Month: November 2023

Hinderaker’s “These People” Problem: He Never Argued To Deport The 01.06.21 Mobsters…

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As ever, it doesn’t take much to get John to show his true colors:

…We need to get these people out of our country, or, if we can’t deport them, give them long prison sentences. What is going on now is absolutely unacceptable….

“These people” John? They are, almost certainly — over 95% of them — US citizens. You may disagree with the boisterous views they express, but we all well-know they have the right to express them. John didn’t even condemn the “protestor” who drove his car into the crowd in Charlottesville, killing one, and injuring 17, in 2018 — as a racial attack.

He didn’t ask to deport the 01.06 mob that injured dozens of police officers, and let Ashli Babbitt be killed — while storming the interior of a seat of government, and trying to kidnap and kill the Vice President, at Tangerine’s urging.

But let some brown people protest in favor of Palestinians, or George Floyd, and he’s ready to lock up and deport, summarily.

That’s all I need say — and the argument that 01.06 was about patriotism… is a Nazi flag, John.

So do shut up.

Scott Johnson Writes Four Columns — Latest Of 16 Paragraphs — On A Cartoon STILL Universally Available?!

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Y A W N.

So… it seems Johnson at Powerline cannot understand that a caricature’s facial features might be… offensive. And, he can’t understand that a private decision to no longer carry… isn’t censorship. What an insipid tempest in a tiny teapot, Scott.

Everyday, editors make choices about which opinions and cartoons to host.

This one is and always was distributed at at least a dozen sites — including other newspapers and social media (including the volume leader called X-itter).

So, Scott imagines that one outlet’s removal of it (out of perhaps 28) amounts to “censorship”.

Uh-huh.

What an embittered old pinhead he is.

Out.

As The Boys Are Fond Of Saying — With A Twist — “The Demand For US Based Anti-Semitism…Greatly Exceeds The Supply Of It.”

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Yes, there have been incidents.

But when Billings-puss is retelling very local-Detroit-in-1984 tales — and suggesting that they are relevant in evaluating current Democratic views, about today’s Hamas / Israel war (which is over 3,000 miles on the other side of the globe) — we know that the professional crisis actor in him… is in high dungeon.

Similarly, when Hinderaker complains about Penn and MIT… we do have to smile… at his utter hypocrisy. Yes, this wave of apparently religious and cultural intolerance is deplorable — but we might only look over the last six years in these boys’ writings… to find endless examples of racism and sexism. [Paul of late has been more circumspect in his accusations — as to US based antisemitism. But only moderately so.]

Consider that Hinderaker believes “reverse race discrimination” is more entrenched today, in 2023 — than regular Jim Crow discrimination was, in 1954. Insane.

What remains true is that the hard right GOP suddenly wants to trot out victims’ cards, here in the US — all while we’ve seen zero police officers kneeling on the necks of any of my Ashkenazi half-brothers. Zero killings by cop. Scuffles? Yes. One senior citizen died in California. That’s awful. But it is… isolated. [Far more common have been the hard right Trumper-sympaticos shooting up synagogues — murdering dozens — over the past seven years. All about which each of them fell as silent as… Tut’s sarcophagus.]

We’ve seen — in the main — most people admitting that all of it — all of it!… is awful.

But these boys only see one color — ever.

The green they take in donations, from selling nonsense to the hard right.

Oh well. Carry on, boys.

Juno — In Extended Mission Time, And Budget — Offers More Deep Learnings, About How Thick, Hot Atmospheric Winds Propagate… Cool!

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Lord Jupiter’s internal structure — and hints at his origin — continue to be revealed to the folks in Boulder and around the globe, with the newly verified gravity model approach to peering below the dense cloud vortex, out there in the night, on Jupiter. And that, in turn ought to allow us to gain more insight into other gas giant planetary atmospheres — like those seen on Saturn… and Neptune, locally.

And candidly, should offer insights to the exo-planets we are now seeing traverse distant host stars, with our cutting edge next gen space telescopes. Here’s the latest, now proven theory — courtesy of Juno’s science packs:

…To determine the location and cylindrical nature of the winds, the study’s authors applied a mathematical technique that models gravitational variations and surface elevations of rocky planets like Earth. At Jupiter, the technique can be used to accurately map winds at depth. Using the high-precision Juno data, the authors were able to generate a four-fold increase in the resolution over previous models created with data from NASA’s trailblazing Jovian explorers Voyager and Galileo. . . .

The measurements of the gravity field matched a two-decade-old model that determined Jupiter’s powerful east-west zonal flows extend from the cloud-level white and red zones and belts inward. But the measurements also revealed that rather than extending in every direction like a radiating sphere, the zonal flows go inward, cylindrically, and are oriented along the direction of Jupiter’s rotation axis. How Jupiter’s deep atmospheric winds are structured has been in debated since the 1970s, and the Juno mission has now settled the debate….

Onward. More deep space physics understandings, as a dividend from our NASA committed budgets, over a half century.

And… travel well, and travel light, Apollo Commander Frank Borman — you truly lived an amazing explorer’s life, and will be remembered in American space science history — forever. Onward, with a slightly sadder smile — after 95 impeccable years… this sunny Fall afternoon.

नमस्ते

On The Eagle Pass Land Razor Wire Barriers: Seems Like The TXWD USDC Judge Wants To Stall Things — Into Appeals, While Keeping An Injunction In Place.

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I don’t want to unduly / hastily judge the motivations at play, here — as certainly, seeing the evolution of the dispute will help this USDC Judge — in resolving it. And if she sees lots of back and forth over three years’ duration (since Tangerine was put out of office), the argument for an injunction in any normal court… evaporates, as there is clearly no emergency to address. And it is, in any normal court, clear beyond peradventure that the federal agencies possess statutory right to do what they want to do: remove land based razor-wire barriers that are endangering, and injuring border patrol agents. Barriers erected by Gov. Abbott, lawlessly.

Now — on the flip side, if this USDC Judge is both savvy and cynical, by adding the below as the last paragraph of her order on discovery, with all materials due before the next injunction hearing, it could take a few months just to gather all this — and could very well be the subject of one-off, side-show litigation at the State of Texas level (along with numerous appeals of right), about not having to produce internal, deliberative documents — or even those that are “deliberative” between federal agencies — and state officials.

So if one takes a cynical view, one might suspect that the West Texas USDC judge is seeking to drag this out, and thwart the federal authority — while bowing to GOP Gov. Abbott’s lawless, and cruel Berlin Wall tactics. She was elevated to the federal bench by Bush 43, after being a US Attorney under George W. Bush, as well.

In any event, here’s the full overnight three page order she’s entered in the Eagle Pass land razor wire barrier case, and the last bit (which I am openly questioning, here):

…It is FURTHER ORDERED that the parties provide to the Court communications, including but not limited to emails, from and including March 6, 2021, through today regarding or referencing the Plaintiff’s and the Defendants’ cooperation on implementing, facilitating, managing, maintaining, damaging, destroying, or interfering with the Plaintiff’s barriers, specifically the concertina wire barriers, along the Texas-Mexico border….

I will optimistically hope I am wrong about this USDC Chief Judge’s motivation (and I promise to immediately say so, once the dust settles)… but my substantial (and older) scar tissue here tells me… I may not be. Onward, in any event.

नमस्ते

Heh. “Other Than That, Mrs. Lincoln… How Did You Enjoy The Play?”

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Erik W. Erickson actually understates it — but directionally, he is on the right track, which is why Mr. Mirengoff quotes him, at length, overnight:

…Last night was a Rorschach test for how you see the Republican Party, and that, in and of itself, is the problem. It’s either all Trump or not all Trump and the reality and truth is that Trump and the MAGA brand work very well in some parts of the country and work very badly in others. Last night happened to have elections in parts of the country where it works very badly….

Between abortion and Trump, Democrats turned out. Republicans found the 15-week compromise sweet spot that polled well with the general electorate, but it triggered Democrat passions….

The hilarious irony is that Donald Trump, on the ballot, can probably motivate more people to turn out than a candidate running wrapped in Trump’s banner. But Trump also alienates suburban voters and drives up Democrat intensity….

The reality is that the GOP as a national party is dead. It is now a conglomeration of several regional parties. In parts of the country, Republicans must run wrapped in the MAGA label as Donald Trump candidates. In other parts of the country, they must run as far from Trump as possible. That renders the GOP a regional party of divergent views that must then assemble a coalition of disparate and often incompatible values….

Exactly. But I might amplify/counter, thus: it is not even a regional “party” any longer.
No, it is a band of reckless, divisive houligans in these pro-Tangerine districts. And that makes it an anti-brand, in any other district — any one that still (among its majority voters) honors-, and believes-in-, the rule of law.

RIP, GOP.

Leadership — And “Doing The Right Thing”: Retired Merck Chairman Kenneth Frazier — Still Very Solid.

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As regular readers remember, we did follow it all, in real time about six years ago — but this is a fresh reminder of just what a rare bird Mr. Frazier is.

Not mentioned in this Fortune interview is his work almost two decades ago now, to free “Bo” Cochran from death row — entirely pro bono — a man wrongly condemned to die, and in prison in fetid conditions in Alabama. But it is also who he is. Do read the links, and this current one, to read or listen to a podcast (or, watch a video) of the interview:

…Frazier tells Murray why the decisions he made to leave former U.S. President Donald Trump’s presidential advisory council, and to vocally support voting rights, were a matter of principle, not politics.

Frazier also discusses the challenges he faced in his first few years as CEO of Merck—and the shareholders who trusted his vision enough to support him. Finally, Frazier, who is also the cofounder and former CEO of the the OneTen Coalition and current chairman of health assurance initiatives at General Catalyst, talks about starting the OneTen Coalition after the murder of George Floyd, and because he identified a need to find a common language to talk about ESG and DEI….

Mr. Frazier: “…So if people have a responsibility to stand up for principle, then I think CEOs ought to stand up for those principles. And from my perspective, that’s one of those things that a lot of people will disagree with, because they’ll say that was political. And I said, wait a minute, the right to vote isn’t inherently a political issue. If somebody wants to politicize that principle, that doesn’t mean I have to be quiet about it. And the example that I’ve used recently in talking to CEOs is the American business community has stood in unison for democracy in Ukraine. But we can’t speak to it in Georgia? I mean, come on….

“…[I]f I can be so direct as an African-American. I compare George Floyd to Rodney King, when the Rodney King thing happened, Black people were in the streets. When the George Floyd thing happened, everybody was in the streets, I would see these stories about places in North Dakota, where there were no Black people living, and people were protesting. Right.

And, you know, frankly, I’m being a little political here myself, I actually believe that shows that the country is moving to a place where we can empathize with one another. . . .”

Now you know. Is he perfect? Of course not — some of the early Merck litigation tactics (while he was outside litigation chief counsel), in denying allegedly injured people their day in court… were very heavy-handed.

He truly is… a fine American… original. Onward, grinning.

नमस्ते

Amazon Prime Subscribers Can Buy OneMedical Base Plan For $99/Year: Good Deal, Or Not?

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Amazon is (at least in select US cities) offering a $9 per month health plan — bare bones.

Regular readers will recall we’ve covered the OneMedical business model (and Amazon’s acquisition of it) here before.

It may well be that in order to reach critical mass, the Amazon version plan will have to be a “loss leader” for a while at the behemoth. In any event, here’s the Chicago Tribune on it:

…Amazon has discounted the price of a One Medical membership for users of its Prime subscription program, a move that could further integrate the retail giant’s healthcare ambitions with its core e-commerce business….

Amazon acquired One Medical for $3.9 billion last summer. At the time, experts said the company could weave One Medical deeper into Amazon’s existing businesses through a Prime-specific subscription model….

One Medical operates a network of hundreds of primary care clinics across the U.S. Along with in-person care, the provider offers virtual care, including video calls with providers or care triage in its app. Memberships run $199 a year for non-Prime members….

Amazon also operates a pharmacy — and had uneven success in the provider space over the last decade, seeing its early 2018 “Haven” foray with JP Morgan/Chase and Berkshire Hathaway largely mothballed — by late 2020. That’s my second Amazon item for the month of November — one more to go… grinning.

नमस्ते

The Fallacy Of Composition: Hinderaker’s Stock In Trade.

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Late night tonight (perhaps because Gal Godot didn’t invite him to her glitterati screening?), John selects a couple of anecdotes — while ignoring the contra ones… to label all “progressives” as antisemitic.

What a loser.

Of course his cherry picked examples are deplorable. And… we all are complicit, in varying degrees — for the depth of the tragedies that have reigned in the region, literally for thousands of years. [In fairness, it’s all been lately wildly reignited, in the last 60 or so years. But it has been… six decades of policy failures there as well, minimum — on all sides.]

That’s reality, John. The history of the world did not begin on October 7. And does Ms. Gadot truly believe that the millionaires and billionaires she invited are not aware of both sides of these events, now? [What precisely, John, do you claim she’s added to informed debate, here really? I submit this is largely outrage porn, as she apparently included no footage of civilian deaths from IDF bombings / missiles.]

Spare us your simplistic, collapsible myth-making machines. No one is 100% in the right here. And yes war… is hell, without a doubt.

We all — each of us — thus owe a duty: we each must seek… peace.

Now. Not in a few months, after we get our licks in. That seems to be the current IDF thinking.

Out.

All Hinderaker Or Johnson Writes About GOP Debates… Is… Beyond Meaningless.

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Tonight… we learn that Scott Johnson’s daughter will be one of the far right moderators hand picked for the next GOP / RNC led debate (No. 4).

And that there will only be… far right moderators.

But the central reason these debates are meaningless is… that the GOP’s actual nominee is nowhere in evidence, at them. And, even if he’s not the ultimate nominee (though based on copious experience over the prior six years, no one in the current iteration GOP has enough spine to stand up to him — for long)… so, none of these can prevent his third party run — even from the slam should he not be the nominee.

Probably for the first time in the nation’s history… all the primary debates are utterly meaningless.

There is no GOP candidate for 1600 Penn that will not go down to defeat — no matter whom the Democratic Party ends up with, as their nominee. [It is highly likely to be Mr. Biden, unless he decides for himself to step aside.] And still… the GOP will be a dead letter.

[Tuesday’s nationwide results strongly suggest that the GOP’s war — on US women’s uteruses has crushed them on the nationwide scene. “Excellent work there, boys….”]

Now you know. Grin.