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[U] Good News/Bad News: Mr. Abrego Garcia Is On His Way To Nashville, Tennessee Now — But He Has Been Indicted On Smuggling People Without Papers Charges There…

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Updated: The matter has led a US Attorney with 15 years of tenure — and the head of the criminal division in Nashville… to resign, in protest. See immediately following post. End update.

This is reported, without rancor. It is only fair to set out what is — to the moment — known. The felony indictment was just unsealed today, as the Noem / Rubio forces were having him flown out of El Salvador.

As ever, while the body cam images bear a reasonable resemblance to the accused (Mr. Abrego-Garcia)… let us simply report the facts, as known to this moment — and trust that the able federal district court judges in Nashville will sort this one out. We will withhold judgment, in short.

The good news is that he is no longer in a private black ops torture prison in El Salvador. And none of this justified abducting him to El Salvador without any process, in any event. Nor the foot-dragging in bringing him back, stateside. He may yet win a large judgment against Team Noem, even if convicted on these much later arriving charges. There was no indictment, or even any real substantial investigation of one — when he was grabbed out of Maryland. In fact, In fact, as late as mid-April, the government was saying (under oath) only that if they brought him stateside, they would do so at the Mexican border below San Diego, and immediately deport him into the interior of Mexico. [That is, there was no allegation of any earlier crime like this.]

[The grand jury wasn’t even convened until May 21, 2025 (almost two months after he was grabbed without process!) — and the skeptical City of Big Shoulders lawyer in me guesses that the foot-dragging on his return to the US was to give the Tennessee officers time to build an after the fact case, for his detention.]

But as I say… we will wait and see.

Here is the unsealed indictment out of Nashville.

Here is the motion to hold him in custody in Nashville, until trial. He will doubtless move (through his counsel) for bail. We will keep you informed. Trust that. Onward.

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[U] The “Oppenheimer Moment” May Have Come Via A Guy Named Gor — Who Scuttled Musk’s NASA Pick (On A Stupid “Loyalty Test”). Hilarious.

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Updated, 3 PM EDT on Friday afternoon: Hinderaker has finally weighed in on it all. His take is… utterly predictable. In his view, this is all Elon’s fault. That is of course (as we see below)… silly posturing.

But John does correctly assess that this “mutually assured (nuclear) reciprocal destruction event” is now doing grave damage to all of Tangerine 2.0’s ambitions, and perhaps even to what Hinderaker cheerfully calls… “conservatism itself“. [I might quibble there — and say that if this is what the GOP thinks of as conservatism, in 2025 — they are misspelling that word: it. is. spelled. racism. But why quibble, right?!]

Tellingly, John does NOT list among the reasons for this Oppenheimer Moment… the scuttling of Isaacman’s bid to lead NASA. That is where Trump most clearly broke a brand new promise to Musk: Musk could have his guy run NASA — but then Gor’s harping that that billionaire had donated to Democratic candidates and causes… dumped him.

Hilarious — so John confirms, with his silence on the matter, that Trump again welshed, and Musk has had enough. To be clear, I don’t want Musk back — as a blue dog. I want them to tear each other to shreds. John acknowledges that is what is best for us Democrats. True dat. End updated portion.

I am not sure — and I guess I don’t really care — whether this Axios reporting is absolutely iron-clad, as Trump and Musk have grown increasingly distant over the past three weeks… but I am interested in it, insofar as it affects NASA — one of my favorite federal research centers. [“I am become death — destroyer of worlds.” Heh.]

Without any additional ado then, here’s the item — purporting to set a timeline, as to why the nuclear meltdown occured yesterday, in particular:

…Trump acknowledged Thursday that canceling Jared Isaacman’s NASA nomination had “upset” Musk, who’s close to Isaacman. It was a factor, among many, that led to Thursday’s shocking falling out between the president and his one-time “First Buddy,” the world’s richest person.

Musk spent the afternoon flaming Trump on X. It left presidential advisers stunned — and some of them angry at Gor, whose tense relationship with Musk was a backdrop to the controversy.

Senate Republicans also blamed Gor for helping undermine the NASA nomination to settle a score with Musk, who had been critical of Gor’s management of the White House personnel office.

Gor declined to comment….

What a shockingly-public debacle — for Trumpians. Feuding with the richest man — and biggest donor — on the planet, to MAGA/GOP causes.

Fascinating — in the end though, this was (and is) all about Trump (again) breaking his word to Musk — about preserving Musk’s access to the federal gravy train at SpaceX — via NASA collabos… and at Tesla, via EV subsidies. Wow.

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The Savage Texas Razor Wire Barrier Cases Rumble Onward, On Appeal In The Fifth Cir. — US Parties In Texas Dismissed, But Private [Lacerated/Injured] Migrants Remain…

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It has been about five months since we took a look in on Texas SB 4, a law that purports to grant Texas Rangers the right to usurp federal US Border jurisdiction — and erect savage concertina wire barriers, the principal goal of which was to maim people without papers who sought a better life, by swimming the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass / Shelby Park, Texas.

Several of my commenters thought that the fact of a second Tangerine administration would mean the US would simply dismiss the litigation against Texas, and end the matter. What was missed in those suggestions was that private plaintiffs, including people without papers (including several children) had joined the suit, as maimed/injured parties. The Tangerine 2.0 parties cannot foreclose those people’s rights, to a redress of their grievances / injuries.

So the appeal rumbles on. At this point the only modification to the injunctive orders provides that Texas authorities may not be ordered NOT to “cooperate” with federal ICE/DHS agents. They may aid ICE agents — but not directly arrest — any people that they encounter on the US side of the Rio Grande. Of course they may provide humanitarian aid. But there hasn’t been a single instance of that, in over three years. So here is where it sits, according to the ACLU’s latest letter in the Fifth Circuit:

…Defendants [Texas (MAGA) Gov. Abbott; Tangerine 2.0 BoP] note that the Eighth Circuit vacated its opinion in United States v. Iowa, 126 F.4th 1334 (8th Cir. 2025). The court concluded the appeal as to the United States was moot. No. 24-2265, 2025 WL 1140834, at *1 (8th Cir. Apr. 15, 2025). But the court recognized that the appeal as to the private plaintiffs was not moot. See Iowa Migrant Movement for Just. v. Bird, No. 24-2263, 2025 WL 1140762, at *1 (8th Cir. Apr. 15, 2025), vacating 2025 WL 319926, at *1 (8th Cir. Jan. 24, 2025). The same is true here. ECF No. 252 at 2-3.

Nor is vacatur warranted here. In Iowa, the court of appeals had resolved the merits of the appeal in its published opinion. That case therefore involved a typical application of United States v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U.S. 36 (1950), as Iowa stood to lose its opportunity to seek further review of the panel’s decision. See 2025 WL 1140834, at *1 (8th Cir. Apr. 15, 2025). Here, Defendants seek vacatur of the Court’s stay opinion, but the time for seeking further review of that is long since past, so Munsingwear is plainly inapplicable. See ECF No. 252 at 3.

Defendants also submit the transcript from a status conference in district court. That discussion underscores Plaintiffs’ position that the court’s January 31 order only confirmed that the “injunction does not bar Texas officials from cooperating with the federal government.” Id. at 7; see Tr. at 11. Defendants suggest that the district court’s comments indicate some change of view on the legality of S.B. 4. Not so. The court’s point was that Texas’s proffered justification — the supposed dereliction of federal authorities“ — has been rectified,” id. at 12-13, further undercutting the State’s rationale for S.B. 4, see ECF No. 252 at 6.

Finally, Plaintiffs note that two more courts have joined the unanimous rejection of laws like [Texas] S.B. 4. See ECF No. 84, Idaho Organization of Resource Councils v. Labrador, No. 25-cv-178 (D. Idaho); ECF No. 67, Florida Immigrant Coalition v. Uthmeier, No. 25-cv-21524 (S.D. Fla.)….

Now you know. Things are generally looking up, here — for the future of ordered liberty, in America. Sanity is making a comeback for everyone not completely (and irrationally) mesmerized by the Tangerine 2.0 cult of personality (which now draws its chalked-up circle… to EXCLUDE Elon Musk’s persona, and his both bad and a precious few good ideas) — and that’s a decidedly good… thing. Trump’s grip is weakening — by the day.

[To be clear, I mean that already (at Day 3!), the Silicon Valley tech bros (and more importantly, their collective PAC and dark money billions) are picking sides. The early returns look like Musk’s biz greed is besting Trump’s irrational tariff- and border- lunacy. So — come 2026 — many of those MAGAts who voted in Congress FOR Trump’s measures… will be sent home / packing. They will be primaried by the tech bros aligned with Elon.] Not perfect; but good. After all, the perfect is the enemy of the good.

Onward, grinning.

नमस्ते

This “War Of The [Orange] Roses” Just Went Thermonuclear: Musk Allegations Against Tangerine 2.0 Are A Multi-Billion Dollar Libel Per Se — If Untrue.

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First — as ever, the caveats: both of these guys are narcissistic little boys, wearing big boy suits. They are both well-known (and very public) liars. But that is why (I suspect) Elon has the goods on Trump here.

If Elon Musk does not have a reasonable basis to believe the truth of his statement (pull quote, below in blue), he could owe Trump tens of billions in a libel per se suit. [Which Trump is now likely to bring no matter what.]

I did not expect that this would escalate so quickly — to become a deadly game, between these two odious trolls. But Tesla stock dropped double digit percentages today, due to Trump’s threats to end electric vehicle subsidies — erasing over $160 billion in market cap, in a day. He also threatened SpaceX’s federal contracts — about 85% of its revenue.

In return, Musk shot back the below. Sure, it could be hyperbole — but if it is not — that leads to a life sentence, since Trump is not likely to live even ten more years. The sentence would involve the felony of statutory rape. And a state level AG (NY, MI or IL or CA, or Colorado or Oregon) might well charge it. The Roberts immunity opinion is off the table here, for acts that predate this current preznit-cy — and have zero to do with running 1600 Penn. The trafficking victim deserves justice. Again, all only if Musk has the goods on him. Damn — what a “mutually assured complete destruction” scenario these two have now created — for each other.

Here’s The Hill’s reporting on it — and a bit:

…[Musk just wrote] “Time to drop the really big bomb. . .” on X, the social platform he owns. “[Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.”

Minutes later, he followed up: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out….”

I really did not intend to follow this story closely — as I assumed it would be — and remain — fifth grade school yard insults, exclusively. But we are well beyond that now — they’ve both crossed the Rubicon here. Damn.

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And, As Trump vs. Musk Goes Into High Dungeon — And Imperils His Whole Preznit-cy… Mirengoff Prattles On — About [Re-]Naming Navy Ships.

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This is a very telling allegory — in small strokes — of everything broken in the MAGA/GOP world — writ large.

These feckless jokers… name, and rename (and re-rename) bases, ships and features (Gulf of America, anyone?) on the map… all to avoid attention on the racist deportation gulags they are trying to help Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem and Tangerine 2.0 hisself to create. All without colorable due process.

And rather than Trump and Musk debating the MERITS (such as they are) in the wild-eyed and cruel spending bill (with tax breaks for billionaires!), now moving from the House to the Senate… the pair engage in fifth grade name calling on their respective social platforms.

This is what the GOP is now: a pack of “Lord of the Flies” lil’ boys.

Damn, Paul — just stop flatulating — about “sh!t that don’t matter” (much) — and tell your GOP handlers that they are ruining the liberty that once was… America.

What a bunch of ancient, embittered dead end losers these people have become.

Out.

MAVEN Mission Directly Observes “Sputtering” — In The Barsoomian Very Thin Atmosphere — Confirming CU Prof. Curry’s Thesis About Water Loss, There…

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Yes, this is another “palette cleanser” (from Tangerine’s bitter lunacy — now saying Musk “suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome“; and Musk responding that Tangerine “would not have won in 2024” — without him!). Where was I? Oh, right — the below highlights the decade long work of Dr. Shannon Curry, at the University of Colorado at Boulder — on what happened to Mars’ atmosphere, billions of years ago, now.

Well done, Dr. Curry! Her work is the centerpiece of the video below, and she is the PI (principal investigator) on this NASA mission. Very rarified air, indeed. Do read on:

…Scientists have known for a long time, through an abundance of evidence, that water was present on Mars’ surface billions of years ago, but are still asking the crucial question, “Where did the water go and why?”

Early on in Mars’ history, the atmosphere of the Red Planet lost its magnetic field, and its atmosphere became directly exposed to the solar wind and solar storms. As the atmosphere began to erode, liquid water was no longer stable on the surface, so much of it escaped to space. But how did this once thick atmosphere get stripped away? Sputtering could explain it.

Sputtering is an atmospheric escape process in which atoms are knocked out of the atmosphere by energetic charge particles.

“It’s like doing a cannonball in a pool,” said Shannon Curry, principal investigator of MAVEN at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder and lead author of the study. “The cannonball, in this case, is the heavy ions crashing into the atmosphere really fast and splashing neutral atoms and molecules out….”


As previously printed, here is a haiku from a few years past — one that traveled on board Maven to Mars, from one student’s submission — one of thousands — one that now seems rather prophetic:

“Mars, your secret is
unknown for humanity
we want to know you…“

Now you know. We do… want to know you. Again.

And so, do go watch this fine video explainer above (featuring Dr. Curry’s narration) — and root for my Buffs, this coming fall — under Coach Prime — again! Heh — but know that UCLA is an away game this year; the best home game (viewable from Dr. Curry’s office window — looking down into Folsom Field) will probably be Arizona, or ASU (in mid November). Onward, grinning….

नमस्ते

My Buddy Ed Silverman Has A Nice Piece — On The Merck/Halozyme Patent Developments (Which Favor Merck)…

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As I’ve repeatedly said, there is much in the wrangling of US patent laws that Rahway can and will undertake, to push the generification out to about 2032 minimum.

Chief among these moves is one called “product hopping”. Merck will introduce a subcutaneous version of pembrolizumab — which only requires four visits a year to a hospital, as opposed to weekly IV drips. Halozyme has claimed its patents cover this tech, but the USPTO has agreed to re-evaluate the breadth of the claims in that patent. This likely means Merck will (at a minimum) owe Halozyme nothing, to produce the subcutaneous version — and stay in the driver’s seat on a perhaps $30 billion a year revenue stream through the early 2030s. Here’s Ed’s fine piece at his subscription only STAT property (and a bit):

…In a boost for Merck, a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office panel agreed to reconsider a patent granted to another company that could affect plans to broaden use of its franchise product, the Keytruda cancer treatment.

The dispute with Halozyme Therapeutics occurs as Merck plans to sell a new [subcutaneous] injectable version of Keytruda that the company is betting will sustain a medicine that has accounted for nearly half of its sales. Patent protection for the treatment, which is currently administered intravenously and generated $29.5 billion in revenue last year….

Nominally, the generics may enter at 2028 — but practically they will be largely thwarted through 2032 or so. There Ed and I diverge slightly in our analysis of the matter. Onward, smiling.

नमस्ते

It ALSO Exhibits (Actually, Re-affirms) Trump’s (Almost Precious) Naïveté, In Matters Of State…

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Aside from its manifest legal infirmities (see, the various Supreme Court opinions on Versions 1.0, 2.0 — and 3.0), his racist penchant on display here again… is going to be idiotically ineffective — at achieving his claimed goals.

After all, if a would-be terrorist is able to find the means to travel across the world (and have the connections to bomb-makers needed), s/he will undoubtedly have the backing of well-heeled terror sponsoring forces. [Doubly so, for would be drug- or sex-trafficking “king-pins“.] These people, in turn, are — without a doubt capable of sourcing very convincing forged passports, from plausible (and non-banned) nations. The terror will slip in on an Egyptian passport/visa — or the like.

Meanwhile, the best and brightest honest students from these nations (all of whom will doubtlessly comply with this goofy “law”) will NOT come to the US — nor will their scientist/engineer parents or aunts and uncles. The best minds — as immigrants have always fueled US life-science advances — will in the main go to the EU, UK or Japan or Australia — to escape the repressive conditions of their place of birth.

And thus, the US economy will be further harmed (on top of his 19th Century tariff lunacies he’s pushing — and reversing, week by week) by the lack of international spending onshore. It is hard to posit a more malignantly “misguided” set of “policies”.

Which would suggest that it is Stephen Miller, the young dyed in the wool racist / avowed misogynist (from Tangerine 1.0), who is whispering all this nonsense in Trump’s ear, each day. Tangerine has always lacked a well-trained and disciplined mind, of the sort that might discern that it all simply makes him look… impotent, before the sentient world community.

Damn. See you in court, Mr. Tangerine 2.0.

नमस्ते

Y A W N. Tangerine 2.0 Comes Up With “Muslim Ban 4.0” — It Will Fail — The Same Way The Other Three Versions Did.

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Tonight the doddering cartoon villain decided to make a fourth run, at banning certain peoples from even being considered for arrival in the US. It all gets rather stupidly repetitive at some point. Yawn.

His other three versions, in the first go ’round (2017-2020), all failed (except for a very limited subset, inside the third one). Then… that third one was rescinded on Mr. Biden’s first day on the job.

The guy never learns. But now, you know. You know bettah.

I’ll likely just watch silently, as the federal courts bang him down — into the dust, once again here.

I won’t say a whole ton more about it — unless he’s found much smarter lawyers to work it for him (i.e., not likely). Out.

नमस्ते

A New Case, Here: Mr. Peter Mosoko Ikome, Struggling To Avoid Being Sent Back (To Torture) For… Some 30 Years. Now Supremes Will Review Fifth Cir. — For Errors.

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Today, the Supremes have agreed to take a new look — at what appears to be a clearly erroneous Fifth Circuit immigration opinion. [They did so by denying a stay, and doing so at the same time they took Mr. Ikome’s case up, for review.]

It is a new one, to us here — but we will follow it, from now on. It concerns a man born on the African continent — Cameroon, specifically — who arrived here in 1992. [He credibly feared torture in his place of birth, as a then-dissident.] Let that sink in: he’s been struggling in the US immigration law system (or non-system, more precisely) for over three decades — to follow our methods to secure a more permanent home for him, here.

To understand the very long convoluted battles — and the tangled, winding nature of his case, you’ll need to read the (errant) appellate opinion, from this particular ultra right wing panel — of the Fifth Circuit (a Circuit often overruled at the Supremes of late), out of New Orleans.

Here’s the errant Fifth Circuit opinion. We will have to wait a beat, to read how the Supremes specifically feel about it.

How the Fifth Circuit thought it was an acceptable / just / even remotely logical answer, to bounce Mr. Ikome, after 30 plus years of proceedings, by only now holding that the courts lacked jurisdiction over his case — all while saying his daughter (age 21 years) didn’t act with “due diligence” — by taking about nine months to file a petition for his continued stay in the US — also after the court’s own on-and-off delays of about 30 years, as well(?!). [Her petition became necessary, because his petitions, previously filed by his second wife (US born)… were failing, due to her lack of cooperation with the process — and her apparent estrangement from him.]

So his daughter — born here — became eligible to petition for him, when she herself turned 21. She did so within nine months, upon learning that the “spouse” petition was likely going to fail. Yet the court / government waited 30 plus years to decide it lacked jurisdiction — all while Mr. Ikome pursued his rights in the courts. Had he been made aware that he was in the wrong court, he could have long ago remedied that defect.

So, forcing him out — due to the court’s own errors (lasting 30 plus years)… seems outrageous. I suspect this is where the Supremes are headed — with this one. Excellent!
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