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[U] So… Hinderaker Doesn’t Understand… Any “Rules of Evidence” In Charging Crimes.

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Hinderaker offers a laughably wrong on the law opinion tonight.

If we were to apply his lack of understanding of evidence to what’s already in court, as to Tangerine — he’d be under the jail.

For example, we all know Jared and Ivanka made about $44 million in one year, from foreign sources, while working in the West Wing, with and for… Trump.

But we all also know… no authority has charged, let alone indicted/arraigned Cheetolini — for anything related to those grifts.

Because there is no proof that Trump himself received funds.

So it is… insane that John thinks income to an adult son (or brother) who has never served anywhere in government — without any proof that his father (or brother) ever received a penny — even if we implausibly believe the payments were to curry favor… is any form of crime, by the father.

There is simply no proof the father was aware of the son’s actions, while in office. There is nothing… to any of it — unless Hinderaker’s suggesting that Ivanka’s crimes are attributable to Trump — without a single bank record. Damn son.

Just so, as Jack Smith isn’t claiming Trump was aware, or knew (let alone received anything) when Jared and Ivanka took non US origin influence deals — while in office.

Silly idiot, Hinderaker. It’s all… just silly.

Update: Add to that, that Hinderaker is delusional about Tangerine’s 2024 chances.

Hilarious!

Out.

The Prior Post, On Dengue Abatement — Was So That I Might Contrast REAL Science, With The Views Of A Blithering Idiot… Bill Otis, At “Ringside”…

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Well… Silly Billy would tell us that every ill modern public schools (and private ones, too — it seems!) suffer… is the result of the COVID pandemic response efforts in the US — from Dr. Fauci and CDC and HHS.

Wow.

That’s some “double o’s level“… Stoopid.

BTW, wasn’t the Cheetolini preznit, then?

Yup….

He was. [Here’s the real pandemic sciences view.]

All while Hayward shows he knows… nothing of Catholicism in the US, or real bioscience ethics.

Dengue Fever Update: A Significant Explosion — In Early 2024 Infection Rates, In Central And South America…

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Dengue is a high-burden mosquito borne virus, resulting in debilitatingly high fevers in perhaps 4.5 million humans a year, who are bitten. While a vaccine exists, its limited approved patient population (ages 9 to 16) should be carefully considered, along with the costs ($119, for the three doses) — because in a typical year, about 3,000 people will die from the virus. But this year, given the 3X explosion in cases — just in the Spring — that death toll may eclipse 10,000… if more aggressive measures are not employed — and employed rapidly, now.

It is typical that the rate of viral infections will accelerate from Spring well into early Fall — which could see over 15 million cases presented, by then.

Perhaps the most effective advice in South America, at least — will be to be… religious about sleeping every night in netting, in the Southern Cone. Here’s all the latest, from the ever-reliable Univ. of Minnesota’s CIDRAP site:

…At a media briefing today, top officials with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned that cases in region are running three times higher than last year at this time, putting the region on track to break last year’s record of 4.5 million cases. Jarbas Barbosa, MD, PAHO’s director, said countries in the Southern Cone, including Brazil, Argentina, and Brazil, are experiencing summer surges.

He added, however, that countries that typically see dengue rises in the second half of the year are also seeing upticks in cases, including Barbados, Costa Rica, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Martinique, and Mexico. So far, the region has recorded 3.5 million cases, about 1,000 of them fatal. Health officials urged countries to double down on mosquito control efforts and to support the ability of healthcare providers to recognize and treat cases early….

Onward — to Easter then, smiling, just the same.

नमस्ते

Another Texas State Level “Selective [Racial] Prosecution” Case… Dumped. Finally!

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We will close out a Good Friday ’24 — with this.

Ignoring the actual attempts by dozens (if not hundreds) of Texans, to thwart the lawful and peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021, Gov. Abbott’s men — and they are clearly mostly whyte men — prosecuted a woman of color, seeking to send her back for five MORE years of jail… solely for incorrectly signing a PROVISIONAL ballot. A Democratic one, at that — in a polling place where she was not officially yet registered. But now that’s all finally over — behind her; here’s the story:

…A Texas appeals court has overturned a Fort Worth woman’s voter fraud conviction and five-year prison term for casting an illegal provisional ballot.

Crystal Mason did not know that being on probation for a previous felony conviction left her ineligible to vote in 2016, the Second District Court of Appeals in Fort Worth ruled on Thursday.

Appearing near tears at times, Mason said during a Friday news conference that it has been a long seven years since the voting charge. “I’ve been out for six years on an appeal bond, one foot in one foot out, not knowing if I was going back to prison,” Mason said.

“When I got the news… I was just overwhelmed in joy, it’s been a long journey,” Mason said. “I cried and hollered when I got the news….”

Thomas Buser-Clancy, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, called the ruling “a victory for democracy.”

“Mrs. Mason never should have been prosecuted for what was at worst an innocent misunderstanding,” said Buser-Clancy. He noted that the ballot wasn’t counted because she was not a registered voter, and said the case should have ended there….

Do better. Be better. Take it to heart Gov. Abbott. Out.

नमस्ते

Found! The Actual Cause Of A Celestial Event Seen For Half A Year, In The Night Skies — Emanating From Cassiopeia… About 800 Years Ago, In 1181…

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It always fires my imagination — to think of all the light that has just recently reached us… many thousands of years after an event out there, in the eternity — deep in another galaxy. But the people looking up in 1181, they saw an event as bright as Saturn — visible to a well trained naked eye, even. They had no idea what it was, or what caused it.

And yet, now after about 800 years from when its first light reach us, we’ve nailed down what it was, and where it happened. Here’s that story — after many years of looking at the wrong spot in the sky, too:

…In the year 1181 a rare supernova explosion appeared in the night sky, staying visible for 185 consecutive days. Historical records show that the supernova looked like a temporary ‘star’ in the constellation Cassiopeia shining as bright as Saturn.

Ever since, scientists have tried to find the supernova’s remnant. At first it was thought that this could be the nebula around the pulsar — the dense core of a collapse star — named 3C 58. However closer investigations revealed that the pulsar is older than supernova 1181.

In the last decade, another contender was discovered; Pa 30 is a nearly circular nebula with a central star in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is pictured here combining images from several telescopes. This composite image uses data across the electromagnetic spectrum and shows a spectacular new view of the supernova remnant. This allows us to marvel at the same object that appeared in our ancestors’ night sky more than 800 years ago….

Studies of the composition of the different parts of the remnant have led scientists to believe that it was formed in a thermonuclear explosion, and more precisely a special kind of supernova called a sub-luminous Type Iax event. During this event two white dwarf stars merged, and typically no remnant is expected for this kind of explosion.

But incomplete explosions can leave a kind of ‘zombie’ star, such as the massive white dwarf star in this system. This very hot star, one of the hottest stars in the Milky Way (about 200,000 degrees Celsius), has a fast stellar wind with speeds up to 16,000 km/h. The combination of the star and the nebula makes it a unique opportunity for studying such rare explosions….

Amazing… onward, and pulling for Marquette tonight — smiling.

नमस्ते

Scott Johnson’s — This Morning — Admits There Is No Path To “Lawful” Secession…

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Of course, my snarky post of last night was aimed exclusively… at what an utterly suicidal move, from an economic and self-defense standpoint, it would be… if Texas were to take Hinderaker’s advice — and quit.

I did not address the legal merits of the approach, as there… are none.

And that is why, quite a bit more seriously, it would be foolish to think Mexico or California or Colorado or Illinois and New York would continue to have cordial trade relations with any new “nation” called Texas. And the fed’s removal of $30 billion in cash aid, plus the ending of perhaps $100 billion in “in-kind” aid (defense, air traffic control, roads and bridge and waterway/port connections and so on)… would mean the people of Texas would need to adopt punishing new income taxes, and real estate taxes… and sales taxes… just to keep the awful level of services they now endure — much more, if the Texans want to improve them.

But perhaps because John’s drew a righteous rebuke from most of his commenters, Scott needed to re-assert that Mr. Lincoln long ago settled this question. Leaving the Union, is and would be… itself… an act of war against the United States of America.

Lovely, boys… just lovely. None of you can be taken seriously any longer.

Each of you has lost your tiny lil’ minds.

Out

Nutty Hinderaker (Again) Thinks Texas “Secession” Might Work — For Texas?!

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John is apparently unaware that Texas not only imports most of its food and grains, but also that Mexico is its largest trading partner, by far (behind foodstuffs — from California).

Yet he thinks leaving the Union would work out for Texans.

Nope. They’d… likely starve, if California and Mexico decided to raise tariffs, or refuse to barter.

And that’s before we talk about the hundreds of billions that Texas takes, in federal government aid and support. Texans like to brag about the 2023 $32 billion budget surplus, in state coffers — but they conveniently fail to mention that nearly $30 billion comes from federal sources — aid the “nation” of Texas would have to cover from state taxes (Texas imposes no state income tax).

In sum… Texas would fall apart — and starve.

What a silly old coot he is.

Out.

We Are Still Waiting To See The Pre-Trial Conference Definitive Order — In Merck’s Long-Running, Multi-Billion Dollar Lanham Act Suit…

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Since at least late September of last year, we’ve inquired on and off about why the full (even if partially redacted) purported pre-trial order in the Merck v. Merck federal action in New Jersey remains… sealed.

Essentially all orders, entered in the US courts on the docket — under over a century of precedent, are presumptively required to be made public — immediately — absent a detailed hearing and written findings from the court delineating why any part might not be made publicly available. This is a core tenant of our “freedom of the press” jurisprudence.

But here in late March 2024 (the original was shown in court in early October of 2023), we are again reading of a minute order / potential delay to making the contours of the upcoming schedule… public, thus (just entered today):

…As discussed at today’s telephone status conference, by or before April 3, 2024 the parties shall file a joint letter informing the Court as to whether either party objects to holding in abeyance the May 10, 2024 filing of the proposed final pretrial order until the determination of the forthcoming motions in limine.

So Ordered by Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer on 3/28/24….

Obviously, the parties must not want it made public — but the interest of the free press is always supposed to be considered by able Magistrate Judges, in federal court.

We may need to restate the law for the court, by letter to chambers. Please do make at least a redacted version available, Judge Hammer — or I will appear and file for one at least redacted version to be compelled, under the Supremes’ precedents from the Nixon era — specifically… Nixon v. Warner Communications 435 US 589, 597 (1978).

Hmm… okay. Onward.

नमस्ते

USDC Judge Kaplan In Manhattan Sentences SBF To 25 Years — A Quarter Century! — Rejects Claims That His Investors Suffered No Losses.

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Not surprising. [But it is about 20 percent longer than I had guessed — while using Elizabeth Holmes’ nearly $700 million of frauds as “Kentucky windage“, here.] Significantly, Judge Kaplan recommends a “medium security” FCI (like Allenwood or Ft. Dix or Canaan) — not a camp. But the final decision on placement falls to BoP, as we saw in Shkreli’s cases.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the son of two prominent Stanford Law School professors, and at one time, a billionaire — wielding wide influence in both Democratic and Republican US political races… will spend a quarter century behind bars. And the forfeiture is over $11 billion. He will be every bit as broke as Martin Shkreli, when he finally leaves prison. And his parents (also former board members of various SBF affiliated companies) will not get to keep the $110 million Bahamas resort he purchased for them, with stolen FTX funds.

That estate, and several others, will be sold in bankruptcy — to repay jilted customers, creditors and investors. He will be in his late 50s before he leaves federal prison (even with a 15% reduction for good conduct, and completing various programs).

And so it goes.

नमस्ते

The European Space Agency Has Logged 25,000 Orbits Of Mars — With Its Mars Express Spacecraft…

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It is important to remember that planetary science is a multi-national effort.

So, today I thought we’d highlight ESA’s recent milestone: 25,000 passes over the Red Planet — though in these images, it is more an ochre, to my eye. Here’s the bit:

…The new high-altitude view was taken by Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). It features many of Mars’s towering volcanoes and even includes a surprise appearance from the planet’s largest moon, Phobos.

Mars Express arrived at Mars in late 2003, and completed its 25 000th orbit on 19 October 2023. In the two decades since its arrival, the orbiter has completely transformed our understanding of the planet. It’s mapped the atmosphere more completely than ever before, traced the history of water across Mars’s surface, studied the two small martian moons in unprecedented detail, and returned breathtaking views of the planet in three dimensions.

This new image is no exception. It focuses on the Tharsis region, which covers about one-quarter of the planet’s surface and is home to Mars’s famously colossal volcanoes. Many volcanoes can be seen here: Olympus, Arsia, Pavonis and Ascraeus Mons, and Jovis, Biblis and Ulysses Tholus. Olympus Mons is the largest, reaching nearly 22 km high (compared to Mount Everest’s 8.8 km here on Earth)….

Now you know — off to the park with baby-girls on Spring Break, grinning!