Author: condor

And, In Average Monthly Temp. Terms — Three Separate Agencies Confirm: June 2023 Was Without Doubt, The Hottest In Recorded Human History.

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We had already mentioned that for five straight days beginning on July 3, and lasting until the 8th, the hottest individual days on record were… erh, recorded. Heh.

There is still a very lethal heat dome over the Southwest, and much of the South. It may not abate meaningfully, until mid next week — and that will make 18 or more days in a row of temps above 107, in places like Phoenix. Here’s that monthly data, as just this afternoon compiled by NASA:

. . .GISTEMP, NASA’s global temperature analysis, is drawn from data collected by weather stations and Antarctic research stations, as well as instruments mounted on ships and ocean buoys. NASA scientists at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York analyze these measurements to account for uncertainties in the data and to maintain consistent methods for calculating global average surface temperature differences for every year. These ground-based measurements of surface temperature are consistent with satellite data collected since 2002 by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on NASA’s Aqua satellite and with other estimates. NASA uses the period from 1951-1980 as a baseline to understand how global temperatures change over time.

Independent analyses by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information likewise found June 2023 to be the warmest June in their records. . . .

But sure, the frothy far right (with petrochemical industry lobbying dollars) claims none of this is. . . real, trend changing weather — just “normal” seasonal variations. Damn. Out.

नमस्ते

So… This Morning, The Biden/Harris “Second Act” — On The Laudable Student Loans Forgiveness Programs… Gets Underway. Excellent!

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As I’ve mentioned here repeatedly, there is ample authority in the 1965 NEA (part of LBJ’s “Great Society” legislation) to allow all the same outcomes, as those at least temporarily sent back to the lower courts by the Supremes last month (see that story here). In addition, although I paid my student loans in full many many years ago, I fully support this notion. Mine came at a time when one could readily land a job that would more than cover the debt payments, plus a very comfortable upper middle class lifestyle, for a young family. That set of circumstances no longer obtains, for most borrowers.

There is nothing noble about locking young people into continual “re-affirmance / forbearance” cycles, often by shady means — and effectively collecting 25 to 30 per cent of their take home, each month to pay for-profit student loan resellers. This is just a payday lender — in a nicer suit. It is crippling the US new homebuyer market, as most cannot afford even a starter home, after paying the juice lenders on student debt. If you make less than $125,000 a year, you ought to be considered for complete forgiveness. That is what “one another’s keepers” means to me, anyway. Here is today’s beginning on it:

…The Department of Education (Department) today will begin notifying more than 804,000 borrowers that they have a total of $39 billion in Federal student loans that will be automatically discharged in the coming weeks. In total, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved more than $116.6 billion in student loan forgiveness for more than 3.4 million borrowers.

The forthcoming discharges are a result of fixes implemented by the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure all borrowers have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that qualify toward forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. These fixes are part of the Department’s commitment to address historical failures in the administration of the Federal student loan program in which qualifying payments made under IDR plans that should have moved borrowers closer to forgiveness were not accounted for. Borrowers are eligible for forgiveness if they have accumulated the equivalent of either 20 or 25 years of qualifying months….

“Student loans were never meant to be a life sentence, but it’s certainly felt that way for borrowers locked out of debt relief they’re eligible for,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Today, the Department of Education will begin to remedy years of administrative failures that effectively denied the promise of loan forgiveness to certain borrowers enrolled in IDR plans. These actions once again demonstrate the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to delivering meaningful debt relief and ensuring federal student loan programs are administered fairly and effectively….”

And I am proud of all of us, collectively — for not allowing small-minded, clap-trap GOP MAGA forces (actually astro-turfed by the for profit student lending lobby), to rule the roost. Onward, grinning. Be excellent to one another, this weekend!

नमस्ते

Paul And Bill: America “Deserves” To Be Feared — And To Rule… Everything. WTH?!

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These guys. Geez-la-wheez. They are…. just so predictably… idiotic.

At least the Ringsiders admit that Trump is unfit for office, today. So, there’s that silver lining.

But the main thrust of both Bill’s — and Paul’s — latest bleatings is that the Boomers’ doubts about ‘Murica’s supposed infallibility… is what is ruining us all. Thus Bill writes:

…But part was our carelessness with our success and our doubts, inflamed by the civil rights struggle and Vietnam, about whether we deserved it….

Damn. So many things wrong with that take: the civil rights movement was not a weakness, nor was it born of “self-doubt”. It was born of a fuller agreement, that the words of the founding documents ought to, finally, well-over 220 years later, apply to ALL of us — both de facto and de jure.

This — plus the embedded whyte divine entitlement mentality… is why the current GOP gets so much of what it really means to be American… backwards. And encapsulated in one sentence — to boot.

I guess I ought to thank Bill, for summing up, very tersely… why he, and his party politics… are pure losing propositions.

Thanks, buddy.

How Little Hinderaker… Knows, Vol. 1964.

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Tonight John would tell us that a purely partisan threat by letter, made by 13 GOP state AGs, against 100 businesses… will matter.

It won’t.

Unlike proving something (anything!) on an ACT score or GPA… hiring and promotion decisions are never made on numbers alone (except perhaps in commission based sales slots). But never in C-Suite level hiring and promotion. That is far more nuanced, as John well-knows (but won’t admit).

Most of all, businesses seek (rightly) to mirror the markets they serve. And the Chief Justice’s majority opinion in Harvard expressly authorized looking at essays about background, to make admission decisions — so too, in hiring and promotion, idiots.

In that sense, the Harvard/UNC case, and even moreso, these impotent Tennessee and Kansas AGs’ threats… are almost completely dead letters.

Sit down, you clowns. [Or… do file a few ill-starred suits, and just watch as various multinationals move out of these red threat states, to more benign and progressive ones! Once again, MAGA GOP is out of step with modern business thinking.]

Hilarious. This is Bill Lee/Ron DeSantis nonsense, in overdrive.

Out.

For Whatever (Little) It Might Be Worth… Memphis DA’s Claimed Grounds For Appeal

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In the Sixth Circuit Court of US Appeals this morning, Memphis DA Steven Mulroy claimed these as the errors he wants the appeals panel to review. As you may see, he has listed a ton of items, because he lost… utterly, at the trial level. [And to be clear, the GOP Governor, Bill Lee — depicted in the middle at right, is driving the strategy on this appeal of the complete loss. Hilarious.]

Messrs. Lee and Mulroy will lose here, as well.

And mediation failed because one or both of them… rejected it.

Here’s that silly notice of grounds — for the record (the meat of it, at least, in its full “Volunteer Orange” regalia!):

…(1) Whether Friends of George’s Inc. has Article III standing to challenge Tennessee’s Adult Entertainment Act — in part or in its entirety.

(2) Whether the district court erred in its findings of fact.

(3) Whether the district court erred in its construction of Tennessee’s Adult Entertainment Act and its crossed [sic] referenced provisions (Public Chapter No. 2, 113th General Assembly (2023) (codified at Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 7-51-1401, -1407, and § 39-17-901)).

(4) Whether the district court erred in holding that Tennessee’s Adult Entertainment Act (Public Chapter No. 2, 113th General Assembly (2023) (codified at Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 7-51 1401, -1407, and § 39-17-901)) is facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

(5) Whether the district court erred in holding that Tennessee’s Adult Entertainment Act (Public Chapter No. 2, 113th General Assembly (2023) (codified at Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 7-51-1401, -1407, and § 39-17-901)) is unconstitutionally vague.

(6) Whether the district court erred in the scope of relief provided…..

Now you know. Onward, grinning.

Scott Johnson And Steve Hayward… Ought To Read This, Before Writing Another Word On That GeekSquad Laptop…

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Damn.

So — how would it be that a Fox operative was willingly, knowingly, retained as Hunter Biden’s (now former) “therapist”? A guy now suspended from the practice of medicine for sexually abusing his female patients, and charging at least some of them for that — during “therapy”?

The contents of that laptop look to have been simply an altered, overwritten version of a hard drive from an earlier, likely at least partially faked version.

Be mindful, then, boys — libel and slander now lie. You are on notice of these problems with the chain of custody you cite as proof that the son of a prominent politician did or did not do anything (beyond several actions, largely the result of a substance abuse problem).

Despite The Errant Earlier AP Reporting, Merck Has NOT “Turned Up The Heat” — In Its Specious Federal Suit Against CMS/HHS…

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What is lamentable is that the usually excellent FiercePharma acts as an unblinking stenographer for this nonsense. Not all outlets have access to sophisticated federal litigation experts, true — but Fierce… does. Ask them, folks.

Here’s what has actually happened as of Tuesday evening. Merck filed a motion saying no fact-finding is needed for the court to rule.

That motion will fail, on its face. There is no scenario where any competent federal judge can rule in Merck’s favor without finding that a taking has occurred, or that Merck is being coerced by the particular, and amended, rules allowing CMS and HHS to negotiate drug pricing. Those are quintessentially FACTUAL questions.

Questions for which (and against which) evidence must be introduced, and evaluated. By a finder of fact — either a jury or a judge. In short, for which a trial must be had. So Merck’s motion is a mere formality. It is a loser — just as a motion by the government saying it should win just on applicable law, and that there would be no set of facts Merck could prove that would let Merck win… would also be a loser. At least some evidentiary hearings will be needed — fact-finding hearings.

So it goes. But this much from Fierce is accurate:

…Christen Linke Young, deputy assistant to the president for health and human affairs, told reporters on a conference call that there is “nothing in the Constitution that prevents Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices….”

Onward… smiling into a clearing morning sky — after various tornadoes touched down here overnight — missed my holdings, though. Grin.

नमस्ते

Hayward Talks Of Tom Wolfe’s “Great Relearning”… Ironic.

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As the GOP busily tries, largely in vain, this time by low level Trump appointed federal judges… to undo much of what these same geezers — 40 years ago LOVED — about Saint Ronnie Reagan’s world-view… the irony is palpable.

To be sure, Steve means to aim at early ‘70s liberal ideas — as the bogeyman (but most of his statistics are outright lies, or damnably misleading).

It is — in fact — Steve, and the Powerliners who need to do most of the “relearning”. Consider:

In Monroe, Louisiana’s federal courts, a Trump judge has been urged for over a year to re-impose the “FCC must carry” and “equal time” rules eliminated by Reagan in 1984 or so, when there had been only three networks to access the public — with video. [All because very few civil humans want to hear that racist misogyny belch forth, into their virtual living rooms.]

Of course, the MAGA forces don’t call it “must carry” – they style it as “ending govt. censorship”… but this again is a propagandists’ lie — of mislabeling.

No, it is in no manner censorship, when one or five of over 400 internet platforms disinvite certain liars and racists from using megaphones in their collective private living rooms.

Proof of all this resides in Trump’s platform (Truth — not!), and Parler and gab… all of which happily hand out their megaphones to all miscreant / comers. For free.

So, whatever else I loathed about Reagan — he well knew that the advent of a wildly-profitable, proliferating cable TV industry (just like social media platforms of this age, 40 years later) meant dozens of new broadcast and narrowcast carriers would end the oligarchy on broadcast media. In time, he knew that ABC, NBC and CBS would no longer be required/needed to provide “minority view” slots, at least not by the fiat of FCC rule.

He ended it. But now — 40 years later, because Trump’s hateful policies have alienated all but the frothy fringe of the GOP, the MAGAts want to revert to the 1960s era “must carry” rules — at FB, Twitter and Instagram and YouTube.

Hilarious!

Steve’s posts: where irony goes… to die.

[And all this before we talk about increasing danger in the streets, from MAGA’s radical pro- assault weapons stances. There was meaningful gun control under Saint Ronnie too, boys.]

Out.

GOP Rep. Comer & Scott Johnson… Vouch For A Felony-Indicted Fugitive From Justice…

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I waited a day on this, to see if Scott would tell the truth, and correct his misleading statements. He hasn’t. And, Rep. Comer, in fact, has relied on this jamoke — Gal Luft — for sworn testimony, in US House Committee hearings — that have become farcical internal GOP “bread and circuses” — of criming.

Sworn testimony, in this case, about matters related to Hunter Biden. And, unsurprisingly, this Luft character has been indicted, and is now in hiding — on the lam as it were — for foreign influence crimes, and for… (wait for it!) lying to federal law enforcement, about matters related to Hunter Biden.

This is what MAGA GOP group think leads to: soliciting reprobates and felons for testimony, while they hide from the long arm of the law, in hopes of avoiding jail for their crimes.

As to Comer — I am utterly unsurprised. As to Johnson — I would have thought he would have called out Luft, and disavowed his former claims.

Instead, he’s doubling down — by remaining silent, about the context of the indictment — and the fact that Comer knows now he’s been suborning perjury, at a minimum.

Just as the Powerliners did — for Tangerine — from 2016 to 2022.