Category: Uncategorized

Abbott Unit Receives First Emergency Designation — For Its Alinity Mpox Diagnostic Test Kit, From WHO Authorities… Being Shipped To Africa Next Week.

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This is needed — and welcome. And soon there will doubtless be others, approved — but Abbott in North Chicago, is first out of the gate — on the Mpox testing kits.

No word yet on how many thousands will be shipped, nor how soon — but it would be safe to bet that at least 500,000 will be ready and in Africa by Thanksgiving 2024. That’s the throughput the company can run at. Here’s the latest — on all this good news:

…The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed the first mpox in vitro diagnostic (IVD) under its Emergency Use Listing (EUL) procedure, an important step in improving global access to mpox testing. The approval for emergency use of the Alinity m MPXV assay, manufactured by Abbott Molecular Inc., will be pivotal in expanding diagnostic capacity in countries facing mpox outbreaks, where the need for quick and accurate testing has risen sharply. Early diagnosis of mpox enables timely treatment and care, and control of the virus.

Limited testing capacity and delays in confirming mpox cases persist in Africa, contributing to the continued spread of the virus. In 2024, over 30 000 suspected cases have been reported across the region, with the highest numbers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Nigeria. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, only 37% of suspected cases have been tested this year….

Now you know. Onward, to a wonderful, if busy, Fall weekend (in prep for Emmys season). Be excellent to one another.

नमस्ते

Courtesy Of Anon. — We Learn That Bit By Bit, NASA Is Putting V’ger 2 Into A Deep Sleep — Almost 13 Billion Miles From Home… Smile.

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But to be clear this is not a sad story — this is one of. . . scientific triumph.

The identical pair of nuke-powered probes have now run amazingly well, for nearly a half century — and are sailing interstellar space. . . long past the rated capacity of the parts aboard. Here’s the latest, on the Voyager 2’s power conservation efforts:

. . .Voyager 2 launched into space on Aug. 20, 1977 and left the solar system on Nov. 5, 2018. It is currently 12.8 billion miles (20.5 billion kilometers) from Earth and is using four science instruments to study space beyond the heliosphere, the sun’s bubble of influence around the solar system. NASA thinks that Voyager 2 has enough power to keep running one science instrument into the 2030s, but doing that requires selecting which of its other instruments need to be turned off.

Mission specialists have tried to delay the instrument shutdown until now because Voyager 2 and Voyager 1 are the only two active probes humanity has in interstellar space, making any data they gather unique. Thus far, six of the spacecraft’s initial 10 instruments have been deactivated. Now, losing the seventh has become unavoidable, and the spacecraft’s plasma science instrument drew the short straw. On Sept. 26, engineers gave the command to turn off the instrument….

The plasma science instrument consists of four “cups” collecting information on the amount of plasma, a fluid of charged particles, flowing past Voyager 2 and the direction of this flow. Three cups are angled toward the sun, monitoring charged particles in the solar wind while within the heliosphere. A fourth cup is angled away from the others to observe plasma in planetary magnetic fields and interstellar space….

The cold night may be… approaching, upon which she falls silent and dark, forever… but that night will not be… tonight. And, not before November 4, 2029, we confidently predict. Smile.

नमस्ते

Thankfully, The Two German Health Workers Who Traveled By Plane, From Rwanda — And Then By Train — From Frankfort To Hamburg Test Negative For Marburg…

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We do not wish to appear alarmist, but by the time one feels symptoms from Marburg’s, Ebola or Mpox, even — it is too late. You’ve been contagious for between 24 and 56 hours. So it is probably time for even asymptomatic health workers to voluntarily take a PCR test, before travelling into countries outside of continental Africa, given that multiple viral outbreaks are now afoot.

Of course, this effort must rely on voluntary responsibilities. And the very good news is that even though one of these travellers was experiencing flu-like symptoms, the Marburg possibility has been ruled out. Even so, the pair has agreed to a short observational isolation protocol, just to be certain. That is the ethical and responsible thing to do, given how contagious these strains are. Here’s the latest from the UK Independent reporting overnight:

…Two passengers with suspected cases of Marburg virus in Germany have tested negative for the highly contagious disease. The travellers — returning from Rwanda to Hamburg via Frankfurt — were taken for examination at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) on Wednesday (2 October)….

Platforms at Hamburg Central Station were closed yesterday after one of the passengers contacted doctors while on the ICE train to Hamburg, concerned they had contracted a tropical disease in Rwanda.

Hamburg’s Social Affairs Authority confirmed that the pair had worked in a hospital in Rwanda as part of their medical studies and tested negative for Marburg virus in a PCR test.

According to the authority, at no time did either passenger have “complaints or symptoms corresponding to the disease” after one of the medical students, 26, had minimal contact with a patient infected with Marburg on 25 September….

Rwanda is currently experiencing an outbreak of Marburg virus with 36 cases, 25 people in isolation and 11 deaths confirmed as of Wednesday in the landlocked African country….

Now you know, and be excellent to one another — as there is no approved vaccine as of this afternoon for Marburg. Onward.

नमस्ते

The Idiot Tom Fitton Just Got His Hindparts Handed To Him — In The Chicago Reparations Strike Suit.

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Well… this is fitting — and exactly as we predicted. The City’s attorneys at Jenner have crushed Fitton and Judicial Watch, forcefully demonstrating that the latter has no standing, since none of the recruited plaintiffs owned — nor sought to own — property in the city as of 2021.

Game over, thus, from the 17 pager filed last night:

…Recognizing they did not meet the real property in Evanston requirement, Plaintiffs contend that the implementation of certain changes to how the applicants received the benefit from the Program, which was made long after the application period had closed, somehow altered the requirement that applicants have or seek a property interest in Evanston. ECF No. 20 at 8–10. It did not. The change, which only applied to those who timely applied to the Program, related solely to how a timely and qualified applicant could receive their benefit under the Program….

[Thus the] City of Evanston respectfully requests that the Court grant its Motion and dismiss the Complaint pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1) and / or 12(b)(6), or, in the alternative, permit Evanston to take limited jurisdictional discovery to confirm that Plaintiffs lack standing.

Dated: October 2, 2024….

Hilarious. It is now high time to inform the voting public in the Village of Palatine that Village Trustee Svenson believes that about one third of the population in that village should be treated as less worthy citizens — less worthy of respect, and protection — than their whyte counterparts. Charming.

Look for a new social media campaign / website shortly. Watch this space.

Out.

Bill Otis Was A Prosecutor, Allegedly. He Well-Knows This Timing Was Solely Trump’s Doing.

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Bill Otis tonight openly lies, to try to save Tangerine from an increasingly likely defeat in about 32 days.

The central lie Bill tells, is that he blames a very capable federal District Court judge for applying the federal criminal law as it is written.

He blames Judge Chutkan for treating Tangerine the same as any other now convicted felon — who, by his own choice, delayed the proceedings in DC while he fought criminal proceedings in New York City.

That is, she has respected the long-standing Constitutional mandate — under our First Amendment, which states that “we the people” are entitled to know how our criminal courts function, and the press is entitled to report on all felony matters – as public records, including describing and reviewing the evidence from indictments that have been handed down against already convicted felons. [That is exactly where Trump finds himself, all due to his own criminal choices, stretching across decades. And Bill very well know this.]

So it is Trump alone — who is responsible for the fact that all this evidence has become public just about a month before America will cast its ballots.

No other convicted felon has ever been able to hide subsequent indictments, and the associated evidence, from public view — for any reason whatsoever, let alone that the felon churlishly decided to run for office (again!), back in 2022. There is no right to run for high office free of your criminal entanglements, there is only the privilege to run for office, and to accept with the exercise of that privilege… that “the criminal law does what it does.” [Bill will recall that DC Mayor Marion Barry is Exhibit A for that notion!]

In sum, if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen. Or… don’t commit felonies in the first place.

Personally, I believe this is exactly how a democracy should work: we the people, reading for ourselves, should be allowed to evaluate the evidence in a felony case that bears directly on whether he would faithfully serve and protect us all — if granted had a second term.

If he feels that the Special Counsel’s sworn evidence is too one-sided, he is absolutely free to release all his “exonerating evidence” — to the public. [But we all know there is almost none of that.]

So instead, Bill Otis here conjures up a BS political charge — against a federal court judge of high morals, and impeccable standing. He should be ashamed of himself.

Damnation. Out.

Hinderaker Would Ignore Real Solid Data, To Support His Delusions…

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Ahem.

John’s fever dreams notwithstanding, Kamala is likely 57% to 43% favored — to win.

About 60-40.

Forget the finance bro betting pool; they are betting strictly on what they would hope would happen, to improve their take-home pay in the form of reduced personal income taxes, and reduced regulation on the securities businesses they generally run.

There you have it. And certainly, something wild (well outside all the polling, as happened in ‘16) could happen, but 538.com was right in 2008, 2020, 2012 (missed on 2016), 2018, 2020 and 2022. And Trump is a much more known quantity now, than he was in 2016. And that in no manner helps his chances.

I like those odds.

Out.

Time To Pay The Piper: Stick A Fork In Tangerine…

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The evidence will show that when warned that Mike Pence, his sitting Vice President might be put in mortal danger — including direct attempts on his life — by Tangerine’s scheme to overturn the election results, Tangerine responded “So what?“.

That makes out a case for the felonies, all by itself — and more importantly — is clearly disqualifying, for ever seeking office again, in any capacity. Here’s the 165 pager, one he’s been claiming it is “unfair” to unseal. What is unfair, is that he thinks he should be able to conduct his felony trials in secret. No, the people have a Constitutional right to observe and report on his felony trials. That the GOP thought he should be nominated… is clearly… bonkers. Here’s the Special Counsel, tonight:

…The defendant [Trump] asserts that he is immune from prosecution for his criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election because, he claims, it entailed official conduct. Not so.

Although the defendant [Trump] was the incumbent President during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one. Working with a team of private co-conspirators, the defendant acted as a candidate when he pursued multiple criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted — a function in which the defendant, as President, had no official role.

In Trump v. United States, 144 S. Ct. 2312 (2024), the Supreme Court held that presidents are immune from prosecution for certain official conduct — including the defendant’s use of the Justice Department in furtherance of his scheme, as was alleged in the original indictment — and remanded to this Court to determine whether the remaining allegations against the defendant are immunized. The answer to that question is no.

This motion provides a comprehensive account of the defendant’s private criminal conduct; sets forth the legal framework created by Trump for resolving immunity claims; applies that framework to establish that none of the defendant’s charged conduct is immunized because it either was unofficial or any presumptive immunity is rebutted; and requests the relief the Government seeks, which is, at bottom, this: that the Court determine that the defendant must stand trial for his private crimes as would any other citizen….

If nothing else, the people should have the right to review this highly damning evidence, before they decide to cast their votes in November. Even if one can suspend disbelief long enough to argue that maybe he is not guilty of these felonies — no rational person can conclude that he was not (at best), indifferent to putting his second in command in mortal danger — from his own mob.

As I say… that alone is… disqualifying. So, let’s even just forget the applicable federal criminal law implications, for a moment — who might vote… for such a sociopath? Elon Musk, it would seem. Damn. All to preserve his federal government welfare payments — to his electric car company.

नमस्ते

The Entirety Of Steve’s “Chart” Today Is Explained By Levels Of Educational Attainment, By Democrats.

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Let us stipulate — at the outset, that Steve Hayward’s “charts of the day”, about 90% of the time… rely either on (i) faulty data, or (ii) directly misstate the data that they do purport to depict.

But he does — on rare occasion — offer charts that are completely explainable, by simply looking at them, without the overlay of his odious prejudices. Today is just such a day.

Of course — he never states the obvious, and simplest explanations, preferring to reach for bizarre conspiracies he claims to see being orchestrated — against the frothy hard right.

His false conclusion — from today’s chart, is that Republicans, regardless of level of education — report about equal numbers of friends who do not share their views. That bit of data is explainable by the fact that there are far fewer Republicans, than there are Democrats, at every educational level in the United States. When you are the minority “view” — as Steve is, you will report lots of “friends” who do not share your views. Pretty simple.

The second part of his chart depicts a rising number of Democrats who self report as having mostly friends who share their views, as their educational attainment level rises.

Instead of Steve’s silly explanation, I would offer that… as a person becomes more educated, and more aware of both national and international policy implications, from democratic as well as republican points of view… one clearly recognizes that — especially as to MAGA Republicans, they hold views that are mostly 18th or 19th century based — and thus long discredited — in polite society.

This is true of both economics, and race/civil rights, generally.

Increasingly, it is also true of women’s rights to autonomy over their own bodies, and shockingly, now extends to denying rights to women who are not married and don’t have children.

That sort of insanity is the stuff that educated Democrats are utterly allergic to.

As people become more educated, they are less likely to fall for Trumpian nonsense.

That at bottom is all his chart depicts.

You heard it here first.

Johnson Saw Only What He Wanted To See… YAWN.

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We all know that last night was never going to change the race much, and it did not.

But Scott Johnson — like all of the frothy hard right — is in desperate need of some piece of good news about the Tangerine possibilities (or more accurately, the MAGA slow motion, dark and befuddled train wreck).

So he thinks he saw a great Vance “victory”.

Me? I saw Tim Walz remind America in simple, plain spoken terms, that Donald Trump is both incompetent, and a sociopath.

And yet, I am a realist — I know this debate didn’t really matter at all. Do get out and and vote, or mail in your ballot — before November.

That is all that’s left to do. Protect America — from tyranny.

Onward.

I Guess Paul Missed Bibi’s “Thanks!” — To Mr. Biden, Just Tonight…

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Odd. But perhaps not so, given it is Mirengoff we are talking about.

When it comes to Israel, Paul has never been one to let the actual facts get in the way of a long, largely fictional, foaming at the mouth rant.

To wit: every mainstream media outlet inside Israel, and outside of it across the globe is reporting that Mr. Biden specifically aided Netanyahu in shooting down missiles as they flew into Israeli air space this evening.

That fact is entirely absent from Paul’s whining about how the US isn’t doing enough for Israel.

That renders everything else he writes as highly suspect. He simply won’t accept that not every matter is gonna’ break his way, when it comes to Israel.

Even at almost 70 years, he remains… a child, as to international policy matters.

Out.