Category: Uncategorized

Roche Posted Some Decent Data, On Its Weight Loss Candidate (Seeking FDA Approval) — But The Selling Off, In Lilly Today… Is Overblown.

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I first said this back in May 2024, when Lilly’s stock on the NYSE was trading at $761 or so. It then ran over $960 pretty rapidly.

Various Wall Street firms see nearly $1,000 per share within 12 months. And I will candidly admit — that is a sober assessment. The ramp of supply, for two drugs they likely can sell unlimited amounts of — at pretty outrageous prices… seems solid.

While the Roche preliminary look is promising — as I have said right along, we need longer term data — to see if there are off target effects, in the entire class. But the idea that Lilly had dropped from above $900, to around $850 tonight is plainly an over-reaction. Lilly has lots of capacity, and the market here is still unsaturated, in the higher end pockets of the US.

I may not think that is an especially wise use of public health funding — but one cannot deny that lots of people (already a lil’ big-boned-ed) want it, and are paying well over $1,000 a month or are willing to do so. Here’s the bit on the overbaked reaction to Roche’s candidate:

…Roche shares jumped 5.8% in Wednesday’s trade. Meanwhile, shares of Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk fell 4% by the European close, while Zepbound producer Eli Lilly was around 3% lower in U.S. late-morning trade.

Shares of Danish biotech company Zealand Pharma, which is also developing its own obesity treatment, fell 8.4%….

Now you know — onward, smiling widely. [Yes, this is a return to the power alley.] Be excellent to one another.

नमस्ते

The Sixth Circuit (Over Forceful Dissent) Asserts That Friends of George Doesn’t Have Standing To Challenge, In TN — Since There Were No “Arrests”. Damn.

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Well… clearly, this nonsense ruling will go on up to the Supremes.

Denials of service based on race never required arrests, in order to have standing to assert the humiliation, in a court of law. So here, too. The ruby red Sixth Circuit majority is plainly wrong on controlling law (and they contradict prior holdings in their own circuit — as well as the Supremes). And the Supremes will say so.

We will quote from the dissent, in the Sixth Circuit, for it is very much akin to what the Supremes will ultimately rule:

…MATHIS, Circuit Judge, dissenting. A bedrock principle of our democratic republic is the protection of unorthodox expression. The freedom to convey one’s ideas — no matter how unpopular — was seen as inalienable to the human experience, and the Framers of our Federal Constitution believed such freedom was “essential if vigorous enlightenment was ever to triumph over slothful ignorance.” Martin v. City of Struthers, 319 U.S. 141, 143 (1943). It is altogether fitting that they chose to enshrine it atop our Bill of Rights as a “fixed star in our constitutional constellation”: “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.” See 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, 600 U.S. 570, 584 (2023) (quotation omitted); U.S. Const. amend. I.

Of course, these protections are not absolute. The Supreme Court has “long recognized that the government may regulate certain categories of expression consistent with” the First Amendment. Virginia v. Black, 538 U.S. 343, 358 (2003). But the Constitution does not avert its eyes merely because a law mentions such a category….

The majority finds that FOG lacks standing to sue Mulroy. Because Supreme Court and Sixth Circuit precedent dictate a different result, and because the part of the AEA that FOG has standing to challenge is an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech, I respectfully dissent….

The district court erred in enjoining Mulroy from enforcing the public-property provision of the AEA, Tenn. Code Ann. § 7-51-1407(c)(1)(A), because FOG lacked standing to challenge that provision. But the district court did not err in enjoining Mulroy from enforcing Tenn. Code Ann. § 7-51-1407(c)(1)(B) because that provision is a content-based restriction on speech that fails strict scrutiny. Thus, the district court did not abuse its discretion by prohibiting Mulroy from enforcing that unconstitutional law in Shelby County.

FOG had standing to bring this action against Mulroy. And the AEA is an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech. Therefore, I would affirm the district court’s decision to enjoin Mulroy from enforcing Tenn. Code Ann. § 7-51-1407(c)(1)(B) in Shelby County.

I respectfully dissent.

Onward. Discouraging — but onward, just the same. These Tangerine courts will grow weary of being slapped down by the highest court, in time. But it does take time — and taxpayer money. Damn.

नमस्ते

Ouch! That’s Gonna’ Leave A Mark — On TX AG Paxton! Idiot Foot-Dragging Edition.

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We mentioned yesterday morning, that AG Paxton’s attempt to run out the clock… on the river razor wire cases… has failed.

The matter is going ahead to full trial on the merits — where his lawless and cruel actions, and those of Gov. Abbott (designated by them — under the Owellian name — “Operation Lone Star”) will be laid open in public court hearings, all day, every day. These will also indict, by implication, every bit of Tangerine’s manifest cruelty and 2017-2021 lawless border policies. Charming.

Overnight, as we said they would, the federal border authorities’ counsel have eviscerated Texas, thus:

… [It was clear that the feds, in the office of] USIBWC’s counsel to USIBWC staff and employees — seek to gather information related to the floating barriers and Texas’s actions in that area so that USIBWC’s lawyers and the United States Department of Justice can make litigation and other determinations. Such information gathering in anticipation of or consideration of litigation falls squarely within the attorney-client privilege and attorney work product doctrine.

Moreover, as the USIBWC’s declaration from its Commissioner explains, ECF 171-1, the deliberative process privilege should also apply. Beyond the attorney-client and attorney work product privilege, USIBWC employees are engaged in internal discussions about certain agency actions and decision-making, as it relates to USIBWC and also as it relates to communications with the Mexican Section of IBWC. See id. That Texas somehow thinks this information is appropriate given a later binational survey is of no consequence….

The United States explained all of the above in communication with Texas and also provided revised redactions to make it even more clear the nature and appropriateness of the privilege. Nevertheless, Texas still believes it is somehow entitled to obtain privileged information from the United States. By even the most cursory review, the documents are privileged and the Court need not entertain Texas’s request for an in camera review of these privileged documents….

Texas’s motion to compel and request for in camera review should be denied….

Now you know. Get ready to reap the whirlwind, you Texas boys — USDC Senior Judge Ezra has your number — and it is… up.

Out.

Thanks To Anon., A Life Well-Lived: Peter Buxtun — Passes At 86. Exposed The Forced Tuskegee Syphilis Studies…

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I think I might rightly suppose Mr. Buxtun would say there were no heroes in this story — excepting the black men who endured… what was plainly even then a treatable disease — made far worse, for over a half-century — by shockingly unethical medical decision making. Official policy, in fact.

But he is certainly the main reason it all… ended. Travel well, and do travel light, sir. Here’s the story, courtesy of our erstwhile Anon. (and the Wa Po):

…Peter Buxtun, a whistleblower who exposed and helped end the Tuskegee syphilis study, a four-decade experiment in which the U.S. Public Health Service used hundreds of Black men as human guinea pigs, died May 18 at a memory-care center in Rocklin, Calif. He was 86.

The cause was complications from Alzheimer’s disease, said his friend John Seidts, who helped look after Mr. Buxtun in recent years. His death, near Sacramento, was first reported Monday by the Associated Press, which in 1972 published the first news story prompted by Mr. Buxtun’s disclosures.

A former venereal disease investigator with the Public Health Service, Mr. Buxtun spent seven years trying to draw attention to the Tuskegee study, meeting with journalists, doctors, public health officials and anyone who would listen.

His efforts, and the reporting that he inspired, brought widespread attention to one of the country’s most notorious medical scandals, revealing how 399 Black men in the segregated South were exploited for a study in which their syphilis would be monitored but not treated….

Onward… we will see brighter days. And do recover fully, and get well soon, Mr. President. We need your wisdom. [And, now… Scott Johnson can shove his sanctimonious, non-bio-science understanding BS right up his John Brown hind-parts, on that score. What a… putz!]

नमस्ते

I Am Loath To Return… To The Nutty Conspiracy Theories Here — But I Must, To Answer Hinderaker’s “Revisiting”, Tonight.

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Again, this theory is largely silly on its face (below), but Hinderaker spends almost 30 paragraphs explaining (in over 1,500 words!) all that he thinks Secret Service did wrong in Butler, PA last weekend tonight. All of his narrative tries to re-assure us, that it was not a Biden / “Deep State” operation, on various parameters. Fine. Nicely done. [It is his longest post, in well over four years, on word count.]

But because his vision is myopic (only taking a hard right perspective) — he leaves at least one possibility (the one I mentioned on Monday) unaddressed. Yet in doing so, he specifically offers his own concluding text, as (unwitting) support for this, the potential “hard-left” kooky conspiracy theory, thus:

…But one thing we can say for sure is that no one — the Iranians, the “Deep State,” whoever — would have relied on poor Thomas Crooks, a 20-year-old with a borrowed rifle, reportedly such a poor shot that he couldn’t make a high school shooting team, to try to assassinate [a candidate for] president of the United States….

The bolded part of John’s supposedly-highly competent concluding paragraph… is EXACTLY what the hinted at “remaining conspiracy” entails:

If one (perhaps less than credibly) posits a cadre of three to six true “cult / believer” acolytes serving Tangerine, as a dictator, personally — ones who’ve effectively forsaken their oaths, to the United States, and are his closest confidants, in his protective ranks (unfettered access, everywhere)… and well-armed (with concealed carry, too), and placed in key spots… they could have been recruited to stage a faked attempt — to garner a “WWF style drama” — going into the convention, in Milwaukee, in his favor.

Two of them lay on top of him when their own shooter, on the roof — with the “borrowed” 20-year old’s AR-15… fires wide, but near him (thus the NYT photo showing a bullet whizzing by!), from the rooftop — where two other acolytes have already killed the 20-year old… but then follow the script, and act out with his borrowed AR-15, letting a few rounds loose into the crowd, for utterly despicable “credibility“. [Recall that Tangerine has said he could kill someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight, and no one would care! Here, the nutty theory goes that his true cultists inside protective services did just that — and they chose a skinny 20 year old, perhaps a day or more earlier, to be the lamb / shill… and killed him. Thus Thomas didn’t graze Tangerine’s ear at all. No one did. A razor did, while he was being piled onto by the acolytes.]

So (the theory goes!), his ear was cut with a small razor, as at least two of the other cultists lay atop him — exactly like when, in WWF (as Trump did for show, decades ago!) a wrestler is tossed from the ring, and is stealthily cut — where he will bleed a lot, from a truly trivial ear or forehead wound. Just like that!

Surely this would explain how the 20 year old got to the roof in the first place — WWF scripter led him / hauled him there (perhaps dead within seconds of arrival).

Then Trump, according to the well-planned UN-reality TV script, rises — pumping his first, for the world to see… because he well-knew he was never in danger, at all. And the tiny cut on his ear doesn’t even need a stitch, as we see at top left — decidedly unlike any actual shrapnel / bullet-shard, ripping his ear apart (as has been claimed, by Tangerine).

And he (viola!) has a new NFT image / icon for tee shirts, and for wide resale… and a swell open for his Convention entrance.

To be clear — I don’t buy it (especially the part about intentionally firing into the crowd and killing a whyte 52 year old firefighter and father of two little kids!)…

But, John — if you were staging it all, this Thomas Crooks (small and slight of build, without training) would be a perfect scapegoat. Easily overpowered, when the moment came to kill him on the roof with a silencer round, a minute or so BEFORE the first shots are fired (by acolytes) who then stand up… and claim — for the world to see, that they have killed him, whilst HE was firing.

That possibility — a Tangerine staged reality / non-reality TV drama… is in no manner excluded by John’s would-be “expert’s” analysis. The security lapses were designed by Trump people. To set this stage, for Milwaukee. Yuck.

Now I’ll fall silent.

Out.

In The Texas Razor Wire Barrier Trial [Upcoming], AG Paxton Made A Critical Error, In Foot Dragging…

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

This order was entered late last night in the river barrier case — and the able federal Magistrate Judge is clearly… hot (peeved).

AG Paxton / The State of Texas apparently waited 13 days to even phone the US lawyers back.

That, despite an order two weeks ago, saying “have it all worked out…” by last night. So now Texas faces nearly impossible deadlines, since the US has already long ago filed all of theirs:

…Any motion must be filed by end of day Wednesday, July 17. Responses will be due by end of day Thursday, July 18. Replies will be due by end of day Friday, July 19. The parties’ joint advisory on all motions, limited to 2 pages per side, will be due at noon on Monday, July 22….

Judge Ezra will retain the discretion to entertain motions filed after the deadlines set above. But the parties are on notice that any late-filed motions may not be considered by the Court. As the scheduling order makes clear, the final pretrial conference is intended to address the “proposed final pre-trial order, exhibits and witness lists, deposition designations, motions in limine, motions to exclude witnesses, and any proposed fact stipulations.” Dkt. 97, at 2.

SIGNED July 17, 2024….

At trial, once the motion-flurries / avalanche of white paper… settles — Texas will certainly lose. The federal Rivers and Harbors Act is clear: the feds are rightly in charge here.

And the state of Texas local taxpayers will have to pay perhaps $800,000 in the federal lawyers’ legal fees, incurred to enforce plain black letter federal law — on lawless, vigilante Texas state agents.

Onward.

Mr. Gutierrez Will Finally Be Heard By The Supremes, On Whether He Has A Right To A DNA Test, Before Texas Executes Him…

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So… DNA testing kits, and biological sciences generally, have evolved — and improved — in the decades since Mr. Gutierrez was sentenced to death in Texas (under decidedly questionable circumstances). And he may well be guilty — we accept that as a possibility.

But we (as a nation) should be in no undue rush to make. . . wholly-irretrievable errors with a man’s life.

Texas still possesses the crime scene physical evidence. Shouldn’t all capital case defendants — at their own expense, but using independent examiners — be granted the right to swab that evidence, for any DNA fragments. . . that might exonerate them? Plainly, it seems like at least four of the Supremes think so (or at least are willing to listen to his counsel, on the issue).

…For the last thirteen years, Ruben Gutierrez has been seeking DNA testing in both state and federal courts, seeking only access to the physical evidence so that he can test it at his own expense. In June 2019, the state district court initially granted Mr. Gutierrez’s motion for DNA testing, but then withdrew the order a few days later and denied the motion without explanation. In September 2019, Mr. Gutierrez filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in federal district court challenging, inter alia, the constitutionality of Texas postconviction DNA testing procedures.

The federal district court granted a declaratory judgment for Mr. Gutierrez on this issue, finding that Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 64 (“Chapter 64”) violates due process by improperly limiting a death-sentenced prisoner’s right to file a successive habeas petition: “Texas grants the substantive right to file a second habeas petition with a clear and convincing showing of innocence of the death penalty in Article 11.071, and then Chapter 64 denies the petitioner access to DNA evidence by which a person can avail himself of that right.” Gutierrez v. Saenz, 565 F. Supp. 3d 892, 910 (S.D. Tex. 2021)….

Now you know — and finally, he will be heard. And whatever the test reveals, he will live — or die — with the results. But what on Earth is wrong with the Texas / Fifth Circuit panel that voted he should be executed, without even using a common method now widely available? Is life precious there, or not? Or is it only wealthy whyte lives… that are precious to Abbott and Paxton? Out.

नमस्ते

Seems Hayward Cannot Read Plain English Deere Pressers — For Comprehension…

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Yep. Steve Hayward (again) demonstrates he cannot parse the English language.

So desperate is he, to torture the new world, back into his cramped, non-scientific 19th Century, definitively racist-sensibilities… that he misses the bottom half of the Deere press release’s import, entirely:

“…We fundamentally believe that a diverse workforce enables us to best meet our customers’ needs, and because of that, we will continue to track and advance the diversity of our organization….”

That’s just… precious, Stevie.

Out — what a putz.

Tangerine Uses GOP Convention, To Tout His Fourth NFT?!

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Or… Ike Is… Agog. Saint Ronnie Reagan Can’t Believe He Didn’t Think Of It First.

The Milwaukee GOP convention is now effectively just a grifting / late night QVC cable channel — for meme-coins and NFTs. [Candidly, even though I follow crypto-, generally (to laugh at it), I was only aware of his “mugshot” NFT. But he’s apparently grifted his followers two other times, by selling them NFTs, in addition to hats and gold shoes?! Wow.]

To be certain, yes, this is trivial — but I cannot imagine that Eisenhower would have tried to sell bags of little green plastic soldiers (made in China), and branded as “Mini-Ikes®” (of course!) — and certainly not from the podium at his nominating convention. Just. Wow.

Here is the “decline of GOP civilization” story from a crypto-booster outlet, and a bit:

…[Tangerine] has pivoted to embracing the crypto industry, saying “if we don’t do it, China is going to pick it up….”

[Tangerine] said his previous collections were “very successful” and sold out in a day: “The whole thing sold out: 45,000 of the cards. And I did it three times [and] I’m going to do another one, because the people want me to do another one. It’s unbelievable spirit. Beautiful….”

The late Hunter S. Thompson (on acid) could not have dreamed up a stranger, more debauched fiction… if he had tried.

But this… is fact. Jaw slacking US… history, unfolding.

In a perhaps not unrelated footnote, Steve Bannon (now jailed) yesterday saw his Chinese affiliate/associate, one 郭文贵, or “Miles Guo” but also known as Mr. Gao Wengui, convicted on multiple felony crypto-frauds (Bannon is awaiting similar separate fraud charges too). Hey — maybe they can bunk together, at FCI Danbury. Amazing.

नमस्ते

As Expected, Mr. Smith Has Appealed Cannon’s Lunacy To The Eleventh Cir.

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Just as we said. It will take a tick or two, but Jack will get his man — on theft of top secret documents, in Florida.

Here’s the appeal notice, filed overnight:

…NOTICE OF APPEAL

The United States of America hereby gives notice that it appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from the order of the District Court entered on July 15, 2024, Docket Entry 672.

Respectfully submitted,
/s/ JACK SMITH
Special Counsel….

Now you know — grinning.