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Zero Surprise, Here: No March ’26 Artemis II Launch Date — Just As We Foretold.

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So — if you’ve been reading along here, we’ve long suggested that there are still some important issues facing the mechanics — in the way the team loads the Boeing / Lockheed launch vehicle — with super-cooled liquid hydrogen. Those are very tiny, slippery molecules, and they do tend to leak… easily. And, when warmed in the air, to a gaseous stage… they are… dangerously and unpredictably explosive.

However, overnight NASA has confirmed that it is seeing new “anomalies” in the helium readings, in the upper stage of the rocket, as well.

So the team is going to roll the vehicle back into the hangar. That scrubs any March launch — and likely means. . . June 2026 or beyond. [Dear Leader will not be pleased — but safety first, always.] In any event, here is the morning’s update:

…NASA is taking steps to potentially roll back the Artemis II rocket and Orion spacecraft to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after overnight Feb. 21 observing interrupted flow of helium to the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage. Teams are actively reviewing data, and taking steps to enable rollback positions for NASA to address the issue as soon as possible while engineers determine the best path forward. In order to protect for troubleshooting options at both Pad B and the VAB, teams are making preparations to remove the pad access platforms installed yesterday, which have wind-driven constraints and cannot be removed during high winds, which are forecasted for tomorrow.

The upper stage uses helium to maintain the proper environmental conditions for the stage’s engine and to pressurize liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant tanks. The systems worked during NASA’s Artemis II wet dress rehearsals, but teams were not able to properly flow helium during normal operations and reconfigurations following the wet dress rehearsal that concluded Feb. 19. Operators are using a backup method to maintain the environmental conditions for the upper stage engines and the rocket, which remains in a safe configuration.

Teams are reviewing potential causes of the issue, including in the interface between ground and rocket lines used to route helium, in a valve in the upper stage, and with a filter between the ground and rocket. They also are reviewing data from Artemis I in which teams had to troubleshoot helium-related pressurization of the upper stage before launch.

A rollback would mean NASA will not launch Artemis II in the March launch window. However, the quick preparations enable NASA to potentially preserve the April launch window if a rollback is required, pending the outcome of data findings, repair efforts, and how the schedule comes to fruition in the coming days and weeks….

Now you know. [Getting thrilled to get out of the cold, by Wed. night — and down, to Music City.] Woot!

नमस्ते

New Cautionary Tales — Out Of A Chinese Look Back, At Co-Infections — HIV/AIDS, Together With Mpox…

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The European Medical Journal latest reviews section offers some not-too-surprising post-hoc result out of China. The multiple burdens of these diseases would rather logically lead to increased rates of hospitalization, once a sufferer is co-afflicted with both viral loads.

In any event, here is that summary — and a bit of it:

…A retrospective analysis from Hangzhou, China, examined 104 laboratory-confirmed mpox cases… and compared mpox-HIV coinfection with mpox monoinfection. The investigators also matched HIV monoinfection cases 1:1 with mpox-HIV coinfections to explore differences and potential risk factors.

Mpox-HIV coinfection was associated with greater symptom burden. Lesion pain was reported more often in coinfected patients than in those with mpox alone (67.39% versus 39.66%). All 27 hospitalizations in the cohort, including one intensive care admission, occurred in the coinfected group, highlighting a clear severity signal in this setting.

Most coinfected patients were already receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) (97.83%), yet immune suppression remained common. Up to 28.26% had CD4 positive T cell counts at or below 350 cells per microliter, and lower CD4 counts were associated with more severe clinical manifestations and higher hospitalization.

The study also identified behavioral factors that clustered with mpox-HIV coinfection. High risk sexual behaviors, including multiple sexual partners and frequent sexual activity, were associated with coinfection status. The authors argue these patterns support integrating surveillance and prevention strategies for HIV and mpox in higher risk groups….

Onward to a nice dinner out with friends, tonight — all done with the food poisoning… and onward to Music City mid-week, ahead — whew.

नमस्ते

I’m Pretty Proud Of My Governor. He Suffers Few… Fools.

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This is perhaps trivial, but a decent case can be made that every state in the Union is also owed reparations from Trump’s plainly unlawful theft of our GDP via his tariff follies.

This case is best seen though — I think — as a way to make the political point: Trump is off the map, when we speak of what is permissible, in the land of separation of powers:

…CHICAGO — Following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the Trump tariffs were imposed illegally, Governor JB Pritzker sent a letter and invoice to the president, demanding the return of the $8.6 billion he stole from Illinois families.

Read the full letter and invoice at right….

Rest assured — Apple (through its fine legal team, like many others around the nation) will reclaim every penny of the $2 billion it is already owed, on behalf of its shareholders — who were lawlessly assessed his odious taxes (in the form of tariffs). Flawless.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker: “Stoopid,” On Tariffs. Yawn.

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Again, surprising no one who pays attention, Hinderaker fundamentally misunderstands the import of today’s decision. Yawn.

He sniffs that it will have a little practical effect in the short term.

No, John — all we see here today is that Wall Street is far smarter than you, and this Trumpian loss / the result… was well priced in to everyone’s market probability engine.

The refund of these tariffs will be meaningful to the businesses who had to pay them. It will take many months, but we will see significant dislocation due to Trump‘s lunacy. He stole from people and businesses without authority — that’s what’s happened here. Do consider that even just one company, Apple as an example, already paid over $2 billion in his unlawful tariffs. Those public company shareholders (of Apple) are entitled to every bit of it back — plus interest. And their lawyers will go get it. [The only unfortunate thing here is that it can’t be taken directly from Donald Trump’s personal pocket.]

And the European and other partners who made promises to invest in the US may very well no longer do so. And Trump’s bluster this afternoon about imposing all new 10% tariffs everywhere… is just that: he never follows through with this nonsense.

So John, the only thing that is certain from today’s events is that Trump will continue to be a malignant blowhard and a liar.

Cheers.

[U] Trumpian Tariffs: Tossed — 6-3! Woot! Gorsuch’s Concurrence Shows How Unhinged The Hard Right (Alito / Thomas) Have Become…

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I will (this afternoon) read the opinions to find the suggestions about how the federal tax returns might best be used to refund money to all who paid tariffs. The Supreme Court agreed with the challengers that IEEPA did not give Trump the power to impose the tariffs. “Based on two words separated by 16 others in… IEEPA — ‘regulate’ and ‘importation’ — the President asserts the independent power to impose tariffs on imports from any country, of any product, at any rate, for any amount of time…” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. “Those words,” he intoned, “cannot bear such weight”. “The IEEPA contains no reference to tariffs or duties”… and, “until now no President has read IEEPA to confer such power”.

So more to come — but only Alito, Thomas and Kavanaugh dissent. Here’s the 170 page stack of majority and concurring and dissenting opinions — and the banger quote:

…IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. The judgment in No. 24–1287 is vacated, and the case is remanded with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction; the judgment in No. 25–250 is affirmed. . . .

[Gorsuch — concurrence:] The problem for the dissent [Kavanaugh, Alito & Thomas, here] is that none of this is relevant here. Before us, the President concedes that he does not enjoy independent Article II authority to impose tariffs in peacetime. Ante, at 18–19. Nor does the President claim “‘concurrent’” constitutional authority to issue his tariffs. Ante, at 13 (citing Tr. of Oral Arg. 70–71). Instead, and to his credit, the President admits the power to authorize tariffs in peacetime is constitutionally vested in “Congress alone.” Ante, at 13 (internal quotation marks omitted). Therefore, the President relies entirely on power derived from Congress, and that means the major questions doctrine applies in the normal way….

Because of this problem, the dissent must argue for a much broader “foreign affairs” qualification to the major questions doctrine. Rather than ask whether an independent, constitutionally vested presidential power is implicated, the dissent would have us ask instead whether the President seeks to use the statute in question for a foreign affairs purpose — for example, as a “too[l]” to “incentivize a change in behavior by allies. . . or enemies.” Post, at 50. When he does, the dissent submits, the major questions doctrine should not apply. And that’s true, the dissent continues, even if the power the President asserts has “significant domestic ramifications.” Post, at 51….

This new exception to the major questions doctrine would have (enormous) consequences hard to reconcile with the Constitution. Article I, §8, vests in Congress many powers that touch on “foreign affairs.” Some of those powers were expected to be (and are) the “principal objects of federal legislation.” The Federalist No. 53, p. 333 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961) (J. Madison). They include not only the power to impose tariffs, cl. 1, but also the power to establish uniform rules of naturalization, cl. 4, appropriate money for armies, cl. 12, and define and punish offenses against the law of nations, cl. 10.

Under the dissent’s view, all these legislative powers and more could be passed wholesale to the executive branch in a few loose statutory terms, no matter what domestic ramifications might follow. And, as we have seen, Congress would often find these powers nearly impossible to retrieve….

As [their own] Justice Scalia famously intoned, “the Congress does not hide elephants… in mouseholes….” Just as we’ve said for over a year. Hilarious.

नमस्ते

Merck v. Merck Multi-Billion Dollar Lanham Act Suit In NJ — More Abbreviated Pre-Trial Briefing To Come In A Few Weeks…

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At a truly-glacial pace… this sprawling, very high-stakes naming lawsuit has been underway for over a decade, just the small part of it, in the federal courts in New Jersey — but the general global dispute about name rights, has been open in courtrooms dotting the globe… for two decades.

And the original schism came at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. So there is some thick bark — on this old tree. Here’s the latest:

…TEXT ORDER:

Further to the Court’s Order issued today, and for the reasons discussed on the record, as pertains to the discovery issue presented in Section 20 of the Revised Final Pretrial Order:

(1) Plaintiff shall set forth its position, including the specific discovery it seeks, in a letter memorandum to the Court (not to exceed ten double-spaced pages), by March 16, 2026;

(2) Defendant shall respond (not to exceed ten double-spaced pages) by April 9, 2026; and

(3) Plaintiff may reply (not to exceed three double-spaced pages) by April 16, 2026.

As regards discovery concerning replacement witnesses in Section 6D of the Revised Final Pretrial Order, no party seeks a custodial production, and the parties agree to limit such discovery to a deposition of the replacement witness. Upon resolution of the anticipated in limine motions, the parties will meet and confer to establish a deposition schedule for the replacement witnesses.

So Ordered by Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer on 2/19/2026….

Now you know — getting ever closer to a real federal Lanham Act trial date. End, power alley stuff for the day.

नमस्ते

[U: Scott Johnson’s Readers, Too.] Paul Mirengoff: [Not So] “Deep Thoughts”.

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UPDATED: Scott Johnson taps one of his readers to be a new feature post — claiming that Rev. Jackson was [somehow] a horrible man, because he didn’t walk a picket line for the full eight hours(?!) — in San Diego in the later 1990s. Damn.

Our “reader/reporter” claims that because he didn’t have “mommy & daddy’s money” he had to make due on union strike stipends — and so, had to borrow from a roommate to feed himself until the strike ended (and — horror of horrors! he had to punch a clock on the picket line each day!). It galled him that the Reverend (a senior citizen!) didn’t stay with them all eight hours in the hot San Diego sun. Wow. That’s… it?!? [I too paid my own way (every penny) since I was 17 from a large mining family in the mountains — through undergrad, and law school — every single expense — food, light, rent, tuition and books — no car; all by working in a [non-union] hard rock mine, taking student loans and going to less expensive schools — in those summers.]

And so…. this (regrettably) forces me to tell of my not-at-all similar encounters — this being the first of many with Rev. Jackson, over the decades. I was a young law student, and had been staffing a Pro Bono clinic at Cabrini Green on Saturdays, all fall [a now bulldozed high density public housing project very near the law school]. Early Thanksgiving morning that year, on a frigid Chicago gray day, we clinic members, with the funds / backing of our Jesuit law school, were putting on a mass turkey dinner / feeding line — in the main courtyard. Hundreds of families were waiting patiently and politely, some singing gospel music, in line. Others had boom boxes playing Sugar Hill. Rev. Jackson arrived by 8 am, sharp — while we were still finishing set up — but he pitched right in, and stayed serving his fellow humans’ needs — until the food was gone — well after 3 pm. The winds were howling by then — but he stayed, already a senior citizen. Shivering — but he stayed.

Over the coming decades, we hosted him at the ’34 Act company I was Chief Counsel for, and later at our AM 100 law firms, where I was an equity partner. Always gracious — but unafraid to speak truth to power. Always. End, updated portion.

So Mirengoff, a privileged white kid from Baltimore (elite private high school education; Dartmouth undergrad and Stanford Law — white shoe law firm life for his entire career) purports to tell a black kid from Greenville, SC (who goes on to co-lead a US nation-changing civil rights movement, for millions and millions of humans) — circa 1954… how he should “mind that these are… his betters” — and be the “bigger, more noble” person. Damn. This is some deep BS:

…[Rev. Jackson had once said he spat in the food of the all white patrons, when he was a server at a SC country club, in his high school years. To which, Paul burps:] Had I been a black kid raised in South Carolina during the oppressive 1950s, I might well have been bitter enough to have done the same thing.

But this is not the behavior one would hope for in a future leader of a great moral movement. It’s almost certainly not something Martin Luther King Jr. ever did….

Gosh — he’s a full blown reincarnation of Jack Handey. Actually, that SNL character was far more profound.

Out — what a putz. All of this while Paul spent his career trying to limit the EEO rights of people of color — and women — in the US — as a lawyer for the richest one-tenth of 1%-ers out there. Damn.

Once Again, A “Dress Rehearsal” — At Loading The Liquid Hydrogen And Oxygen Tanks, For Artemis II… But, Why Even Go?

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There are collected and sealed sample tubes, resting in and around the Perseverance rover out there, 40 million miles off — on Mars. Or Barsoom, if you prefer. NASA’s Trump appointed Administrator recently canceled all funding — for the 2030 mission to robotically reurn them to Earth.

That is an extremely important astro-biology science program — it may definitively establish that there was prior life — on Mars. But instead of spending that money — with no risk to human crews, Tangerine 2.0’s priority is to showboat “boots on the moon” — near the Fourth of July. For nearly no real scienctific purpose. Ask Armstrong. Ask the Apollo teams — we’ve learned what we can there. No need to risk life and limb, at all. Here’s the latest — but this is not the fault of NASA — this is politico-hacks’ fault:

…11:11 a.m. EST

Teams in the firing room at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center are experiencing an issue with ground communications and have moved to backup communication methods to maintain safe audio command and control. The launch director has decided to maintain the current vehicle state, continuing the liquid oxygen fast fill, but delaying moving into liquid hydrogen fast fill, while engineers troubleshoot the issue….

11:45 a.m. EST

Normal communications have been restored, and NASA teams have made the decision to transition to fast fill of the SLS rocket’s core stage with super-cold liquid hydrogen. Core stage liquid oxygen remains in fast fill.

Fast fill rapidly loads hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into their core stage tanks. During this process, teams also monitor for leaks and conduct engine bleed procedures to thermally condition the RS-25 engines for launch. Once fast fill is complete, operations will move to topping and replenish phases.

Up next, teams will start chilling down the liquid hydrogen tank on the interim cryogenic propulsion stage – or the upper stage – of SLS….

So — there is an argument we ought to do both — in the near term (Moon; and Mars) as a stepping stone to boots on Mars. But we haven’t solved the radiation shielding issue — for humans to go to Mars. So we cannot use humans to collect these tubes, safely.

Yes, this is a very stupid time, in US administration / public policy toward (and in many cases, opposing)… real science. Damn.

नमस्ते

Bill Glahn: Feckless Idiot. And Evil, Too.

~ condor ~ 2 Comments

So… This morning, the putz Bill Glahn would tell us that returning important identification cards to people wrongfully detained… so that they can avoid being grabbed and subject to potential deportation again… is somehow “concierge’s level service” that our government should not provide.

This man is as stupid… as he is evil.

Bill you and your goon squad… cannot ignore a federal court order. This was a federal court’s order, on habeas, moron.

If one’s documents are questionable — and one’s been picked up once and released under habeas, with specific orders to hand back the documents one possesses, so that he might not be picked up again… including the order that says he’s been released on habeas and cannot be picked up again… that is not in any manner “luxury hoteling” service — that is a fundamental constitutional right — to be free from false arrest.

Another word for a re-arrest, in this situation, would be… a kidnapping.

Yep — Bill Glahn is a moron.

Out.

Tangent: Indemnity? Only If Martin Shkreli Was Exercising His Rights “As Intended” Under The Purchase Agreement. He Wasn’t.

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So… Martin Shkreli has (through counsel) filed more papers in Brooklyn — this time claiming to properly make the Wu- parties part of the PleasrDAO action. [I won’t link them, as they badly misstate the law and facts of the case.] Even if these papers do that, his claim is now for indemnity (from the Wu-) for disputes about the “ownership” of the work.

That theory would be heard solely and exclusively at a “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party”. When Martin failed to pay the over $8 million he owed in criminal fines and forfeitures (as a result of three felony convictions), from his cash — the able USDC Judge ordered his assets seized, and sold — by operation of law. Not by contract — by law. “All right, title and interest” in and to the Wu-. That is what was sold. And then resold, to PleasrDAO. There was nothing wrongful about the following of the court’s order.

Martin could have avoided all this, had he come up with the $8 million he then owed. But he chose (again!) to stiff a judgment creditor — this time, the federal government. Bad idea.

So he clearly lost every right he could ever have claimed in and to the Wu- work: box, IP, recorded voices — and all. There is no reversionary interest left for him. And it is a complete fiction to claim otherwise. Federal judgments cut off contract claims. And his is a contract claim for indemnity (and the supposed 50% reversion). Silly stuff, Marty.

In any event, here is Bloomberg Law ($$ subs. req.) on it all:

…Convicted hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli said two Wu-Tang Clan rappers are contractually committed to fund his defense — and any judgment against him — in a trade secrets case over the group’s one-of-a-kind album.

Robert “RZA” Diggs and Tarik “Cilvaringz” Azzourgarh must indemnify Shkreli in any case arising from his ownership of “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” under a 2015 purchase agreement, he told the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York in a third-party complaint filed Tuesday.

Shkreli previously failed to add the rappers as necessary plaintiffs and as counterclaim defendants in the suit initiated by investor group PleasrDAO….

This will be… tossed. [Do also recall that, after PleasrDAO bought it, Martin was playing his “bootleg” (wrongfully copied and retained) versions, over Discord and on YouTube live streams — for all to hear. He even admitted on the live-streams that he knew that course of action violated the contract — the same one he now speciously tries to claim “indemnity” under. Yikes.] Onward.