The Supremes Stayed Virginia’s Attempt To “Add Back” To Voting Rolls — After “One Time” Purge — Undertaken During “Quiet Period”…

October 30, 2024 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

The Supremes are clearly in the wrong here. There is on record proof that Virginia conducted a “one off” — a purge of voters it asserted were non-citizens (some of those, clearly were determinations made in error — see blue pull quote) at the beginning of the quiet period (when no changes may lawfully be made).

Overnight, the Supremes, with the usual “rule of law” threesome dissenting [Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, and Justice Jackson would deny the application for stay], decided that Virgina need not add back some 1,600 voters it purged until after this election. Damn. Here’s the opposition brief, from an immigrants’ rights group:

…Applicants have not argued that the ad hoc process was required by state law or consistent with past practice. To the contrary, applicants and their own declarant described it as a “one-time” departure from the State’s usual procedures. Appl. App. 69, 88. Nor have applicants explained why they waited until weeks into the Quiet Period to initiate a novel removal program based on data that was up to 13 months old. And although the ad hoc process appears to have been undertaken in response to the Governor’s executive order, the order itself did not expressly describe the process or otherwise provide the public with notice that Virginia would be undertaking a new voter-removal program just before the 2024 election….

For example, applicants canceled the registration of two voters whose applications were prominently stamped “NEW CITIZEN.” Private Resp. C.A. App. SA137, SA155. Applicants also canceled the registration of a member of the League of Women Voters of Virginia who was a naturalized citizen and had voted before. Id. at SA214. A lifelong citizen who recently renewed her driver’s license discovered that her registration had been canceled when she attempted to vote earlier this month. Id. at SA225. She was not offered a provisional ballot and instead had to re-register to ensure that her vote would be counted. Id. at SA225-SA226. Another citizen who was born in Virginia was removed from the rolls and learned of her disenfranchisement only after one of the private respondents contacted her. Id. at SA226-SA227; see id. at SA218 (describing 14 additional “United States citizens,” many of whom “have been registered for years and are frequent voters,” whose registrations were cancelled)….

It is hard not to see this as Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Roberts, Gorsuch and Barrett trying to supress lawful votes, ones that might break toward Democratic candidates, in Virginia. But we will win Virginia for Kamala in spite of this. It will be… blue — by late night on the Fifth.

नमस्ते

Next Week, The State Of Texas Must Defend — At Trial, In Del Rio — Its Killing Of Asylum Seekers On The Rio Grande, Via Floating Razor Wire…

October 30, 2024 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

The trial is to decide whether a permanent (as opposed to temporary) injunction should issue, removing the existing floating razor wire barrier, and preventing all future such builds, by Texas.

Since the ruby red Fifth Circuit authored an opinion saying it wasn’t sure the shallow Rio Grande River waters at Eagle Pass are presently “navigable waters“, the US has wisely decided to only prove that these waters meet the historical test for what makes it a federal waterway. That greatly simplifies the trial, and puts the river’s middle under federal rather than state control. Of course, to the south of the middle is owned by the government of. . . Mexico. So Texas has no business obstructing federal or Mexico’s waterways. That is how the trial will end, in my opinion. Here’s a bit from two documents filed overnight (here, and here), setting the new parameters for the trial:

…Defendants informed the Court and the United States by email on October 24, 2024, that they will require more than a week to present their case. The United States notes that the issues on which it will present trial evidence are narrower, following the Fifth Circuit’s recent en banc decision, than the parties originally had anticipated when their filed their first set of pre-trial submissions on July 26, 2024. See United States v. Abbott, 110 F.4th 700 (5th Cir. July 30, 2024).

Specifically, in light of that decision, the United States has proposed no findings of fact or conclusions of law that the Rio Grande may be determined a “navigable” water subject to Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act based on “susceptibility to commercial navigation with reasonable improvements” now or in the future. See id. at 717-18; see also ECF 227 at 14-15; ECF 236 at 1-3. Instead, the United States now only proposes findings and conclusions that the Rio Grande may be determined a navigable water based on evidence that it “historically was used or could have been used for commercial navigation.” See Abbott, 110 F.4th at 710-11….

This is a straightforward civil enforcement case brought under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA), 33 U.S.C. § 403. Defendants stipulate that they installed a floating buoy barrier in the Rio Grande without seeking or obtaining a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Section 10. Nor did they have any other federal authorization. The evidence at trial will show that Defendants’ action violated Section 10, and the harm caused by this violation and other equitable factors support a permanent injunction as requested in Paragraphs 46 a-b. and d.-e. of the First Amended Complaint. ECF 60 ¶ 46.a-b., d-e.

The relevant segment of the Rio Grande, specifically between mile markers 275.5 and 610 and inclusive of the area in the vicinity of the floating barrier, is a “navigable river” and a navigable “water of the United States” under Section 10. Texas’ placement of the floating barrier violated and is violating Section 10—both its first clause (“obstruction . . . to the navigable capacity”) and, independently, its second clause (“building of . . . structures”). 33 U.S.C. § 403….

Now you know. And since we’ve previously covered the young Louisiana “STEM on Fleek” math whizzes who used trig to offer a new proof of Pythagoras, we will wait a week to put up the peer reviewed journal article they now hold — saving it for election day. Smile… we will all need a distraction, whilst we await the fate of our democracy — and our nation.

नमस्ते

Tangent: NLRB Hearing Officers Increasingly Willing To Label Amazon As A “Joint Employer” — With Its Putative “Contractor” Drivers’ Companies.

October 29, 2024October 29, 2024 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

As many may recall, we try to check in at least once each month, with a story on Jeff Bezos’ ongoing, and accelerating mistreatment of his employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act. This is the October ’24 post.

Previously, Amazon has taken a legalistic approach to avoid having to bargain over working conditions and wages, by supposedly hiring outside contractor firms to run the bulk of its delivery truck services. That gambit is increasingly falling apart, as Skokie, Illinois and Bakersfield, California — among several other sites have seen orders entered that in fact, Amazon controls or influences policies for drivers, through the contract firms.

Indeed, Amazon terminated a contract with Battle Tested Strategies (in Palmdale, California and in Northern Illinois), when the drivers there voted to unionize — with the Teamsters. It is pretty clear that that violates about a half-century of NLRB case law. Here’s the story, from Reuters:

…Amazon has been accused by a U.S. labor board of illegally refusing to bargain with a union representing drivers employed by a contractor, the agency announced on Wednesday.

The complaint from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claims that Amazon is a so-called “joint employer” of drivers employed by the contractor, Battle Tested Strategies (BTS), and used a series of illegal tactics to discourage union activities at a facility in Palmdale, California….

The NLRB in a complaint issued on Monday said Amazon broke the law by terminating its contract with BTS after the drivers unionized, without first bargaining with the Teamsters.

The board had said in August that it had found merit to the union’s claims that Amazon exerts control over BTS drivers and should be considered their employer under federal labor law. The NLRB at the time said it would issue a complaint unless Amazon settled the case….

So-called “joint employer” status would require Amazon to sit down and bargain before changing the BTS contractors’ terms. [And all that is before we excoriate Bezos, for being too much a coward to let his editorial staff at the Wa Po endorse Kamala.] Now you know. Do stay tuned — as Amazon has filed papers to appeal or reconsider this trial level ruling. Onward, grinning….

नमस्ते

A Single “Ebola-Like” Lassa Virus Death Recorded, In Iowa… Patient Recently Traveled To West Africa: A Disconcerting Development.

October 29, 2024 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

It is absolutely true that the risk to the public in Iowa or the US generally is… infinitesimal.

Moreover, it was a native Iowan who went to Africa and returned, likely unaware that the virus had found a host.

Even so, it should be a reminder that in this modern jet age — we all need to be each other’s keepers. Viral agents do not respect lines drawn on some General’s map. We need to think in terms of GLOBAL public health efforts (and to be clear, I am thinking here mostly of public education and outreach efforts — as well as sanitary water devices / supplies for all humans, worldwide), not just local and in state- or country.

That’s my $0.02, for what it is worth — now, here is the story, from STAT:

…A person from Iowa who recently returned to the United States from West Africa has died after contracting Lassa fever, a virus that can cause Ebola-like illness in some patients. State health officials reported the case on Monday.

“I want to assure Iowans that the risk of transmission is incredibly low in our state. We continue to investigate and monitor this situation and are implementing the necessary public health protocols,” Robert Kruse, state medical director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement posted to the department’s website….

I might again mention that both climate change (which is forcing African populations to migrate deeper into mountainous regions in search of stable water supplies), and deforestation that comes from taking back these areas from wild nature… inexorably puts humans in increasing contact with bats, boars and spiders that for perhaps 12,000 years have seen no human contact (since the last Ice Age). So it is likely (and we’ve covered it before) that the quadruple ~~triple~~ outbreak in Africa right now — Ebola, Lassa, Mpox and Marburg… is in some measure also. . . climate related.

Now you know… with airport runs (from Heathrow — by way of a month in Tbilisi, Georgia — crazy election stories, there, too BTW!) this evening — getting excited! Grin.

नमस्ते

Could Mirengoff Be Right — About What Tangerine Did, Via “The KKK Garden Rally ’24” — To His Chances?

October 28, 2024October 29, 2024 ~ condor ~ 2 Comments

I think Paul, Stevie and Johnnie and Scottie are a lil’… panicky. Trump’s latest overt Klan rally has them spooked — because like them, I too know more than a bit of Presidential campaigning / close races history. And Paul’s below is a fair accounting — of 1884.

Here it is, in context:

…[One] might compare yesterday’s event to remarks delivered in New York during the presidential campaign of 1884. In that race the Republican, James Blaine, appeared to have a slight edge over the Democrat, Grover Cleveland. New York state was thought (correctly, it turned out) to hold the key to victory.

On October 29, Blaine attended a reception in New York City hosted by Protestant ministers. At that event, Rev. Samuel D. Burchard of the Murray Hill Presbyterian Church said that he and others like him “don’t propose to… identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been rum, Romanism, and rebellion.”

The “rum, Romanism, and rebellion” remark was widely reported. In the final days of the campaign, it became a rallying point for Cleveland’s supporters….

Cleveland won the popular vote by 23,000 out of almost 10 million votes cast. The electoral college split was 219 to 182. New York state went to Cleveland by only 1,149 votes. Had Blaine picked up New York’s 36 electoral votes, he would have been President.

Thus, it’s quite possible that the “rum, Romanism, and rebellion” remark — which, again, Blaine did not make — cost him the presidency….

On the contra-side of the argument… personally, I think our nation’s public life / politics have become coarser — more profane, if not less-educated — than generally obtained, in 1884.

So… I don’t really know, Paul.

I’ll hope you’ll prove prophetic. But I might more directly point to the early exit polling in Georgia (still to say it tips toward Kamala), where four percent of the voters identify as “Asian Indian American“. Word is, that early vote is breaking a little over 70-30 — for Kamala (as a mixed race point of pride, and the only competent person in the race this year).

If the 70-30 holds up in Georgia (and in PA and MI) — Trump loses the election on those alone.

He cannot win any of those three states unless he gets to at least 50-50 on the voters who are of Indian descent (or these voters stay home in record numbers — something they already have shown they aren’t likely to do). The math just isn’t there, given that all of these states are essentially… dead heats.

So — maybe “Trump’s 2024 Klan Rally in the Garden” will be the difference — maybe it won’t, Paul.

But I suspect the difference is there — and the independents are good and sick of Trump and his weak, small whiny reverse racism claims.

Onward. Get used to saying “Madame President”, Paul.

Now 19 Nations In Africa Have Seen Current Outbreak Mpox Cases — Latest, In Mauritius — A Man Traveling From Nigeria…

October 28, 2024October 28, 2024 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

So… these are the inflections moments… when things feel… a little discouraging.

A 49 year old man who traveled recently from Nigeria — and landed in Mauritius — is now in hospital in Port Louis, the capital. CIDRAP (again!) has the scoop, thus:

…Mauritius on October 26 announced its first mpox case, which involves a 49-year-old man who had traveled from Nigeria, according to a government announcement translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board. The patient is being treated in isolation at a hospital in Port Louis.

The report didn’t note the clade of the virus. The country’s case brings the number of African nations reporting mpox cases this year to 19….

Now you know. Onward — to an otherwise wonderful week ahead. Grin.

नमस्ते

Some New And Interesting Perseverance Mineral Compositions, Found Inside Rocks — In An Ancient (Likely) Riverbed, On Mars…

October 28, 2024October 28, 2024 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

While it is more probable that the iron oxidations we see in these Serpentine Rapids on Barsoom are the result of geologic sulfur deposits interacting with wet iron beds… as we most often see here on Earth, there is at least a chance that the red-to-green speckles in these Martian rocks settled there, as a result of some two to three billion year old microbial (life-engendered) chemistry.

And that fires my imagination, as many here well know. Here’s the run-down from NASA — near Neretva Vallis river channel, in Jezero Crater:

…At Serpentine Rapids, Perseverance used its abrading bit to create an abrasion patch in a red rock outcrop named “Wallace Butte.” The 5-cm diameter abrasion patch revealed a striking array of white, black, and green colors within the rock. One of the biggest surprises for the rover team was the presence of the drab-green-colored spots within the abrasion patch, which are composed of dark-toned cores with fuzzy, light green rims.

On Earth, red rocks — sometimes called “red beds” — generally get their color from oxidized iron (Fe³⁺), which is the same form of iron that makes our blood red, or the rusty red color of metal left outside. Green spots like those observed in the Wallace Butte abrasion are common in ancient “red beds” on Earth and form when liquid water percolates through the sediment before it hardens to rock, kicking off a chemical reaction that transforms oxidized iron to its reduced (Fe²⁺) form, resulting in a greenish hue. On Earth, microbes are sometimes involved in this iron reduction reaction.

However, green spots can also result from decaying organic matter that creates localized reducing conditions. Interactions between sulfur and iron can also create iron-reducing conditions without the involvement of microbial life….

Now you know. Some 40 million miles, out into our cool night skies — there may once have been… some simple microbial life, even as our planet was just then giving rise to cooling water ponds from which (some two billion years later), the species that became… Lucy arose here, at Olduvai Gorge. Smile.

नमस्ते

More Encouraging News: This 2024 Fruit Bat Borne Marburg’s Is Likely Quite Similar To Prior Outbreaks, Genetically

October 28, 2024 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Although there were two new cases detected over the weekend, this is all still moderately good news. The rate of viral infection is clearly trending downward, and the public health outreach seems to be working.

Moreover, there is good reason to believe that current experimental vaccines and therapeutics will be effective in arresting this 2024 strain, as it is highly similar to previously detected Marburg strains, from fruit bats — and so we have a roadmap that leads to an end point… with some high confidence. Still the death rates among those infected hover at over 70%… so the need is quite urgent. Here is CIDRAP (via the U. of Minn.) on it all:

…Rwanda’s latest Marburg virus cases have genetic links to cave sites, and the fruit bats in them…. At a weekly press briefing yesterday hosted by Africa Centres for Disease Prevention and Control (Africa CDC), Rwanda Minister of Health Sabin Nsanzimana, MD, PhD, said the index patient is thought to have contracted the virus in a cave where fruit bats, known to carry the virus, were living. He added that the cave is located in a mining area and that a current focus is making sure fruit bats are not interacting with humans….

The incubation period for Marburg infection can range from 2 to 21 days, with symptoms such as high fever, headache, and severe malaise that can appear abruptly. Two new cases were reported in the last week.

Rwandan scientists last week said genetic sequencing suggests the virus spreading in Rwanda is very similar to that reported before in the region….

Now you know — with unseasonably warm weather here, and clear too — for Halloween week (and early voting!). My baby girl’s back from London for a month’s visit, starting tomorrow night (and the grand nieces are completely thrilled!)…. Woot!

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Thinks It Acceptable To Defend Comedian — As “Same As” 75 Years Ago?!

October 28, 2024October 28, 2024 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Obviously realizing the MAGA event in the Garden last night was a disaster that likely cost GOP over five million votes (ones it had been ham-handed courting) nationwide… Hinderaker lamely claims that “jokes” made by Don Rickles, in 1962, no less… excuse a Klanner set in 2024.

That’s… precious.

And yet, it is a preposterously accurate proof: Trump wants a “backward” sensibility in his nation (to put it entirely too charitably).

His boy JD Vance longs for a time “only about 110 years ago”… when women couldn’t vote in the US.

And even Hinderaker admits Dr. Phil is a buffoon, with no business on stage [but these are Tangerine’s only (third tier) “celebs”: Hulk Hogan, and the CEO of a brokerage firm nearly wiped out in the fall of the towers on 9/11 — a terrorist attack a quarter century ago, now]. Yikes.

This is the party of a shameful racist past. A broke, disbarred lawyer (one fighting the sale of his NYC condo, and former mayor)… is the MC / guy introducing the joint?!? Damn.

Own it, Hinderaker. We are done with the lot of you. You are dying off. Good riddance.