Category: Uncategorized

End of Month Check In — On Amazon’s Pattern Of Ongoing Labor Abuses: This Time, At Staten Island — Found To Have Violated The NLRA…

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Well… Mr. Bezos is nothing, if not consistent — in his disregard for the labor laws that apply to his US facilities. This time, his minions refused to allow a certified union rep to be present at disciplinary hearings — an egregious violation of applicable federal law — in the Amazon Staten Island complex of facilities.

Here’s that story — from earlier this month:

…Amazon.com Services LLC violated federal labor law in multiple cases at a Staten Island, N.Y., warehouse when it failed to provide workers the opportunity to have a union representative present during disciplinary meetings and suspended a worker for 10 weeks with pay for being a union leader, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled May 6.

Administrative Law Judge Benjamin Green did, however, dismiss charges alleging Amazon suspended and discharged another employee for union activity.

The company and Amazon Labor Union have been at odds since the warehouse workers won a historic election vote for union representation in 2022 and were later certified by NLRB. Neither Amazon nor the union immediately responded to a request for comment….

In the higher mountains of Colorado starting Tuesday, through the following Sunday — so blogging may be sporadic, here. Onward.

नमस्ते

Small Abrego Garcia Case Update: Depos Next Week; Sealed Status Reports, As Of Friday Night…

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

This is a smallish update, but it means the depositions are likely next week — to uncover the lies the Noem/Rubio minions have told (should result in. . . fireworks). [And separately, various concerned citizens are writing in, sua sponte, to urge the release of Mr. Khalil and Mr. Abrego Garcia, directly to the involved USDC Judges. So, I say… “More — more of this!”]

Until the depos are concluded, most of this is likely to remain sealed, so that the Noem/Rubio forces can’t — after the fact — concoct dovetailing “stories” to cover their respective tracks. Bring it (from a very short motion to seal that was filed overnight by Mr. Abrego-Garcia’s lawyers, in 25-cv-951 USDC, MDD):

…The accompanying Status Report contains information regarding the Government’s interrogatory responses and email correspondence regarding the topics to be covered in the 30(b)(6) depositions the Court has ordered. The Government has designated these materials as Confidential or Attorneys’ Eyes Only under the Stipulated Confidentiality Order. Accordingly, pursuant to the Confidentiality Order, “even if [Plaintiffs] believe that the materials designated as Confidential or Attorney’s Eyes Only are not properly classified as Confidential or Attorney’s Eyes Only,” they are required to file this motion seeking to maintain the designated material under seal. Id.

Further, Plaintiffs are not simultaneously filing a public version of the accompanying Status Report, as the Government has designated the entire Status Report Confidential or Attorneys Eyes Only. Plaintiffs rely on the Government to identify reasons why alternatives to sealing the material not filed publicly would not provide sufficient protection….

Now you know — onward, resolutely.

नमस्ते

For The First Time, Cases Of Mpox Clade 1b Reported In… Togo — Three, Confirmed: CIDRAP

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

The bulk of the relief burden is now falling to the EU nations, and… China. China is likely to receive lots of goodwill credit in these African nations, as Xi steps in where Tangerine has turned his back on the continent.

The immediate human health cost is blindingly-obvious, but the longer term loss of stature — on the world stage will take perhaps another decade to correct, once we are rid of him.

Here is to hoping that the people of Togo engage in safe practices, as dictated by WHO and the African CDC. And here’s CIDRAP on it all, as of yesterday:

…Togo’s health ministry declared an mpox outbreak late last week, with three confirmed cases reported so far, raising concerns about further disease spread in West Africa where illness activity is surging in Sierra Leone, the region’s latest hot spot, health officials from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said yesterday at a weekly briefing.

Yap Boum, PhD, MPH, deputy incident manager for Africa CDC mpox response, said Africa’s mpox activity reflects a mixed picture, with promising signs in some of the earlier affected countries and with different regions of the continent experiencing different clades and transmission patterns.

Confirmation of cases in Togo pushes the number affected African countries to 25, with active transmission underway — in 16…

Now you know — onward to barbequed smoky ribs, greens and cornbread — spicy beans and rice, too. Grinning….

नमस्ते

You See, Scott Johnson — In The USA, “Facts” Are Found, BY JURIES. Full Stop.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Scott Johnson forgets his crim. pro., entirely.

Today he preposterously claims that the Star Tribune is trying to “mind meld” the public — about the MURDER of George Floyd.

Scott — the FACT is that he was murdered. This is why we use indictments, and grand juries and then petit juries: to find the facts.

Derek Chauvin was convicted by a jury of his peers. [He’s lost all his appeals. You should respect the law.]

He was sentenced for MURDER, by the very capable judge — after a felony conviction.

It is libel per se, to now impugn Mr. Floyd or his family — at this point. Blood libel in fact. And it is sedition, to push Tangerine 2.0 — a weak minded, psychotic old geezer — for a pardon or commutation. This ex-cop committed a cold blooded murder in the street on cameras; we all saw it.

I do not condone the fact that Chauvin was last year repeatedly stabbed in an Arizona medium security facility, but he is now in a higher security facility.

The law determined that is the right place for him. Show some respect.

End of story. No “mind meld” needed. Just the regular (and manifestly correct — on copious visual evidence — from multiple camera vantage points!) outcome of our system of ordered liberty.

Please give your bout of libelous flatulence a trip to the water closet. It is all pungently… sickening.

What of his daughter’s right to grow up with her… father, man?

[You are a malignant turd.]

Out.

[U] In Under 24 Hours, Tangerine 2.0 Told He Is No King: Harvard’s International Admittees To Prevail…

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Updated: stop defending the felonious assaults John. These are willful abuses of process, and you know it. End updated portion.

The tiny handed dotard was so far out of pocket, this one doesn’t merit any in-depth analysis. He will lose all the way up through the Supremes. He cannot tell a private university whom they may or may not allow to matriculate. D-a-a-a-a-mn.

We will likely stop following this — after this, the one post — unless some upper level judge/justice ends up likewise out of pocket, here:

…In a lawsuit filed in Boston federal court earlier on Friday, Harvard called the revocation a “blatant violation” of the U.S. Constitution and other federal laws, and had an “immediate and devastating effect” on the university and more than 7,000 visa holders.

“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the 389-year-old school said in the lawsuit filed in Boston federal court. Harvard enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, equal to 27% of total enrollment….

Busy Friday — And no John, intentionally abusing the law is not just a “blunt instrument” — it is Tangerine’s felonies tour continued —so… suck it, Hinderaker!

Next up? The silly Tom Cruise vehicle / Ethan Hunt (is this like… MI:7?!?), as a late matinee, with friends! Sweet!

नमस्ते

In Sum, Hinderaker Elected Trump To Give Him (As A Multimillionaire)… Big Tax Breaks.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Hey John… It’s okay… you can finally admit it now.

You are no fiscal conservative and you don’t care at all about the national deficit, despite burping for decades about it… You really don’t care about it.

What you do care about is making sure that the bottom tenth of the income brackets in America pays proportionately far more of the cost of running the nation than you pay as a proportion of your net worth and income.

In other words, what’s yours is yours — and whatever is earned by the poorest tenth… You want to be yours — to control, as well…

Disgusting.

Palette Cleanser: Chilean Very Large Telescope (ESO) Identifies A Wild Planet (At 2M1510), Apparently In Perpendicular Orbit, To Her Twin Brown Dwarf Hosts…

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Subtle wobbles — in unwasted grace — characterize this palette cleanser, tonight. See at right — the yellow ochre oval depicts this rare beauty of a planet — far out into our chilly night skies.

It has long been known (since Edwin Hubble’s decades of study, then sorted carefully by Otto Struve), that orbiting planets cause their stars to rock back and forth ever so slightly, as the planets’ gravity pulls the stars one way and another. And these particularly odd… to and ‘fro wobbles, are what led the team in Chile to find this diamond in the rough. Here’s the story — still developing (likely now awaiting secondary source / confirmation by JWST):

…A newly discovered planetary system, informally known as 2M1510, is among the strangest ever found. An apparent planet traces out an orbit that carries it far over the poles of two brown dwarfs. This pair of mysterious objects – too massive to be planets, not massive enough to be stars – also orbit each other. Yet a third brown dwarf orbits the other two at an extreme distance….

“Circumbinary” planets, those orbiting two stars at once, are rare enough. A circumbinary orbiting at a 90-degree tilt was, until now, unheard of. But new measurements of this system, using the ESO (European Southern Observatory) Very Large Telescope in Chile, appear to reveal what scientists previously only imagined….

[It was identified by using] “radial velocity” measurements. Orbiting planets cause their stars to rock back and forth ever so slightly, as the planets’ gravity pulls the stars one way and another; that pull causes subtle, but measurable, shifts in the star’s light spectrum. Add one more twist to the detection in this case: the push-me-pull-you effect of the planet on the two brown dwarfs’ orbit around each other. The path of the brown dwarf pair’s 21-day mutual orbit is being subtly altered in a way that can only be explained, the study’s authors conclude, by a polar-orbiting planet….

Fascinating — and lovely, in very sublime ways… graceful, even. Yes, yes — wobble, baby — to and ‘fro, in unwasted… grace. Smile — onward.

नमस्ते

Of Course The Murder Of Anyone Is Deplorable. Full Stop. But This Is Not “A Leftists’ Problem”.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Bill Otis is right. This is despicable.

Not a sign of what the Democrats believe, though.

So he ought to stuff a sock in it. Right now.

Hinderaker and Johnson ought to restrict their remarks to lamenting evil in all forms — and not ignore the evil of throwing the wrong Maryland man into a Salvadoran hell-hole without process… and then pretend that is all in service of some “noble” cause.

There is none.

It is all evil.

Out.

This Will Be Corrected When The Merits Are Reached, But The Dissent Tonight Is Correct. Trump Is In The Wrong — Now And Always.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

File this under abuse of the Supremes’ own shadow docket — by Alito/Thomas. Damn. [My earlier backgrounder here.]

I won’t spend a lot of time on the idea that this feels like Alito / Thomas and three others handing Trump “a gimme” — one untethered from precedent (and/or reality).

But it sure looks like that, for these five to avoid being targeted themselves, by Tangerine 2.0’s crazier forces — here’s a bit of the fine dissent:

…The current President believes that Humphrey’s should be either overruled or confined. See Application 14; Letter from S. Harris, Acting Solicitor General, to Rep. J. Raskin, Re: Restrictions on the Removal of Certain Principal Officers of the United States (Feb. 12, 2025). And he has chosen to act on that belief — really, to take the law into his own hands. Not since the 1950s (or even before) has a President, without a legitimate reason, tried to remove an officer from a classic independent agency — a multi-member, bipartisan commission exercising regulatory power whose governing statute contains a for-cause provision. Yet now the President has discharged, concededly without cause, several such officers, including a member of the NLRB (Gwynne Wilcox) and a member of the MSPB (Cathy Harris). Today, this Court effectively blesses those deeds. I would not. Our Humphrey’s decision remains good law, and it forecloses both the President’s firings and the Court’s decision to award emergency relief….

Our emergency docket, while fit for some things, should not be used to overrule or revise existing law…. It is one thing to grant relief in that way when doing so vindicates established legal rights, which somehow the courts below have disregarded. It is a wholly different thing to skip the usual appellate process when issuing an order that itself changes the law. See, e.g., Netchoice, LLC v. Paxton, 596 U. S. ___, ___ (2022) (ALITO, J., dissenting from grant of application to vacate stay) (slip op., at 2) (demanding that an applicant for relief have a good claim “under existing law”)….

And nowhere is short-circuiting our deliberative process less appropriate than when the ruling requested would disrespect — by either overturning or narrowing — one of this Court’s longstanding precedents, like our nearly century-old Humphrey’s decision. Under that decision, this case is easy, as the courts below found: The President has no legal right to relief. Congress, by statute, has protected members of the NLRB and MSPB (like Wilcox and Harris) from Presidential removal except for good cause. See 29 U. S. C. §153(a)….

Damnation. Onward, resolutely just the same. I guess we should call this win number 5 — out of 121, now. Still a terrible Tangerine batting average — and this was with a corked bat — to be certain.

नमस्ते

Tonight, In The Ninth Cir., We Should See Tangerine 2.0/DOGE’s Brief, Appealing USDC Judge Alsup / SF Smack-Down — A Prelim. Injunction, In Favor Of The “Probationaries”.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Busy days, indeed.

Tangerine 2.0 / DOGE was enjoined last month by Judge Alsup — and the Ninth Circuit will now decide whether Trump has any reason to overturn the injunction (hint: he does not). So we await the likely turgid filing from his lawyers, here tonight:

…Ninth Cir. [Appeal 25-2637; Original Case 25-cv-1780]:

Preliminary Injunction Opening Brief Due (Appellant) 5/22/2025….

Should (as ever!) be a truly… stultifying exercise in… befuddlement, and misdirection — by the Tangerine 2.0 lawyers. Heh!

नमस्ते