Author: condor

Good News: The Mpox Vax Can Now Be Shipped In Freeze-Dried Powder Form — But Spread Continues… Next Pandemic, Ahead?

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It seems that unlike prior (pre-2022) outbreaks — when the virus mostly skipped solely from animals to a very contained number of humans, Mpox Clade 1b is increasingly like an STD — transfered over and over, by intimate contact — human to human. And with sex workers and their clients both regularly transversing the world, this is a particularly fraught population within which to fight such a contagious viral infection reservoir.

And while being able to transport the powdered vaccine stock overland (in the resulting high temperatures) is a vast leap forward, the public education issues are daunting — doubly so, with Tangerine/Musk ending USAID on these dimensions. Malnourished children in Africa are at very high risk as well, due to weakened immune systems. Here’s the latest, with SciTech Daily summarizing a Nature.com letter:

…Researchers are also concerned because clade I viruses are thought to be more aggressive. These viruses appear to be accumulating specific genetic mutations – driven by enzymes in the human body – that may be changing viral properties, so the longer these viruses circulate amongst us, the higher the chances these mutations help mpox adapt to humans.

Although mpox was once mainly seen in Central Africa, the virus caused an outbreak worldwide in 2022 and is now causing outbreaks in multiple sub-Saharan countries. While it currently affects adults the most, the researchers stress that it has the potential to spread among other groups, including children, a group at greater risk of serious illness….

Unlike smallpox, mpox has an animal reservoir, meaning it can’t be fully eradicated. The authors warn that unless international action is taken now – including investment in point-of-care testing and new treatments – mpox will continue to re-emerge and threaten global health….

Now you know — and onward, to go vote in the primaries, locally. Smile.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Fails To Mention TX Gov. Abbott — But Laments… Marni La Pen’s Fate. Wow.

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So, Texas MAGA Gov. Abbott is actually failing to schedule a special election required by state law… because the Democrats are fairly likely to win a majority of the special election seats, and put the GOP super majority in Texas… out of business.

John knows that’s actually, and factually, a subversion of democracy — by the GOP. Right here at home. Yet Hinderaker instead writes about events in… France.

Over there, a convicted felon and fraudster who happens to be frothy hard right has been (all as long-contemplated by the Civil Code there) banned from the ballot.

That’s French law. Not US law. But Hinderaker blames US Democrats… for French law of long standing status… why?!

Because he’s a bitterly malignant old yutz. That’s why.

What I’m truly puzzled about is why he’s not yammering on and on about Texas Gov. Abbott, if he actually believes in democracy.

Yikes.

Well. For Only The Fourth Time — In 16 Years — I’ve Beaten Mr. Obama.

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And if UCLA can win out in the women’s brackets — it will be the first time I’ve ever beaten him in both the men’s and women’s.

No matter how the final four in the men’s breaks, now — I will win by over 10 points, and three games over his picks. All four of my final four picks are still dancing — but both of us have Duke to win it all, so he can’t catch me.

And on the women’s side, UCLA is playing very well — and is likely to take it all — so I may well win out there as well. But he can still beat me, if South Carolina were to win it all.

Now we wait — and watch. Onward, smiling. Be excellent to one another. [Today, Tangerine is talking nonsense about a delusional third term. It is all strictly for the chaos value. No sane person will allow that — not without a Constitutional amendment. Read: no way, meet no how.]

नमस्ते

In Which Hinderaker Makes Sh!t Up, Of Whole Cloth (Again).

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Hinderaker this afternoon tells us (on zero evidence) that the US State Department will carry on the aid work of the USAID operatives, as and after Tangerine and Musk decimate it.

This new lie is being seeded because Trump is now realizing both that these programs were and are popular in the United States, and that they serve a very real function — of improving goodwill, as well as limiting the spread of international pandemics, many never to reach our shores…

So suddenly programs that he was destroying will be reincarnated (magically) under the US State Department.

These people are as shameless as they are… stupid. John says he “presumes” this will happen. [Only if we Democrats make it so, in 2026.]

Nice try, Johnnie.

Out.

Irony Alert! In New Jersey, Tangerine / Noem Lawyers Seek A Two Day Extension On Filing Papers… Because They Had To Travel From DC To NJ — By Car(!?)

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I. Cannot. Even.

You may think this trivial, but on Friday afternoon, the Kristi Noem lawyers sought a two day delay in deadlines — whilst their client holds the petitioner, Mr. Khalil, in a privately-owned, privately-funded (but government contract beneficiary) prison — in deeply rural LOUISIANA. They whined on and on, about the difficulty of having to drive up from the DC Beltway, to Newark — and said that they lost over a half day of… work time. R-iiiiii-ght. [Ever heard of the… choo choo?! “You can keep working, while the miles, and two hours… melt away.” Ugh.]

Now do recall though, that these same people had Mr. Khalil yanked out of Manhattan, and into Elizabeth, New Jersey, in the dead of night — and then flown to Louisiana without telling his lawyers. AND… these same lawyers seek to move all the proceedings to… Baton Rogue.

They are willing to “give” Mr. Khalil’s counsel an extra day or two to reply to their latest BS, since they want to delay showing their own cards. But seriously — here’s a crazy idea: why (if these logistics are vexing) wouldn’t Noem have him moved to DC — make it all “local”?

Almost comically, the as filed two-page letter is riddled with typos and sentence fragments — claiming that “some OIL members experienced a widespread IT issue that left some team members.” That’s where this particular nonsense non-sentence ends. “Left” some members… what? How? Where? When?

As it is, she wants Mr. Khalil’s NYC based counsel to rent hotel rooms for a few weeks in Louisiana, along with her lawyers doing the damn same?!? So much for government efficiency. Yes, a fairly small matter in the grand scheme of Tangerine’s lawlessness — and Noem’s — but there is zero chance that a green card holding Columbia U. grad student is a danger to this nation. Zero. This is simply abuse of process.

नमस्ते

[U: Video Now, At 38 Min. In…] Rocketry Is… Hard: Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum Explodes 38 Seconds After Launch In Norway…

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Well… the challenges are manifold. We all know that.

They will try again. Here’s CBS on it all:

…A test rocket aimed at building the ability to launch satellites from Europe exploded about 40 seconds after takeoff from a Norwegian spaceport on Sunday.

The unmanned Spectrum rocket, an orbital rocket developed by German start-up Isar Aerospace, started smoking from its sides and then crashed back to Earth with a powerful explosion after launching from Norway’s Andoya Spaceport in the Arctic.

Daniel Metzler, Isar’s chief executive and co-founder, said in a news release “We had a clean liftoff, 30 seconds of flight and even got to validate our Flight Termination System. . . .”

Spectrum’s blast-off was the first of an orbital launch vehicle from the European continent, excluding Russia, and Europe’s first financed almost exclusively by the private sector….

Now you know. Kinda’ like… “Death of a Unicorn” yesterday. Hah — see below — updated, at 38 minutes in:

नमस्ते

This New Guy At Powerline May Not Be Very Bright…

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Look — Hayward was/is a chucklehead. No doubt.

But tonight… the new guy wrote a very silly piece. Monumentally silly.

He faulted people for peacefully protesting at Tesla outlets nationwide. They do so because Musk has effectively bought all speaking rights out of Tangerine 2.0’s mouth.

This guy thinks it all profoundly unfair… but then he argues that new preznits “used to” get 100 days grace.

Huh.

I guess he missed January 6, 2021. That was still two weeks prior to Mr. Biden’s first day.

And it was a violent insurrection — dozens of police injured, and deaths.

Before our guy was able to take the oath.

So yeah — that’s… irony for ‘ya, indeed.

He’s gonna’ eclipse Hayward’s formidable zenith, on the “idiocracy” dimension, it seems.

Out.

So, Kids With Measles In West Texas Are Presenting With Vitamin A Toxicity — In Their Livers…?!

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This is… simply hard to fathom: in 2025, kids in dusty West Texas, already sick with measles (a vaccine-preventable affliction) are showing up at hospitals with… liver damage — due to Vitamin A toxicity (overdosing on Vitamin A) — all due to HHS Sec’y. RFK, Jr.’s wildly irresponsible and dangerous exhortations. Vitamin A will not cure or prevent measles. But too much of it will damage these kids’ livers — for life. Surreal.

Holy cow. Thank you Dr. Marks for speaking up. All real bioscience professionals must speak out against this lethal lunacy. Here’s all of that, via NBCNews.com — just deplorable:

…Dr. Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator, has resigned, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services said Friday….

In a resignation letter to acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner, Dr. Marks wrote that undermining confidence in vaccines is “irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety, and security….

It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies….”

Disgusting.

Still, onward resolutely, to “Death of A Unicorn” (with my girl, Jenna Ortega) — this afternoon, and NCAA tonight — I’m one game up on Mr. Obama in the men’s and we are tied in the women’s at the moment — but it will certainly be different, now — by Monday night.

नमस्ते