Author: condor

Let’s Dispatch Paul Mirengoff’s Nonsense On Scott Adams. Right Now.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

I’ve already taken the dolt Hinderaker to task for pretending he cannot see that the creator of Dilbert chose this path — with his eyes wide open, too.

Now I guess Paul needs… a dose. But Paul’s version of defense is more insidious, and less honest (but equally wrong headed) as John’s.

John stupidly argued that Scott Adam’s comments had nothing to do with… Scott. Uh-huh.

As ever, in the senile old Hinderaker’s imaginings, it is the fault of some crazy “PC world run-amok” (only he can perceive!) that makes the Dilbert guy a pariah. Nope. He openly claims whytes should stay away from Blacks. That’s a hard… out. Nope.

But Mirengoff’s version — it ratchets the crazy way up… past 11. Mirengoff blames Adams’ plight on a poll conducted by the odious Rasmussen organization. A strike poll that asked a single loaded, unscientific question. A stupid, malevolent question — solely to create a wedge issue. [Note that there is no report of Rasmussen asking any of the same people polled the reverse question. Note also that it was whyte supremacists who first started uttering the phrase as a rally cry.]

So — Rasmussen threw it out there to stir up mess, and the idiots Adams, Hinderaker and Mirengoff took the bait. Idiots.

By blaming a horribly malformed opinion poll… for ones’ own willing sins… all three seem to think they magically escape responsibility — for their overt racism.

They don’t.

Each of them reports that solely because some Black people are claimed to have said some things to a pollster (where is that proof BTW?)… these old whyte, embittered codgers are fully justified in claiming that a separate nation is needed.

Guys. You are… each a… species of Ankylosaurus.

That is — you and your ilk are now… selected for… extinction. It is just the way Darwin envisioned. He was right.

You three cannot compete, fairly. So you will… die out. [Or if you prefer the language of the moment… be… cancelled.]

Cheers.

In Silly Ivy League Law School Classrooms, Students (And Professors!) Sometimes Ignore “Standing”.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

This morning, Scott, and a (nameless) conservative law professor, before him… in trying to reach a null result, on the student loan cases being argued before the Supremes today… simply pretend that the doctrine of proving standing… just doesn’t exist.

Yeh — that is great for law school hypotheticals (i.e., illustrating arcane points about how many lawyers may be balanced on the head of a particular pin), but out here in the real world, competent judges and justices do not decide cases that are not real — that do not present “a case or controversy for which the law offers answers.”

Don’t believe me? Cool. Just ask the Supremes — when they slapped young Drew Tipton in Texas down, on his immigration non-sequiturs. Or ask Aileen Cannon, in Ft. Pierce, FL — when the Supremes let stand her complete loss (due to failure to find any standing for Tangerine’s claims!) on the Top Secret stolen papers.

Nah, Scott… you silly ivory tower folk go ahead and debate what the Supremes ought to do on the merits, in the student loan cases… but they are not likely to ever reach it.

There is, in a word… no standing — for the challengers coming out of Texas and Mizzou.

You chuckleheads cannot have it both ways: it cannot be that Tangerine may impose Muslim Bans (without any statutory antecedent), and/or spend billions in money without Congressional appropriations on walls (that Congress specifically denied ongoing funding for) — and in the same moment, argue that Mr. Biden may not use clear spending power directly delegated to his office by the Congress.

Cheers, son.

John & Scott: What Does “Minority View” Mean, In Intel Circles?

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

These are some sad old guys… geez.

Crowing… like they won the 1954 County Fair — with a prize sow, or something.

Nope.

A “minority view” — just like a dissent, at the SCOTUS… means… zip.

Shut it boys.

Your lab leak theory… remains a fever dream.

And why press it, other than to enflame your irrational, under-educated… hard right readership?

I guess… that’s why.

Out.

So… Pfizer May ALSO Be Talking To Seagen About A ~$40 Billion Deal?

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

That (at least) is a rumor out of this morning’s Wall Street Journal.

Of course, Merck was rumored last summer to be working on just the same deal for the novel oncology R&D shop out on the Northwest Coast. We shall see. Here’s a bit of the reporting — on the reporting of a rumor piece:

…Pfizer is in early-stage talks to acquire cancer drugmaker Seagen Inc in what could be a multi-billion dollar deal, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Seagen had a market capitalization of roughly $30 billion, as of Friday’s close….

Seagen’s shares have fallen nearly 10% since July, when the deal talks with Merck were first reported. They rose 12.3% to $182 in premarket trading on Monday.

Pfizer declined to comment on the WSJ report, while Seagen did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

“A Pfizer/Seagen combination will invite less scrutiny from the FTC due to less overlap of their products when compared to a Merck/Seagen deal,” said Zhiqiang Shu, analyst at Berenberg Capital Markets….

Pfizer has said it expects to lose $17 billion in annual sales between 2025 and 2030 due to patent expirations for top drugs, and sales of its COVID-19 products have begun to decline after they contributed to an unprecedented surge in revenue….

Well — as ever, to get Seagen, Pfizer will likely need to pay over $40 billion — and that is where Merck and Seagen were last rumored to be over $10 billion apart, on price.

So… I for one don’t expect this to happen too terribly soon. Onward, grinning — sunny here now.

नमस्ते

The Dunce Hayward, Supposedly On Rep. Fetterman (D., PA): Malevolent.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Once again, the mediocre old whyte whiners at Powerline’s blog… are out pontificating about matters they know less than zero about. Y A W N.

Steve Hayward says he knows nothing about treating clinical depression (post stroke). Huge surprise.

But he still feels empowered to offer his judging opinions on how Rep. Fetterman’s family is behaving.

Beyond that, he feels qualified to offer his medical diagnosis, about whether Rep. Fetterman should have been “allowed” (WTAF?!) to run, in the first place.

His sort of concern trolling… is the worst. He’s a purely malevolent, divisive… idiot.

Out.

Here Nearly Seven Years On… And Northern Ireland… Largely Remains… The Same: It Chooses “Remain”.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

That is — of course — a gross oversimplification.

But the long hue and cry… has led now, seven years later, to Northern Ireland in many ways remaining part of the EU.

Boris — in a word — was a blustering… buffoon, selling much the same tariff shineola (in different bottles, to be sure), as Tangerine was — over here. So it goes — but now, in fits and starts… it ends, more or less. Here’s the latest, from the Beeb:

…”Let’s hope this is one of the last great rollercoaster moments of Brexit.”

So said one government figure to me, anticipating an important moment today – but worldly enough to realise it’s not necessarily the end of the story.

These negotiations, between the government and Brussels, the government and Conservative backbenchers, and the government and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), have resembled diplomatic Jenga – wobbly bricks here, there and everywhere.

One element has been all but done for a while, and, we expect, to be sorted today – the deal between London and Brussels….

There is still the talks between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

Among the things they will talk about, I’m told, is dealing with what some in London regard as a “democratic deficit” for Northern Ireland — that it needs more of a say about future changes in EU rules that will have an impact there.

But let’s be clear: the European Commission president would not be coming here unless it was sorted….

Now you know. Smiling on a soggy but warmish Monday morning here… onward. Grin.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Cannot Understand That “Dilbert” Chose This.

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

Let’s stipulate: Scott Adams is an asshole, who is from time to time… funny.

But I’m tired of his self important shtick.

I think he earned his trip out of the great egress, mightily.

John thinks “the more basic issue is whether newspapers should cancel Dilbert based on something that has nothing to do with Dilbert…”

I disagree. One cannot say Scott didn’t mean it. He’s reinforced his views repeatedly now.

He chose it. He earned it. Let him live with it.

And sit down John. He openly said whytes should “stay away from” Black people (not some; all)… for their own good.

Damn.

Suspected Marburg Case In Spain: Tests Negative Today…

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

This is as good news as could be hoped for. But still, three more weekly tests ought to occur — to rule out a prolonged incubation period. But it does seem that the man, age 34, who’d recently been in Equatorial Guinea… did not carry the virus into Valencia.

Even so, he and the health workers who treated him will undergo a voluntary 22 day quarantine now. Here’s that VOA story:

…A man in Spain who was suspected of having the deadly Marburg disease tested negative Saturday and does not have the virus, the health ministry said.

Health authorities in Valencia earlier said they had detected the country’s first suspected case of the infectious disease that has led to the quarantining of more than 200 people in Equatorial Guinea.

The 34-year-old man, who had recently been in Equatorial Guinea, had been given the all-clear but would be tested again in the coming weeks, officials said.

He had been transferred from a private hospital to an isolation unit at the Hospital La Fe in Valencia while tests were being conducted, the Valencian regional health authorities said.

Three health staff who are treating the man were also isolated as a precautionary measure, authorities said….

Now you know — after a very long Avatar 2… just chilling tonight, as the sun sets on the end of Grade One basketball season. Smile.

नमस्ते

“America’s Tangled Roots” Dept. — But Scott Johnson Wants To… Sit And Judge. Damn.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

So (as ever, in truly ironic fashion) — leave it to the Powerline boys to purport to stand as would-be judges of people who are less than proud of their ancestors. The back story, without Scott’s deceptive re-editing, then:

In this case, Angela Davis — the celebrated academic, activist and Black Historian has learned from Skip Gates that she is a direct lineal descendent (on the whyte side of her family, of course) from a man most regard as the founding elder of the Plymouth colony — one William Brewster, who sailed on the Mayflower… and from his sons’ sons, who fought in the Revolutionary War.

On video, she expressed both shock and dismay… and it seems she was quickly made aware that Brewster had brought two children (ages 6 and 8, respectively — and likely also whyte) as indentured servants, to the New World with him — against their biological mother’s wishes, as payment for a debt of supposed adultery. [It is unknown exactly from whom in the tangled Brewster trees… Dr. Davis descends.]

It is known that Brewster may have had at least three children technically out of wedlock (with a common law wife, apparently never married in a church) — thus illegitimate, in the eyes of what passed as government then in the 1590s to 1620s. [Bangs, Jeremy Dupertius (2012); The Mayflower Quarterly, vol. 78, no. 2 (June), p. 145.] Scott reports:

…Brewster took two of Samuel More’s children as indentured servants, but I don’t think we know of any crime he committed and Davis in my opinion has her own wrongdoing for which to atone….

So — again, Scott feels that Angela Davis is not allowed to express her own deep concern about how we all come to be… Americans — and about her own blood lines, newly revealed. And yet, Scott Johnson feels he may judge her, for charges she won a complete acquittal on — after a year in jail, in the early 1970s. That’s nearly a half-century ago, in her (and his) life.

Let that sink in. [As a later-bit of addendum, I wish to note that on the Black side of Angela Davis’ family, shortly after the Civil War, her direct lineal forebears filed a civil suit in rural Alabama, to win the unconditional release of three children — orphaned nephews and nieces, then being held in de facto slavery by the same plantation owner, a Mr. Pauling, who had held the brothers themselves for so long. The children were freed — to their uncles — after protracted litigation. That was in the early 1870s, during Reconstruction in the South. Then came… Jim Crow.]

But back to the main arc — Scott thinks… she should not be heard, on her concerns about how it is that children were stolen into the New World, and how she descends (at least in part from rape and genocide against people held in bondage)… and that she should stand and praise Brewster in full throat. [Thus his reference to Faulkner.]

All I glean from it… is that reactionary, old hard right embittered whyte Americans like Scott, And Steve And John (and yes Paul)… have learned very little in over six decades on the planet — about the value of letting each express their own… truths, as they see them.

What a pile of rubbish, Scott.

Rubbish.

Tangent: We’ve Learned Much More, Today — About What Mr. Shkreli Has NOT (Even As Of Tonight!) Provided To FTC Per Prior Orders.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

So, with my immediately prior entry — we see the very pinnacle of what’s right about life sciences leadership — and now… we see… the very bottom, of what is wrong with at least one embodiment / incarnation… of it.

Yep. This is going to end badly, for Mr. Shkreli. [And almost word for word in the way we predicted, too.]

The FTC just weighed in, to put the lie to Martin’s claims about “one missed voicemail” — and his otherwise “full cooperation”.

Obviously, the truth is a very long horseback ride away from where Martin left it.

And so, the FTC just said so by way of a formal, filed reply, to USDC Judge Cote.

But Exhibit D to that filing (mostly redacted and sealed)… contains the best bit, at the last unredacted page, at the bottom.

There we read that a Delaware LLC called “SHKRELI FAMILY HOLDINGS LLC” has a controlled company in its family. That controlled company (likely a wholly-owned subsidiary) is called… yep: Druglike, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

This, after Martin filed a sworn pleading about ten days ago in Manhattan saying he has no position, or ownership interest in Druglike. But Exhibit D also includes his employment offer letter / contract from Druglike, dated as of October 14, 2022.

Now, it is possible, given the various redactions and sealings, that only his family members (and not Martin himself) hold legal title to the shares of Druglike, through that LLC.

But his injunction was crystal clear — his effective beneficial ownership via family members and employment letter signed by one Marek Biestek (for Druglike), make out a plain, and likely continuing, violation of the terms of his court orders in the FTC matter.

Damn.

The main question now is what will Judge Cote order as remedies — sitting as a court of equitable contempt.

Does she send him back inside for a couple weeks — to make sure he remembers who is boss?

We shall see.

नमस्ते