Author: condor

Local Coverage — Of The Evanston Response To The Nonsense Tangerine 2.0 Motion To Intervene — In A Nonsense Private Federal Suit, In Chicago…

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This is what leadership, in the face of specious partisan/MAGA legal wrangling, looks like.

The Trumpians and the Fitton shills will be bounced out of court in the coming months — as I’ve long said. Bank on it. Here is the latest, from our home-town University / J-sudents-run newspaper:

…The Evanston Reparations Committee met Thursday, responding to the federal government’s move to join a lawsuit challenging the city’s reparations program….

Committee member and former Ald. Robin Rue Simmons (5th) said she believes the lawsuit is a “threat” to prevent Evanston from setting a precedent and inspiring other cities to create similar reparations programs.

“I’m not afraid of Donald Trump and the Department of Justice, and I’ve been well prepared for these types of attacks,” Simmons said.

For fiscal year 2026, the committee distributed funds to 44 eligible individuals, totalling to about $7,334,646.71 in disbursements so far. No changes have been made to the city’s disbursement plan at this time, according to a statement from its legal department read aloud during Thursday’s meeting….

Now you know — onward, resolutely — to barbecues, then fireworks tonight. Tomorrow will be our… quieter night. Smile….

नमस्ते

[U] Welp. Katalyst Still Must Power-Up, And Capture The Swift Observatory — Then “Push It, Push It REAL Good!” — Up To A More Stable Orbit…

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Well, the issue was just a needed software update, for the Pegasus XL under-wing rocket. The team made orbit very early this morning, as we all slept.

Here’s all that good news — still much to do, on the in-orbit “punch list“ — to eventually stabilize Swift:

…[Updated @ 8 pm 07.03.26] Teams have successfully established communications with Katalyst Space’s robotic servicing spacecraft LINK, which is designed to raise the orbit of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to a higher altitude…

Over the next several weeks, Katalyst will perform checkout procedures for LINK, including assessments of its propulsion, sensor, and navigation systems….

A mission to raise the altitude of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is underway after launching at 8:36 p.m. Marshall Islands Time (4:36 a.m. EDT), Friday, July 3, from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean.

LINK, a robotic servicing spacecraft built by Katalyst Space, launched into orbit on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, which was deployed by the company’s Stargazer, a modified L-1011 aircraft, at an altitude of about 40,000 feet.

Our planet’s atmosphere creates drag for spacecraft in low Earth orbit, gradually reducing their altitude if they don’t have propulsion systems to maintain their positions. Recent solar activity magnified this effect on Swift, and its orbit decayed faster than anticipated….

In September, NASA contracted Katalyst to boost Swift. The company needed to design, build, test, and launch LINK and meet, grab, and lift Swift in less than a year…

Do stay tuned — and do celebrate the fragile, unlikely dream… that is the UNITED States of America. We all know that it is not the garish, under-attended, amateurish nonsense Trump has on his outer lawn, on this day — and tomorrow. It is (among other things) the ingenuity of the above mission — from concept, to orbit — in under an elapsed year. Onward.

नमस्ते

[U] The Ambitious Private Enterprise Katalyst-Driven Launch, To Boost SWIFT… Twice Delayed For Weather — Now Has No New Launch Date. Hmm.

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While I understand why the various economic / commercial forces behind this audacious idea don’t want to share materially adverse information that might tank (Northrup Grumman, SpaceX, or some other) stock prices, it is not really kosher, to not explain at least the broad outlines of the nature of this failure to deploy event.

Did the under-wing rocket’s brackets jam — preventing deployment? Did the L-1011 fail to reach altitude? Did the space payload offer errant readings, prior to the drop zone? We likely won’t know what “reviewing the data” entails — for a few months yet.

In any event, here is the entirety of the morning’s very terse news update, out of NASA:

…[UPDATED @ 9:35 pm Thursday] Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus team has completed its review of Thursday’s launch attempt and identified a software issue that affected Pegasus navigation performance, which prompted a launch abort before Pegasus was released from the L-1011 aircraft. The system worked as intended by safely stopping the sequence, and a software update has been implemented. The Pegasus rocket and L-1011 remain healthy….

The launch of Katalyst’s robotic servicing spacecraft on Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket from Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, was postponed Thursday. After takeoff of the L-1011 aircraft carrying the Pegasus XL, a launch vehicle issue temporarily prevented teams from deploying the rocket.

The date of the next launch attempt for this mission to boost NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory will be determined after teams have reviewed data from today’s attempt….

Space is… indeed, hard. Onward, smiling — just the same.

नमस्ते

US Senator Hassan Is Fed Up With “Evergreening” — On Drug Patents… Keytruda In Focus.

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True enough, Rahway has reaped nearly $100 billion, life to date, on revenues from pembrolizumab. At the same time, Jimmy Carter lived about 15 extra years, after a nearly certain six month death sentence (aggressive melanoma) — directly as a result of the therapy’s efficacy. [You might even call that a cure, as what he ultimately died of was not any cancer, at all.]

Still, ~$200K a year for several years is a very steep price. And clearly the US patent laws do allow quite a bit of gamesmanship, as to what is (or is not) a novel invention — and thus drug companies may easily extend the “exclusivity” / life of long existing patents. [The most recent lobby spend trends at right confirm Merck is bending Congressional ears on this topic, among many others.] Here’s that story:

…Sen. Maggie Hassan is pressing pharmaceutical giant Merck over access and cost issues around one of its most popular and best-selling drugs.

Hassan is raising questions about the number of patents Merck has filed to protect cancer drug Keytruda, saying it has potentially kept biosimilar and generic versions from reaching the market at lower costs to consumers.

“If they won’t agree to stop gaming the system this way and artificially pumping up their prices, then we need to take legislative action and meet it head-on,” Hassan said.

The senator said that right now, the annual cost of Keytruda for a single patient is around $200,000….

Now you know. Great match last night — and to be sure, we will have another steamy day here. The most concerning fires (to me), are now moderating — out West. And watching tons of little kids (in this very blue city, and state) wave flags and cheer, in the final minutes of the US men’s match last night in the park… leads me to the opinion that we “liberals” — and all people of good conscience, really — need to reclaim that flag. It does not fly for hatred, in the night.

Trule patriots are quite often life-long Democrats, too — and being proud of our nation’s accomplishments, while remaining humble and accepting of our short-comings (and more importantly, being willing to aggressively tackle these wrongful policies, as the same emerge) — is the most American kind of patriotism I might imagine. We need “liberals” to no longer equate the stars & stripes… with MAGA (and its mindless hate). So, onward, to Seattle! End, sermon.

नमस्ते

Again — Hinderaker, With A Disingenuous Take — On SCOTUS ’26…

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

Among all the truly putrid belchings of “The Hind-Rocket” — this one likely wouldn’t make a top twenty list, but I’ll note it for the record this morning.

Last evening, in the course of lauding the Supremes’ general boot-licking for a Mal-Administration — the likes of which we’ve not seen since… Nixon (well — EVER!), John offered this concluding paragraph, in orange below:

…This year’s Supreme Court term produced mixed results. There were some notable victories for conservatives, but also important defeats, the birthright citizenship case being first on that list. Perhaps the most notable feature of the term was the solidarity of the three Democrat-appointed justices, who voted as a bloc with their party in just about every case that had partisan impact….

I do expect a “Post Watergate-style” Congress when we win both chambers this Fall, and just as that 1973 Congress stripped away the excesses Nixon had tried and failed to impose, by fiat — this coming Congress will ratchet back the worst of the Supremes’ decisions, on the Voting Rights Act, in particular — and likely, on Trumpian gutting of federal budgets created and mandated solely by the Congress.

I would expect a “new ethics in government” package of legislation — after it becomes more widely known that Trump and his sons have personally profited to the tune of over $2.2 BILLION — in trading on information about actions he would take — and in directly soliciting investments/bribes in exchange for pardons, commutations or favorable treatment at the agency levels (mostly by unfriendly/frenemy foreign powers), here during Tangerine 2.0.

Maybe I’m an optimist, but I expect that will come to pass. So I am not overly nervous about the future of our 250 years of experimenting, in democracy.

I note, however — that three Justices vote as a block, for both ot Tangerine 1.0 and 2.0… BECAUSE his objectives… and the means he uses… are flagrantly unlawful.

They vote against lawlessness. And in contrast… Alito/Thomas? Almost never.

The liberal three are usually joined by Roberts, in voting down the most egregious of Trump’s lawless corruption / power grabs and slush fund attempts.

But not always. And that will be a stain on the Roberts court for another 250 years.

But it is poppycock to say that Kagan/Jackson/Sotomayor are voting politics. They are the only ones still uniformly upholding well settled law.

Just calling balls and strikes.

Here endeth the sermon.

Out — with soccer / jumbotron tonight in the steamy park — then an independence day celebration, at which orange hues are… verboten. Smile.

Now, Marburg Is ALSO Known To Be Circulating In Uganda… Extremely Tough News.

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This is doubly vexing news, for Uganda’s economy. With Ebola already known to be circulating across the border from DRC, we now learn that there are some cases of Marburg in the country — on top of all that. Very disconcerting. [And the US is thus discouraging Americans from visiting that country, or DRC.]

In any event, this is the latest excellent reporting, from STAT+ — and Helen Branswell:

…Uganda formally reported to the World Health Organization on Tuesday that it had detected a Marburg disease outbreak in the western part of the country, a spokesperson for the Geneva-based global health agency told STAT. The development could further complicate the effort to contain what is already the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record in Central Africa. Both diseases are viral hemorrhagic fevers.

The Ugandan government has not yet publicly disclosed a Marburg outbreak. But the U.S. embassy in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, issued a health alert on Monday, saying it had been made aware of a possible case of Marburg in the country. The alert was a level 4 advisory alerting Americans they should not travel to Uganda….

The notification from Uganda to the WHO was of a single case. But a well-placed source — who answered questions from STAT on the proviso that their name and place of work would not be identified — said that Uganda had actually detected two cases of Marburg as of Monday. The individual said it appeared that at this point, the outbreak is localized….

This will, as ever, deeply hamper economic development in the country. Just awful.

Meanwhile… it is still very steamy here — but on to World Cup on the jumbotron tonight, again in the park — at seven pm. And in a small bit of good news, the wildfire in the Rockies — closest to my homes… is moderating. Smile….

नमस्ते

Space Walking, And CanadArm2 Repair, Now Well Underway… At ISS.

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The idea that we sit with phone in hand, and watch live, as two brave astronauts work a construction/repair job, weightless — some 250 miles over our heads — in space-suits… is, frankly… gob-smacking.

Not just that they are treating it all as blasé, as changing the oil, on the old pickup, in one’s front drive-way… but that I for one, remember the first ever US spacewalk — and walker — named Ed White, in 1966. There was real concern that he might be hit by something, and fly off — to an unfathomably horrific death.

But now, more than a half-century later, this is common-place — 280 times (see the feed at bottom). Excellent:

…At approximately 8:35 a.m. EDT (1235 UTC) on June 30, 2026, NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jessica Meir ventured outside the International Space Station for an approximately six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. The pair will replace a wrist joint on the orbital complex’s Canadarm2 robotic arm.

This spacewalk is the second for Williams and the fifth for Meir. Williams will serve as spacewalk crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes. Meir will serve as crew member 2 and will wear an unmarked suit….

What a time to be alive! Space exploration science is simply… amazing.

नमस्ते

In Which We Update — And Confirm — Our $85/Share 24 Month Assessment, For Moderna…

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In November of 2024, and again in March of this year, we expressed confidence in a more than doubling of Moderna’s stock price.

We reaffirm that today, given the FDA panel’s recommended green light, for its newest mRNA vaccine for various flu strains — in older adults. It was trading aroung $30; it is now at about $72… but $85 a share would be a very fair value, in the next six to 24 months. Here’s a bit, from NBC a few weeks back:

…If approved, it would be the world’s first messenger RNA flu shot, providing public health officials with a much more nimble tool to fight influenza. In a late-stage trial, the vaccine was found to be about 27% more effective than a standard flu shot….

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, has been hostile to mRNA technology under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He’s called the mRNA Covid shot “the deadliest vaccine ever made,” and last year HHS canceled nearly $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine research.

The path to approval of Moderna’s flu vaccine has been touch-and-go. Earlier this year, the FDA initially refused to even review the company’s application for the shot, before reversing course a week later….

Obviously, idiotic MAGA politics are interfering with public health here — so we hedge a bit, on whether the jab will reach market before flu season this fall. But the clear scientific arc — bends toward a material revenue enhancer for Moderna.

Onward.

नमस्ते

The Nonsense Attempt To End Birthright Citizenship… Is Dead: SCOTUS.

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The obviously plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment was never in doubt, despite the MAGA sophistry suggesting otherwise. Even so, this is good news. Barrett, Kavanaugh and Roberts agree with the usual three making it a 6-3 decision. If you are born here — you are a citizen, if you want to be. Full stop — just as we repeatedly said, for over a year.

More problematical, though was the morning’s decision on student athletes. It seems the 3/5ths of a person compromise (for now) is to say trans-athletes in red states must move into blue states, and change schools, in order to compete. That is just political posturing, not legal reasoning. The supposed Supremes’ “conservative” majority is more a mini-Congress, than a caller of balls and strikes now, it seems. Ugly.

Here is a bit of the unsurprising birthright case:

…To understand the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, it is first necessary to understand the context in which it arose — and the opinion of this Court, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 19 How. 393 (1857), that it rejected….

[The full text of the Tangerine 2.0 (now enjoined) Sharpie scribble] declares that “the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary… and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth….” [Obviously this violates the plain meaning of the 14th Amendment, which ended Dred Scott.]

In a Nation of immigrants — an “asylum for mankind,” in Thomas Paine’s words — jus soli’s broad scope took on particular importance. Common Sense (1776), in 1 Writings of Thomas Paine 101 (M. Conway ed. 1894). The young Republic attracted tens of thousands of émigrés from the Old World—Scotch-Irish, French, German, Welsh, and many more, some of whom hoped to stay only a short time, others of whom hoped never to leave….

That is what the lady in the harbor promised — and still promises — with her torch aloft. There is much more in the reasoning — do go read it all. It is a fabulous civics lesson — one Tangerine 2.0 obviously slept, and sleeps… through.

Onward, into the steamy end-of-June air — and baby grrls. Smile… with a Moderna update next, as it is finally starting to approach its fair value.

नमस्ते

Well, This Is… Decidedly Thick-Headed. The Fitton-Shills Argue That Judge Kness Should NOT Decide A Statute Of Limitations Issue — Thus Openly Wasting Judicial Resources.

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The goofy Fitton-hired lawyers never even mention tonight the fact that their proposed approach will require at least two sets of factual hearings, on “who all knew what, and when did they know it” — if the able USDC Judge waits until later, to consider the fact that these five private plaintiffs did not file the original suit in a timely fashion.

They ignore it, because they know focusing on this… makes them a pure loser. And that is exactly why the City of Evanston asks the Judge to conserve resources — and bifurcate discovery — closing this all out once, and for all.

I will not quote from their stupid filing, and I link it solely for a complete record, here.

Obviously, if the Tangerine 2.0 Department of Justice believes it can prove it made timely suit-filings, here (Hah!) — it may bring that suit. But nothing compels Judge Kness to let the five private plaintiffs get a free ride, between now and then. And nothing permits the DoJ to “cure” statute of limitations problems in private (albeit federal) suits — by simply intervening.

The proper course, under the clear federal Rules of Civ. Pro., is for the Judge to decide whether the whole suit is untimely, and not waste his precious deliberative resources on noodling about intervention. The Tangerine DoJ may bring its own suit some other day, if it (preposterously) thinks it too might be able to avoid a timeliness (and standing) problem.

Hilarious. That is all for tonight — out.

[My lil’ ladies are here tomorrow — baking banana bread and grilling various veggies and steaks and brats… and sweltering in the park — before a fresh but iced lemonade cooler, in the blasting A/C, inside. Heh. Then Wed. evening is US Men’s World Cup Soccer / FIFA under the stars… Onward.]

नमस्ते