Category: Uncategorized

Minor Friday Update: East Bay IV Will Remain Mothballed Until After 2024 Presidential Elections, In the USDC, ND CA…

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While the Biden Administration has reworked almost all the rules that were in issue under the prior administration’s lawless detention of minors in isolation from their families (and refusals to provide soap, toothbrushes and bedding, of all things), DHS has still never formally rescinded the rules which have been found by multiple courts to violate both international treaties, and US federal law.

So the East Bay plaintiffs want to just place the litigation called East Bay IV on hold, rather than dismiss it entirely — should the unthinkable happen. And the court has agreed — entering the below order, overnight:

…Defendants’ position is that, because the 2024 Final Rule has gone into effect and entirely replaced the 2020 Final Rule, this case is now moot, notwithstanding the ongoing litigation in Moody and Civitas. . . .

Among other things, Plaintiffs have not received the full relief available, such as a permanent injunction of the 2020 Final Rule, which DHS has not yet rescinded. See 89 Fed. Reg. 6194, 6248 (Jan. 31, 2024) (DHS citing existence of preliminary injunctions as grounds for not rescinding the rule as part of its 2024 rulemaking).

Nevertheless, the parties have conferred and agree that, to conserve the parties’ and the Court’s resources, this case should continue to be held in abeyance until November 15, 2024. This period of time will allow for further discussions between the parties on how to resolve this case and potentially for further developments in Moody and Civitas.

The parties jointly request that the Court continue to hold this case and all proceedings in abeyance, and that the parties be permitted to file a joint status report by November 15, 2024….

Now you know. Onward.

नमस्ते

[U: Now May 25.] Additional Delay: The ULA/Boeing/NASA Crewed Starliner Launch Will Now Be No Earlier Than Next Tuesday…

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As I’ve repeatedly opined, this should not be a rush job. Crew safety is Job One. Always.

In addition, as I repeatedly said — this mission ultimately builds to boots on the Moon — and then around 2035… on Mars. I see lots of higher value, deep space automated spacecraft / science missions ahead of this “feel good” — and largely PR-driven mission set of stepping stones. That’s just my take. Here’s the latest, from NASA’s blog on it:

…NASA, Boeing, and ULA (United Launch Alliance) teams continue working remaining open tasks in preparation for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station. The teams now are targeting a launch no earlier than 3:09 p.m. EDT Saturday, May 25, for the flight test carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station.

On May 11, the ULA team successfully replaced a pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank on the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur upper stage. The team also performed re-pressurization and system purges, and tested the new valve, which performed normally.

Starliner teams are working to resolve a small helium leak detected in the spacecraft’s service module traced to a flange on a single reaction control system thruster. Helium is used in spacecraft thruster systems to allow the thrusters to fire and is not combustible or toxic….

Now you know. Onward, smiling… on a perfectly sunny Spring Friday — for a bike ride by the lake.

नमस्ते

Well… Let’s Revisit Bill Otis’ Remarks When Tangerine Suddlenly Cancels The June Date…

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Bill rambles on and on, this morning — claiming that the June debate date set by Mr. Biden is the act of a desperate man. Cool story bro.

Mr. Biden has put Trump on his heels — and Trump will claim something about his four indictments / pre-trials… prevents his appearance for June. [That’s my 60-40 probability take.]

That is why Bill and the boys are selling a false narrative of desperation (on the Democratic side of the aisle). No, it is Tangerine who is worried that a bad June showing might end him, for November. If there is even one conviction before November, he will be toast. And Mr. Biden will pound him relentlessly on all the ACTUAL evidence already adduced, in documents, in June.

From that sort of fact based indictment — calling Mr. Biden middle school bully names… won’t rescue the Trump brand. Not with most of the otherwise “low information” / low curiosity voters, who are also increasingly… independent.

So no, Mr. Otis, it will be Trump who avoids the June debate. I put that at a 60-40 probability.

Onward, grinning into the morning’s sunshine….

UPDATED: CleanSpark Is Apparently Under Contract To Buy The MineOne Wyoming Site Near Warren AFB…

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So it seems that the Chinese nationals are not likely to keep operating the site, by moving the facility a mile inward on the property (just as we earlier guessed).

It is not at all clear that domestic US public crypto-miner CleanSpark can evade this executive order we detailed, however — as by the order’s terms, it requires moving the rigs more than a mile away from the perimeter fence of Warren AFB, in rural Wyoming.

That stipulation was not conditional in any manner, on ending the Chinese ownership here — and in any event, the rigs could already be embedded with various sorts of hardware, firmware or software “backdoors“, to continue whatever action the Chinese nationals had in mind, at the site.

So — I suspect there are really only two choices: one — replace all existing rigs with new, off the shelf equipment… or two, move the facility the required mile. Otherwise, CleanSpark has the right, under Section 3(a)(ii) of the contract, to declare the good title / quiet enjoyment warranties breached — and walk away. Then sue, for damages — for loss of bargain.

In any event, here’s the SEC Form 8-K exhibit, a full real estate purchase agreement listing a Chinese national as the party executing on behalf of MineOne.

Fascinating. We will keep the readership posted — as ever.

Onward.

Kepler Spies A Third Neptune Sized World, Transiting A Binary Star System, About 4,000 Light Years Away, In Cygnus…

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This would be a truly beautiful sight to see: a larger and smaller pair of stars, tightly orbiting one another — in a swiftly evolving dance — while large graceful gas giants float at a distance, slowly rotating and observing the pair’s pirouettes.

Here’s all that, from NASA this morning:

…Astronomers have discovered a third planet in the Kepler-47 system, securing the system’s title as the most interesting of the binary-star worlds. Using data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, a team of researchers, led by astronomers at San Diego State University, detected the new Neptune-to-Saturn-size planet orbiting between two previously known planets.

With its three planets orbiting two suns, Kepler-47 is the only known multi-planet circumbinary system. Circumbinary planets are those that orbit two stars.

The planets in the Kepler-47 system were detected via the “transit method.” If the orbital plane of the planet is aligned edge-on as seen from Earth, the planet can pass in front of the host stars, leading to a measurable decrease in the observed brightness. The new planet, dubbed Kepler-47d, was not detected earlier due to weak transit signals….

With the discovery of the new planet, a much better understanding of the system is possible. For example, researchers now know the planets in in this circumbinary system are very low density – less than that of Saturn, the Solar System planet with the lowest density.

While a low density is not that unusual for the sizzling hot-Jupiter type exoplanets, it is rare for mild-temperature planets. Kepler-47d’s equilibrium temperature is roughly 50 degrees F (10 degrees C), while Kepler-47c is ‑26 degrees F (‑32 degrees C). The innermost planet, which is the smallest circumbinary planet known, is a much hotter 336 degrees F (169 degrees C)….

Onward, grinning. Be excellent to one another.

नमस्ते

Welp. This Is… Preposterous. New Issues “Wholly Invented” By The Fifth Cir., To Be Briefed By Next Week, In Floating Razor Wire Case…

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Again, this will not change the outcome. These sorts of hypothetical “how many lawyers can one stand on the head of a pin?” questions have no place in a decision to review whether a clear federal statute (Rivers and Harbors Act) is being violated, and to review the well-settled Supremacy Clause litigation, that the US Constitution resides above the claim of a Texas right to make war.

There is simply no rational basis to conclude (even if one believes Texas properly invoked its own “state level” war powers laws) that NO COURT is allowed review, or to compare those to the FEDERAL Constitution (which Texas long ago ratified — and has accepted all the benefits from), in the web of federal border control laws — to decide which is… supreme. None.

But overnight, the goofy ruby red en banc Fifth Circuit voted to ask for more briefing on four questions (including some hypothetical ones!) surrounding Texas’s power to “make war” — and whether migrant crossings are an “act of war”. Cripes. This is stupid, but here it is — in three pages, of silly sophistry:

…Did the district court err in holding that whether Texas has been invaded is a non-justiciable political question? If not, did the district court err in proceeding to issue a preliminary injunction despite the presence of that question?

In a hypothetical case, if an action is brought against the President, rather than a governor, for exercising the constitutional war power, do we apply the same justiciability analysis?….

What this is… is simply an attempt to delay the inevitable: Texas loses — even in a ruby red Cincy appeals court.

नमस्ते

Ringside Hits Two Year Mark… One Houston Comment Is… Spot-On, There.

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So… it seems Paul has been on his own for two years now.

Kicked out by Steve Hayward’s petulant lack of respect for differing opinions, at Powerline. Hilarious.

I think one commenter at Ringside has Steve — to a tee:

…Houstonian | 21 hrs ago

Enjoying the blog. Still wish Steve Hayward hadn’t had a violent fit over at Power Line.

Can’t we all get along?!….

This is all lovely — they all tend to eat their own… eventually.

But to be clear… all I am really saying is that Mirengoff, and Ringside host a slightly higher caliber of… idiots (in the main) than the “New Powerline” boys represent. [As Rigby has very pithily noted, Lloyd Billingsley cannot offer many coherent sentences — at least not in a row — at all.

And although she’s mostly vanished in the last nine months, Bitsy seems more than a lil’ like the stereotypical “HOA Karen” — one who tries to have you arrested, if you even attempt to walk on the (common area) parkway grass.]

Out.

[U: Link to audio now.] Full En Banc Fifth Cir. Rehearing Completed Today, In Water Razor Wire Buoys Case Against Gov. Abbott’s Boys.

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The outcome will not change, though the reasoning may be revised. [Update: here is the full one hour and six minute argument audio, as an mp3.]

The ultra conservative Fifth Circuit consists of the below — but the law is crystal clear: MAGA GOP Gov. Abbott must lose here, if the Supremacy Clause still means… anything. And it does. Texas has no right to interfere in border matters… ever. So — now we wait.

…EN BANC ORAL ARGUMENT HEARD Richman, King, Jones, Smith, Stewart, Elrod, Southwick, Haynes, Graves, Higginson, Willett, Ho, Duncan, Engelhardt, Oldham, Wilson, Douglas, Ramirez En Banc….

And yes, if need be, I am confident that the Supremes will right any mis-steps we may see flowing from this heavily red-shifted Fifth Circuit. Onward.

नमस्ते

I’ll Likely Have More Later — But Wanted To Put This Up — Right Away!

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More tonight…[with still nothing meaningful from the boys… yawn…. so we will go to more relevant fare, here.]

Do spread this good news, far and wide, my friends:

…Dorothy Jean Tillman II’s participation in Arizona State University’s May 6 commencement was the latest step on a higher-education journey the Chicago teen started when she took her first college course at age 10.

In between came associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

When Tillman successfully defended her dissertation in December, she became the youngest person — at age 17 — to earn a doctoral degree in integrated behavioral health at Arizona State, associate professor Leslie Manson told ABC’s “Good Morning America” for a story Monday.

“It’s a wonderful celebration, and we hope… that Dorothy Jean inspires more students,” Manson said. “But this is still something so rare and unique.”

Tillman, called “Dorothy Jeanius” by family and friends, is the granddaughter of former Chicago Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman….

Just… glorious! Onward, grinning ear to ear!

नमस्ते

On Oncologists’ “Perceptions” — Of Various Drugmakers… For What It Is Worth…

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Well — first (as ever), the caveats: this is a small survey — and likely not truly a random one. I am pretty convinced that the “diversity of drug candidates” in a company’s stable (or R&D pipeline) matters far less to oncologists, than the efficacy profiles of even just one single juggernaut drug — in driving therapy choices. [Doctors, said more bluntly, do not write prescriptions based on any R&D pipeline that might be yet a decade off.]

So, to the extent that some parts of this survey results piece read more like a Wall Street investors’ analysis sheet — I’d tend to discount it.

What matters (to present-day pharma revenue-trend levels) is… prescribing patterns, by thousands of real oncologists — world-, and nation-wide, today. [That is, there is a very solid reason that Keytruda is the top selling drug worldwide, now.] In any event, here’s that story — from Fierce:

…ZoomRx measures perceptions from oncologists using a scoring system out of 100 across 30 major cancer drugmakers. The 100 score comes from a weighted system of five core areas, namely: promotion metrics; patient-centricity; reputation; innovation; and HCP-centricity.

Merck scored 80 out of 100, narrowly beating second-placed AstraZeneca by one point. AstraZeneca “emerges as a strong challenger,” the analysts report, given its more diverse portfolio than Merck from its drugs Tagrisso, Lynparza, Enhertu, Calquence and Imfinzi. It’s also seen recent positive trial results in experimental cancer therapies. . . .

There was a large drop to Bristol Myers Squibb in third with 62 points, with ZoomRx noting that BMS “struggles with innovation.” Its big cancer immunotherapies Opdivo and Yervoy “remain strong” in the eyes of doctors, but the company’s acquired drugs from its M&A deals “haven’t delivered significant results,” the analysts said….

Now you know. Onward, to a sunny mid-week taco truck. Grin.

नमस्ते