Author: condor

Not A Song You Want to Sing, Here Hinderaker. Yikes.

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While I was gone, John Hinderaker asked whether Trump is worse than Nixon… hilarious.

And then he proceeded to explain how Mr. Nixon was not really a Conservative at all. [As though that might absolve Hinderaker of all his sins — in touting Tangerine 2.0 and 1.0 lawlessness. Sheesh.]

John goes on to point out that Trump isn’t either.

I’m sure that that’s gonna work really well to hold the base together my friend.

He really should put the keyboard down.

He regularly does more damage than good, for GOP causes.

Thesis: A Presidential Pronouncement Is Not His “Private Asset” — To Be Sold. It Is A DUTY Of The Person Sitting At 1600 Penn. It Must Be Accessible To All, Simultaneously — If It Will Move A Market.

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Look — I get it. The stock symbol DJT is off about 75% from its all-time high. The useful idiot and former MAGA Congressman Devin Nunes has long ago been ousted as CEO, and still the stock is falling.

Long-suffering investors are now likely looking for a way out — any way out — at something near breakeven. And so, in palpable desperation, they are convincing his “failsons” to try to sell “front running” access to the statements that 1600 Penn makes that will move markets.

Potentially lucrative? Sure. Lawful?! Very likely… not.

This sort of profiteering off of ones’ own role in setting policy — while not disclosing ones’ conflicted interests… is exactly why the framers forebade it. In any event, I supsect it will never get off the ground — fully. Federal judges will enjoin it. Bank on that. Here’s the UK Guardian on it all, thus far:

..“He’s selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,” said Kathleen Clark of the Washington University School of Law and an expert in government conflict of interest rules. “It’s yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself….”

Stock in TMTG has plunged more than 70% since the president took office last year, erasing $6bn (£4.4bn) in shareholder wealth.

Those losses, along with billions more of investor losses tied to new Trump family crypto businesses, have drawn scrutiny after Trump’s annual disclosure of his financial holdings shows he took in more than $1bn in revenue last year in the same companies and offerings.

Trump launched TMTG in 2021 after Meta’s Facebook and X banned him for apparently encouraging his supporters to participate in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. He went on to launch Truth Social in February 2022 and two years later floated the business – trading under the ticker symbol “DJT” – Trump’s initials – at an initial valuation of $8bn.

Trump indirectly owns about 53% of TMTG through shares he transferred to a trust in December 2024, a month before he took office, giving him a paper fortune of about $1.41bn based on TMTG’s current $2.67bn market capitalisation.

The US president earned $2.2bn in total in his first year back in office, according to a mandatory disclosure with the US Office of Government Ethics….

What a vast waste of skin he (and his sons) are. Of course, he could remain silent, until he had actually completed a thing. But we all know he cannot keep his mouth shut (or tell the truth when it is flapping).

That said, I did quite relish when the Spanish (Champions!) soccer players pushed him to the side, so that they could celebrate WITHOUT him — and when the majority of Meadowlands fans… booed him. Delicious — but embarrassing — in front of the world (again). Wow.

नमस्ते

In A Lead USAID Funding Freeze Challenge Case, In DC — The Pace Is Accelerating Now, Before USDC Judge Amir Ali. Tangerine 2.0 Will… Lose.

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This has been a slow roll. But now, perhaps for not much longer. The DC appeals have been resolved against Tangerine 2.0, and Musk — as his DOGE minion.

So it is on to trial, now — where Trump/Musk will lose. Here’s the latest order, from while I was away in the mountains:

…MINUTE ORDER.

The court is in receipt of Plaintiffs’ [193] motion to compel ex parte production of documents for in camera review and to compel production of unredacted documents. The motion indicates that Defendants consent to in camera review of the documents at issue but the parties disagree as to the timeline for Defendants to file a brief defending redactions in the relevant documents, given pending summary judgment briefing.

The court agrees in camera review is appropriate. Defendants shall file the relevant documents, under seal for in camera review, and their brief defending the contested redactions by July 21, 2026, at 4:00 p.m.

Signed by Judge Amir H. Ali on 7/18/2026….

Onward, resolutely.

नमस्ते

Trivia: Fitton-Shill Plaintiffs Offer Decidedly Weak Sauce — On Statute Of Limitations Issue, In Evanston Reparations Case…

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I won’t quote any of this nonsense — but instead just link to it — for the sake of a complete record.

USDC Judge Kness has already ruled that these faux-plaintiffs / crisis actors cannot stop a statute of limitations challenge mounted by Evanston — essentially by saying it is inconvenient for them to admit to the defects in their case.

And relatedly — as their “case” falls away, so to does the Trumpian US Attorney’s attempt to intervene, here.

This is civil dispute between private parties (if any dispute there actually be). He cannot “intervene” where there is no case or controversy, to begin with. That is so, because the shills missed the deadline to file.

He may separately bring his own suit — but again, the statute of limitations will bar his efforts, as well. He is just. too. late. Onward, smiling — in spite of the poor air quality here.

नमस्ते

Psyche Fly-By Of Mars — As A Movie — And, Musk Won’t Launch Before Thursday This Week. Heh.

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The promised “video fly-by” of Mars, or Barsoom if you prefer — is now up, at NASA’s YouTube page.

I thought we’d have seen it by end of May, but here it is — finally, in mid-July. Pretty cool, either way:

…NASA’s Psyche spacecraft flew by Mars on May 15, using the planet’s gravity to gain speed and slightly tilt its trajectory. The flyby also gave the team an opportunity to prep for the science they will be conducting when they reach the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in 2029.

Using Mars as a stand-in for the asteroid during the flyby, they could test the spacecraft’s science instruments. The results, downlinked and analyzed over the subsequent weeks, were impressive. Not only did the instruments operate precisely as designed, delivering data that matches what NASA already knows about Mars, they also provided a few new insights about the planet along the way.

“The mission’s imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer teams worked overtime to make full use of this planetary encounter, and all instruments delivered great results,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for Psyche at the University of California, Berkeley. “We didn’t anticipate big discoveries, given how extensively the planet has been studied, but we did complement Mars science with the data we collected through Psyche’s unique perspective….”

Oh. And Musk’s next Starship attempt for launch will be no earlier than this Thursday or Friday. Musk seemed rather… unclear. Hilarious. Out.

नमस्ते

In Each Recent Ebola Outbreak, Fear And Hostility From The Communities… Has Been A Vexing Issue. But In No Manner A Unique One.

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So too, in this 2026 version — but the burning of 12 treatment facilities… seems more extreme (so far), even when compared to the 2012-14 outbreak. That one killed over 11,300. [We are likely approaching 1,000 deaths this time, but perhaps there were 500 deaths before it was officially accepted in DRC that the current outbreak was underway.]

The NYT has an excellent long-form look into this phenomenon, this morning. Here’s that — proving that this is common — across various pandemics, centuries — and cultures:

…[T]his would be easy to chalk up to poor education and anachronistic rituals: “Fear and ignorance as ebola ‘out of control’ in parts of west Africa,” as one Guardian headline put it in 2014. But unrest during epidemics is not about Ebola, Africa or education. It is something societies have struggled with for centuries, and it is evident in rich countries as well as poor ones, in modern times and medieval ones.

During the Covid pandemic, Western doctors, nurses and health officials received not only applause and gratitude but also death threats. Patients denied that Covid existed as they died of the disease. Protesters carrying guns occupied sidewalks outside hospitals. Multitudes embraced treatments, such as ivermectin, that study after study showed to be ineffective. Vaccinators in Italy were assaulted. A German gas station attendant and a Michigan Family Dollar security guard were killed after asking customers to wear masks….

[Public health] outbreaks elicit a contradictory mix of responses. They often unfold in three acts, wrote Charles E. Rosenberg, a medical historian: First, people deny reality and put off behavioral changes that might slow the spread. Then they demand explanations, often blaming “individual and community sins” or, in some cases, doctors. Finally, they take action. Then they have to contend with the aftermath of both the infections and the finger-pointing — the life-and-death consequences for themselves and their neighbors….

It’s about history and culture and politics and even just about how people love and care for others in their family who are sick. And to reduce it to something like ‘resistance’ that needs stamping out in a really militaristic, heavy-handed response — that’s the exact wrong way to go.” Only when we understand these tendencies, she and other scholars say, can we navigate them….

Indeed. Now you know — and… also now, back in a Canadian wildfire smoke-tinted Chi-, this morning — the sky is decidedly yellow, and breathing the air without a mask… delivers a sore throat within ten minutes. Ugh. But onward, just the same.

नमस्ते

Tangent: Starship Engine Glitch; SpaceX Plunges To $125, This Morning. Hilarious.

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Well, I guess we won’t have to wait until September to see $130 on the NASDAQ. In fact, we’ll see you formerly irrational boosters (buying in at $225, a month ago)… at sub- $125 today.

Right now — it has touched $122 and change.

Here is the latest, from Yahoo — posting an article from the UK’s The Independent:

…SpaceX was forced to abort its latest Starship launch just seconds before lift off on Thursday after some of the engines on the world’s biggest rocket failed to start.

The scrubbed launch came just hours after SpaceX shares fell below their initial public offering (IPO) price of $135 for the first time, marking a 40 per cent drop in value over the last month….

This is all very droll — and given Musk‘s history of making wildly overstated claims — about publicly traded securities with which he is/was affiliated, this is/was all very much predictable.

नमस्ते

A New Era In Oral Cardiovascular Risk Management Dawns: In the US, Merck’s Lipfendra (PCSK9 Pill) Goes On Sale. Stock Jumps ~4%.

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This entire blog — now well over 10,000 posts (and spanning all the days since early 2008) was originally my editorial narrative arc of a clearly suspect LDL pill called Vytorin. Back then, CEO Fast Fred Hassan was touting it, while the esteemed Yale MD, Dr. Harlan Krumholz (later) came to call this drug “a very expensive placebo” — for cholesterol management.

The markets for managing high cholesterol, a primary risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, are vast — into the high teens of billions of dollars a year, in the US alone. Finally, now — with this morning’s FDA approval — a drug that actually works to improve outcomes (as a pill) is on market. And at ~$310 a month, most US patients are likely to receive the therapy. Sweet — Merck’s NYSE price is bound to rise today — but here is the latest, via Reuters:

…The pill Lipfendra is intended to treat patients with hypercholesterolemia, which can be identified by elevated levels of LDL, the so-called “bad” cholesterol ⁠in the blood, often leading to plaque buildup in the arteries.

With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval, Lipfendra, also called enlicitide, would become the first oral PCSK9 inhibitor to enter the market, offering an alternative to a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs long dominated by injectables.

Its list price will be $10.50 per day, based on a 30-day supply, Merck told Reuters. The company’s shares were up 1.1% in premarket trading….

Now you know. Full circle — and so, nearly 20 years later, the debacle that was the “very expensive placebo” called Vytorin — at now gone-Schering-Plough, is at an end.

Smile — rest of my crew arrives by jet this aft — then into the cool but wild-fire hazed mountains again.

नमस्ते

Two Observations, For John (Hinderaker).

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(1) “Illegal” as my law profs intoned — is only “a sick bird”. The phrase he is looking for (putatively, at least)… is “unlawful”. Not illegal. Sheesh.

(2) What one member burps up about — in Congress — is in no manner… “the law”.

His opinion is just one dumb guy’s pipe dream. The Supremes have recently expressly re-endorsed the idea of using a myriad of factors to decide what qualifies for entering classes, and an employment. And it is left to the sound discretion of those people to decide. John doesn’t get to make these announcements, nor does any single member of the far right wing Congress, who claims his MAGA stripes.

And John has forever misunderstood, intentionally, what it is that the civil rights acts were all about.

He is forever looking for — and vainly hoping to find… “elephants in Supreme Court mouse holes.” And so — he is to be… forever disappointed.

So be it. He is right about this much though, by 2028, most of these Tsngerine 2.0 immigration favoritism measures designed to put the thumb on the scale for whyte South Africans (people who lack high tech skill sets), over all other nations with people who possess high-tech skill sets… will disappear.