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The Vengeful And Idiotic Stephen Miller (45’s West Wing “Lurch”) Files Silly Strike Suit. YAWN.

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So… that same virulently anti-immigrant “Lurch”, from 45’s time in the West Wing — who always had a pungent take, on literally… everything… now has some goofy legal SLAP suit arm running, out of DC. He’s the president of it, and today it purportedly sued NY Judge Merchan and the NY State Ethics board — over what he falsely claims is a “refusal” to disclose finances.

In point of fact, the financial forms of all judges may be seen, in the public viewing room at the Commission. He asked that they be mailed to him on June 6, 2024. They’ve not yet arrived, so instead of walking over and taking pictures of them himself… he filed a nonsense suit. There is nothing to any of this — just intimidation. And it won’t work:

…This petition arises from the Commission’s failure to respond to and fulfill AFL’s request to the Commission pursuant to 22 NYCRR § 7400.5(d) dated June 6, 2024 (Exhibit B annexed hereto) (the “Request”), seeking inspection and production of Justice Merchan’s mandatory financial disclosures to be provided on the Disclosure Form (the “Requested Disclosures”) — which he is required to file under Judiciary Law § 211(4) and 22 NYCRR § 40.2(a)….

So long, sucker. You should probably read up on owing opposing attorneys’ fees, for filing frivolous suits.

Updated on 09.06.2024 — Judge Merchan will act with discretion, but will resolutely sentence Trump come November 26, 2024, now. Nothing can stop that. So, it is all a nothing burger, since the Supremes cannot derail a state convict’s sentencing, for predicate acts that long predate his ever holding any public office. End updated portion.

[And, in passing — I am smiling a sardonic grin, now that Scott Johnson will finally publicly admit what 99% of America has long known: that Tucker Carlson has always been an anti-semite. What is sad, is that it took Tangerine’s campaign flaming out here, for the third time, for Scott to speak up.

Until now, the tense haters’ coalition — between whyte supremacy forces / anti-semitic haters like Tucker and his WWII denialists, and hard right Jews has… held firm and silent, insofar as to expressing disagreement with one another in public, in the hopes of trading various versions of the 30 pieces of silver for… power, over 1600 Penn. No more.]

JD Vance ought to be forced to explain his views, when he sits down with Tucker this weekend for a chit-chat. We already know Tangerine’s view: “I’ll do whatever anyone wants — if they donate to my campaign, in excess of seven figures.”

Cheers.

Time To “Fire Test” Whether That Stricken Boeing Starliner Capsule Remains… Ship-Shape, Tonight.

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The Starliner’s undocking from the ISS will take place — viz, as the “empty tin can” — at around 6 pm Eastern… then, around midnight, it will deorbit, hopefully bouncing onto the flat ground at White Sands, NM before 1 am.

Here’s to… hoping it all goes as planned:

…Starliner is scheduled to autonomously undock from the space station at approximately 6:04 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 6, to begin the journey home, weather conditions permitting. NASA and Boeing are targeting approximately 12:03 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 7, for the landing and conclusion of the flight test.

NASA’s live coverage of return and related activities will stream on NASA+, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA programming through a variety of platforms including social media….

Now you know. Onward — and go Buffs, tomorrow evening! Like the Starliner (re Buffs), here’s to hoping, anyway. Hope is a good thing — perhaps the best of all things, indeed, Red.

नमस्ते

Mirengoff Libels Yale, And Princeton… D A M N.

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For the second time in under a week, bitter, senile old Paul Mirengoff… without a shred of evidence, accused the Admissions departments of two prestigious universities of violating the law. That is libel per se.

Paul admits that the universities may absolutely use essays to round out their classes — they need not simply take numbers only, and draw red lines below a certain score. The justices have time and again said that if the prospective student can do all the work — and had to overcome far more than another applicant — the one overcoming the barrier is LAWFULLY allowed to take a seat — even if fewer Asian-Americans and whytes… are seated, than would obtain on a rigid numbers / math game.

The Supremes re-affirmed exactly that, yet again, last term.

What’s out (and what Paul and Steve Hayward refuse to see) is that the “inflexible quotas” — group, by group — are gone. That’s all. The wide victory they claimed, was no such thing for the form of “whytes first” they sought — and did not achieve.

So it really chaps Paul’s a$$ that Asian admissions actually fell. [And ironically, buried in all this vitriol he burps up, is his underlying (but unstated) racist notion that Asians (as a group) are more intelligent and higher achieving, than Black or Brown people — and even than his precious whytes/Jews.] See here:

…So the losers are Asian-Americans. It’s almost enough to make me think that Yale is punishing this group because some of its members had the audacity to challenge the racial spoils system at Harvard.

In maintaining its quota for black students, Yale is continuing the unlawful discrimination it has long practiced. That discrimination was thoroughly documented by the Justice Department in a suit it filed against Yale (a suit dropped by Joe Biden and Merrick Garland).

That lawsuit showed that blacks in the tenth decile (the top ten percent of applicants according to Yale’s own rating system) are admitted to Yale at a rate of 60 percent. By contrast, Whites are admitted at a rate of 20 percent and Asians at a rate of only 14 percent….

There was not a shred of proof of what he alleged. He just looked at raw numbers, and told himself that he knew better than the essay readers in Admissions who do this for a living — and are scrupulously fair, and seek to create a truly world class entering group, year after year.

It’s a shame that he is so… embittered. And irrational.

Out.

In Which Hinderaker Forgets That He Is Proof — That Fact Checkers, In Pandemics, Are… Life Savers, Literally.

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Another short retort — as silly John Hinderaker has. stopped. making. sense.

A G A I N.

He hates that people with “credentials” — know more about science, bio-science in particular than him — and failed TV evangelist Jim Bakker, and the nut case Candace Owens.

His axe grinding recognizes that people with better educations and intellects tend to skew liberal. That’s because most facts… have a liberal bias. By that, I mean that usually the facts support… compassion and non-judgment.

So… when in early July 2020, John Hinderaker was openly lying and telling his largely silver-haired readership that this was a flu, and most of the dying was over (at 20,000, nationwide — to that moment)… his lies went on to KILL at least some of the 700,000 who died over the next two years — also, mostly people of advanced age.

Some of the dead had, undoubtedly… trusted him. [Some of those… probably were unaware, or only dimly aware… that he had gotten a C in freshman level Biology at Dartmouth — and that was 40 years ago (so whatever he picked up was mostly obsolete).]

So — John… he, who never apologized… John: will you now apologize? Will Jim Bakker? Will Candace Owens?!

At least a few dozen of the dead, might not be — if you hadn’t popped off about a pandemic in complete and utter self-interested falsehoods? [You just wanted to go back out to dinners — at your favorite Minneapolis high end restaurants, minus a mask. What a narcissistic — and (it turns out) lethal — tool.]

I know you won’t apologize. It’s not in your narcissist DNA — but you could at least thank the fact-checkers with MDs and PhDs — who shut you and Candace and Jim Bakker And Tangerine’s ass up.

Out.

[U: Doesn’t Change A Thing.] Just A Quick Peek, At Tangerine’s Completely Bonkers Attempt To Stop His Sentencing In NY.

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I won’t waste a lot of electrons on this. But the NY AG is absolutely right.

Tangerine’s position here is transparently unhinged from any legal principle of federalism. It is — in a word — BONKERS. [That’s a term of art, BTW.] Updated on 09.06.2024 — Judge Merchan will act with discretion, but will resolutely sentence Trump come November 26, 2024, now. Nothing can stop that. So, it’s a nothing burger. End updated portion.

Tangerine thinks he can achieve a CIVIL “removal” of a case he’s already chosen to take to trial, a felony case, in New York, and on which he’s seen convictions by a jury of his peers on all 34 felonies… all, well-over a year past the deadline for making such a “permissive” civil motion.

Federal courts, as the able NY AG explains to the Second Circuit this morning, are loath to disturb concluded criminal outcomes in ANY state court — where the only ongoing matter is the felon’s sentence (he has a federal right of habeas corpus, to the extent he’s ever ultimately unjustly jailed, under state law — but he must exhaust all other state level remedies first — hasn’t happened!):

… This Court and the Supreme Court have repeatedly recognized the “strong judicial policy against federal interference with state criminal proceedings.” Arizona v. Manypenny, 451 U.S. 232, 243 (1981); see also O’Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 500 (1974) (federal courts may not engage in “an ongoing federal audit of state criminal proceedings”), Younger v. Harris,401 U.S. 37, 41 (1971) (describing “the national policy forbidding federal courts to stay or enjoin pending state court proceedings”); Disability Rights NY v. New York, 916 F.3d 129, 133 (2d Cir. 2019) (“Federal courts must abstain where a party seeks to enjoin an ongoing, parallel state criminal proceeding.“). It would be extraordinarily disruptive and disrespectful to a “co-equal sovereign,” Diamond “D” Construction Corp. v. McGowan, 282 F.3d 191, 198 (2d Cir. 2002), for this Court to enjoin the final stages of a state criminal proceeding that has already proceeded to a jury verdict and is awaiting only post-verdict rulings and sentencing….

These papers from Team Tangerine are so laughably bad, as to the claim of any legal leg to stand on… or any other matter, in fact — I won’t link them. I’ll never show them.

These chuckleheads pretend that a common felon at state law may “jump the line” and force the Supreme Court to hear his pleas (regardless of their speciousness). Pleas of a man who (as of the time of the predicate acts on which he was convicted) had never held elective office at any level in his life.

There is no such right, and our federalism doctrines — embedded in the US Constitution — have made this clear for two centuries. Nope. He can appeal in state court, AFTER sentencing — but not before. And he doesn’t get into federal court until the highest final court in New York State upholds his sentence.

But in the mean-time, like all other crooks… he must start serving his time — whatever that turns out to be (from Judge Merchan) in about two weeks now. Perhaps the most silly of Trump’s claims is that he enjoyed immunity for actions he took while simply RUNNING for President, in 2016. Things he absolutely did ONLY as a private citizen and candidate. Nothing in Roberts’ opinion even hinted that private citizens get immunity simply by filing to RUN for office.

Can you imagine?! Capone, Manson, Dahlmer, Gacy, Sirhan-Sirhan, James Earl Ray, Madoff, Milken and SBF would all have ABSOLUTELY filed to run for President — as would have (undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of others!) including one Martin Shkreli. Hilarious. No, he was a private citizen back then when he falsified his business records, to pay off an adult film star, in secret — away from the watchful eyes of the FEC.

D A M N.

नमस्ते

STAT’s Helen Branswell Reports Promising News, Out Of Moderna’s mRNA Pipeline, For An Mpox Vaccine That Is Safe — Even For HIV+ People…

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At present, it is very dangerous to use a “live-attenuated” Mpox vaccine, in immuno-compromised humans. All current standard of care Mpox vaccines employ the live attenuated manufacturing method.

So today, Helen Branswell’s reporting is a real… scoop. Moderna, the mRNA COVID vax juggernaut, has applied that learning to develop an mRNA (non-live) Mpox vaccine candidate. Clinical trials are underway.

But is seems more protective in early returns, and it should be safe to administer even to people living with HIV. [There is overlap here since a fair bit of the suspected transmission path is among men who are intimate with other men.] So, this is truly a potentially life-saving break through, given that in the DRC, mortality rates approach 10%, for people infected with the Clade Ib (more lethal) strain of Mpox.

Here’s that Branswell / Stat scoop:

…The vaccine manufacturer Moderna reported in the journal Cell that a messenger RNA-based mpox vaccine that it is developing was more protective than a vaccine made using the same platform as Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos vaccine in a study in which non-human primates were vaccinated, then deliberately infected with mpox….

The vaccine targets four proteins that are found in all known poxviruses and that are critical to the life cycle of poxviruses, said Galit Alter, Moderna’s vice president for immunology research and a senior author of the study. Whereas other mpox vaccines use whole, weakened viruses to generate protection, mRNA-1769 focuses the immune response on these four key targets, the Moderna scientists said….

Moderna’s vaccine is not currently licensed or even authorized for emergency use. Even if all goes well with the Phase 1/2 trial in the U.K., it will take some time before the vaccine could be used in the field. But it is clear from the past few years that the mpox threat is not going away, and that existing capacity to make vaccine to protect against it is too limited. And the response to the Covid-19 pandemic showed that scaling up production is easier for mRNA vaccines than it is for vaccine production that is based on growing stocks of virus, as MVA vaccine production is….

Now you know. Trying to shake off the overnight news out of Uganda… with something… anything… really… positive now. Onward.

नमस्ते

Or… Tucker And Candace… Are Just… Evil, Scott.

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Look. Scott is right that the amplifying of this loon’s hateful rhetoric is damaging to all Americans. But it is most clearly-damaging… to the weird, tortured coalition that lost the popular vote in 2016 [but got an exceedingly narrow electoral college “win/do over” for Tangerine, that year]. It implodes the nasty hard right, so what’s not to like?!

Since then, Trumpism has been largely “Oh- for three” About to be… zero for four.

But if he (or you) think that Tucker / Candace Owens has a larger strategic goal in mind… you are giving these two idiots too much credit.

They never see past the next news cycle (that’s how Tucker got fired for costing his network hundreds of millions in libel judgments) — no; they are only chasing clicks and likes.

That’s all. They are, in a word… the banality we see in all evil things. Nothing more.

For her part, to top it off, Candace has decided “muh religion” commands her to demonize a Rabbi with whom she disagreed. To utterly ignore Matt. 25: 35-46. To ignore Christ’s social gospel.

To label him, and his synagogue, as “of Satan”.

Wow. Just like (albeit on a much grander scale, and related to lies about Arizona law, most recently), Musk is self-destructing the Twitter / X-itter brand, such as it is — with his knowing lies, so much so that most well-healed advertisers now intend to boycott his platform, at least for the rest of election season 2024… these three two think being notorious is the same as being famous.

Clue, to all three: it will not last. You all are more irrelevant day by day. Out.

And Scott is very much too deep in the punch bowl… to see that.

Steve Hayward Goes… All “Concern Troll” — In The Form Of A Lunatic’s Rant…

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Y A W N.

Not much need be said by any of his dot points. They are so laughable as to be self-refuting.

But at the end, he acknowledges (as he must) that credible evidence now exists that both in 2020 and now 2024 — Russian state affiliated actors were (and ARE) PAYING many of Steve’s most admired bevy of MAGA influencers… to corrupt our elections. Most of his moron influencers… claim they were “duped”.

By that they mean they cashed the checks, took the Zelle, accepted the Venmo… and ASKED ZERO QUESTIONS. The authorities will now drop by for a chin-wag, to test the probity of their assertions of innocence — the claims that “mistakes were made“.

Steve — if you took any, you too… are a putz.

Out.

Meanwhile, Tangerine’s DeFi “Solution” — To “Meany” Banks… Is To Have You Just Give Him 70% Of Your Capital.

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Again, Coindesk had the lead story today, on Trump’s loony supposed crypto / decentralized finance moves.

The outlet has a copy of Tangerine’s white paper setting out a purported mechanism to let MAGA world turn its collective back on trad-fi / banking — and “stick it to the man”.

Uh-huh.

Except that Trump charges each participant a 70% “vig” fee, off the top.

That is, Trump and sons take 70% of all tokens for free (to them), and leave regular MAGAts contributing 100% of the risk capital, but only seeing 30% participation.

Most legit DeFi protocols offer splits that are exactly flipped from this: the capital infusers get no less than 70% to 80% of the tokens, and founders / facilitators accept no more than 20% (or 30% in some cases).

In sum, Trump’s answer… is to just confiscate whatever you were looking to do through a regular bank — for his own pocket (charging 70% vig). And you’re asked to trust that he will make smart moves with your money. [Kinda’ like his six casino bankruptcies.]

Damn… he’s a lumbering fat old crime spree.

Nothing more.

Out.

Liz Cheney Will Vote For Kamala! [UPDATE: Dick Cheney, Too!] Tells NC Voters “Don’t Stay Home!”

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

She also told them if they want to mark a “protest vote” against Tangerine… don’t write in a third name; “vote Kamala”!

Her point is that in swing states like NC, staying home, or boring write in… helps Tangerine.

Here’s her bit:

…The former Wyoming congresswoman noted the importance of voting for Harris in states like North Carolina, where she appeared on Wednesday.

“I think it is crucially important for people to recognize, not only is what I just said about the danger that Trump poses something that should prevent people from voting for him, but I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” Cheney said…

“And as a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris,” she continued….

Yes, I’d say this is more important than some Walz cousins in Nebraska.

This is a retired former leader of the US House Republican Conference, a life-long GOP stalwart, and daughter of a prior hard line GOP Veep. In this move, she suggests what many whyte college educated GOP married suburban women won’t tell their husbands — but will quietly vote for Kamala — to protect their own bodily autonomy.

Trump is going to lose, and lose… bigly.