NASA’s Solar Craft RHESSI: Due To Burn In, Tonight…

After over a 21 year mission studying the Sun, from a low Earth orbit, RHESSI is end of mission.

The smallish craft weighs less than 700 pounds, and almost all of it will now burn up on re-entry, though small bits could reach the surface of the Earth.

It is expected to come in over water, so very little chance of any human contact, at all. Here’s the updated window:

…DoD has updated the targeted drop in time, here on Wednesday afternoon — with a little more clarity: reentry could occur about 9:40 p.m. ET this evening, plus or minus three hours, NASA said….

Now you know. Separately, NASA’s Mars copter has now completed 50 powered, flawless flights on Barsoom. Grin….

And. . . update — as of 04.20.2023 — we now know it burnt in, over the Sahara desert:

. . .The Department of Defense confirmed that the 660-pound spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere over the Sahara Desert region, at approximately 21.3 degrees north latitude and 26 degrees east longitude. NASA expected most of the spacecraft to burn up as it traveled through the atmosphere, but for some components to survive re-entry. . . .

Grin. . . .

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[U] Justice Alito Keeps The Texas / Matthew Kacsmaryk’s Abortion Pill Ruling “In Time-Out” Until Midnight Friday Night…

Updated 04.21.2023 @ 7 pm Eastern — the time out is now permanent until the Supremes rule on any future appeal out of the Fifth Circuit. End update.

The Justices continue to discuss next steps.

Will they simply strike Matthew Kacsmaryk’s crazy opinion, and/or the only slightly less cray-cray Fifth Circuit one… or wait (continue the stay for weeks or months) to hear more argument?

No sensible person is betting they will let the trial court opinion take effect. Here’s the latest:

…UPON FURTHER CONSIDERATION of the application of counsel for the applicants, the response, and the reply filed thereto,

IT IS ORDERED that the stay issued on April 14, 2023, is hereby extended until 11:59 p.m. (EDT) on Friday, April 21, 2023.

/s/ Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

Associate Justice of the Supreme

Court of the United States

Dated this 19th day of April 2023….

Now you know. Onward. [And you know the Powerline boys are out of stuff to write about, when they don’t comment on old whyte men killing kids on their porches, or on Faux News losing nearly a billion dollar settlement for LYING on air about the 2020 election, or even on this case… but instead decide to go nutty on CANADIAN public television and public radio… funding. WTF, Steve — what business of yours, is that?!]

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In Which… Hinderaker “Has A Sad On” — About One Reprobate He Was Instrumental In Creating.

Tonight, John again laments (and weakly so) that Tangerine cannot be trusted to behave like an actual human being, in any civilized society.

He’s more of a feral man-pig, as we all have known for going on three decades.

But only now, after John did level best (including cheating!) to get him elected in 2016, and then insulate him from all lawful processes of checks and balances for over five years, only now… does Hinderaker want him to exit quietly. Gracefully. [But seriously, John — name anything in his entire life Trump ever did… gracefully!?!] Nope.

I suppose this will be nearly my most-rollicking good-time joy: watching Trump destroy any- and every- thing John thinks of as “GOP-constructive” — if Trump is not at the center of it.

Most of all, tonight — that would be Ron DeSantis. And. I. Love. To. See. It!

The truth is, the lawyers and board of directors of Disney outplayed that stupid brown-shirted chump — at every turn. And Rick Scott before him. Disney still controls the outcome in Florida, and may ignore DeSantis’ impotent board of overseers any time it wishes.

DeSantis didn’t even bother to read the bond indenture Florida’s legislature (then desperate to have new development in Central Florida, and not let another billion dollar a year park land in California or the Carolinas) signed some 60 years ago — to create what became Reedy Creek.

It lets Disney force the immediate repayment of all bonds, if it is no longer calling the shots on the IDB, and that immediate repayment obligation belongs SOLELY to the State and municipal governments of… Florida. No one else.

So — in the end, Disney will do whatever it pleases. That much Tangerine is RIGHT about. DeSantis overplayed a hand he never held: he had a pair of fours. Disney has a full boat. Literally.

But I digress. Hinderaker’s time to rein Trump in… came and went in 2016.

Now he is only a Democratic controlled wrecking ball — of all things non-MAGA in the GOP.

Truly John — thanks for the weapon. We WILL use it.

And a Democratic candidate will win the White House in 2024, now.

Perfect — all your (and your numb-skull co-conspirators’) doing.

[U] Fox “News” Must Pay Nearly A Billion Dollars, For Knowingly Lying On Air…

Updated at 5 pm EDT — Fox News will pay Dominion $787.5 million, for lies it knowingly told on air about the company, and the outcome of the 2020 election. Grinning ear to ear!

Dominion has been able to prove to the world that Tucker Carlson and the rest… are all inveterate liars. It takes a LOT to lose a libel suit in America, but old Rupert sure figured out how to. [On the morning after, Powerline gets around to admitting that lies designed to destroy the business of a company, on air repeatedly for months on end — with actual malice — do allow for presumed punitive damages. Thus nearly… a billion.]

This also means (shocking no one!) Trump and Rudy and Failson are… liars.

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BREAKING! The “Direct Purchasers” Have Been Paid By Merck & Glenmark To Settle — But The Other Plaintiffs Continue Against Retail Pharmacies

No figures are likely to be disclosed until the SEC Form 8-K is filed (if material to Merck), but this resolves about one-half of the antitrust action now set to begin picking a federal class action jury — starting tomorrow.

I would expect that this settlement was for boxcar numbers. I can’t imagine going this far (around a decade or more, now), and not getting some big numbers — on the proof as I’ve seen it come in, over the years.

In any event — we will learn more tomorrow, as jury selection begins, in the federal district courts in Norfolk, Virginia:

…Before jury selection commenced as scheduled, the court was advised that Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs (DPPs) had reached a settlement agreement with the Merck Defendants and the Glenmark Defendants.

Thus, the jury panel was released for the remainder of the day and jury selection was continued for remaining parties to April 19, 2023 at 11:00 a.m….

Fascinating. More as we get it.

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Scott Retreads The BS Comer Is Peddling About Mr. Biden’s Family. Still Silent On Trump’s.

I continue to find it precious that Scott never mentions the over $166 million Trump hisself personally made by having the taxpayers foot the bill at his clubs and businesses. And the money he steered to Ivanka and Jared and Junior.

Tangerine was absolutely the most corrupt preznit America has ever seen. Consider this, from CREW:

…Donald Trump made up to $160 million from international business dealings while he was serving as president of the United States, according to an analysis of his tax returns by CREW.

Throughout his time in office, President Trump, his family and his Republican allies repeatedly assured the public that his refusal to divest from his businesses wouldn’t lead to any conflicts of interest.

Americans were promised that Trump would donate his salary, which he did, until maybe he didn’t—all while siphoning millions from taxpayers that more than offset his presidential pay. When it came to foreign conflicts of interest, Trump and his company pledged to pause foreign business. They did not….

In 2019, Trump stunned the US foreign policy establishment by pulling US troops out of northeast Syria. The decision had no obvious benefits to the US and was a bombshell reversal to allied Kurds, but it was a victory for Turkey, where Trump had done business for years. In China, Trump again shocked even his GOP allies when he pledged to help sanctioned Chinese company ZTE because, as he tweeted, there were “[t]oo many jobs in China lost,” despite warnings from US intelligence officials that the company’s products may be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans….

Today’s Scott Johnson item and last week’s from Ms. Stauffer regular drumbeat of “what-about-ism” posts are all to deflect from the above (about Tangerine), of course.

In any event, it is no wonder Tangerine wants to run again — it lets him make back all the graft he’s lost — in defending rape charges, and hush money payment cases and stolen top secret documents — on top of tax and bank fraud investigations.

Damn.

UPDATE On That Multi-Billion Dollar Civil Zetia® “Pay To Delay” Federal Antitrust Class Action Trial

As expected, the parties are still working through the final flurry of motions to exclude certain evidence, and to admit / include other batches of evidence, in the federal courthouse in Norfolk, Virginia.

Thus, the parties have not yet begun to pick a jury. That may happen Thursday or Friday. Here’s the latest order (plus a note that a transcript of yesterday’s hearings will be available after July 17, 2023):

So… this antitrust matter crawls slowly to opening statements. . . .

…Set Hearings: Discovery Hearing / Status Conference set for 4/17/2023 at 12:00 PM in Norfolk Mag Courtroom 1 w/OCR before Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Miller….

In the end, this trial is likely to demonstrate that even far more careful attempts to corner a drug market, and extend the exclusivity of a drug patent portfolio… and thus either maintain or increase selling prices, is unlawful — to the tune of billions in damages. [Martin Shkreli’s schemes were a sledgehammer compared to this scalpel, here.]

Now you know, with 30 degree warmer sunshine ahead! Ah… Spring — everything… exploding with fragrance and color! Grin….

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In Which Hinderaker Decides A Jury Of 12… Got It Wrong. TWICE.

Yes, Hinderaker has long lied about the evidence adduced at Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.

He was unanimously convicted. On both state and federal charges — in two separate trials.

But here’s John blaming the handcuffed, face down on the pavement George Floyd for having the bad judgment to “let” Derek Chauvin kneel on his neck for over eight minutes.

Not content with his horrific dissembling tonight, John goes on to say that Minneapolis should not have to pay for Chauvin’s prior — PROVED — excessive force. [It just paid over $8 million.]

John does not even attempt to justify Chauvin’s brutality. He just feels brutal cops… are a good thing — when acting on brown or Black bodies.

It really comes down to only that. He feels this is too much money if the victims are not permanently confined to a wheelchair or worse. [Yep, this means… John is off his meds, again.]

Hinderaker is a lost soul.

Mirengoff Makes Plain What Both DeSantis And Powerline Try To “Dance Around”: “No Teaching Of… FACTS.”

Paul Mirengoff did a service to the nation today — just not in the way he intended.

He set out to explain why DeSantis trying to kill off lines of public education in Florida is a GOOD thing — in his view.

So he directly explained why he doesn’t like Illinois and Rhode Island and Minnesota’s public school teaching ideas.

Here it is — Paul and DeSantis and Powerline and Govs. Lee (TN) and Abbott (TX) don’t want kids learning that many people were (and many people still are…) racists.

They don’t want it explained that Sheriffs aided lawless Jim Crow policies. Here:

…On economics, Rhode Island’s anchor standards instruct teachers to “argue how different economic systems can create more equitable outcomes for individuals and communities, particularly for those traditionally marginalized from the economic system.” That standard is cross-referenced in the U.S. history unit on the “Second New Deal.” That unit, in turn, suggests the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) as an example. Since the Socialist Party of America organized the STFU, this union is often cited by American history textbooks to illustrate the political goals of America’s socialists during the Depression. STFU organized poor black and white sharecroppers and tenant farmers, but its work was largely stifled by violent opposition from Southern white landowners and sheriffs.

There’s nothing wrong with studying STFU, but the anchor standards make that impossible to do without also advocating for socialism. Currently fashionable leftist histories, moreover, argue that capitalism is inseparable from slavery and racism. In that spirit, the deck is stacked against the free market and in favor of socialism by having students weigh alternative economic systems using an example in which a market economy is intertwined with segregation and racism….

There is more of this at his site… but you get the drift.

He doesn’t like… FACTS.

Lil’ whyte kids (and brown and yellow and red) can certainly learn some real FACTS of the shameful truths of America’s history — and not automatically become communists or socialists.

In point of fact, the colonists came to America to be free to choose what sort of political order they wished to establish.

In fact, Gov. DeSantis, Paul and the Powerliners would seek to deny the children of America the right to an open education — one that lets THEM decide whether Jim Crow “de facto” bondage, and de jure bondage before it… were good things for anyone but whyte men who owned land.

So — do not be conned by these a-holes.

They are selling a “one view” education — to make kids fall in line, buy guns, enlist and go to war… whenever the overlords say.

Me?

No thanks.

Just go take a seat Mirengoff — we aren’t buying DeSantis’ shineola.

Solid Totals Are Hard To Come By — But The Guinea Marburg Outbreak Is Continuing, Even As Tanzania’s Draws To An End…

This is the first ever recorded Marburg outbreak in two countries at once. But the good news is that the one in Tanzania seems to have been arrested (or is at least subsiding). No new cases in weeks.

However, the one in Guinea continues to record new cases, and deaths, week after week. As many as twenty early on were buried without tests — so the total is a moving target, but there have been at least 34 fatal cases — and all the recent ones suspected have been confirmed by lab tests as Marburg. Some 1,600 people are being monitored now, in Guinea — as contacts of known cases.

Do go read it all, at the UK Telegraph, here — as to what is known, as of this past weekend. And what is… as yet… unknown.

This indeed is a relay race, of sorts — the baton is passed by one runner on the team to the next, with all on the ground trying to put distance between themselves… and the team with the virus. Now you know. Onward — going from 29 this morning to 78 by Wednesday. Crazy.

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