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Friday, June 17, 2011

A fake by any other name would smell the same (apology to the Bard). Sarah Bufkin of Think Progress Green calls it as she sees it. Mother Jones sees the same thing. MinnPost birdogs the scent.

Photo from Mother Jones article. Here.


FAKE SCIENCE ADVOCATE HAS FAKE DEGREE | The self-proclaimed “No. 1 global climate change denier in Minnesota,” state senator Michael Jungbauer, is championing more misinformation than false climate science. His bachelor’s degree from the Moody Bible Institute with a “background in biochemistry”? More like a ministerial ordainment from the Christian Motorsports International, “a family of ministries conducts non-denominational chapel services at local and professional racing events nationwide.” And his claim to be pursuing a Master’s degree in environmental policy at Metropolitan State University draws its own group of skeptics, given that the university does not offer such coursework. It appears that facts are as easy to disregard on resumes as they are with climate change science.
–Sarah Bufkin

This Think Progress link.

MinnPost, here. This excerpt, appears to have been the outlet breaking the story. Read it all to pick up the scent of "I am the expert I call myself, facts be damned." How could anyone wanting credibility willingly be a campaign treasurer amid that kind of hooey?


No scientist
The problem is, he is not a scientist. Even though his published biography lists his higher education credits from Moody Bible Institute, Anoka Ramsey Community College and Metropolitan State University and that he is working on his master's degree in environmental policy and that he has a background in biochemistry, it turns out he has never graduated from college. He doesn't have a bachelor's degree.

He is an ordained minister, of sorts. But, although his official biography says he has a degree from Moody, he does not. In direct answer to my question, Jungbauer responded: "No I did not graduate. But I have a certificate."
The truth is that Jungbauer was ordained by Christian Motor Sports International out of Gilbert, Ariz. His Senate biography says the organization provides "chapel services, pastoral care, outreach and Christian fellowship at car races, car shows, cruise-ins and tractor pulls."

Now, if you are going to take on the most noted scientists in the world working on CO₂ and its effects on a warming planet, you would need a background in science. And he is ready to tell the members of his committee and witnesses who come to testify that they are dealing with a man not to be toyed with. A sample of his officious, talking-down-to-the-rest-of-us approach can be seen here.

Image accompanying the MinnPost breaking news of things Jungbaueer:

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-- perhaps juxtaposed from a different context --


Much more clear factual reporting, MinnPost, again, this link.

What a piece of work!

Pepe le Pew, below:

I run marathons.

___________UPDATE___________
City Pages, here. LinkedIn, two pages, here and here; screenshots:



The second one says:

Education
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Metropolitan State University
Anoka Ramsey Community College

The Shelby article said nothing about Jungbauer ever attending the U, or what degree was claimed to have been earned.

This item, by Heidi Nelson, COR at Ramsey. Can you tell me, what's the determinant of a "principal of Flaherty & Collins" and how that has any bearing on a fiduciary duty situation, and employment that Cronk himself represents to the world on the Web as being with Flaherty & Collins at all relevant times? And Jungbauer, through Landform, did bill Ramsey for time spent on preparing promotional water project materials for a State Senate bonding tour touching base at the Town Center early in 2010, prior to the legislative session opening that year, and subsequently was sole author of SF 2500 that session for a couple of million dollars of state water project money for Ramsey; so, what's what when words are shaded too much? It does not look good, the shading.

Further update -- What rings my bell about that linked-to item, there is a Crabgrass sidebar poll and the three-page Nelson Memorandum sidesteps the sidebar.

Merely coincidental?