We respond…
I am stifling a chuckle or two, here.
John thinks Kevin McCarthy is “doing big things.”
All this is… is proof of the fact that the GOP is a rudderless ship, with a broken mast… and no discernible map — other than to whine, incessantly.
Hilarious.
Bub-bye, son.
Update: 11.22.2022 @ 2 PM EST In a completely “non-reviewable” move, Mr. Biden today announced that the ongoing moratorium on student loan collection actions will continue in all events until at least June 30, 2023.
No payments may be restarted until 60 days after that date.
This is all to cover the longest imaginable time that the Supremes might take to rule.
Now you know. End update.
In a non-Tangerine infected federal judiciary, these cases would have been dismissed at the trial courts’ level, almost immediately — within a few weeks.
That the Supremes will (again!) have to explain that speculative “what if. . .?” types of claimed harms… revolving around decisions to spend money clearly appropriated by Congress (under Tangerine, no less!) is not a way to gain standing to bring a suit, as a non-recipient of these funds… is all fairly comical.
But here we are, at the Supremes… again. The decision is likely in early January — that Mr. Biden may do what he has proposed. And the three or four lower courts’ silly, lawless and plainly-irrational rulings will be tossed into the ashbins, of judicial (partisan) history.
Here is Mr. Biden’s moving paper set — to have the Supremes declare that Congress meant what it said (again!) — these US government arguments are flawless; and a bit, from the same:
…Article III empowers the federal courts to decide only “Cases” and “Controversies.” U.S. Const. Art. III, § 2, Cl. 1. An Article III case or controversy exists only if the plaintiff has standing — that is, only if the plaintiff has suffered a concrete, particularized, and actual or imminent injury, the injury was likely caused by the defendant, and the injury would likely be redressed by judicial relief. TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190, 2203 (2021). Respondents cannot satisfy those requirements. The plan confers benefits on third parties, but it does not require respondents to do anything, forbid them from doing anything, or harm them in any other way….
The HEROES Act provides that, “[n]otwith- standing any other provision of law,” the Secretary may respond to a “national emergency” by waiving or modifying “any statutory or regulatory provision” governing federal student loans “as the Secretary deems necessary” to “ensure” that loan recipients who are “affected individuals” are not “placed in a worse position financially” because of the emergency. 20 U.S.C. 1098bb(a)(1) and (2). The Secretary’s action falls within that specific grant of authority….
I lament that we collectively are spending taxpayer funds on educating third-rate former law students (many of them from “Christian” law schools), who are all now federal judges, for life — about how our Constitution’s schema works… in real life. That would be in no small part… in opposition to the way “Christian” universities teach that “the God-clause” in the First Amendment embodied a positive religion, as opposed to the absence of one. [Above right, is an abridged timeline of my personal ancestors’ migrations — in no small part, to escape state enforced religions — beginning as early as 1000 AD. Certainly, the Potato Famine contributed, on what became my father’s line… but since the Crusades, what became my mother’s line was… wandering northward, into what became central Europe… to avoid state ordered confiscation, torture and murder.]
Much of this wasted effort stems from these jokers believing that because most of the founders followed Christian traditions… that there is a preference for their views.
It cannot be said often enough: the founders intended precisely… the opposite. Geez.
नमस्ते
Okay — maybe five lines. [But the bolded last line, in the blue pull-quote below… is absolutely the most important. Heh.]
Therein… is the reality: John knows the charges in the coming indictment are… iron clad. Tangerine has been caught red handed. And now it’s all about getting him off stage, to save what’s left of the GOP, as quickly and quietly as possible.
But that guy will never, ever… go quietly. That’s the nature of the snake they chose, in 2016.
Still, I will quote Hinderaker (a rare event for me, in the last five years), as it bears wide absorption in the GOP halls. This guy… is toast:
…[T]he significance of this appointment should not be underestimated. I assume that Smith will be able to bring criminal charges against Trump in Washington, D.C., and it is almost a foregone conclusion that Trump will be convicted (of whatever the charges may be)….
In 2024, will Trump be the Republican nominee for president, or will he be trying to fight off a prison sentence? Or both?
The Trump investigation will likely result in an indictment and criminal conviction….
John really, really — like most of the GOP, now… wants him to just disappear.
Not. A. Chance.
The only thing that spared him was… that the Alabama prison guards could not find a vein before midnight, local time.
But the Eleventh Circuit had by 8 PM granted a right to briefings on the notion of lethal injections for infirm, and older inmates, whose veins may be very hard to tap.
And again, the SCOTUSBlog has all the torturing details. This stop-start-stop is itself a violation of the Eighth Amendment, if nothing else is:
…Shortly after the court issued its brief order around 11:20 p.m. EST, Alabama officials attempted to carry out a lethal injection of Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted of a 1988 murder-for-hire. But they called off the execution when they had problems inserting intravenous lines to administer the lethal drugs.
It was the second time since September that Alabama began an execution only to cancel it midway through the procedure due to problems accessing the prisoner’s veins….
The death warrant expired at midnight, and so Mr. Kenneth Smith… did not. His Eleventh Circuit arguments will likely be heard next week. Damn. What is… wrong with Clarence Thomas? We must put an end to all this… lunacy. We are… barbarians here.
Sickening.
नमस्ते
The poor guy doesn’t know which way is up.
He’s gone ‘round the bend.
Tonight he tells us that since (he assumes!) Tangerine hasn’t (yet) fenced/sold any of the secrets he stole… there was no crime.
Damn, John.
Possession is a felony here.
And likely, “the payoff” went to / through Jared, who likely showed the secrets to certain Mideast interests, in exchange for ~$2 billion in funding / lending.
But let’s assume Hinderaker can prove the thefts were not financial, at all — and purely… egotistical in nature.
I don’t really recall Madoff being released without charges… when he stole from tons of charitable endowments… to be the biggest mench in every ballroom in Manhattan.
Nope. I recall… he died in jail.
Take heed, senile old John. Take… heed.
Out.
The potentially viral patient recently returned from Africa to the UK. . . and presented overnight with symptoms that do not definitively exclude… ebolavirus, of one sort or another.
Tests have already been run today, and the UK authorities are awaiting definitive answers. But s/he will need to consistently test negative for 21 more days (as was previously the outcome in a similar suspected case in Tel Aviv, Israel), before all is clear. And in the mean time, wisely — the health authorities have closed off the involved hospital.
This is all taking place about an hour and a half’s drive (north and east), from the center of London. Here’s the latest:
…Health officials are investigating a potential Ebola case in Colchester, after a patient with suspected symptoms returned to Britain from Africa, where a strain of the deadly virus is circulating in Uganda.
On Wednesday, part of Colchester Hospital in Essex was closed to new patients amid concerns that a patient with a travel history to Africa was developing early symptoms of Ebola, a deadly hemorrhagic fever.
The Telegraph understands that officials at the UK Health Security Agency are testing the patient for a range of diseases as part of routine infection control protocol that kicks in when suspected cases emerge in travellers….
Those vaccine candidates cannot get tested rapidly enough, in my estimation. Now you know — holding a good thought, tonight here.
नमस्ते
UPDATED — Based on precedents finding lethal injection to be cruel where a vein cannot be secured in elderly, infirm patients, the Eleventh Circuit has granted a temporary stay of execution, while briefing occurs on the factual issues — which include that Mr. Smith’s vein likely cannot be found, even in recent medical exams. This will likely go back to the Supremes tomorrow. But I’d not expect a new death warrant now, for several weeks. Here is his cogent brief to get the stay. Good news. End update.
Amy Gou — ably writing, again at The SCOTUS Blog has it all down cold — in unsparing prose.
In just about four hours, at around 5 PM this evening, Alabama will ignore a lawfully-empaneled jury’s vote, in a capital murder case — and despite 11-1 saying he should live on… Alabama will execute him, solely on a single local (elected; political; GOP) judge’s say so.
I gather in ruby red Alabama, the Constitution’s guarantee of a jury of one’s peers, in capital cases… is a mere “guideline”. If inconvenient, the Constitution’s 240 year old commands may be swept aside — if GOP frothers decide… they’d like to do so, even on a blood-thirsty whim, despite a jury’s clear and lawful instruction — for mercy:
…By a vote of 11 to 1, the jury in Smith’s 1996 capital trial recommended that he be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The trial judge overrode that decision, however, and sentenced him to death. Alabama was the last state in the United States to permit judicial override in capital cases.
It outlawed the practice in 2017, but not retroactively. Smith argued that his execution, greenlit by a practice that is no longer permitted anywhere in the country, would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments….
That the Supremes did not summarily overturn this travesty is proof of what Tangerine’s hard right wing has wrought: fascism, in the face of a strict Constitutional command. Damn.
And that makes three, just this week — from the “Putin/Xi/Taliban” wing of the Supremes (six justices, in all).
Meanwhile, John Hinderaker whines because the Minnesota (Democratic) Governor’s comms aide used harsh language — in a tweet to a Republican Lt. Governor. Grow a working forebrain, John. The above is… just a second… murder. Please explain the GOP position here. Use harsh language if you like. Just… damn.
नमस्ते
This one (as it was five years ago!) is 100% courtesy of BillyTheKid!
You may now download (*.pdf) the elizabeth-holmes-pop-quiz — thanks, Billy!
There are at least three questions as to which I will be solely guessing! I have no idea as to those three, but I will not google. Heh.
I will post it in the morning, and All entries are due not more less than fifteen minutes after her sentence is handed down.
It will be a *.pdf file format that you may fill in and submit — or you may post your answers in the comments, as a numbered set of answers / comments.
Should be very good fun!
Braggin’ rights are all the winners will get, though — I’m afraid.
And… feel free to make a guess at sentence length, and restitution order amounts, if you like — as the last or first, un-numbered, answer to the quiz!
Onward, to Friday!
This is a very welcome development. And yet, it may come so late in the current outbreak cycle in Uganda, that a definitive proof of efficacy will be… under-powered, for lack of an “n” large enough. We shall see.
But it is good news, and far better to have a working vaccine you no longer need, than to have no vaccine candidates available, when a flare up occurs. And they invariably do.
Here is the latest — even as weekly new case totals have begun to decline, in-country:
…The three experimental vaccines that will be tested build off of existing vaccine experience. One is being produced by the not-for-profit group IAVI and uses the same vaccine platform as Merck’s Ebola Zaire vaccine, Ervebo; in fact, Merck made the doses that will be used in the clinical trial. It uses a livestock virus known as vesicular stomatitis virus that has been modified to carry a key protein from the Ebola Sudan virus….
The two other vaccines — one is being developed by the Sabin Vaccine Institute, a nonprofit, while the other is being developed by the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute — use adenoviruses that normally infect chimpanzees to introduce the immune system to a surface protein from Ebola Sudan viruses. The Jenner Institute used the same vaccine platform when it designed AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine….
Now you know — with some Elizabeth Holmes-ian arcania / trivia up… next!
नमस्ते
Well — nothing should surprise us, any longer — from the Nouveau Klanner, John Hinderaker.
Earlier today, Target reported that it has seen some $400 million in what it called “organized theft” losses, in the first nine months of 2022. That’s awful. But no Target spokesperson, or law enforcement officer / body has offered ANY breakdown of who, exactly, it is… that predominates… in these “organized” heists.
[Unsurprisingly, if these organized crime crews are successful, the perps are NOT apprehended, and so… there is going to be no reliable data on make-up of the successful criminals.]
But Hinderaker jumps right in, and speciously makes it a color issue:
…My guess is that they find the issue of “organized retail crime” to be racially sensitive, and, being thoroughly woke, they would rather not talk about it, or do anything about it….
Charming — without even a whiff of data — he thinks it a black and brown problem.
This man… needs to stop writing, altogether. He’s a lost, aging and infirm… racist.
Damn.
What a tool.
