Category: Uncategorized

Former “Hizzoner” Will Appear Live In DC Federal Court, Tomorrow — Friday, At 10 AM. Withdraws “No Travel” Motion…

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Welp. The simplest answer here is that he’s (again!) been caught in lies — or at least, extreme exaggerations.

He filed the sworn statement moments ago, as ordered and depicted in the graphic at right, before the able USDC Judge Howell in DC. In the two pager, he admits that he traveled for pleasure at Christmas, to see old friends and that he had no issues in attending the Manhattan proceedings we covered last week. So after a lot of burping and bleating, he’s withdrawn his request to appear by Zoom, tomorrow — on that contempt hearing. Here’s his rather lame sworn statement:

…Since December 9, 2024, I have traveled twice: once for a few days around Christmas to spend the holiday at the personal residence of close personal friends and once for a court conference in the Southern District of New York….

It currently appears that I will be required to appear in person for trial in the New York matter identified above starting on January 16, 2025. If it concludes before January 20th, I may travel to Washington, D.C. on the way home from Florida for the inauguration of President Trump, which will be a once-in-a-lifetime event….

The guy simply. cannot. read. any. room, any longer.

He’s done some truly terrible things (willfully telling and broadcasting lies), lies that injured innocent, honest, hard-working people — but he still thinks he should be given special “hall passes” — everywhere he goes. Disgusting. In DC — tomorrow, it will be a banger! Will he be detained overnight, for contempt? We shall see.

नमस्ते

On January 16, 2025, NASA’s Suni Williams Will Spacewalk At ISS — To Patch NICER “Light Leaks”. Amazing.

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We covered this in August of last year — during its training phase — here.

I love that Suni Williams (a very-willing!) “hostage” on the ISS (back story — on her extended stay at the station, here) — will pitch in to get the job done. Now it is go time — the live mission is about one week away. Here’s the latest from NASA and the ISS:

…NASA astronaut Nick Hague will install patches to the agency’s NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) X-ray telescope on the International Space Station as part of a spacewalk scheduled for Jan. 16. Hague, along with astronaut Suni Williams, will also complete other tasks during the outing.

NICER will be the first NASA observatory repaired on-orbit since the last servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.

Hague and other astronauts, including Don Pettit, who is also currently on the space station, rehearsed the NICER patch procedures in the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory), a 6.2-million-gallon indoor pool at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, in 2024….

NASA astronauts Hague and Williams will replace a rate gyro assembly that helps provide orientation control for the station, install patches to cover damaged areas of light filters for an X-ray telescope called NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), and replace a reflector device used for navigational data on one of the international docking adapters. Additionally, the pair will check access areas and connector tools that will be used for future maintenance work on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

Hague will serve as spacewalk crew member 1 and will wear a suit with red stripes. Williams will serve as spacewalk crew member 2 and will wear an unmarked suit. This will be the fourth for Hague and the eighth for Williams. It will be the 273rd spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades….

From its perch near the space station’s starboard solar array, NICER studies the X-ray sky, including erupting galaxies, black holes, superdense stellar remnants called neutron stars, and even comets in our solar system.

But in May 2023, NICER developed a “light leak.” Sunlight began entering the telescope through several small, damaged areas in the telescope’s thin thermal shields. During the station’s daytime, the light reaches the X-ray detectors, saturating sensors and interfering with NICER’s measurements of cosmic objects. The mission team altered their daytime observing strategy to mitigate the effect….

Now you know — onward, in an incredible moment to be alive and observing these wonders. And… Mr. and Mrs. Carter are reunited now. Smile.

नमस्ते

As We Watch A Great Man’s Funeral Unfold, We See That China Has Reported Five Mpox Clade 1b Cases… A Traveler Returning From DRC Was Index Case.

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Oof. More disconcerting news, this time in China.

Here’s the latest, from Reuters overnight:

…China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said it had found a cluster outbreak of the Ib subclade that started with the infection a foreigner who has a history of travel and residence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Four further cases have been found in people infected after close contact with the foreigner. The patients’ symptoms are mild and include skin rash and blisters….

Now you know. And… travel well Mr. Carter — but do travel light.

नमस्ते

Meanwhile In DC — “Hizzoner” Must Swear That He’s Not Traveled (Except For Court), By Air, In The Past 30 Days: USDC Judge Howell SKEPTICAL Of His Medical Claims!

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Late this afternoon in DC, the able USDC Judge Beryl Howell issued a text-only order, showing vast skepticism about Rudy’s sudden, and utterly undocumented, “medical issues“. He is now in danger of going to jail for perjury, as well.

Wow. This is quite the stinger, just entered in DC:

…MINUTE ORDER (paperless), upon consideration of defendant’s [37] Motion to Appear Virtually (“Mot. to Appear”) for the scheduled contempt hearing on January 10, 2025, and to assess the seriousness and veracity of the medical conditions (i.e., “severe knee conditions,” a “lung condition… requir[ing] the use of an inhaler,” and a “heart condition”) and security concerns (i.e., “credible death threats”) that this motion, without support from any medical or other documentation, asserts / provides “good cause and compelling circumstances” to excuse his in-person attendance at the scheduled contempt hearing….

DIRECTING defendant to file by January 9, 2025, at 2:00 PM, a sworn declaration, under penalty of perjury, from Mr. Giuliani that, except for travel required for court proceedings, he has been unable to travel and has not traveled from his residence in Florida, see Mot. to Appear at 2, in the past 30 days and that he remains unable to and will not travel in the next 30 days (i.e., the period from December 9, 2024, to February 7, 2025), due to these same medical conditions and security concerns.

Signed by Judge Beryl A. Howell on January 8, 2025….

The hits just keep comin’ — when you decide to lie to federal court judges. Damn.

Meanwhile, back in Manhattan (hilariously, given his testimony on Monday!), Mr. Guiliani is to bring all the World Series rings to court next week, to be placed with the US Marshals, for safe-keeping. That order will likely be finalized tonight — or tomorrow.

Onward, grinning into a clear cold night — but no more snows. Out.

नमस्ते

Solely For A Complete Record: Tangerine 2.0’s SCOTUS Request — To Avoid Friday’s 34 Felonies Sentencing, In Manhattan

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This is silly.

Forty pages of… manifest silliness.

But here it is, for the record. Nothing stops his sentencing.

In fact, there is a very solidly-grounded argument that he cannot appeal the overall verdict, in his 34 state law felony convictions, until his sentence is pronounced, under NY state criminal procedural law. [That is, there is no “final order, of harm” (from which to appeal), until he knows whether the able judge sets the whole thing aside.]

But now you may read the nonsense for yourself. Onward.

नमस्ते

Confirming An Improving Regulatory Trend In China, Gardasil® Is Now Approved By China’s FDA — For Men — Not Just Women.

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In early November ’24, we mentioned that we thought the pessimism about Gardasil® sales in China (on Wall and Broad) was being overstated. Today’s news confirms that view.

You see, much of the decline in China’s HPV vaccine sales previously seen was due not so much to organic demand factors, but a sharp state-actor / regulatory crackdown by Xi, on many US companies’ Chinese network of distributors, of all sorts of drugs. [We covered that, here.]

Gardasil was particularly hard hit when ZFSW, the largest in-country distributor of Gardasil was nearly closed (due to concerns about alleged hospital kickbacks), by Chinese authorities. It is resolved, and yet it is taking a moment to rebuild rapport with hospital buyers, in this vast, sprawling Asian nation… but that effort is well-underway. [Hospitals themselves often fear state-actor reprisals, when there are stock-outs and the like.] Even so, as they say in China, “the mountains are high, and the emperor is very far away….”

In any event, here’s Reuters, on the latest “in China” clearance:

…Merck’s human papillomavirus vaccine has been approved for men in China, it said on Wednesday, providing the U.S. drugmaker a much-needed boost in a key market where demand has been falling among women. The shot, Gardasil, is already approved for women, but the vaccine’s distributor in China has reduced stock due to weak demand.

Merck [at Q3 2024] said weak sales in China were likely to continue in 2025….

This is the first HPV vaccine for men to be approved by China’s National Medical Products Administration and can be used by children and men aged between 9 and 26 years to prevent certain cancers and HPV-related diseases, the company said.
HPV is a common cause for cervical cancer in women, while it increases the risk of genital warts and several types of cancers among men….

Onward — grinning into the warming sunshine here — above zero on the wind chills, finally! And at 2 PM EDT today we will learn whether “Hizzoner” should even bother to show up for trial in Manhattan federal court, given the number of adverse inferences to be drawn, and the potential lack of any exhibits, since he’s missed all deadlines to provide them. Delicious.

नमस्ते

Mr. Giuliani Has Again Provoked The Righteous Ire Of The Able USDC Judge Liman In Manhattan — Failed To Meet Deadlines, On Pre-Trial Orders…

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UPDATED: As of 9:32 Eastern, no service appears on the docket. I think… that’s… game over. [Filing No. 226 was made a little after 7 pm — nothing has come in since. Yikes. No Filing No. 227.] End, update.

He is now in danger of losing at trial on Friday, the tenth of January, because he is not even trying to put on a case that complies with liong standing and clear court orders.

As I type this, he’s about 10 minutes away from missing another ordered deadline, below.

The slow motion train-wreck that is (former) Hizzoner Giuliani continues tonight, thus:

…The Court ordered the parties, including intervenor, to submit joint pretrial orders, as well as other submissions, by 5 p.m. today, January 7, 2025. 24-cv-06563, Dkt. No. 185; 24-mc-00353, Dkt. No. 219.

Plaintiff timely filed a proposed pretrial order reflecting the participation of intervenor. 24-cv-06563, Dkt. No. 191; 24-mc-00353, Dkt. No. [221]. The proposed pretrial orders reflect that counsel for the Defendant failed to make himself available to meet and confer. Id. Instead, at 4:50 p.m., counsel for Defendant emailed Chambers his exhibit list, and at 4:57 p.m., counsel for Defendant emailed Chambers what he represented were joint pretrial orders agreed to by all parties in both matters. The emailed joint pretrial orders make reference to an attached joint exhibit list but do not attach the exhibit list.

Nothing was filed on the docket. The Court would be within its prerogative to preclude Defendant from offering exhibits that are not contained in the joint pretrial orders filed by Plaintiffs. Counsel for Plaintiffs have not asked for such relief, however, and assuming Defendant complies with this Order, would not be entitled to it.The Court cannot go to trial with two competing joint pretrial orders, and it is not required to go to the effort of reconciling the competing submissions.

Before 9:30 p.m. tonight, Defendant is ordered to serve Plaintiffs and Intervenor, by email to all counsel appearing for Plaintiffs and Intervenor, his proposed exhibit list in each of these matters, as well as any edits to the joint pretrial orders submitted by Plaintiffs.

Failure to do so will result in waiver of the right to submit exhibits not otherwise included in the filed joint pretrial orders. Defendants counsel is also ordered to meet and confer with Plaintiffs counsel tomorrow morning at a time before 11:30 a.m. selected by Plaintiffs counsel (which Plaintiffs counsel should provide by 9:30 pm tonight).

Plaintiffs shall file revised joint pretrial orders on the dockets of each of these cases by 2 p.m. tomorrow. No other pretrial submissions will be received by the Court (except for the response to Plaintiffs motions in limine), the time period for any other such submissions having expired.

Signed by Judge Lewis J. Liman on 1/7/2025….

His filing extension expires at 9:30 PM EST tonight — ten minutes from now. And nothing is on the docket, at all. He’s… definitively DOA (without this filing) on the homestead question, and the Yankees World Series rings question. Oof.

नमस्ते

Equally Likely Explanation? Few Florida Men Want To “Waste Time” — On Jury Duty.

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Again tonight, John Hinderaker’s increasingly-wild imagination is getting the better of him.

He leaps to the conclusion that most Floridians “hate” CNN. I doubt it.

The far more likely explanation for the juror candidates’ remarks he cites… might be that most feckless Florida whyte men (and they are mostly men)… Don’t really want to serve on a jury, at all — given the very low pay and the relatively boring nature of that duty.

So they make up what will be disqualifying answers, in order to be preemptively struck.

That’s Occam’s Razor.

[Moreover it looks like CNN has truth as a defense — wanting to “nail” a war profiteer is not libel if his prices were wildly high. And it seems they… were.]

Cheers.

Power Alley — Ongoing: This Time On Potential For Therapeutic Nanobodies-Based Regimen — Treating Ebola Virus, In Humans…

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[Two or three on bio-science, in a single day? I must have some sort of… fever. Heh!] We just saw in Phys.org that the fine U of Minn research teams have a new approach to try, as an ebola virus therapy.

It has shown much promise in a mice model, and involves targeting hidden notches at the viral binding sites. This is all on an almost unimaginably small scale. No big chain, honkin’ complex chemical model, no.

This is a bit like dropping the tiniest dollop of “Super Glue” — into a huge vat — and seeing that the glue only binds onto the bad lil’ critters, and in only a tiny lil’ back alley of their structures. But that binder action prevents them from replicating across much larger human blood cells. Yep — it seems to gum up the viral replication process rather nicely. Here’s the latest:

…Ebola virus, one of the deadliest pathogens, has a fatality rate of about 50%, posing a serious threat to global health and safety.

To address this challenge, researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Midwest Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Center have developed the first nanobody-based inhibitors targeting the Ebola virus….

Nanobodies are tiny antibodies derived from animals like alpacas. Their small size allows them to access areas of the virus and human tissues that larger antibodies cannot. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the team created nine nanobodies to fight COVID-19. Now, they’ve used this technology to develop two new nanobody inhibitors for Ebola: Nanosota-EB1 and Nanosota-EB2.

The nanobodies work in different ways to stop Ebola. The virus hides the part it uses to attach to human cells under a protective layer. Nanosota-EB1 prevents this layer from opening, blocking the virus from attaching to cells. Nanosota-EB2 targets a part of the virus essential for breaking into cells, stopping its spread. In lab tests, Nanosota-EB2 was especially effective, greatly improving survival rates in Ebola-infected mice….

Onward — grinning; what a time to be alive, indeed. Pandemic / biotech research is ripping ahead apace, as well as interstellar / space sciences — day by day! Be excellent to one another.

नमस्ते

[U: UBS’s Target Still Above Mine!] Moderna Jumps Over 13% On First US Bird Flu Fatality. Hard News.

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UPDATE: On January 8, 2025, UBS Securities reduced its price targets on several pharma / bio-science companies, including Merck and Moderna (citing a coming Tangerine 2.0 imagined onslaught). Yawn. You see, in the case of Moderna, the reduced one year target at UBS is $96, which is $11 higher than my guess of $85. Bob’s your uncle. [And, in the case of Merck, the target now stands at $130, same as mine.] End updated portion.

Here two days later, Moderna’s stock price is still increasing.

The reason is rather morose: the bird flu death we mentioned in Louisiana. Moderna is likely to benefit from any vaccines contracts let by the federal government. We’ve suggested it will be an $85 stock by this time next year; and today it sits $46. We shall see. Here’s the latest:

…Moderna is one of a few drugmakers currently developing a vaccine for the H5N1 bird flu, which is spreading rapidly through farm- and wild animals….

As we say… we shall see.

नमस्ते