Author: condor

USDC Judge Chuang’s Preliminary Injunction Stayed — For Two Days, In Fourth Circuit… To Evaluate Musk’s/Trump’s Appeal…

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Earlier today, a 48 hour hold was entered by the Fourth Circuit panel — as this appellate court evaluates the scant merits of the Trumpian request for interlocutory review.

Trump’s request will fall of its own weight. Here’s today’s full text:

…On the defendants’ motion for an administrative stay, the court orders that the district court’s preliminary injunction dated March 18, 2025, as clarified by its order dated March 20, 2025, be stayed and hereby is stayed until the close of business of Thursday, March 27, 2025….

Onward — so many glorious things going on, in this wide wide world too. Can’t help but… grin.

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Fascinating. Scott Johnson Writes This Up As A Minor Snafu… Compare: “But Her Emails!’

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It is clear as day that… whatever else one might think about the 2016-17 chant of “lock her up!”… there was never a single asset exposed anywhere — on the ground.

Compare March 15, 2025: Hegseth, Rubio and other cabinet level Tangerine 2.0 idiots were using SIGNAL to chat. And, about a covert military attack in Yemen, within hours.

A plain violation of all our US military security laws and regulations — and they INCLUDED (what luckily turned out to be) a patriotic journalist from The Atlantic, in their lil’ gab fest.

Trump plays Sgt. Schultz — and Hegseth lies on camera saying it never happened.

And, the dried out old turd Scott Johnson styles it all as a minor whoopsie, this morning?!

Christ, Scott — do go read Brit Hume. At least he’s honest: Hegseth is toast.

You MAGA people… are as stupid as you are… dangerous.

Cashier that spouse abusing drunkard right now.

T O D A Y.

Condor Confidently Predicts The Supremes Will Rebuff Tangerine 2.0, Here. Again.

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Well, Tangerine 2.0 will not get any help here, from the Supremes. He filed it overnight — and it is a… dead letter.

The ruling by USDC Judge Alsup will only be appealed to the Ninth Circuit for now. He cannot skip to the front of the line, at the Supremes — no matter how special he imagines himself to be.

There is simply no rush — he needs Congress to enact new legislation to do any of this.

Onward, resolutely — and smiling as I go.

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Power Alley: Merck To Pay Up To $2 Billion, To China’s Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals For Cardiovascular Candidates…

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As nations become richer, and their citizens consume more high fat foods, the natural progression is toward… later onset heart disease. And while that remains a primary concern in Western Europe and the US especially… China now faces the very same “post modern economy” problem.

So it makes sense that Merck would pay to develop this novel compound, and let this in-country company keep all rights in China, while Rahway gets an exclusive for rest of world. Here’s all of that, from Fierce — as ever:

…[Merck will pay upfronts of] $200 million to China’s Hengrui Pharma for a phase 2-stage lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) inhibitor.

In return for the ex-China rights to the drug, dubbed HRS-5346, Merck has also agreed to pay out up to $1.77 billion in milestone fees on top of tiered royalties should the therapy make it to market.

“Elevated blood concentrations of Lp(a) provides a well-documented risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, affecting as many as one in five adults globally,” Merck Research Laboratories President Dean Li, M.D., Ph.D., said in this morning’s release. “HRS-5346, an investigational oral small molecule inhibitor of Lp(a) formation, is an important addition that expands and complements our cardio-metabolic pipeline.”

Large drugmakers including Merck and Eli Lilly have turned to Chinese biotechs for deals that give them access to new drugs for a cheaper investment, analysts have said….

Now you know. And honestly, I don’t worry much about Xi’s people ever interfering in these deals. They well-know that such meddling would kill the golden goose pipeline. And despite all the mindless bluster… Tangerine 2.0 will never impose meaningful tariffs on non-US manufactured life saving drugs, made by US companies overseas. He just won’t be able to get it done. Onward, grinning.

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Again — Paul Mirengoff Stands For Trump’s Official Suppression Of Legal Positions He Doesn’t Like.

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Tonight — Paul abandons any pretense of believing that even unpopular causes and people deserve to be capably represented in court (free of charge if need be).

The lying sack of dung would tell us that these Obama/Biden era lawfirms were suppressing “free speech”. That is patently untrue.

It was and is Trump who tries to prevent open and robust debate in the courts.

He is CHARGING people he disfavors — with crimes — via supplicant partisans at DoJ, now.

So tonight Mirengoff goes full on 1984.

Truth is lie.

Paul — just admit (as you almost do, in your last two sentences!) that you do not want to see a Democratic president do this same thing to GOP lawyers, next time ’round.

Here’s the thing — and you know it — based on about a dozen prior examples: we won’t do it.

It was only Trump (and Nixon, so far) that have done so.

So rest easy. When we as a nation are done with Trump — this sad, small minded chapter of our national history will end.

And you should grow a pair, and help all of us of good will end it… right now.

But you and the Powerline boys are too big a set of cowards to stand and deliver.

We know.

Take a seat. Those of us with courage — we’ve got this.

Cheers, son.

Damn, Pete! Just What Sort Of A… F-Up Are You?!

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Was he drunk?

Was he just careless — was he… just being… Pete, the shoot from the hip TV moron?

How did this happen?

Damn. In any sane world — he’d be shit through a goose by tomorrow. But Tangerine 2.0 will likely keep him, because now he owes his whole life to… Tangerine 2.0. Damn. Here’s The Atlantic today, on it all:

…The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.

I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.

This is going to require some explaining….

WTAH?!?

What sort of incompetent, malignant morons (at 1600 Penn) would tolerate this?

It is iron clad proven true — reported everywhere.

Holy crap.

Onward.

We May Yet See A Private Norwegian Company Achieve Orbit This Week… But Weather (Winds) Scrub First Window, Today…

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Old man Musk should take heed: many very capable European space science and rocketry programs are now in private hands, and are well-capitalized to compete for the space / orbital hauling business of delivering satellites to stable orbits above the planet.

And here they come — while today’s launch was scrubbed from northern Norway due to high winds, and frigid temps… there will be more launch windows later this week. This is a two stage, ~90 foot tall rocket — easily capable of hauling smaller communications satellites into near Earth orbit. Per the AP, then:

…A private European aerospace company scrubbed its attempt on Monday to launch the first test flight of its orbital launch vehicle from Norway.

Unfavorable winds meant that the Spectrum rocket couldn’t be launched from the island of Andøya in northern Norway, Munich-based Isar Aerospace said.

The launch is subject to various factors, including weather and safety. The company said it could also conduct the test flight later in the week. Another date hasn’t yet been set.

The startup, which says it has raised more than 400 million euros ($435 million) in capital, hopes to build up to 40 launch vehicles per year in the future at a plant outside of Munich. The launch vehicles are all to be used for putting satellites into orbit….

Smiling… eat his lunch, friends!

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USAID Case: Status Update Due From Government/DOGE On Payments Made Last Week…

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Bit by bit, the ship is righting itself.

USAID funds are being restored.

Here is the full text out of DC District Court Judge Amir Ali’s courtroom:

…MINUTE ORDER.

The Court is in receipt of Defendants’ [69] status report. Defendants propose to submit another status report by March 27, 2025. Defendants shall file another status report by March 27, 2025, which includes the same information as directed in the Court’s March 17, 2025, minute order, and every seven days thereafter until otherwise ordered by the Court.

Signed by Judge Amir H. Ali on 3/24/2025….

Now you know.

No, Paul — An “Insurrection” Against The Judiciary Branch Is NOT Part Of The “Process”.

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Here Paul, and a guy named Jason Willick would tell us that this is just a “brawl” with the judiciary — with Trump as a legitimate protagonist.

Not so.

This is Trump, trying to end the system of ordered liberty we’ve relied on for over 240 years.

This is Trump, saying he is beyond any judicial review process.

And Mirengoff, Willick and Hayward all should recognize that what they do here is legitimize… insurrection.

John Hinderaker, for his part — and childishly so — last evening, started making AI generated images of a judge who has ruled against Hegseth on who all might lawfully and honorably serve in our armed forces. The ham-handed goal of Hinderaker is to demoralize and demonize her.

She is openly lesbian. John thinks it humorous to try to equate her with some weird freak show — simply for saying that people with gender dysphoria can also be warriors, as many studies have confirmed.

I find it… all deplorable that the frothy hard right uses personal attacks in place of arguments on actual policies — and doubly so, given that Trump is threatening the very lives of several of these federal court judges. [We should note that his own late sister, a federal judge, in Maryland, had ruled that he cannot use the statute he’s now trying to use against Mr. Khalil, from last time around — to deport green card holders. But perhaps surprisingly, it does not seem that he tried to have her killed.]

The boys should find Trump’s dangerously escalating moves toward violence disturbing, too.

Sit the F- down, boys. Stop gilding the lily. Damn.

You have no legitimate argument here — to target federal judges with violence.

Just shut up.

23andMe Elects To File Chapter 11 This Morning — Will Reorganize And Recapitalize… So It Goes.

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We have covered its twelve-year-long meteoric rise — from a “go fast and break things” (without FDA approvals, no less!) DNA health information provider, to an ancestry resource, to a nascent drug discovery firm — to a compounder of weight loss injections (called Lemonade)… now, to the founder’s departure (after the board resigned six months ago).

I do believe it has the ability to rise again, but we will see — this is now a pretty deep hole it is in. Most of all, a lack of any real sustainable profit model — for the business at base. Here’s the UK Guardian on the latest:

…The US genetic testing company 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US to help sell itself, as its chief executive quit to pursue a bid for the business after several unsuccessful attempts.

23andMe said late on Sunday that it had started voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri to “facilitate a sale process to maximise the value of its business”.

The loss-making company, which provides saliva-based test kits to customers to help them track their ancestry, added that it was operating as usual throughout the sale process. “There are no changes to the way the company stores, manages, or protects customer data,” it said.

The San Francisco-based company said its chief executive and co-founder Anne Wojcicki was stepping down. She has been pushing for a buyout since April last year but was rebuffed by 23andMe’s board….

Onward — to a gray but warming week ahead — be excellent to one another.

While the Guardian is quoting UK authorities suggesting that users delete their data at 23andMe… I’ll leave mine up there. I am not too concerned about that, these days — given my great health and longevity. Grin. And so I say… let the life sciences advance, naturally. Smile.

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