Category: Uncategorized

It Seems Scott Doesn’t Know Anyone That Owns More Than One Cellphone. Huh.

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Gee, Scott.

I guess — since it’s been about 15 years since you were in the workforce — you aren’t aware that most executives use at least two phones, and keep both of them nearby all day long. One is for family calls/texts and check-ins, the other is… to handle company business.

It is highly likely that the cell phone on the desk in the photo (aboard Air Force Two) is her family phone. It would not be plugged into the headset, if she’s on the phone in her lap… The one on which these calls are taking place, effectively her work phone. And I too keep a few sheets of blank paper handy — for note taking, on my desk. Many executives do.

It may also be on a “speaker phone” call. Using Bluetooth, or just over air speaker. [How stupid are these MAGAts?!]

Once again, we see the hard right desperately looking for something — anything! — to complain about.

Desperation, in fact, is all it is — from Scott Johnson.

Onward.

[U] Bill Otis Now Asks That “The Moon Not Be… Round.” Won’t Happen, Billy-Boy.

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Silly-Billy.

Otis is right, that Tangerine could possibly pull this out in the final month… “IF ONLY…”

But Bill’s “if only…” swallows all else. The Trumpinator can no more be gracious… than he can fit his giant Depends-clad a$$… into a set of 32 inch waist, stove-pipe, genuine vintage 501 Levis, with the button fly. His constitution… won’t allow it. Here’s Bill’s plea:

…For just over a month, Trump needs to act as if he were something resembling a gentleman. It shouldn’t be that hard, especially if he can bring himself to remember that — c’mon, Donald! — it’s just five skimpy weeks. By being a gentleman, I mean the obvious: Cut out the insults, be at least a little generous and gracious, show some modesty, put away the absurd exaggerations, be restrained and thoughtful rather than belligerent, talk about others’ concerns rather than yours. A little self-deprecating humor wouldn’t hurt either. It did wonders for Reagan, whom the press was trying to paint as an airhead wahoo….

No. Way. No. How.

And he will lose, Bill.

UPDATE: Your co-blogger, Paul Mirengoff just said the ask is… impossible, not an hour after Bill made it. Hilarious.

Count on that.

Harris is leading now, in all but one swing state. Moreover, she still has a little under a third of her campaign to run. Tangerine has been running since 2022, trying to stave off… jail, mostly. So his campaign is about 94% water under the bridge. There are miles of audio and video to remind voters what a uselessly vain and narcissistic little miscreant he is.

He’s proven hundreds of times, on tape — that he’s a man who understands almost nothing about the real world the rest of us adults live in.

And here, at the dotage / twilight era of his time on the planet, he’s shown not a scintilla of genuine curiosity — to learn about the people upon whom he must rely for votes.

Yep. Stick. A. Fork. In. Him.

He’s done.

While We Were Off Grid, WHO Updated The Mpox Situation Report — For Africa | Sept. 2024

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This morning, it was a daunting primarily Rwandan Marburg prognosis — this afternoon, it is an equally daunting Mpox outlook, for most of central Africa — from the more lethal, and more contagious Clade Ib variant.

Here’s a link to the full WHO report (which looks back to January 2022, as well as breaks down data, by province — inside the DRC, and elsewhere, into very informative “heatmaps” like the country-wide data at right) — but here are the most salient bits, for the moment:

…In 2024, and as of 22 September, 15 countries in Africa have reported 6603 confirmed Mpox cases, including 32 deaths (case fatality ratio [CFR] among confirmed cases of 0.5%). In the last week 402 new confirmed cases and no new deaths were reported. The three countries reporting the most cases in 2024 are the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5621 confirmed cases, 25 deaths), Burundi (696 confirmed cases, no deaths), and Nigeria (78 confirmed cases, no deaths).

In addition to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, deaths among confirmed Mpox cases in 2024 have been reported in South Africa (three), Cameroon (two), Central African Republic (one) and Cote d’Ivoire (one).

Among the countries reporting mpox in 2024, all 15 countries have reported new confirmed cases within the past six weeks (as at right)….

The six weeks measure mentioned above means to suggest that the outbreak is ongoing, as no pair of six weeks periods in any affected nation… has returned no new cases. That is the gold standard for arresting an Mpox Clade Ib outbreak: traversing two six week periods — without a new case — from the last new case.

Now you know — onward, despite very trying epidemiological times in central Africa. Onward.

नमस्ते

Tangerine Said It — So Scott Supports It… D A M N.

~ condor ~ 2 Comments

This early afternoon finds Scott Johnson offering “cover fire” — for Tangerine’s loony rally rant (are there any other kinds, from him?!) over the weekend. In that rant, Trump argued that Kamala, based on no evidence, should be impeached and prosecuted. This, because she has been loyal to Mr. Biden’s administration on border matters.

[Funny, even Tangerine didn’t argue for impeachment, or prosecutions — when his boy, Mike Pence wouldn’t aid the J6 coup attempt. Odd, that.]

But back to the main narrative arc here: Scott thinks it a “crime” to (as a sitting Veep) follow the boss’s entirely lawful border policies.

H I L A R I O U S.

So Scott offers some specious hearsay as “evidence” — to back Tangerine’s nutty old great-uncle bungling sh!t, from the weekend.

Like all other attempts these doddering old coots have made, in the past three years… none of it will ever stick. And they know it.

But should it gain traction, we might ask why MAGAts aren’t chanting to “lock HIM up!“, given his 34 felony CONVICTIONS.

Damn — but my, my… are these idiots ever… precious.

Out.

A New Marburg Outbreak — In Rwanda, At Least Six Dead In The Capital, Kigali… With Symptoms That Mimic Ebola.

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Once again, as was true in August of 2022, in Ghana — there is a new outbreak of the ~90% lethal Marburg virus on the African continent to contend with.

This time it is in Rwanda, a war torn and fragmented nation — which will make relief efforts very difficult. Add to this, that there is no approved vaccine for Marburg’s, and we have a daunting road ahead.

The slight bit of good news here is that the Oxford Vaccine Group, Texas Biomed, and the Sabin Institute are all independently working toward an approval of various vaccine candidates, for Marburg — but that cannot come too soon, now. [Texas Biomed’s is still in primate models, but both Oxford and Sabin are in clinical trials, in Phase 2.] Here is all of it, so far, from the UK Telegraph’s reporting:

…At least 26 cases have been reported since the outbreak was first confirmed on Friday, the health minister has announced, marking the first-ever reported cases in Rwanda. While the source of the outbreak is not yet known, cases have been reported in six of the country’s 30 districts, suggesting it may be widespread.

The majority of cases so far recorded have been reported in health workers in and around the country’s capital Kigali.

The city has a population of 1.2 million people and a well-connected airport, raising concerns of further spread via international and domestic travel, experts have warned.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is deploying experts and outbreak response tools to Rwanda to help curb the virus. Shipments of emergency medical supplies are expected to land in Kigali in the coming days….

We sincerely hope that these vaccine candidates are moved to the front of the review line, at FDA and at all UK and EU authorities. Onward, resolutely. Ever, resolute.

नमस्ते

Or, Scott — Perhaps BOTH Of Them Are Malign, Moronic, Unserious But Narcissistic… Loons.

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Usually, the simplest explanation tends to most line up with reality. That’s what William of Occam has long taught all educated humans, since about the Twelfth Century.

This morning, though, Johnson runs about ten paragraphs to suggest only one (Tangerine) is a “true conservative”.

I no longer find it amusing, or even useful, to plumb whatever it is the Powerline boys NOW want the word “conservative” to mean.

What I know for certain is that neither Tucker Carlson, nor Donald Trump are… that thing. In any respect.

And, day by day, over the past nine years, both have shown themselves to be narcissistic, evil megalomaniacs, willing to waste vast resources, and destroy good people — mostly to salve what each perceives as… their bruised egos.

There is no need for any falsely ponderous “why” analysis, Scott.

Almost all educated, voting Americans now see the truth about BOTH of these cretins. And all you Powerline boys.

And. They. Are. Not. Amused.

Cheers.

OT: But Please Permit This Digression — Jim Thorpe Was ALSO A Pentathlon and Decathlon Gold Medalist (And Pro Baseball Player) And A Pro-Footballer, But Travis Is… Better!

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I keep seeing sports pundits write that young Travis Hunter is likely third on the list for the 2024 Heisman. It is supposed to go to the most outstanding college football player (not necessarily the MVP, to his particular team).

So, if the voting holds true to the actual founding documents, for the Heisman… this should not even be a remotely close question. Unless he suffers a career ending injury in the next nine games, there will be no one even close to young Mr. Hunter.

There have been 14 players since about 1960 who played at least some snaps on both offense and defense. But the last time any football player played essentially every snap on both sides of the ball (and, at skill-positions), with the dominance that Travis is displaying… it was right when Titanic first sailed. Jim Thorpe also kicked field goals (as deep as 45 yards) for his team.

But we should also note that the athletes opposing Mr. Thorpe were by no means as well trained, powerful and fast, or of the caliber at all, that Travis meets each Saturday, up and down the line. Sure, there is a good argument that Mr. Thorpe was the greatest overall athlete ever to come out of America, but there can be little argument that ANYONE is playing 120 plus snaps a game at the level Travis is from 2023 through 2024. No. One. At. All.

Chuck Bednarik (1960s), and then Deon Sanders (now Travis’s coach) did it a lil’ in the 1980s — and, Bo Jackson did it for a lil’ bit in the 1990s… but not one of them (or anyone else, since 1910-1912) took every snap on both sides of the ball, all season long, and dominated the way Thorpe and Hunter have. He’s now done it for two seasons (like Thorpe).

And he is rewriting the Colorado record books, on offense and defense — at the same time. Let it also be known that he is carrying a 3.85 GPA in Business, and thus is also an ACADEMIC All-American.

So it has been about 112 years since anyone saw a collegiate player remotely like Travis Hunter.

He should win the Heisman, in a cake walk. Forget every running back or QB also being touted (except perhaps Shedeur Sanders, his QB team-mate who hits him with perfectly thrown balls about 75% of the time)… this young man simply is a… unicorn. The likes of which we’ve not seen since the then racist US Olympic Committee stripped Jim Thorpe of his Olympic gold medals supposedly on the theory that he played a few innings of semi-pro baseball before the 1912 Games.

Now you know. Let your local sportswriters know that you too, are watching. He is the clear Heisman man this year.

नमस्ते

[U: Buffs Win — 48-21!] Flying Through Colorado — On Way Home, Now — But Wanted To Mention The New Clade Ib Mpox Case In Kerala, India… As Well As Biden Pledge.

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While we were off grid, President Joe Biden pledged additional monetary and in-kind aid — to alleviate the ongoing African mpox outbreaks. Mr. Biden said the United States would send over $500 million to Africa, to help prevent and respond to mpox and will donate another one million doses of the approved Mpox vaccine.

In addition, there is now a confirmed more dangerous strain case of Mpox inside India, one that seems travel related. Here is a that story — from mid last week, from the BBC:

…India has reported its first case with the new mpox strain that has triggered a public health emergency alert by the World Health Organization (WHO), Reuters reports.

Called clade 1b, the new variant is highly-transmissible and has been linked to the mpox outbreak in Africa.
According to media reports, the strain has been detected in a 38-year-old man from the southern state of Kerala who returned from Dubai recently.

Mpox, previously known as monkey pox, is a contagious virus that can cause painful skin lesions….

Health Ministry spokesperson Manisha Verma confirmed to Reuters that the mpox case reported in Kerala’s Malappuram district belonged to clade 1.

The patient is being treated in a hospital and the people he came in contact with are being traced and monitored, authorities said.
The district’s health officer said that about 29 friends and family members of the patient along with 37 passengers on board his flight were being monitored but none of them had exhibited any symptoms so far, the news agency reported….

Now you know — and if the stadium in Orlando is squeegeed off… go Buffs, go — at 2:30 pm Eastern, on Fox Sports! [Not since 1910-12 and Jim Thorpe has there been a player as dominant on both sides of the ball, on every play, as Travis Hunter. He plays 120 plus plays from scrimmage each outing — and thus sprints about seven miles per game, while absorbing around 20 crushing hits, and delivering another 15 of his own. His stat-line today? A receiving TD, along with 89 yards on 9 catches, no receptions against his coverage, a drive killing interception, and four solo tackles. And he did it all wearing a tee shirt under his pads that reads… “Bland”. IYK,YK. Heh.]

नमस्ते

Mirengoff Claims We Should Be Concerned About Some Staff Resignations — During Last Four Years.

~ condor ~ 5 Comments

Clearly, Paul is running low on ammo — regarding things to complain about (re Kamala).

He tells us there were 24 staffers, or six a year — that didn’t stay on for her coming presidency. Y A W N.

First, nothing would stop them from rejoining (many may have assessed that Joe wasn’t likely to win in 2024, and also wouldn’t step aside willingly).

Second, that’s normal turnover.

Finally, consider that nearly all of Tangerine’s cabinet level people were repeatedly fired, re-upped with new hires — and those in turn, fired… likely over 50 people (more than double Kamala, and almost all more senior roles than these 24). [That’s just off the top of my head, from unaided memory, BTW. The figure is likely much higher, if we count lower level people as Paul has, tonight.]

So — Paul well knows it: only one of these two candidates is a terrible leader of his own hand-picked team(s).

He’s the one with leaky Depends, and the one slathered in pumpkin hued concealer, from head to toe. As well as tons of bad cologne.

Yikes.

Out.

I Am Pretty Sure Lilly Hasn’t Much To Worry About, From Lemonaid Health…

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Disclosure: I am long Lilly. And I own no equity position in 23andMe. Now, with that out of the way. . .

As the latter public company struggles (see last week’s reporting here), it has sent a direct mail campaign out to its genomics customers, touting subsidiary Lemonaid’s ability to fill prescriptions, at a discount (likely by compounding). Wild — but the same API injection costs ~$1,200 to ~$1,500 a month from Lilly or Novo Nordic:

…Lose 15% of your body weight, starting at $299/month

Membership is only $49/month, medication charged separately

No hidden fees, no long-term commitment, and no additional fees for dosage increases while on the same medication

Ongoing, quality care from U.S.-licensed medical providers….

Not sure its mailing list is tightly fit to the “offer”. Hmm. These are strange times, indeed — at the personal genomics pioneer… so it goes.

To be fair, I should note that Lilly made a tactical mis-step last week, as a PR matter — by writing to thousands of US patients it suspects of buying compound pharmacy (low priced) GLP-1 products — asking for personal health information. The theory was that Lilly was protecting them from being harmed by unlicensed compounders — but most astute observers think that’s just… creepy.

Onward, up mountain… grinning.

नमस्ते