Author: condor

“Two Steps Forward; One Back” — UAE Reports Its First Clade 1b Mpox Case… As Ebola ’25 Levels Off In Uganda…

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No sooner do we mention good news — on the likely leveling off of Ebola in Kampala, Uganda… and a bit of bad news reappears.

But that is ever the way with biological/viral disease outbreaks. This time, it is UAE — Mpox, as of this past Thursday afternoon Eastern time….

Not much else to know, but here is the Reuters item:

…The World Health Organization said on Thursday that United Arab Emirates has reported its first detection of Clade 1b mpox in the country….

Onward, with all the snow shoveled, again — until tonight, I suppose. Stay safe — and dry — out there!

Be excellent to one another.

नमस्ते

Actually, John — The Non-GOP Skewed Polling Has Him… Underwater, AGAIN. Y A W N.

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Hinderaker well-knows Rasmussen should be labeled as “Oversample GOP” as a pollster. [It shows Tangerine as 54-45 net favorable. That’s… just silly.]

The non-partisan You.gov polling, otoh — is printed in The Economist magazine now… precisely because it seeks accurately balanced samples.

All reliable polling for the past two and a half weeks (since his scribbles started appearing) has Trump’s favorables below 50%. But Rasmussen is five points outside the mean.

The reality is probably that he’s just about flat unfavorable to favorable — but both figures are under 50%. That’s probably reality: evenly spit; but no mandate nor majority view.

Here’s the NON-cherry picked data, John, at right.

Do put a sock in it.

Better News, On Ebola ’25 — In Uganda… Only A “Single Chain” Of Transmission Looks Likely.

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CIDRAP reported yesterday that Ugandan health authorities, and the African CDC, now believe the entire ebola outbreak in Kamala traces to a single transmission chain / index case.

That would mean that the nearly 400 “contacts of contacts” — once cleared and/or vaccinated… may be the end of the outbreak. Here’s that encouraging news:

…Health officials from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) today said Uganda’s Ebola outbreak has stabilized and is under control, with the ongoing epidemiologic investigation suggesting a single transmission chain….

Authorities report that a vaccine trial with an initial supply of 2,000 candidate vaccine doses is under way now — in seven of eight rings that have been so far positively identified. Excellent; simply excellent… on the ground sleuthing.

नमस्ते

The HoldCo For Truth Social Reported Sales Of ~$3.68 Million For The Year 2024 — And SG&A Of… $136 MILLION?!

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The DJT SEC Form 10-K is filed — on a dead news / Valentine’s Day Friday night. Y A W N.

And… no surprise, at all — the company’s sales revenue actually fell by over 13%, compared to the year 2023 (see page F-5, there).

This company is burning through $136 million a year in overhead expenses in Atlanta (including renting a house for CEO Devin Nunes for $7,000 a month; can’t the guy pay for his own house, out of his salary?!) — but shows a market capitalization of over… $6.6 billion, on just ~$3.7 million in sales?!?

That is simply… insane.

But the MAGAts just love getting fleeced by DJT and Devin Nunes and Melania. She “runs” a “company” called YA II PN Ltd. / Yorkville [See page F-19], that is apparently being paid tens of millions of dollars by Truth, to bring online streaming video content to the Truth Social website (in on-demand, scalable, bumps)… all with zero experience in online streaming video, or in… running servers out of some Central Europe geography.

Geez-la-wheez! Where was I? Oh. Right.

That means the company’s NASDAQ market cap is about 1,800 YEARS’ worth of sales.

That is, DJT/Truth Social needs to survive — thrive — and generate at least that amount in annual sales for a period equal to the time period — from the moment that Macrinus, the Praetorian Prefect under Caracalla in Ancient Rome, declared the Jews would no longer be taxed (they had been so taxed, since the time of Julius Caesar) — to this evening in 2025.

Did I say it already? Yep… that is simply… insane.

The company generated an operating loss of over $400 million, last year.

These guys are either the worst business-people on the planet — or they are all stone cold crooks. You decide.

Out.

Seems Hinderaker… Is Just Making Sh!t Up, Again… Re The EPA (Claiming Corruption). Damn.

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Instead of giving any more oxygen to his, and Lee Zeldin’s lies… let us recall that the Supremes no longer follow the text of the Environmental Protection Act of 1976, as written.

This despite Scalia’s insistence that all conservative judges simply read the statute in its original form, and apply the plain meaning of the words and phrases Congress enacted.

We have seen, time and again, if powerful businesses have skin in the game — the Roberts court, usually with Gorsuch or Barret holding the pen — finds “entire gray elephants, lurking in tiny mouse holes“… (with the dissents of Kagan and Sotomayor and Jackson keeping them honest — about what it is they are ACTUALLY doing).

So spare me your lies — the entire thesis of the Hinderaker post — quoting Lee Zeldin… is false. It is pinned to a low level EPA functionary, wire-tapped/trapped on a hidden recording without consent, by an old Project Veritas skunk.

[Subsequently, the entire “Veritas” operation was bankrupted by its repeated pattern unlawful recordings of private conversations, and lies about those conversations’ content. The hearsay offered is corroborated by exactly zero documentary proof of any corruption — at all. Just “Veritas’ lies“.]

In sum, I’ll offer you two no tiny violins, buddy.

Suck it. And do see some more recent reality, in court decisions — about the EPA, as described by the dissents. Out.

TRO Preventing Contract Terminations At USAID Will Continue: DC Judge, Overnight.

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The New York state governmental parties have shown the Manhattan USDC Judge the latest opinion entered as an extended TRO in DC, overnight — as added authority for this afternoon’s dial in hearing (2 PM EST). [I’ll be off-grid, but you can catch it from the court’s home page.] The losses are unending, for Tangerine 2.0, it seems.

Here’s that latest opinion — Trump is now about 1-20, with only the allowance of his “voluntary severance offer” having survived a TRO motion in one court. His other would-be “mandatory closures” orders are all essentially in mothballs. This is how checks and balances work:

…[T]here has been no explanation offered in the record, let alone a “satisfactory explanation… including a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made,” as to why reviewing programs — many longstanding and taking place pursuant to contractual terms — required an immediate and wholesale suspension of appropriated foreign aid….

[The Tangerine 2.0 attempt at] implementation of the blanket suspension is likely arbitrary and capricious given the apparent failure to consider immense reliance interests, including among businesses and other organizations across the country. No aspect of the implemented policies or submissions offered by Defendants at the hearing suggests they considered and had a rational basis for disregarding the massive reliance interests of the countless small and large businesses that would have to shutter programs or shutter their businesses altogether and furlough or lay off swaths of Americans in the process….

Defendants’ argument also presupposes that this is an area where the President has exclusive authority and runs into Plaintiffs’ contention that the President was acting in violation of the separation of powers because he “does not have unilateral authority to refuse to spend the funds” Congress appropriates. In re Aiken County, 725 F.3d 255, 261 n.1 (D.C. Cir. 2013)….

Onward. Be excellent to one another — I’m out!

नमस्ते

Gee! — A GOP Gov. Of A Former Slaveholding State — Openly Denying The Fourteenth Amendment’s Commands?! Who Could Possibly Have Imagined… THAT?!

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I mark this only to make plain… just how completely the MAGAts are willing to debase themselves, their oaths, and their… states, to lick the boots of Tangerine 2.0.

Out in Washington State, the State Government of… Tennessee has officially filed an amicus brief — to oppose the continuation of birthright citizenship. [Tangerine 2.0 has already lost on a preliminary injunction, so Gov. Lee’s brief is filed in the Ninth Cir., as part of the appeals.]

That clause (called “birthright“) was a direct response to Dred Scott, and abomination of the rule of 3/5th of a person, for counting enslaved persons, in state by state apportionments — prior to the Civil War.

Thus the express language of the Fourteenth Amendment made people born here… full citizens, by the mere fact of… birth, on US soil.

MAGA / GOP Governor Bill Lee beclowns his state, and more importantly, the vast majority of his fine citizens… by arguing to return to the Antebellum South, for Tangerine’s “all the greater glory“.

I think I’ll let some key people inside the Volunteer State know about this. I suspect it is being done largely in a hush-hush fashion.

Time for it to be on the TV Nightly News, in Nashville, Memphis and even Knoxville, now.

Stay tuned.

Out.

So It’s… Kennedy, And Hinderaker Loves Him Some Luddite, To Lead HHS? Wow.

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Hinderaker here rises — to praise… a return to the ways of Theodoric of York, and… bloodletting, as therapy?! But of course he does. Damnation.

And, the irony — the more serious irony — of all this is that it will in all probability be mostly rural, lower education, poorer (mostly whyte) people who suffer/see the brunt of his unscientific views… harm them, and their children.

And these are of course the people who’ve foolishly bought all the Tangerine 2.0 lies. It is still atrocious, but my thesis is that most urban dwelling people of limited means, and many people of color generally, still live in blue zones and blue states. In sum, where state safety nets exist — and real bio-science still holds sway. Here’s a bit from STAT+:

…Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the activist-turned-politician with a long history of embracing anti-scientific views, will become the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Senators voted 52-48 on Thursday to confirm Kennedy to the role. Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voted against RFK Jr., as did all Democrats….

Wow — what a surreal time (in some respects), indeed as John forgets that Matt Gaetz ever existed, too.

In proof of this, but not relatedly, Danielle R. Sassoon, the interim US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, quit after the Tangerine 2.0 politicos now leading the US Justice Department told her she must dismiss her indicted case against Mayor Adams. Crazy — except that Trump has decided bribes aren’t real crimes at all. Since he’s in that same barrel, but for Chief Justice Roberts’ strange opinion. [Most of America disagrees with him on that.]

Onward — just the same.

नमस्ते

Condor’s Advice? Absent Very Unique Conditions, Don’t Accept Trump Buyout Offer.

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Obviously, I am not giving individual legal or tax advice here, but my advice boils down to “Why would you trust the man at right?” That’s the gist of it.

Sure, at least one federal judge has said that Trump may make this voluntary offer to federal employees. But based on over 40 years of lived experience (suggesting exactly the opposite), should you accept it, you are simply trusting that Donald Trump is a man of his word. After all, he cons his own least sophisticated supporters (see at right).

Now, if you are independently wealthy, and work the federal job because it is interesting and helps humanity — and you feel like taking the summer vacationing — or are fully vested in the pension and very near the age you were going to retire at in any event, then maybe you don’t have a whole lot to lose from taking a flier on his offer and taking the summer off.

But if you actually need the money to meet your bills week to week, or are thinking you’re going to need to find another job after the severance period is over, there is every reason to believe that at some point over the course of the summer Trump and Musk will stiff you, on this offer. Either a court will order them to halt, or they simply will say that the GOP Congress won’t allow them to pay you the money.

You will be left with a lawsuit against the federal government that may take years to resolve. You are very likely to win that lawsuit, but it will take years to resolve.

Finally, consider that if you do not sign up for the severance offer, you may still very well have a good employment law claim against the federal government for the way in which this nonsense was rolled out. . . and/or administered, even if Trump actually ends up paying all the money the severance has promised.

And so, it is my opinion that unless you are in the one-one-hundredth of one percent of the federal workforce that meets the above limiting factors, I can’t imagine why you would willingly walk away from a good job with very stable benefits — one from which he mostly cannot fire you, without very specific well documented cause.

If anyone reading this post disagrees with me or has other observations or even questions, feel free to put them in the comments (even anonymously) and and I will try to answer them. I genuinely intend this to be helpful to people who may not know the full extent of their rights — as a federal employee.

Onward.

नमस्ते