Trivia… but John types the wrong word into his headline.
He’s also wrong about rioters being “understandable”.
Y A W N.
See ‘ya John — you overpaid for that Dartmouth sheepskin. Heh.
Category: Uncategorized
Two Hiccups In Second Engine Burn, For Cygnus Launch Vehicle… May Delay Tuesday’s Docking.
Well… I guess it was prescient not to make a graphic last night. The Cygnus is in a stable orbit, but so far has missed two attempts to fire up the engines to lift it to an orbit where the ISS CanArm might pluck it — and attach it to the station on Tuesday night.
The plan is to de-bug the underpressure reading, and then fire the engine — likely in the next 12 hours, so Cygnus will still be on schedule for ISS intercept in the wee hours of Tuesday night. Here’s the latest, from NASA’s blog on it all:
…Shortly after launch, the spacecraft missed its first burn slated for 11:44 a.m. due to a late entry to burn sequencing. Known as the targeted altitude burn, or TB1, it was rescheduled for 12:34 p.m., but aborted the maneuver shortly after the engine ignited due to a slightly low initial pressure state. There is no indication the engine itself has any problem at this time.
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft completed the deployment of its two solar arrays at 2:21 p.m. EDT after launching at 11:02 a.m. Aug. 4 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to the International Space Station for NASA….
Cygnus is at a safe altitude, and Northrop Grumman engineers are working a new burn and trajectory plan. The team aims to achieve the spacecraft’s original capture time on station, which is currently slated for 3:10 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6….
Not the “A” answer, to be certain — but as we’ve long said — space is… hard. It leaves me again marvelling, at all the Apollo missions, and most of the Mercury ones… that went off exactly as drawn up. Amazing — those were wildly-capable engineers, without a doubt. More, as we get it from NASA’s blogs. Onward.
नमस्ते
Mirengoff Thinks A Death Sentence Is “Worse” (More Just?), Than ~10 Years Of Daily Torture At Gitmo?
Mirengoff — like Hinderaker — has argued (since 9/11!) that we should have promptly tortured and executed KSM.
We didn’t. Now he wants to put the death penalty back on the table. I don’t.
It is a stupid expense to keep pursuing a death sentence. One I’m done wasting time on.
We have federal SuperMax prisons for a reason.
If they can hold El Chapo at about $75,000 a year… that same essentially solitary confinement wing can hold… KSM. Safely, forever.
We are now paying $13 million a year to keep Gitmo open for an increasingly small number of detainees.
KSM is a monster. I now advocate locking him away in the cheapest secure option available.
That’s the Florence SuperMax. [Funny, Paul and John don’t mind that he was tortured for a decade, at Gitmo. But whatever. He will go clinically insane (if the boys are just interested in cruelty — this is it!) in solitary, at Florence.]
Everything else Paul (and John) write is simply a burping bunch of “woulda’ coulda’ shouldas‘” — all of which are their party’s fault.
See Cheney / Bush 43. There’s your look backward, in anger. No place else. All you write is theater — ignoring your own culpability for pushing the 2004 agendas you did.
All that is left now (in my estimation) is to protect US taxpayers… by doing it as cheaply as possible. We cannot undo the mistakes Paul and John made.
I D I O T S.
It Pains Me Greatly — To Still Have To Point Out That These Reagan-Era Violations Persist, In Some Measure, At The Borders.
Well… this will be one additional benefit of the incoming Harris Administration: she will be laser focused on ending these abuses. Frankly, Mr. Biden got distracted — and didn’t ever give direct orders to summarily fire any agents in the field still violating the long standing USDC court orders, of USDC Judges Gee, Tigar and Sabraw — in California.
That is what needs to happen next — shortly after November 2024. Perhaps even entire units will need to be walked out, and replaced with National Guard, on a temporary basis. Each time, no matter where the crossing occurs, if a traveller or family says they are seeking asylum, even if uttered in a language other than English, the due process rights attach. Rights in treaties and federal statutes and long standing immigration rules. Here’s the latest timeline, and update, on hearings in the litigation — but this remains a shameful stain, on the legacy of the lady with the torch, in the harbor out East:
MINUTE ORDER IN CHAMBERS by Judge Dolly M. Gee.
…The court has duly considered the parties’ joint status report and their oral presentations at the August 2, 2024 status conference. As the parties have not yet come to an agreement on the appropriate protocols at the OADS — to ensure compliance with the April 3, 2024 order, and they dispute the facts, regarding CPB‘s compliance with the FSA and the court’s April 3, 2024 order, the court orders the following:
Defendants shall file a copy of CBP’s June 5, 2024 guidance memorandum, under seal, by 08/06/2024.
The CBP Juvenile Coordinator, Henry A. Moak, Jr., shall file a further interim report to supplement his prior 05/10/2024 interim report [Doc. # [1413-1]] (covering the same topics) by 09/06/2024 and to provide the Court with an update regarding the present conditions at the OADS.
The parties shall meet and confer regarding the conditions at the OADS, the status of any minors held at the OADS, and how to remedy any continuing disagreement as to CBP’s compliance with both the FSA and the Court’s April 3, 2024 Order.
The parties may seek the assistance of the Juvenile Case Monitor if necessary. The parties shall file a Joint Status Report as to their efforts by 09/13/2024, including a summary of what, if any, disputed facts remain. If still necessary following the parties’ meet and confer efforts, the Court shall hold an evidentiary hearing as to any disputed facts and/or a further status conference on September 20, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. (see order for complete details….)
These are children, some travelling all alone, on foot — over several thousands of miles. What is wrong with these recalcitrant field agents, primarily in Texas, but also some south of San Diego? Who could look themselves in the mirror in the morning — if this was how they were “doing” their jobs? Out.
नमस्ते
“Is Hinderaker… A Nazi?!” [I Guarantee He’s Never Set Foot In A Black Barbershop!]
Tonight, Hinderaker’s Klansman persona again appears.
He claims to know what people in black-owned barbershops talk about. He doesn’t. I do. They claim her — by an 80-20 margin.
He says this:
“…Personally, I couldn’t possibly care less [he lies — he’s race obsessed, for whyte ppl]. She certainly has some African ancestry, and by the [Jim Crow southern] “one drop rule,” dating to the 19th 17th [correcting his willful lies] century, she is entitled to claim black identity. For what that is worth…” [Wait! He thinks he gets to decide how she may refer to herself?!? Yikes!]
So — in speaking of John — we will assume turnabout is fair play:
“Is Hinderaker a… Klanner?” Yes — his rhetoric would prove it. He blames the modern Democrats for the 180 year gone Confederate treasons. In fact, it was people like… him.
“Is Hinderaker a Neo-Nazi?” Sure supports long discredited race-tropes. [Especially about crime.]
I don’t care — but if the shoe fits… Right?
Right.
G’night to all of good will — all as Tangerine wimps out on the ABC debate, and lies when his people never talked to his opponent about one on Faux. Either way she’ll kick his dumb ass; but I’d make him wait to October to learn if she will meet him.
Putz.
More Irrelevant Libel — From Powerline. Yawn.
Not exactly… relevant, is it?
Nope. Not a candidate for any office; prior marriage.
But at right… is. Not that Powerliners will ever admit it.
Stupid is… as stupid… does.
It was alleged in sworn New York State divorce court filings — that the present GOP nominee for 1600 Penn., Tangerine, both physically abused, and raped his first wife, Marla.
That’s relevant.
Out.
Candace: Trying Her “Level Ruckus Best” — To Help Tangerine… LOSE.
This is all I need say. Not worth any real analysis — just Auntie Ruckus, doin’ her usual.
Out. Atta’ boy, Candace.
Sanity Is “Attempting A Comeback”, In The Sixth Cir., For The Good, Kind, Open-Minded People Of Tennessee (The Clear Majority)…
Late last night, the able lawyers for Friends of George’s filed in the Sixth Circuit, to have the whole court rehear this matter, en banc. That is — with all the members of the court — not just the two or three hardest right ones.
The reasoning is plain — and may well prevail: the hard right members picked up their pens, and on their own, rewrote the statute Gov. Lee signed — taking the most onerous parts of it out (weakening it, and making it not the law Tennessee actually passed), solely to prevent a successful challenge by George’s, on US Constitutional grounds. Even so, should George’s not be granted an en banc rehearing, it seems clear the plaintiffs will get cert. in the Supremes — and it seems they will file there, if need be. Here’s the muscular 63 page overnight filing — and a bit:
…First, in concluding that FOG lacked an injury in fact, the panel rewrote the Tennessee Act — adopting two different limiting constructions at odds with the statutory text and foreclosed by decisions of the Tennessee Supreme Court. The Supreme Court and this Court have repeatedly held that federal courts “may impose a limiting construction on a statute only if it is ‘readily susceptible’ to such a construction.” United States v. Stevens, 559 U.S. 460, 481 (2010). And a federal court must be especially wary of rewriting a state statute, lest the court “trample on the principles of federalism.” Entm’t Prods., Inc. v. Shelby Cnty., 588 F.3d 372, 387–88 (6th Cir. 2009) (quotation marks omitted). In rewriting the Tennessee Act, the panel contravened these precedents….
Second, the panel heightened the standard for establishing the likelihood of enforcement. This Court’s precedent requires a plaintiff to establish (1) “a substantial probability that the plaintiff actually will engage in conduct that is arguably affected with a constitutional interest,” and (2) “a certain threat of prosecution if the plaintiff does indeed engage in that conduct.” Crawford v. U.S. Dep’t of Treasury, 868 F.3d 438 (6th Cir. 2017) (emphasis omitted). Yet in this case, the panel conflated these requirements — demanding near certainty that FOG would engage in the conduct in the first place, as well as the prosecutor’s specific expression of intent to prosecute FOG in particular.
This too contravened binding precedent, which does not require the showing that the panel demanded. As a result of the panel’s decision, Friends of George’s can protect itself from criminal prosecution only by censoring its First Amendment-protected expression. More generally, the panel’s decision risks foreclosing a wide range of pre-enforcement challenges to plainly unconstitutional restrictions on speech — forcing speakers to adopt “a cautious and restrictive exercise of First Amendment freedoms.” Counterman v. Colorado, 600 U.S. 66, 75 (2023)….
Now you know. [With a bonus legacy story out of Kingsport, Tennessee, here.] Onward, smiling widely. Get ’em!
नमस्ते
A Second Collaboration Agreement For Merck With Prelude: Definitively Immaterial, But Good News…
Ahem. Personally, I think the reaction to Rahway’s lowered and tightened guidance on non-GAAP earnings is overwrought. From my perspective, this is a chance to buy in at a discount — created by largely irrational hand-wringing, and a willful blindness to the cash cow of Keytruda, through to the mid 2030s. But what do I know? I’m just one guy with a blog [but one that has closely followed Merck since (checks notes)… early 2007]. Heh. Anyhoo….
While it is true that the rate of growth of Gardasil sales in China moderated last quarter, that is by no means where the company’s earnings wheelhouse really resides. Keytruda is blowing the roof off of expectations, and its margins are… world-class. So, I’d not lose any sleep over this dividend giant’s momentary speedbump. In fact, if you have free cash — I might buy more.
That said, we did notice a small Delaware development stage company has now signed a second (terms withheld) deal, to work on combos with the juggernaut pembrolizumab, thus:
…The agreement with the $60 billion multinational company aims to evaluate Prelude’s leading cancer drug treatment, particularly in how it interacts with Merck’s blockbuster immunotherapy drug. Terms of the study have not been disclosed, however, Prelude officials predict it will reveal more details once the company has concluded its first phase of the trial on the drug this year.
Partnerships between drug development companies are common, as are some companies with limited financial runway, as it shares the costs and the potential financial gains when discovering new treatments.
Both Prelude and Merck will retain the commercial rights to the drugs involved in the study, but Prelude Chief Medical Officer Jane Huang noted that it has the chance to find positive outcomes for those with rare cancers and diseases….
Prelude has reported that up to 70,000 cancer patients in the United States and European Union who currently have limited treatment options could benefit from the [collab work]….
Yes, this is ALL immaterial. Now you know. Have a great weekend one and all — baby girls here tonight, then a nephew’s b-day celebration, tomorrow. Grin….
नमस्ते
[U: Billingspuss Now, Too!] More Hinderaker Lies. No XY — Only XX — Chromosome.
So unsurprising. [Updated: By Friday, Billingsley had also libeled her. He used a crude headline/pun to reference a woman’s vagina — in the process. Charming.]
Hinderaker goes off, half-cocked — as ever, on gender matters.
The man made the false claim that this boxer was born a man.
DNA testing has now confirmed Hinderaker was lying. Intentionally, it seems — to foment hate.
However, it turns out he and I agree though — on this much: boxing, MMA and all the combat “sports” should pass into the dust bin of history. Both male and female versions. The whole gamut should be excluded from Olympic competition. The games ought not showcase cruelty: man v. man, or woman v. woman.
I am not so naive as to believe we can end professional fighting worldwide in all its forms, but John lying about it — to try to prevent women from choosing to compete against one another… is churlish.
Update: 08.02.2024 @ 7:00 PM — The US Secretary of Defense has exercised his statutory right to veto the plea deal.
All John and Scott’s burping was a huge waste of breath. And it is clear that it would be every bit as secure, and 20X cheaper, to send them to SuperMax. Done.
And, in an unrelated footnote, Hinderaker (undeserving of its own post, as it is so trivial) also tonight stupidly blames everyone (but himself)… For the fact that KSM will now spend the rest of his life in Supermax at Florence, Colorado. It was in fact Bush 43 who made those decisions that led to this day.
Of course, Hinderaker wants everyone to believe that it was a Barack Obama decision. It was not. Own your own BS, man. [And his claim offers us a window into how embittered John’s mind is. He claims that KSM “won“ by not being shot — after unquestionably being tortured, at Gitmo. I am no fan of KSM, but he probably endured nearly a decade of unspeakable torture… and yet, in John’s telling, being transferred to a Supermax to live in solitary for the rest of one’s life (and thus likely go completely… insane)… is a win? Of course, John doesn’t really believe that. He just refuses to accept this smart Biden/Harris administration’s move.]
My own position on the matter is that the death penalty is, in all circumstances… wrong. And John’s primary complaint is that KSM will no longer be death penalty eligible.
But from my point of view, it is much cheaper and easier to keep these terrorists in a domestic super max facility, already running at about $45,000 per prisoner per year, as opposed to over $13 million per prisoner — at Gitmo. That’s over a million a year, per detainee.
The primary goal is to keep them locked away from the world. And locked away from the world, they will be — as opposed to running an entire island military camp, offshore. So on that grounds, I support the plea deal. We were already wildly overpaying to house them at Gitmo.
Out.
Powerline Lies... 