If you’ve been following the climate circus for as long as we have here at WUWT, you know that Michael Mann – the self-proclaimed guardian of the infamous “hockey stick” graph – has been skating on thin ice for years. Well, it looks like that ice just cracked wide open. According to a gleeful piece in the National Review titled “Michael Mann Finally Goes Away,” Mann has dropped his long-running defamation lawsuit against them after a whopping 12 years of legal clownery.
That’s right: the guy who threatened to “destroy” them is now slinking off into the sunset, tail between his legs, while their blog post calling his research “sketchy” and “intellectually bogus” remains proudly online for all to see. But wait, there’s more! In true Mann fashion, he’s probably out there right now insisting he’s the victor, even as reality nibbles away at his relevance like a hungry squirrel on a… well, corn cob. Which brings us to the perfect meme for this moment. Back in 2011, the legendary X (formerly Twitter) account @dril posted this gem:
“im not owned! im not owned!!”, i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob.”
It’s become the ultimate symbol of online denial – that moment when someone’s been utterly “owned” in a debate, but they keep flailing in protest, only to morph into a sad, shriveled vegetable. Sound familiar, Dr. Mann?
Picture it: Mann, fresh off losing his case (despite a temporary jury win against Mark Steyn and Rand Simberg that’s already crumbling under appeal), simmers while the National Review editors pop the champagne.
They even thank their lawyers and supporters, noting how the First Amendment proved too “inconvenient” for Mr. Hockey Stick.
And let’s not forget the article’s zinger: Mann and his alarmist crew are “losing the climate debate,” as evidenced by his recent whinging about Bill Gates daring to inject some common sense into the conversation. Ouch. That’s gotta sting worse than a polar vortex.
Just yesterday, we ran a piece titled “Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me,” absolutely roasting the 2025 BioScience special report – “The State of the Climate: A Planet on the Brink” – for its over-the-top doomsaying. (Note: One of the co-authors? None other than Michael Mann himself. Mann’s involvement? It’s like he’s the lead singer in that despair choir, belting out tunes about economic “post-growth” models and blaming the “wealthiest 10 percent” for everything short of bad hair days. Now, with his lawsuit in the dustbin, Mann’s descent into irrelevance is complete. He’s not just owned – he’s corncobbed. As @dril so prophetically put it, he’s shrinking smaller by the day, insisting he’s still the big cheese in climate town while the world moves on. The National Review sums it up best:
“As for Michael Mann, he’s belatedly taken our very good advice from so many years ago, and gotten lost.”
Hey, Mike – if you’re reading this (and we know you are), maybe it’s time to embrace your inner corn cob. Pop some butter on, sit back, and watch the real climate debate thrive without your lawsuits and hysteria. After all, in the words of the meme: “im not owned!!” Sure, buddy. Sure.
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Mann is still a big cheese in the climate hysteria community, it is just that the cause is losing favor.
But have you ever seen an uglier ear of corn?
Thank ya’ll. Them city-folk don’t know the difference between an “ear” of corn (with the grains still on it) and a “corncob” (what’s left after summen nibbles the corn offen it.)
Limberger
” the cheese
causeis losingfavor..flavor“Fixed it.
Unfortunately, Mann and his cult are still brainwashing the young, as Mann is still teaching CAGW propaganda at UPenn.
I thought they fired him last month!
Only from his position of “Vice Provost of Climate Science, Policy, and Action,” but he still teaches courses there to the detriment of atmospheric physics.
I think they just removed one of his job titles, which paid nothing.
No he resigned from the position of Vice Provost because the new university policy of ‘institutional neutrality’ interfered with his “commitment to climate advocacy”. He remains a tenured faculty member.
Penn State, not U Penn ?
Mann used to work for Penn State, but moved to UPenn.
https://www.earth.sas.upenn.edu/people/michael-mann
Nope: He left Penn State and moved to U Penn a couple of years agi,
The state pen would have been a better fit.
Uh-0hs. Mann down! Better call a waaahmbulance!
“It’s only a flesh wound!”
A small man who desperately wants to be important.
I remember that years ago when I was first introduced to Mikey and his ‘work’ by Steve McIntyre I commented that I found him “greasy and unpleasant”.
Plus ca change. Now we just need the Steyn and Simberg judgement debacle to be reversed and Mikey can bugger off for good.
While the trial court has reversed much of the jury verdict and awarded substantial attorney fees etc to the plaintiffs, everything is still on appeal. The details of all the case filings below :
Most of the reversals etc from the March 2025 to June 2025 time. Its at least another two years of litigation to go, unless Manns litigation fund spigot dries up.
https://portal-dc.tylertech.cloud/app/RegisterOfActions/#/D71396C82ECD1A3BD3F9353D4EDBF6DC93A0975858B9A671863AE5073F2368E4/anon/portalembed
I’m no longer vegetarian.
Perhaps by proxy?
The clueless are still clinging to the preposterous pseudoscience Mann and his gatekeeping ilk foisted on society. Empirical reality will eventually replace their delusions but the general public is still in the darkness they facilitated.
Not sure the general public ever bought into the main delustions and lies perpetrated by the climate
“science”. Only the elites and politicians who sought to control the commanding heights of the economy that bought in or believed.
Only a small minority of people I know understand what a scam establishment “climate science” is. The rest believe humans are to blame for a warming world that is harmful. That it isn’t a top concern for most doesn’t negate that they believe in the narrative.
Psst, hey Michy Mann, who wins in a lawsuit?
Lawyers, they are the only ones guaranteed to get paid.
But Mann is a Nobel Lauriat!
I’m sure he has enough rope of his award left to cover the cost.
He should be in jail for damage to people’s minds.
I imagine Mann’s final years will look something like this.
https://youtu.be/yMjBppwSRkw
So will he have to pay all costs ??
Well, at least a Judge ruled that he owed Mr Steyn and I believe other parties over a $Million (so yes, all costs as I recall). Will he have to pay it? He can sit and wait to see if the people to whom he owes the money domesticate the judgment to his State (PA). At that point they’re free to send repo men to take vehicles that he owns and also to start garnishing wages and look at what properties they can get their hands on. It’s difficult and I know this field well. I drove around in a repossessed Porsche 911 for about a month while it was my turn for a laugh, then it got stolen and nobody could even be bothered to report it stolen. I suppose he could also file for bankruptcy, but that’s not a pleasant option.
There was; a court case in Canada where Mann was ordered to pay costs years ago. Last I heard, he still hasn’t paid that one either.
everything is on appeal, so nothing is going to happen for at least 18 months.
https://portal-dc.tylertech.cloud/app/RegisterOfActions/#/D71396C82ECD1A3BD3F9353D4EDBF6DC93A0975858B9A671863AE5073F2368E4/anon/portalembed
In the UK there is an old exclamation: taking the mick – a slang phrase that means to mock or make fun of.
And now the shoe’s on the other foot.
He will never be able to show his face in Wegman’s aisle nine ever again…..
Proposed caption: “Prof. Michael Mann, shucked.”
By voluntarily abandoning his suit, doesn’t Mann make himself vulnerable to a counter suit for legal costs?
As I posted above, he already lost that one. Even the Washington Post was on it, but that and the Philadelphia Enquirer articles are both paywalled, but here are excerpts from Google ai:
After a jury initially awarded Mann a large sum, a judge drastically reduced the award and sanctioned Mann, ordering him to pay over $530,000 in attorney fees and other legal costs to the defendants for presenting false evidence. The total amount Mann owes in legal fees now exceeds $1 million.
as I noted above, every ruling (almost every ruling) is on appeal.
Yep, true indeed but, for as long as it takes, it’s Mann who’s doing the sweating now. The false evidence he presented, as I recall, was related to saying that he lost grant funding when, in fact, his grant funding increased. In other words factual evidence.
It would be interesting to know if he’s taking a big gamble here, as in if he loses the appeals, is he on the hook for both legal teams’ expenses for those also? I certainly hope so. This individual has done so much damage to humanity, deliberately and willfully.
Mr. W: I’m reading that NRO (shamefully) agreed to throw in the atty fees (half-a-mil) to let Mann walk away. I’ve been a National Review subscriber for over forty years, but it f’ed this from the start, they missed a chance to defend free press.
More good news.
Behold, the Great Cornholio! At least now I know what Beavis was on about…
Or , something cobs used to be used for …..(At least in farm country )
😉
Hint …bucket ..outhouse …
I can picture a scene now where Michael Mann is in his local supermarket, in the fresh vegetable section, next to the corn-on-the-cob rack and someone looks at him in a strange way. But this time nobody 10 years later in court is buying his “defamation testimony” that it was because of this post on WUWT where someone said he was owned.
The sad thing is, is that there are some on social media still think that his work is still valid and that Mann is a victim of Big Oil.
Big Corn Oil?
I’m a bit surprised none of the local brain-washed climate trollettes haven’t come to Mickey’s aid. 😉
Even they seem to have abandoned him. ! 🙂
Stop! Stop! I almost feel sorry for the guy. Can’t have that!
Your celebrations appear to be misplaced. According to Mark Steyn himself:
https://www.steynonline.com/15675/conservative-inc-folds
NR lost and MM won:
Penn professor Michael Mann has reached an agreement with the National Review that releases him from paying the company’s remaining legal fees from his defamation case in exchange for dropping ongoing litigation against the magazine.
Thanks for the link. I suspect that NR legal fees associated with collection would have exceeded the funds available to collect. In other words, mann was partly judgement proof via the lack of funds that would be unprotected from collection. judgement proof is term used commonly is lawsuit to describe the liquidity of the person that owes money