Category: Uncategorized

USDC Judge Alia Moses Is Working Out Settlement Mechanics, In Those West Texas Razor Wire Barrier / Torture Cases — Finally.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

To be sure, the MAGA Gov. Abbott / Texas authorities, and the Tangerine 2.0 feds (now, hand in glove) have been slow walking this one, since early 2025.

But it is clear that a settlement may be enforced by the federal judges down there. Here is all that — and a bit of it, from a very short (actually. . . a “brief”) filing, of yesterday:

…In the event of a settlement of this case, and in accordance with a request of the settling parties, this Court can (if it chooses to do so) effectively retain jurisdiction to enforce the parties’ settlement agreement by any of the methods discussed in Kokkonen and the cases that have interpreted it, including Whittier. As an example, the parties could move to dismiss the action and request that the court retain jurisdiction to enforce the settlement agreement.

The order dismissing the case should expressly retain jurisdiction for the court to enforce the settlement agreement. The settlement agreement itself should be attached as an exhibit to the order of dismissal….

Now you know. Onward, at a glacial pace, in this one….

नमस्ते

UPDATE: A Successful Software / Guidance Link Package Reconfig — By Katalyst Space… Means A Shot At Boosting Swift Will Still Be Attempted, In A Few Weeks…

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There are still lots of things that might yet go wrong, anew — for this reconfigured mission, but the teams did clear a major hurdle this week.

The newly redesigned software was uploaded, to allow Link to operate and navigate… with only one gyro wheel functional.

Now the trick will be to fly the craft safely into an orbital attitude that will allow an approach to the aging Swift ‘scope. Here’s the latest, from NASA though, as of Tuesday:

…Katalyst Space successfully uploaded a flight software update for its LINK spacecraft, which is set to boost NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to a higher orbit. The software update’s new attitude control algorithms are designed to maintain LINK’s stability using the spacecraft’s remaining actuators.

The team’s work has prepared LINK to continue its approach toward Swift, before attempting to capture and raise Swift to a higher orbital altitude. Katalyst will continue to work closely with NASA, evaluating LINK’s performance at each phase, as the team performs a series of burns and maneuvers in the coming days to align LINK’s orbit with Swift.

In the meantime, the Swift team continues with its innovative new approach to operating the observatory, which has successfully reduced drag and slowed Swift’s orbital decay. Swift is currently at an altitude of about 216 miles (347 kilometers). An orbit-raising maneuver would become more difficult below an average altitude of about 185 miles (300 kilometers)….

Now you know — with lots of miles ahead, by air here too. Smile.

नमस्ते

Just As In 2017 Outbreak, Ebola Has Now Spread To Bas-Uele Province — But Vastly Higher Case Loads, This Time…

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That makes six remote rugged provinces with serious outbreaks inside the DRC. [Last month, Uganda arrested its last known cluster. But flare ups there are likely as well — since contact tracing was very spotty in the early months.]

This outbreak is easily 1,000 times worse than it would have been with prompt identification (via the vanished USAID), and rigorous contact tracings. Here’s where we stand now — with likely a long and lethal outbreak yet ahead, per The [UK] Guardian:

…The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has spread to a sixth province, officials have said, a day after the head of the World Health Organization said the outbreak was on track to surpass the deadliest in history, which erupted more than a decade ago and killed more than 11,000 people.

Jean Kaseya, the director general of Africa CDC, said a death had been recorded in the previously unaffected Bas-Uele province. Kaseya said the man had travelled from Isiro, in Haut-Uele province, to Buta, the capital of Bas-Uele, where he died.

There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for the current outbreak, which has killed more than 2,100 people out of more than 4,500 cases, according to the latest government figures….

Now you know. Off grid to Northern Cali, in two days — for the Half-Iron weekend — then on to the Rockies, for another week. Smile…. then to the South of France, and Florence, Italy, in about three weeks — for a month.

नमस्ते

So… Hinderaker Thinks 1.2 Million Deaths A Year… “No Big Deal”?!

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The single biological agent most responsible for premature young deaths from disease across the globe is… tuberculosis.

But because Hinderaker cannot read the English language for comprehension, he tells us the RFK, Jr. / Tangerine 2.0 weakened vax agent/schedules differ in only minuscule ways, from those backed by REAL science — i.e., the WHO.

Bullsh!t.

Trump does not advocate a TB therapeutic shot for the globe — he opposes it. Period.

That represents an added 1.2 million deaths, and over 10 million afflictions — per year, across the globe.

Increasingly, TB is resistant to older treatments — but Merck has donated its latest candidates for free, to the Gates Foundation — to treat these millions, with a new agent that will likely be more effective against the drug resistant strains of TB.

The lying moron Hinderaker calls this “a minor” difference.

I do not consider 1.2 million deaths… minor. Nor do I consider over 10 million infections, a year, globally… immaterial.

What a pack of feckless asses — all of these malign clowns are. Hinderaker especially.

He doesn’t even bother to read beyond the BS MAGA talking point headline sheets he’s fed by Vance / Miller / Hegseth / Kennedy. Damn.

O U T.

A Texas Regulatory “Sea Change” Is Going To Splatter Riot Platforms, Within One Elapsed Year: It Will Lose Its “Corporate Welfare” Subsidies — For Electricity Generation.

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At the moment, it seems Wall Street thinks a 20 year AI/compute center deal will stabilize hapless Riot.

I beg to differ. For a decade, Riot has built its “power first” strategy (for Bitcoin mining) with vast corporate handouts from the isolated Texas power grid. ERCOT allowed Riot to get paid real cash — into the middle double digit millions per year — from the government/ordinary residential electricity customers in jerk-water, dusty West Texas. Governor Abbott presided over sweetheart crony boards that paid Riot NOT to take electricity loads it itself was supposedly building, on hot (or cold) days.

Effectively, this simply forced residential customers to pay for Riot’s electric dreams. But no more.

The wind has shifted in Texas, and the people are against vast noisy water- and electricity-sucking sucking data/compute centers.

Especially when they see their electric bill dollars are directly paying for a corporate boon-doggle like this.

So, Gov. Abbott has charged a blue ribbon (but political) panel with making study recommendation (due by New Year’s 2027), to make the companies like Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital, AMD and Anthropic pay the fully loaded market prices for electricity connections in Texas. So this 20 year deal… may well be a death trap door — not a rescue boat. Hilarious.

But you don’t have to believe me; believe Riot itself, on the topic. Consider Riot’s newly revised risk factor, in its own SEC Form 10-Q filed two nights ago —

…Our access to power is dependent on our electrical distribution providers, grid operators, and regulators, which collectively manage whether our operations are performing in accordance with market rules, requirements, and regulations. PUCT, ERCOT, and Oncor collectively oversee the regulatory, administrative, and delivery aspects of our power supply in Texas; MISO and Big Rivers Electric Corporation oversee our power supply at our Commerce site in Kentucky. Tennessee Valley Authority oversees the delivery and regulation of the power supply at our Blue Steel site in Kentucky. Regulatory scrutiny of bitcoin mining facilities and their energy consumption has intensified….

This scrutiny, in addition to increasing pressure at the federal level from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, has led, and may continue to lead, to new governmental measures regulating, restricting, or prohibiting the use of electricity by data centers and bitcoin mining operators, or increasing power costs for these types of consumers….

If ERCOT determines that our data centers’ substantial power usage negatively affects grid reliability, it could issue a curtailment order, requiring us to reduce or cease our power use immediately, and our power supply in Texas could be partially or fully curtailed.

More recently, in 2025, the Texas legislature enacted Senate Bill (“SB”) 6 to support ERCOT’s grid reliability by, among other things, proposing minimum transmission rates on certain large loads and removing “phantom loads” from the interconnection queue to improve the accuracy of future load growth projections. SB 6 requires the PUCT and ERCOT to create new processes and impose new requirements for the interconnection of facilities with large electrical loads of at least 75 MW, requires security-type payments as part of the initial interconnection request, and creates a new approval requirement for co-locating generation with large loads….

The PUCT Commissioners are scheduled to hold an Open Meeting on August 14, 2026 to discuss related policy issues, including ERCOT’s audit and information-collection plans. Because certain of our Texas data center projects are advancing through the ERCOT interconnection process, these actions could delay or prevent interconnection of those projects, increase our costs, reduce expected incentives, and have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. SB 6 also requires the PUCT to amend its wholesale transmission cost-allocation rules by December 31, 2026, and the PUCT is considering measures that could require large loads such as our facilities to bear a greater share of transmission system upgrade costs, to pay minimum demand charges based on contracted peak demand for a period of 20 years, and to move from the current four coincident peak (“4CP”) cost-allocation methodology to a new 12CP cost-allocation methodology.

If adopted, these measures could materially increase our transmission-related charges and limit our ability to manage power costs through demand-response and 4CP-avoidance strategies on which we have historically relied. SB 6 further directs ERCOT and the PUCT to establish curtailment and demand-management obligations for large loads, including protocols to curtail large loads interconnected at transmission voltage after December 31, 2025, during firm load-shed events and a reliability service under which ERCOT may procure demand reductions from large loads and deploy them on short notice during emergency grid conditions, any of which could require us to reduce or suspend operations with limited advance notice. ERCOT has also amended, and continues to evaluate, its processes for interconnecting large electrical loads….

Hilarious — this is a sub-$5 stock (RIOT), now trading at about… yep, $20 on the NASDAQ. [Long dated puts, anyone?] You’ve been warned. And amply, so. Heh.

नमस्ते

A New — And Rare — Andes / Hantavirus Case Appears In Spain…

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It has been months since the last travel related Andes strain Hantavirus case was seen from the cruise-ship out of Argentina. This strain is the only extant one known to be capable of person-to-person transmission. [All other strains are believed to transfer solely via powdered and aersolized rodent feces.]

But as is expected with viral agents, biology ultimately often “finds a way” to replicate its successes — at survival. Thus this travelling case in France, now recovering/isolating in Spain:

…A Franco-Argentine tourist isolated in Spain after testing positive for the rare Andes hantavirus may have been contagious for up to 10 days while traveling through France last month, health officials said Friday.

France’s Health Ministry said the patient, who is isolated with family in Spain’s northwestern Galicia region, may have been contagious between July 18 and July 28.

Officials said the patient had a very low viral load when diagnosed, indicating “very limited” potential for transmission.

Spanish health authorities said Thursday that the patient sought medical care in France for flu-like symptoms before traveling to Galicia. After French officials confirmed the positive hantavirus test, they notified the patient and Spanish authorities.

The French Health Ministry said only close contacts are considered at risk, including people living in the same household, those who shared accommodation or had prolonged close contact during transportation, and healthcare workers who treated the patient without appropriate protective equipment….

Now you know — with a fun, sunny end-of-summer “camp” day ahead with grand-nieces! Woot!

नमस्ते

Mr. Abrego Garcia Wins Partial Dismissal Of Tangerine 2.0’s Appeal — Re His Maryland Freedom…

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As we’ve said repeatedly before, the goofy government lawyers for Tangerine cannot simply tell a USDC Judge she isn’t doing what they want “fast enough” — and appeal upstairs, speciously alleging a “constructive denial” [BTW, there is no such thing, at federal habeas law, in the US, as to the federal government actors].

I D I O T S.

So now the case returns to the capable USDC Judge Xinis — likely to grant Mr. Abrego Garcia a permanent habeas order — and dismiss the government outright. We shall see:

…O R D E R

Upon consideration of submissions relative to appellees’ motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction the portion of the government’s appeal that purports to challenge the “constructive denial” of two motions to dissolve an injunction, the court grants the motion….

Yep. Onward, grinning — even as tornadoes are touching down within five miles of here.

नमस्ते

Riot: Needing Perhaps Multiple Billions Yet — In New Financing, All To Build A Very Low Margin, Commoditized Compute Center Footprint?!

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There will be no appreciable revenue from this “marquee” AI/compute center purported “deal” for two years, and then it is likely to lose money for years — if it ever breaks even. And it will take at least two decades to reach full fruition. What?!

Then… there is the fact that Anthropic hasn’t even made a public offering yet — and may suffer the same flash crash that SpaceX has, post IPO. And Texas state regulators are finally ending the corporate welfare paid to Riot, as it effectively forces all regular residential Texas electricity customers to subsidize its vast power load/needs.

Go ahead and bet new money on a company that has lost about ~$770 million in the first half of 2026, if you like — it is a five dollar stock, fairly evaluated. But it is trading around $20.60 this mornin’.

H I L A R I O U S.

नमस्ते

What An Idiotic Clown Tangerine 2.0 Is… He Will Doubtless Get American Kids Killed.

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Obviously, the likelihood that all three childhood vaccines are administered is enhanced if they can be given in one appointment. Obviously.

His executive order (to the extent that any clinician actually decides to fecklessly follow it)… will cause excess deaths from preventible diseases in America, to a certainty. Of kids. Damn him — here’s that:

…President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that promote his long-held but discredited theory that childhood shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits.

The order advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different single-disease shots and administering all childhood immunizations at separate appointments whenever possible. It also directs the nation’s health department to improve research on vaccines, which are already extensively studied, and present a plan to offer separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for children, since that is not currently an option in the United States….

I strongly suspect Merck will keep on making and selling MMR stock (it will remain FDA approved as a combo) — and let the clinicians decide. Trump cannot prevent that. Nor can he stop responsible parents from following the clear science here. Onward, resolutely.

नमस्ते