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If No Trial Court Ruling Comes This Evening, In Minneapolis On The Class Action Against ICE & Noem… The Eighth Cir. Will Then Resume Appeal Briefing Schedules…

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We will check back in after dinner tonight, to see if the district court has made an indicative ruling on the preliminary injunction, here.

This is to address the lawlessness by ICE/DHS under Bovino and Kristi Noem [both of whom have been relieved of their duties now] — lawlessness that culminated in the senseless deaths of Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti. This was a time completely out of control of the rule of law, in Minnesota. Here’s the latest:

…JUDGE ORDER:

After consideration of Plaintiffs-Appellees’ Motion to Stay Proceedings [5608452-2] and the Government’s response, the Court will hold this appeal in abeyance until March 6, 2026 pending an indicative ruling by the district court on a motion to dissolve the preliminary injunction. See Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 62.1.

If no indicative ruling is entered by that date or the district court denies such a motion, the appeal will proceed in due course.

Judge Stras would deny the motion to stay the appeal. Adp Jan 2026 [5609632] [26-1105]….

Now you know. Onward, resolutely — just the same.

नमस्ते

[U: Jurors’ Notes] I’ll Bet Martin Shkreli WILL NOT Be Called For The Second Trial — Jury Deadlocked. Wow.

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Of course, since the indictment alleges a three count set of felonies — there will be a retrial. Bank on that. [Trivially, here are the jury instructions, as given. Heh.]

The jury indicated it could not come to a verdict. And forgive me — but as of last night, I was wondering about a guilty as to the other two charges, and an acquittal (actually, a nullification) as to the alleged crimes against Martin Shkreli, himself.

We shall see — but that may mean that Martin won’t be a state’s witness, next time:

…Minute Entry for proceedings held before Judge Jacqueline Becerra:

Jury Trial as to Kevin Patrick Mulleady held on 3/5/2026. Day 4.

The Jury continued to deliberate and were given the Allen Charge [to keep deliberating]….

Mistrial declared as the Jurors could not come to a Verdict.

Trial completed. Jurors released.

New Trial to be set.

Total time in court: 7 hour(s).

Attorney Appearance(s): Jonathan Jacobson, Felipe Plechac-Diaz, Elizabeth Blair, Evan Lewis Kuhl, and Kathleen Ellen Mollison….

Condor’s observation: The jurors’ handwritten notes plainly confirm that they were deeply, irretrievably… divided, even after 10 hours.

Onward — now you know — the truth will always be far stranger….

नमस्ते

[U] Trump Demands “Surrender” — But He Killed The Leaders With Authority To… Surrender, In Iran.

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The phrase “stupid is as stupid does” comes to mind…

Except that this man is… malignant — as well as as stupid.

Trump just demanded the “unconditional surrender” of Iran, in order to stop the bombings.

Six days ago, he killed the entire leadership team that would have had that authority, on behalf of the Iranian people, to execute an unconditional surrender.

This is exactly why you don’t take out heads of state: because then you’re left with no one to negotiate / enforce the putative surrender.

Trump himself said that the people he was hoping would lead… are all dead.

That makes it a little tough to figure out who could possibly offer a surrender that would hold.

The man has less than a third grade understanding of world affairs.

Updated — Friday late: Trump now says “surrender” happens when all Iranian troops put down their arms, and walk away.

This would be comical if it wasn’t so tragic: so every single soldier and navy swabbie and air force tech or captain… must completely… desert their posts, in order for the bombing to end?

Idiot. How will he know — how will he and Bibi monitor?! This is… disgustingly stupid — and lethal to our troops.

And so, our troops will continue dying — for this willful ignorance — day by day.

Damn.

Yep. There’s “Lies, Damn Lies… And Then, There’s… Scott Johnson”. Indeed.

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Now, twice this week — even after sitting in the well, and listening to not one, but two multi-hour federal District Court civil contempt hearings in Minneapolis (largely because… his friends are in danger of… the same civil contempt), Scott turns up falsely framing the whole narrative as a tempest in a teapot, because some “misplaced” prisoner property was not immediately returned on release, under issued writs of habeas corpus. [His prior lies, here.]

Scott conveniently never mentions that the “property” is not underwear or shoelaces. Or even watches or wallets.

No, the “property NOT returned“… is, in each case, the papers that prove the wrongly-detained person is here in the USA… LAWFULLY.

What a damn liar he is.

Imagine that Scott is traveling in Russia. Or China. Further imagine that the local authorities detain him for spitting on a sidewalk (something video evidence proves he DID NOT do). Now, he miraculously gets in front of a real judge — and with the US Consulate, is able to secure his release. But the KGB [or Chinese Secret Police] “releases” him, minus his US passport — despite an express order (from this entirely-mythical judge) to give him back his passport (so he can safely walk the streets to the American Embassy — and in further mythical story-telling, fly home).

Nope — he’s now subject to immediate re-arrest, on the street, for not being able to prove he’s in the country lawfully — without his papers. So right back to Siberia [or another hell-hole] he goes.

[I suspect he’d not style that “a lost shoe-laces” case.]

Yeah, Scott — that is what these cases are about.

The federal judges expressly ordered that these detainees are not to be re-arrested, but their ability to avoid being profiled and re-detained, and shoved off to El Paso without a hearing… all hinges on having their PAPERS.

You, son — are an a$$hole — and a wanna’-be brown-shirt.

These MAGA AUSAs have a clear choice: they can tell their lawless clients that they won’t participate in frauds on the courts — and withdraw their appearance. They can dare Trump to fire them.

They can also make a noisy withdrawal, and say their clients are refusing to obey court orders.

Then they are protected from Trump retaliation.

So — yes Scott… they CHOOSE to be subject to contempt. Idiot.

Shut it.

Gilead Now In Talks To Actually Manufacture AIDS Therapeutic In South Africa — As Well As Sell It, At A Discounted License Rate. Good On Them!

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This is on top of already discounted sales arrangements for Sunlenca® / Lenacapavir in about 120 emerging economy nations. And it is the responsible, moral and ethically-correct thing to do. The burden of AIDS remains staggering in much of the world — especially the areas least able to afford the next-gen therapeutics.

Here’s that from Reuters [but the more informed take belongs to my buddy Ed Silverman ($ subs. req.), over at Stat+ — do go read his, of yesterday].

…Gilead, a U.S. pharmaceutical company, granted six voluntary licences in 2024 to generic manufacturers across India, Egypt and Pakistan to produce and supply the drug ⁠to 120 low- and middle-income countries. These included South Africa, although there was criticism that no South African drugmakers were included.

A licence for a South African company would be the seventh such deal, potentially boosting access to a drug many HIV/AIDS experts have said could help bring an end to the 44-year-old pandemic by slashing the numbers of new infections.

Gilead said it has been open to adding an additional voluntary license for local manufacturing in Sub-Saharan Africa. “Gilead will review the proposals and assess ​whether required quality standards can be met before any voluntary license is granted,” the company said in an email….

Do well, by going good — indeed. Onward, smiling into a very London-, or Dublin-like morning again, here.

नमस्ते

Tangent / Epilogue: “Beyond” Removes “Meat” From Its Name. Hilarious!

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[This is just some lighter fare, from one of our other properties, this morning — about the likely end of the “pea-protein” based retail grocery offering called “Beyond Meat“. Enjoy.]

I must admit… I had not looked in on this name / train-wreck in quite a while (we bought long dated puts, and made a killing in 2023-24, as it fell from $97-ish, to the low-teens).

With a 2025-26 trading range between $0.70 and $0.90 a share (down from $279, at the top)… What’s the point?

However, I did notice this morning that the company has “re-branded” itself to take the descriptor “meat” out of its trademarks and word-marks. [Oddly, it has left the steer in its graphical logo, though?!]

In any event, it apparently plans to emphasize the selling of functional beverages — ones that are “plant based“.

Ahem. In a prior life at a Fortune 125 healthcare and life sciences company, I co-led a team that brought to market a functional beverage — to be sold in hospitals and alternate care settings.

Confessional/B-School Case Study: we failed, and failed miserably — because the giant water companies introduced various “faux” functional waters, at about 1/5th of the price of the offering we put on the shelves in groceries and ultimately, hospitals.

I am willing to bet my last dollar (for a donut-hole) that the same outcome is going to appear for our friends at “Beyond _____“.

Onward, grinning.

[U] See Ya’ — Hey, Hey ICE Barbie! Bub-Bye! [Hinderaker Says He’s “On Vacation” — So, No Defense Of His Grrl.]

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Updated @ 6 pm | John now comments on her cashiering, and all he really has to say is that she “lost her way” and “went Hollywood”.

Weird. I really can’t imagine what he means by that. She certainly is the last thing from a Hollywood starlet that I could ever envision, Mr. DeMille… Unless he means a horror flick protagonist like “Species”… But whatever — that was his comment. End update.

I am sure this new guy won’t be any more law-abiding, but I do love seeing people’s karma come back around — to greet them, just the same.More soon. Somebody somewhere commented that replacing her with Mullin is like sh!tting your pants… but then running home and only changing your shirt. That seems about right.

We are pretty sure her combative stance with members of her own party this week, on the Hill. . . did her in.

I love that Hinderaker was chief among the hard-right loons that had been pushing her as the next GOP nominee for 1600 Penn. No more, I’d say. Hilarious! From the NYT, then:

…President Trump announced Thursday that he was firing his homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, and wanted Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her. He announced it on his social media platform, Truth Social….

Mr. Trump announced the change on social media, along with a new, and previously nonexistent, role for Ms. Noem: special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, which he said would be a new security initiative for the Western Hemisphere.

Mr. Trump is close with Mr. Mullin, a Republican, and speaks with him regularly.

Ms. Noem — the first cabinet member to be ousted in Mr. Trump’s second term — had been among the key figures in the administration fulfilling his mass deportation effort, which he campaigned on aggressively and which was heavily influenced by Stephen Miller, a top White House adviser.

But her tenure had been marked by a string of controversies, and her fate had been the focus of speculation among Mr. Trump’s allies for several weeks. On Thursday, the president contradicted remarks that Ms. Noem made under penalty of perjury in her hearing before a Senate panel on Wednesday: that Mr. Trump had signed off ​on a border security advertising campaign featuring Ms. Noem.

“I never knew anything about it,” Mr. Trump told Reuters. A White House spokeswoman declined to comment, and referred a reporter to Mr. Trump’s comments to Reuters….

Onward, grinning — ear to ear. What an endlessly stupid chaos machine all of MAGA, forever… is. Yikes.

नमस्ते

New Video Installment: Sophie — On “ε” Training For The Crew-12 ISS Mission…

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When things look bleak, globally — as now… we are likely to turn to off-world items, like the below. I’m not sure she’d love the “influencer” label — but so it goes.

The European Space Agency clearly gets that an “orbiting influencer” paradigm is something NASA cannot yet grasp. So here it is, again — as earlier in the week — from Sophie Adenot’s feed, and a new YouTube video — at that ESA εpsilon dashboard we’ve mentioned:

…ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot began her training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, where she studied spacecraft systems and crew operations — learning to think and act as an astronaut. Alongside this, she conditioned her body for spaceflight and prepared for the physical and operational demands of her mission.

Her preparation includes continuous medical training and support, neutral buoyancy training for spacewalks and immersive virtual reality sessions at ESA’s XR Lab.

This video features interviews with Bimba Hoyer, Flight Surgeon at ESA; Hervé Stevenin, Head of EVA & Parabolic Flight Training Unit and Head of the Neutral Buoyancy Facility; and Lionel Ferra, Software and Artificial Intelligence Team Leader at ESA.

Credits: European Space Agency (ESA)….

Onward, grinning.

नमस्ते

Do Go Read All Of EW This Morning. She’s Got Him — Dead To Rights. AGAIN.

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As ever, she is the best.

The absolute best — at re-framing — for an objective reality… what Tangerine 2.0’s insane late night social rants REALLY portend:

…In reality, though, this very [Truth Social] tweet, Trump’s promise he could and would ensure the FREE FLOW of ENERGY to the WORLD real soon is a confession — a confession that Trump and his sycophantic advisors didn’t begin to think about the most obvious problem their illegal war of choice would cause until ships were already backed up on both sides of the Strait.

Donald Trump is batshit. He, along with several of his advisors, are under the delirious belief he is all powerful and can effect his will simply by issuing a tweet.

Until that becomes the story, Trump will dodge accountability for the most reckless decision in recent history….

Exactly. Damn. Onward.

नमस्ते

An Excellent, Data-Driven Analysis Of Tangerine 2.0 “De-Funding” Lawlessness…

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In the “Quick Hits Dept.”…

Thanks go out to the ScotusBlog.com, for this:

…Emily Badger and Alicia Parlapiano at the NYT provide an in-depth look at lawsuits over the Trump administration’s changes to a variety of government funding programs, including its efforts to keep funds from communities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement and from organizations that promote DEI programs. The analysis includes 198 lawsuits and notes that the “[w]hen plaintiffs have sought immediate relief, district court judges have temporarily blocked the administration’s actions 79 percent of the time, signaling plaintiffs’ likely success on the merits. In the 26 instances where district judges have issued partial or final rulings, the administration lost 23.” By comparison, “appellate courts have reversed or paused orders against the administration in about 40 percent of their rulings.”

The article noted that the Supreme Court’s June ruling “ending nationwide injunctions” has lessened the impact of lower court losses, which helps explain why the Trump administration has persisted with its plan to withhold funding from groups it disagrees with even in the face of so many lawsuits….

Onward, grinning on a foggy Thursday, now — awaiting a Kevin Mulleady felony verdict — or three.