Author: condor

Polls, Hinderaker?! Hilarious… Truly.

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It is difficult to understand… how (in Hinderaker’s mind) the poll he obviously copied… doesn’t find… what it (obviously) finds — about US voters.

The poll, read properly, finds “poor leadership” the top concern.

But given that his audience is almost uniformly “frothy hard right” wackos… he needs to recast this as an anti-government sentiment.

Poor leadership — as a top concern — is in no manner just a generalized hatred of government.

And the anti-government sentiment (to the extent it exists) is about 30% stronger here in January 2023 among GOP/lean GOP voters. That’s the actual poll, folks — not the misleading single bar chart/graph John posted.

Yep. That’s the real story, from these polls: the GOP is now definitively the anti-government party.

But without that disingenuous rewrite, John would have nothing to write about tonight.

Y A W N.

Intel — With A New Twist — Aimed At Avoiding More Layoffs…?

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I cannot say that I’ve ever seen this — at a mega cap ’34 Act reporting company — and certainly not in the tech sector.

Once a high flier, Intel tonight (as its chip-making business continues to struggle, mightily) is reportedly cutting the higher executive officers’ salaries by ten per cent, and the CEO is taking a 25% pay cut (but bonuses will still be paid — on the lowered figures), while lower-earning employees will see no pay cuts (or layoffs, near term, it is hoped).

The unstated goal is to try to put aside cash for a turn-around, while not just randomly tossing bodies overboard. Yep — that IS a new(-ish) idea:

…Hourly employees aren’t getting a pay cut and annual bonuses will remain. But Intel is cutting other incentives for all employees effective immediately.

It has suspended merit raises for all employees, suspended quarterly profit-sharing bonuses and employee recognition programs, and cut 401(k) retirement plan matching payments to 2.5%….

[In Q4 2022] Intel’s outlook… continued to darken. The company reported Thursday that sales were down 32% last quarter, and it expects a 40% drop in revenue this quarter compared to the same period a year ago….

I’ll keep an optimistic thought, that this will be enough to right the ship. But along with other austerity measures introduced in mid-2022, the goal is to save around $3 billion a year. That alone — on some ~130,000 employees, overall — means the top 10% of earners at Intel… were likely pretty wildly over-compensated in 2021 and prior. [Damn — the CEO above negotiated an over $260 million re-entry package, when he returned to Intel in 2021, after almost 15 years at other places. He was the primary architect of the old intel 486 line of chips, in the late 1980s, in his first stint at the company. Now you know.]

नमस्ते

Hmm. What’s Left To Say? Hinderaker Still Knows Nothing — Of Mining Cu.

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This — again! — is just… silly, from Hinderaker.

We’ve shown numerous times before that he is willfully ignorant — about worldwide copper mining and copper producing nations.

And no, Minnesota’s iron range deposits cannot ever be economically mined, unless copper is magically priced more like… gold.

So all his bluster… is just… silly.

Out. Again.

About 50,000 Years Ago… Neanderthals — In What Is Now North America… Last Saw This Green Comet…

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If the skies are moderately-clear over Middle America this evening, it should be visible to the naked eye. But because it is on such an elliptical orbit, it takes over 50,000 years to make the trip around our Sun… and it may well be that it will be pulled off course on this trip out of the Solar plane. Thus, it may never, ever… pass the way, again.

Certainly, none of even your 12th generation great grandchildren will see it. Perhaps no human ever again will. So — do at least give it a shot — go out after 10 pm, brave the cold… and at least… look. I will, since we are likely to have fairly-clear skies — even with the city’s light pollution, it might be detectable with binoculars. Here’s a bit, but tonight will be your best chance as it will dim throughout February now:

…After midnight Tuesday, into Wednesday, the comet will reach its closest point to Earth, known as perigee. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) hasn’t been this close in 50,000 years and according to some predictions, it may never be seen again. [It is very small, tiny, in fact, by space science standards — and thus easily pulled away, by any larger bodies’ gravitational tugs….

[O]n the early morning hours of Wednesday (February 1), the comet will be in the constellation Camelopardalis, above the North Star, in the northern skies, but below the Moon (and to the left of it) for most of the night.

While at perigee, the comet will be within 26 million miles (42 million kilometers) of Earth, equal to roughly 28% of the distance between the Sun and Earth….

Now you know. Do go out, and have an… adventure, tonight — knowing some sitting around a communal campfire on these plains likely looked up and saw it, 50,000 years ago. And they… wondered. So should… you. Do. . . go enjoy. And do remember those you visited, those who passed this way for the last time seven years ago now, later this week. Smile.

नमस्ते

As We Said, The NY AG Is Now Seeking Renewed Sanctions Against Tangerine, And His Lawyers… For Ignoring Judge Engoron’s Prior Explicit Orders.

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The lawyers representing Trump have now imperiled their own licenses to practice law. Charming. But just as we said last Friday — this is going to end badly for Team Trump.

Here’s just a bit of the overnight letter from the NY AG’s office, in the civil frauds trial in Manhattan.

…As explained in greater detail below, each of the Verified Answers is deficient in a host of ways. Defendants [Team Trump] falsely deny facts they have admitted in other proceedings, they deny knowledge sufficient to respond to factual allegations that are plainly within their knowledge, and they propound affirmative defenses that have been repeatedly rejected by this Court as frivolous and without merit….

Each of the Verified Answers asserts dozens of “Affirmative Defenses” that have already been (repeatedly) rejected by the Court. For example, the Court recently ruled that the Defendants’ claims that the Attorney General lacks capacity or standing to sue “were borderline frivolous even the first time defendants made them.” NYSCEF No. 453 at 3. Nevertheless Mr. Trump and his co-defendants raise those claims—standing, authority, capacity to sue, etc. — yet again, this time as putative affirmative defenses….

In a word… I N S A N E.

नमस्ते

The Amount Tangerine Must Pay In Class Action Legal Fees Settlement Will Be Revealed, In NDA Invalidation Matter In Manhattan Federal Court.

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This morning, the able USDC Judge Paul Gardephe has given the Team Tangerine the option of either indicating how much in legal fees were spent, and going forward with the settlement — which ends this pure loser piece of litigation, on his side… or, he may reject settling and go to trial — and almost certainly lose a multiple of what the settlement offer now provides.

Correctly noting that the law is clear that these figures are extremely relevant: the nature, percentages and amount of fees, and incentive payments (called “Lodestar” amounts in this context)… to a decision by any given plaintiff, to enter the class, and accept the net money offered immediately — or, instead sue on their own, individually — and very likely win, and win perhaps get much more — but (at a minimum have to wait years), for certain… (by which time Tangerine might be insolvent or incarcerated and otherwise unable to pay). So… here is the order, without additional adu:

…The parties request that this Court seal those portions of their settlement agreement referencing the amount of attorneys’ fees and the incentive award. (Dkt. No. 103) None of the case citations submitted by the parties suggests that sealing is appropriate under the standard set forth in Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, 435 F.3d 110 (2d Cir. 2006). Accordingly, the motion to seal (Dkt. No. 103) is denied.

The Court notes, however, that the settlement agreement contains Plaintiff’s counsel’s bank account number. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2 and this Court’s Rule of Individual Practice II.A, “a party or nonparty making [such a] filing may include only… the last four digits of the financial account number.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 5.2(a)(4).

Accordingly, in the event that the parties wish to proceed with their settlement, the account number referenced in the settlement agreement may be redacted to reflect only the last four digits. The parties are directed to file a letter with the Court by February 3, 2023 indicating whether they still seek approval of the settlement class (see Dkt. No. 102).

The Clerk of Court is directed to terminate the motion to seal (Dkt. No. 103).

SO ORDERED. (Signed by Judge Paul G. Gardephe on 1/30/2023)….

Put that in your pipe, and smoke it — Baby T. Heh.

नमस्ते

Manhattan DA Presenting To A Grand Jury: On Election Crimes, And False Statements, In The Hush Money Paid To Stormy Daniels

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

As The New York Times indicates at lunchtime local, this is a dramatic escalation in Tangerine’s ongoing criminal exposures.

We already well knew (from EW’s multi-years of reporting) that federal prosecutors were looking at taking much of this same evidence to a grand jury (but a federal one, in Manhattan), as Tangerine was packing to leave 1600 Penn.

That all, after he had his minions fire various AUSAs in the tri-borough area, who were looking into his alleged criminal violations.

So today, given what we know of the documents and testimony, largely from Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, herself — Trump is pretty clearly chargeable — for election disclosure crimes, and likely… perjury about the same… somewhere.

We shall see.

Amgen, And German Merck: Two Major Pharmas Announce January 2023 Layoffs…

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To be sure, layoffs are roiling several vertical industry groups, both in the US — and globally. But in general, only the smaller pharma concerns have (at least during 2022) shown larger layoff figures, as a percentage of total workforces — and usually due to a specific clinical trial failure, at that.

So these two back-to-back layoff announcements, in US based teams, that cover research and development, and commercial operations teams more broadly at German Merck, and Amgen, respectively… ought to be of deeper concern — for the industry in 2023. This would suggest that pharma in the US sees a diminished return on general commercial team hiring, and on R&D more broadly — and certainly at Amgen — and Merck KGaA.

To be clear, this is not “our” Merck, but the German one — which does business in the US under the additional name EMD Serono. In any event, here’s a bit from the Merck KGaA one, via Fierce Biotech:

…A spokesperson for the German pharma confirmed to Fierce Biotech that 133 employees were leaving the company’s Billerica, Massachusetts outpost.

“We will keep our strong research unit footprints for neuroscience and immunology and oncology, focusing on selected biological areas and scientific capabilities,” according to a statement. The cuts represent a 26% reduction to the Billerica staff, which has roughly 500 employees, and a 11% reduction in the entire U.S. wing of the company, EMD Serono….

And for the record, here is the Endpoints News item of Sunday, on Amgen’s cuts. We feel for all the workers — and families — and communities… affected. Onward, into the snow-squalls, indeed.

नमस्ते

The “Wow Factor” Optical Imaging Juno-Cam Has Lasted 7X Longer Than Expected — In Harsh Radiation Field Plunges: Coming Up On 49th…

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Well, by all accounts — if this is its last hurrah — it served very, very well. The camera that has provided most of the optical light images of Jupiter over the prior seven years. . . may finally be succumbing to the ravages of a radiation field about 50,000 times more intense than the one above Earth’s cloud-tops. All these instruments are in a titanium bathtub for protection, but after the 47th pass, it was noted that about 36 minutes of imagery went missing.

On the most recent 48th pass, the camera was offline for about 23 hours, due to a temperature spike. In electronic imaging, the likely cause for such a spike would be… a short somewhere in its circuitry. And while there are redundant relays, we do know that intense radiation blasts will, over time, degrade even the backup circuits — causing… yep, shorts.

To be clear, all of that analysis above is purely my… conjecture. So take it with a grain of salt. [But that lithe lil’ copper clad spacecraft last tasted the oxygen of Earth on the morning of August 5, 2011 — quite an engineering marvel, nearly a dozen years on.]

In any event, we should probably expect that it may acquire only a few images, on this record-breaking pass, due on March 1, 2023. Here’s the story from NASA | JPL:

…[T]he issue persisted for a longer period of time (23 hours compared to 36 minutes during the December close pass), leaving the first 214 JunoCam images planned for the flyby unusable. As with the previous occurrence, once the anomaly that caused the temperature rise cleared, the camera returned to normal operation and the remaining 44 images were of good quality and usable.

The mission team is evaluating JunoCam engineering data acquired during the two recent flybys — the 47th and 48th of the mission — and is investigating the root cause of the anomaly and mitigation strategies. JunoCam will remain powered on for the time being and the camera continues to operate in its nominal state.

JunoCam is a color, visible-light camera designed to capture pictures of Jupiter’s cloud tops. It was included on the spacecraft specifically for purposes of public engagement but has proven to be important for science investigations also. The camera was originally designed to operate in Jupiter’s high-energy particle environment for at least seven orbits but has survived far longer.

The spacecraft will make its 49th pass of Jupiter on March 1….

If this is the end of those jaw-dropping images, we will be sad — but we do have literally a thousand or more gorgeous close ups, to filter through. So that is some consolation. Smile. And, from the night it first reached a safe orbit some seven years ago, over the July 4 weekend in 2016:

नमस्ते

In Which Hinderaker Imagines Some Vast DeSantis “Victory” Over “The Left”… Sad.

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I gather that John thinks something big was done here by DeSantis, and his hard right frothers, in Florida.

YAWN…

All I see… are some frothy hard right book burners, and AP course deniers… trying to overturn decisions made in a local community. So much for GOP “leave it alone” doctrines.

But yeah, that’s considered “owning the libs” in that backward swampland. The one in which DeSantis imagines he’s a latter-day Huey Long. Damn.

Pretty pathetic, all of them, in truth.

Out.