Category: Uncategorized

In Which Hinderaker Misspells The Word “Racist”. He Spells It… “Populist”.

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

In this insipid post purportedly about Marine Le Pen, in France… John advocates (for the third time) for measures that would help these fascists gain control of the French national political machinery.

He calls it “populism”. I call it racism. Or… fascism. [The most salient thing that unites Le Pen followers is… a hatred of any brown person not born French.]

And never mind that the French system is specifically designed to require board consensus building, in order to form a government — and run policy. The cooperation he sees… as “ganging up” on Le Pen — is actually… the way the French system is DESIGNED — to prevent extremism (especially after Nazi occupation in WW II). Sheesh.

But no… John hopes Le Pen can somehow manipulate things, to be able to rule like Tangerine did, from a tiny but fervent base.

I think that is unlikely — in France — and I think here in America… a broad consensus doesn’t want any more… Trump. At all. Other than in an orange jumpsuit.

So… whatever, Hinderaker. Blather on… stupidly.

Nuthin’ new, there.

Out.

Amazon’s Largest Conn. Facility Picketed; Northern Illinois Blue Star Express “Contractors” Strike — With Teamsters’ Backing. “Times, They Are A-Changin’…”

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Last week, the largest Amazon warehouse/distribution center in Connecticut saw a three day picket / walk-out (aided by the Teamsters’ affiliation). This week, we see a solid strike, in Skokie, Illinois (bordering Chicago to the north), by workers nominally employed as contract drivers for Blue Star Express — but they drive Amazon trucks, and wear the Amazon uniform, as they zip about my adopted home town to the north and east.

We often see them sprinting here, from delivery to delivery, because the schedule they are required to meet leaves almost no time for lunches or bathroom stops. They are not paid a living wage. And Amazon’s former strategy, of terminating the contractor firm, if ever a union is voted in, will no longer work. The Teamsters are aggressively challenging this, as an unlawful union busting tactic. Here’s the latest:

…Amazon drivers at the DIL7 delivery station in Skokie, Illinois, struck June 26 over the company’s violations of federal labor laws.

A hundred drivers have organized with Teamsters Local 705 and are demanding that Amazon recognize and bargain with their union, after presenting cards signed by a majority of the workforce.

They’re nominally employed by a contractor, Four Star Express Delivery. But “every Amazon driver knows who our true employer is,” said driver Luke Cianciotto in a union statement. “We wear their uniforms and drive their trucks.”

Four Star Express is one of 2,500 “delivery service partners” that carry out package deliveries while Amazon retains full control. Amazon terminated the DSP’s contract on June 25, after giving workers two weeks’ notice.

The Teamsters allege this termination was illegal retaliation against the workers, who had already reached a majority on union cards. The workers marched on management June 20 to demand recognition.

Last year Amazon terminated the contract of another DSP, Battle-Tested Strategies in Palmdale, California, after 84 drivers organized with the Teamsters. BTS voluntarily recognized the union and agreed to a contract that would hike wages to $30 an hour, compared to the $19.75 drivers were earning before….

Now you know — [and the Connecticut story from last week is here]. Onward, to better days ahead.

नमस्ते

Older News — But Merck Is Funding A Innovation / Career Training Center At NC A&T…

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The goal is to mentor younger STEM talent — preparing them for high paying science-focused biotech manufacturing roles, potentially for careers at the Durham or Wilson facility… or at Rahway, itself.

Of course I think it an excellent initiative. It was the now retired Willie Deese, former EVP of Merck Manufacturing, and an A&T grad, that spearheaded the collaboration between Merck and the largest HBCU campus in the nation:

…Building the workforce of tomorrow means investing in the students of today. That’s why we’ve partnered with North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) — the largest historically Black college and university in the U.S. — to launch the Merck Biotechnology Learning Center.

“We’re pleased to launch this new collaboration with an institution that precisely aligns to our company priorities to invest in the growth and delivery of innovative health solutions and strong values around diversity and inclusion,” said Sanat Chattopadhyay, executive vice president and president, Merck Manufacturing Division. “Together we can fuel the growth of talent for our company and the biotechnology industry overall.”

Located in the home state of our Durham and Wilson manufacturing sites, the 4,025 square-foot facility will enhance academic programming and training for biotechnology careers for N.C. A&T students and provide advanced discovery opportunities through its classroom space, process laboratory and state-of-the-art biopharmaceutical manufacturing equipment. …

Onward — now you know — doing well, by doing… good.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker (Preposterously) Styles Roberts’ Tangerine Opinion As… “Moderate”. Cool. Cool…

~ condor ~ 2 Comments

So — let’s take John at his (and Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Barrett and Roberts) at their respective word. [Or… words?]

Though we all know Mr. Biden is too much the moral statesman to do so, it could well be a core duty of the sitting President “to take care” that the nation’s laws are faithfully executed. [ Hmmm. Where have we heard that, before?]

With this vast expansion of executive power granted today, Mr. Biden could — without any push-back from the Supremes — decide by executive order that no new election may be held until a jury of his peers resolved Tangerine’s “national security” felony grand jury indictments.

Those would be the document thefts in Florida and the J6 felonies. Mr. Biden might reasonably say “either choose a different nominee, GOP — or wait until we hear from the jury on his indicted felonies — against the nation’s security.”

And Hinderaker would now be bound to agree — that is a sensible reading of the Roberts opinion; a lawful use of the unitary executive’s Art. II prerogatives. And a “core function” of the Executive.

So let’s get it on!

The GOP may nominate and run Mitt Romney or Sarah Palin, or another — or, under Biden’s executive order… they can wait until about 2026, for the jury verdicts, and next time Tangerine may be placed into nomination by GOP / MAGA.

Geese and gander old man. Geese and gander.

Cheers!

Power Alley Returns: Finnish Orion Pharma Expands Collaboration With Rahway — $1.6B In Onco-Candidates Joint Venture, Outside Helsinki…

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Two years ago, Orion began collaborating with Merck on enzyme-inhibition ideas thought potentially-useful in prostate cancers. That has turned out to be the case. In spades.

So, Rahway is both expanding the spend, inking a JV agreement and getting an exclusive license from Orion, in the field of oncology — on several potential next-gen candidates. Here is Fierce’s coverage of it, and a bit:

…Merck is expanding a research partnership with Orion into an exclusive licensing pact, putting more than $1.6 billion biobucks on the table for cancer candidates targeting CYP11A1, an enzyme important in steroid production.

The initial deal, inked back in 2022, centered on Orion’s opevesostat, a clinical-stage CYP11A1 inhibitor designed to treat prostate cancer. At the time, Merck dished out $290 million upfront to help co-develop and co-commercialize the oral, nonsteroidal drug.

Now, the companies are exercising the option to alter the pact into a licensing agreement, giving Merck exclusive global licensing rights to opevesostat and other CYP11A1 programs….

Now you know — and I should note that almost a decade ago now, we let you know that Orion had succeeded in making a generic version of Remicade — and was stealing lots of market share all over the continent (from a prior J/V with J&J that Merck inherited from Schering-Plough). My, how times have changed… onward, grinning — in spite of the day’s more muddled, and even worrisome… news.

नमस्ते

And… The GOP Controlled State “Laws” — Purporting To Return To “Must Carry” Rules, At Private Social Media Outlets — Are… Effectively Dead.

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Just as we’ve long said, here. Technically, these cases, too were returned to the trial courts — for more rulings. But the import is clear. There is no “must carry” law, when private clubs act to exclude liars or crooks from their ranks.

With the laws enjoined, it is hard to see any state (Florida, Texas, Mizzou or Mississippi) being able to make the required showing that it was effectively a federal government acting, through the private social media clubs. Justice Roberts opined last week in a companion case that the linkage, in fact… didn’t exist. That is effectively a death knell for these laws. But here’s a bit, largely to close it all out:

…And what does that “based on viewpoint” requirement entail? Doubtless some of the platforms’ content moderation practices are based on characteristics of speech other than viewpoint (e.g., on subject matter). But if Texas’s law is enforced, the platforms could not — as they in fact do now — disfavor posts because they:

▲ support Nazi ideology

▲ advocate for terrorism

▲ espouse racism, Islamophobia, or anti-Semitism

▲ glorify rape or other gender-based violence;

▲ encourage teenage suicide and self-injury

▲ discourage the use of vaccines

▲ advise phony treatments for diseases

▲ advance false claims of election fraud

The point of it is not that the speech environment created by Texas’s law is worse than the ones to which the major platforms aspire on their main feeds. The point is just that Texas’s law profoundly alters the platforms’ choices about the views they will, and will not, convey.

And we have time and again held that type of regulation to interfere with protected speech….

Now you know. Be certain to vote — and please volunteer to aid the candidates of your choosing. It will be more important than ever, come November — to be sure that people who support the rule of law… elect people who do likewise. Out.

नमस्ते

Ugh. [Updated: Effectively, A Punt, On Immunity.] Meanwhile, The Supremes, 6-3, Give Well-Heeled Business Interests Unlimited Time To Sue Over Regulations They Don’t Like — Even 20 Years Later.

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The case is called Corner Post — and it is a gift to wealthy groups and businesses — ones that want to invalidate long standing regulations, using the APA. It does so, by changing the statute of limitations (by simply saying despite the unambiguously clear law that the Congress wrote, and the long-ago President signed), the right-wing five Justices will simply ignore the plain text, and invent an argument for why wealthy people may sue for any supposed slight, from a regulation — essentially forever.

So, Justice Jackson has the better opinion — in dissent (see below). But it only attracted three votes.

…The Court’s baseless conclusion means that there is effectively no longer any limitations period for lawsuits that challenge agency regulations on their face. Allowing every new commercial entity to bring fresh facial challenges to long-existing regulations is profoundly destabilizing for both Government and businesses. It also allows well-heeled litigants to game the system by creating new entities or finding new plaintiffs whenever they blow past the statutory deadline.

The majority refuses to accept the straightforward, commonsense, and singularly plausible reading of the limitations statute that Congress wrote. In doing so, the Court wreaks havoc on Government agencies, businesses, and society at large. I respectfully dissent. . . .

At the end of a momentous Term, this much is clear: The tsunami of lawsuits against agencies that the Court’s holdings in this case and Loper Bright have authorized has the potential to devastate the functioning of the Federal Government….

On, to the immunity opinion. More soon. So — the immunity decision simply sends it back to the trial court for more fact finding: was Tangerine’s J6 speech core duty? I think not. Most charitably, it would have been a political rally — not a duty of the DEPARTING occupant of 1600 Penn. So more delay. Ugh. We must remove his influence at the ballot box, in November. Out.

नमस्ते

Paul Mirengoff Probably Ought To Check The Post Debate Polls, Too…

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All the goofy gloating on the GOP/MAGA side of the aisle… is just that: goofy.

It may even be a form of gallows humor, since July 11 approaches — like an unstoppable freight train, in the night.

Paul would tell us that Mr. Biden’s cause is hopeless — Just as John, Steve, Bill and Scott have, since Friday.

They’ve all missed the latest weekend / post debate polling.

As the dust settles, the supposed Tangerine lead… has evaporated. Sure he put on a cool Reality TV style show, with all his openly prevaricating bluster. But blaming Nancy Pelosi for 1.6.21… well, most sentient adults see right through that (as just one example). His saying “Hunter” — as a deflection of HIS OWN 34 felony convictions… same.

Yes, as the dust settles — the question for most independent adults is this: would you prefer a very old, incontinent, lying sexual predator / felon. . . or a rather gentle, but very sensible. . . elder statesman — to (keep running, and) lead the free world?

Sure, you may have to wait a tic for his answers — he’s always had a latent stammer — but most will gladly accept that, over a guy who is plainly going to burn everything, if he needs to — to keep his own a$$ out of jail.

Cheers boys — onward, to a short but fun-filled week — with the NO immunity opinion for Tangerine Dotards, from a likely 7-2 majority of the Supremes, by tomorrow at 10 AM Eastern.

Hilarious!

Tangent: The Ionosphere Above Us, At Night… Offers Complex, Patterned Ripples — Far More Often Than Previous Models Suggested: GPS “Static” Implications.

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As ever, I find space science as… a constant draw — for my imagination, and… imaginings.

The idea that these waves and ripples self-organize, into reverse “c” shapes and “x” shapes hundreds of miles across, and thus cause interference with radio and GPS transmissions… fascinates me. Why? What new model of near Earth plasma dynamics will explain this? Let’s listen in, at NASA:

…Who knew Earth’s upper atmosphere was like alphabet soup?

NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission has revealed unexpected C- and X-shaped formations in an electrified layer of gas high above our heads called the ionosphere.

While these alphabetical shapes have been observed before, GOLD sees them more clearly than other instruments have and is now finding them where and when scientists didn’t expect. Their surprise appearances prove that we have more to learn about the ionosphere and its effects on communication and navigation signals that pass through it….

Near Earth’s magnetic equator, charged particles are funneled upward and outward along magnetic field lines, creating two dense bands of particles north and south of the equator that scientists call crests. As night falls and the Sun’s energy fades, low-density pockets in the plasma, called bubbles, can form in the ionosphere. Because of their varying density, the crests and bubbles can interfere with radio and GPS signals….

While previous observations provided brief glimpses of crests and bubbles in the ionosphere, GOLD monitors these features over extended periods of time. That’s thanks to its geostationary orbit, which circles our planet at the same rate Earth rotates, allowing GOLD to hover over the Western Hemisphere….

“Earlier reports of merging were only during geomagnetically disturbed conditions — it is an unexpected feature during geomagnetic quiet conditions,” said Fazlul Laskar, of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), who is the lead author of a paper about this discovery published in April 2024 by the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics….

Mmmmkay — between gleaming monoliths down here, on the ground, and sky-writings, in the ionosphere… that’s plenty to smile about — on a bike ride, by the lake waters… I’m out. Have an excellent Sunday, one and all!

नमस्ते

[U: Back To Toss-Up!] Hinderaker Hasn’t Called A National Outcome Correctly Since 2016… Not One.

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And he was wildly wrong in 2012. And 2008. [Updated on Sunday 06.30.24 — the latest polling, post the debate, puts the race at nearly dead even. People prefer a sensible grandfather over a deranged, lying, incontinent sociopath. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, John.]

In sum, he only ever predicts GOP wins, for the highest office.

So it should be no surprise that he bumblingly missed the call in 2012, after Mr. Obama soundly lost to Mitt Romney in their first debate (but roared back to bury him by November)… that John thinks Tangerine will win from here. He won’t.

John’s most confused about the voting of people of color. But whatever. We will leave that for another day.

My point tonight is that he’s underestimated how much Tangerine’s lies hurt him with more educated voters (about 58% of Americans). It will take a few weeks to sink in, but it will appear.

Watch and learn Hinderaker, as Baby T’s lead evaporates after July 11.

Cheers.