessly to several leading climate scientists, none more so than Mann and the iconic "hockey stick" graph from paleoclimate research published in 1998. That path-breaking work found that warming in the late 20th century was unprecedented over the last millennium. Since then, a growing and diverse body of painstaking paleoclimate research has produced multiple studies that confirm and strengthen that early finding.

Below the fold you can learn how to make the calculations that prove AGW for yourself. The data is open source online available to all and the tools allow you to look at any data set you choose from over 6000 measurement sites.

So who still wants to argue that "CLIMATEGATE" was real and that Dr. Mann's hockey stick is a misrepresentation of the reality - just like the "midieval warming perior was warmer than today" argument or "sea ice expanse increase around Antarctica proves we are not warming" - the deniers bunk is still bunk.

The sharpest critic of Michael Mann relied on plagiarized material.
CONTINUE BELOW

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Not So Common Threads - Dr. Spanier & PSU Climate Scientists

Penn State sets $2 billion goal for campaign to help students

Disinformers step up efforts to intimidate, harass,

and attack Mann, Alley, & PSU

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Not So Common Threads- Freeh's Religious Obsession

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