Category: Uncategorized

Bill Otis Seeks To Minimize The Possibility Of A Ruinous ‘24 Tangerine Third Party Bid.

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We should now be prepared to see Powerliners as well as Ringsiders… making largely laughable arguments (by assuming for example without evidence, that 100% of “undecideds” will break for Tangerine) to convince GOP Normies to nominate the Orange-atan.

They now reason (perhaps correctly) he has a one-in-20 chance of being elected, while a GOP nomination of Haley or DeSantis means… a 1-in-1,000 chance. This is true, because Trump certainly runs third party if he’s NOT the GOP nominee… and guarantees a Democrat keeps the White House in 2024-28.

These GOP cynics would rather burn the Constitution, than lose another election. They’d rather take a 1 in 20 bet, than a sure loss.

Me? I welcome their defeatist calculus.

For example, if just a majority of the undecideds in Virginia break for Mr. Biden, he will expand his margin of victory over Trump (2020 v. 2024)… but he will also win by 12 points. Trump needs 100% of undecideds there, just to… STILL lose by 1%.

This is how dire the GOP map has (already) become (due to running a provable felon at the top of the ticket) — even eleven months out.

Hilarious! Bring it on, boys.

Out.

“The STUPID — It Burns!” Texas Tells The Supremes It Put Up Razor Wire In Shelby Park… So Locals’ Golfing And Picnicking… Would Be… IMPEDED?!

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The State knows it is caught red-handed, as state politicians have (on X-itter, and Truth Social) openly labeled this a seizure, and a “kickin’ out” of CBP and DHS. [This is all part of Gov. Abbott’s monstrosity called “Operation Lone Star” — with state of Texas tax funds.]

Yet sworn affidavits filed overnight by state officials falsely say they “weren’t aware” that CBP needed access to the park, so they welded on latches, and bolted on locks to the park gates, on January 10, and permanently prevented access by federal agents, in what are admitted as… lawful operations by DHS and CBP.

This will end badly for Gov. Abbott. Here is the nonsense, from the second affidavit filed overnight in response to Department of Homeland Security demanding an order in the US Supreme Court instructing Texas it must obey federal law, Here is a link to Gov. Abbott’s nonsense, for the record:

…To ensure Shelby Park could be used[!] for its intended purposes including golfing, hiking, memorial services and picnics, law enforcement has for several years used shipping containers and wire to limit access to the park. As a result, since installing these barriers years ago there are already obstructions, and therefore limited visibility, for someone wishing to observe the river….

During my service at the border, I have also observed CBP agents utilizing Shelby Park area for staging operations and patrols. In particular, CBP used Shelby Park as a staging operation to hold and question large numbers of individuals who had crossed the border…. I have also observed CBP boat such individuals down the river to the municipal park for the same purpose….

So Texas admits it has in fact violated federal law — in knowingly and willfully obstructing Homeland Security and Border Patrol. Charming.

DHS and CBP do not just “wish” to observe the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass — they are commanded by statute to do so — and give aid and assistance to asylum seekers in those waters, as well as inspect them for communicable diseases, and schedule them for future hearings. This is not “sight-seeing” — as the feckless state of Texas people suggest.

Onward, into more snow — and deep sub zero wind chills here in the coming nights.

Updated: A favorite old restaurant is shutting its doors after this long King weekend, so we will brave the cold — to eat one last fine French meal in Lincoln Square… before it winks out of existence. Smile.

नमस्ते

Courtesy Of Our Anon. Commenter, Some New Puzzlements — From Saturn’s Moon Titan (NASA’s Dragonfly Mission Will Reach It Again In 2030)

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This is a heady time — as we aim, in about six years, to go back to Titan (after Huygens, a decade ago) — and see what these “structures in the lakes” are. [Some of our prior coverage of it all is here.]

To be clear, they are likely just non-living plumes of liquid ethane and methane — but we need to go, and make sure — that they are NOT something like algae blooms, here atop Earth’s lakes and oceans. That is, we need to rule out a biological process (life).

Here’s the latest, from CNN — via NASA:

“…I wanted to investigate whether the magic islands could actually be organics floating on the surface, like pumice that can float on water here on Earth before finally sinking,” said Yu, lead author of a study published January 4 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters….

A diverse range of organic molecules exist in Titan’s upper atmosphere, including nitriles, hydrocarbons and benzene. The surface temperature is so cold at minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 179 degrees Celsius) that the rivers and lakes were carved out by liquid methane — the way rocks and lava helped to form features and channels on Earth.

The organic molecules in Titan’s atmosphere bind together in clumps before freezing and falling onto the moon’s surface. Plains and dark dunes of organic material have been spotted across Titan, and scientists think the features were largely created by Titan’s “snow.”

But what happens when the hydro- carbon snow falls on the eerily smooth surfaces of Titan’s liquid gas lakes and rivers? Yu and her colleagues investigated the different scenarios that might occur.

Yu’s team determined that the solid organic material falling from the upper atmosphere wouldn’t dissolve when it landed on Titan’s liquid bodies because those are already saturated with organic particles….

So — as we watch a wet snow fall here, tonight… we wonder. By 2030 or so… will we know what is going on, over ~880 million miles off, around Saturn? Bigger than the planet Mercury, and larger than our Moon, Titan has a thick, dense atmosphere… where the atmospheric pressure would feel (to us) like swimming about 50 feet underwater here on Earth, without a helmet or other gear. Your ears would be popping — wildly. Truly… wild. Onward.

नमस्ते

[U] Homeland Security And The Federal CBP Filed — In The Supremes, At ~2 AM This Morning — Texas Rangers Are Willfully Refusing The Dept. of Homeland Security Access To Eagle Pass, Texas Border.

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This is… astonishing. Updated: And, in case you missed it before — here is the Department of Homeland Security’s original request for immediate Supremes intervention. It is precisely correct, on the applicable law.

And it is starting to smell like… another insurrection.

One ordered by Governor Greg Abbott (GOP / MAGA) in Texas. The Supremes are asked to rule, on an emergency basis that the Texas Guard, and state police and the Rangers are violating an injunction, as well as numerous federal statutes — which give the federal government exclusive jurisdiction as to border matters. Do stay tuned — Abbott may be slapped before Tuesday night, now — by the Supremes. Here’s the late night emergency brief, and a bit — what an insolent SOB Abbott is!:

…Border Patrol agents in a vehicle towing a boat to launch on the boat ramp requested access to Shelby Park, but the Texas Border Patrol agents in a vehicle towing a boat to launch on the boat ramp requested access to Shelby Park, but the Texas National Guard refused to permit them to access the area. App., infra, 4a. Border Patrol agents likewise requested access to the staging area and Texas National Guard refused. Id. at 3a-4a. In addition, prior to the evening of January 10, Border Patrol agents were able to drive trucks with mounted surveillance equipment to various locations in this area. Those trucks were used to maintain visibility and awareness of activity along this stretch of the river and border. Id. at 6a. But the Texas National Guard has now blocked Border Patrol’s access to the area, rendering its agents unable to place mobile surveillance trucks. Ibid. Border Patrol’s ability to view this portion of the border is now limited to a narrow sliver from a single surveillance camera located outside of the newly fenced area….

As described in the attached declaration, Border Patrol has informed this Office that the new wire, fencing, and blocked access points effectively prohibit Border Patrol agents from accessing or getting near the border along this 2.5-mile stretch of the river. App., infra, at 3a. In its response to the emergency application for vacatur, Texas repeatedly contended that Border Patrol agents could access the border via boat or road without cutting the wire. See Opp. 7 & n.1, 10, 26, 27, 33, 34.

But since the evening of January 10, that is not the case. The boat ramp that Texas has blocked off is the only safe and operationally practical boat ramp with access to the relevant portion of the river. See App., infra, 5a-6a. Photographs depicting how Texas has blocked access to Shelby Park are attached as Exhibit B to the declaration. See id. at 10a-18a. Border Patrol’s normal access to the border through entry points in the federal border barrier is likewise blocked by the Texas National Guard installing its own gates and placing armed personnel in those locations to control entry. See id. at 4a. And the Texas National Guard has likewise blocked Border Patrol from using an access road through the preexisting state border barrier by stationing a military Humvee there. See ibid. A photograph depicting the military Humvee blocking that access road is attached as Exhibit C to the declaration. See id. at 19a-20a….

This Court should… restore Border Patrol’s access to the border it is charged with patrolling and the migrants it is responsible for apprehending, inspecting, and processing….

This is… truly… insolent; and threatens the integrity of the Union. Yikes.

OTOH, perhaps Abbott is seeking an echo — of GOP Gov. Geo. Wallace, at the door of the University of Alabama — trying impotently to stop integration. So perhaps it is ironically fitting that the Supremes will consider it over MLK Day weekend, 2024. “Only light can do… that.” Out.

नमस्ते

This Will Remain On Top — Until Monday Night: Paul, Scott And John Should Read And Reflect…

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One of the lesser known truths that emerges out of 1963, in Chicago — and the January conference of religious leaders on race… is the unlikely, but ironclad bond forged between Dr. King and the luminary Rabbi Heschel (who, like King, was descended from a dynastic line of religious leaders in Europe — while King was a Prince of what was then called “the Negro churches” (now the AME / Black Baptists), Heschel was a Prince of Rabbinical thought, his line stretching back nearly 500 years).

They met in the hotel ballroom in Chicago, and nearly immediately found common ground in the Old Testament’s prophets.

Both men understood those prophets not so much as tellers of the future, but as men willing to sacrifice all, body and blood, to bear an unflinching witness to present (but painful) truths.

Taylor Branch tells a more eloquent story of it all — but this is his bit — the bit the boys need to… reflect upon:

…At Chicago [the two men] raise strikingly similar cries “may the problem of race in America soon make hearts burn,” said King, so that “prophets will rise up and cry out as Amos did.” Heschel quoted the same passage from Amos, which he used in his book to illustrate the emotive force in the prophetic conception of justice, as contrasted with the arid rationality of the Greek ideal.

They both quoted theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, Heschel’s personal friend in New York, and one of King’s primary influences as a seminary student….

When King declared that the “durable sins of race stress the need for prophecy” he did not mean the popular notion of foretelling, but rather the same “prophecy” described by Heschel as “the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, through prophets, able and willing to draw upon themselves, the excess poison in the world.“

“Let there be a grain of prophet in every man!“ Heschel exclaimed….

So it is that the Powerliners need to see there is no 100% right party — as to Gaza.

Painful, but true. In a surprising way, these two — separated by differences of covenants, color and nationality… found a way to say that there was no right in any position, other than full, unblinking equality.

Another whyte pastor at the conference said that the day would come, if the collective “we” did not do more, a lot more, to end inequality, that… one day, somewhere on the globe, brown skinned peoples would begin marching whyte women, men and even little whyte babies into gas chambers — for we ought not expect them to suffer for so long, in beneficence.

That whyte preacher, too — was… a prophet of sorts — but more properly, of the foretelling kind. His name was Will D. Campbell, a pastor who’d long fought against lynchings in Mississippi — and only because of his whyte skin, and the cloth of his collar, had he been spared the lash — and noose — of the Klansman down there.

[By some lights, that is how some Palestinians view October 7 — (as akin to Campbell’s foretelling), no longer would they suffer a police state, run by paler skinned people, on the West Bank, forcibly imposed on them — on land that until the last half century, they largely controlled for 2,300 years.

That doesn’t make Oct. 7 right, in any sense — but it makes it… understandable (when a people begin to feel they have nothing else left… to lose) — also, more like burning the Reichstag in February 1933, to be fair. And we know where that led. As we tonight watch the “hot warring” expand, to engulf more and more of the whole of the Middle East.]

Boys — your writings ought to more fully reflect these… painful truths.

Out.

Why Do More Gamma Ray Bursts Come From A Small Portion Of Our Sky?

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And why, correlatively, do fewer come from the opposite orientation — the other end of an imaginary arrow, which traverses the known Universe?

That is what the Fermi space scope — for 13 years now (and generations of astronomers, prior to these, in truth) have been trying to discern. Here’s a bit:

…Astronomers analyzing 13 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have found an unexpected and as yet unexplained feature outside of our galaxy.

Intriguingly, the gamma-ray signal is found in a similar direction and with a nearly identical magnitude as another unexplained feature, one produced by some of the most energetic cosmic particles ever detected.

The team was searching for a gamma-ray feature related to the CMB (cosmic microwave background), the oldest light in the universe. A burst of visible light thought to have originated when the first atoms formed, the first time light could permeate the cosmos. Stretched by the subsequent expansion of space over the past 13 billion years, this light was first detected in the form of faint microwaves all over the sky in 1965.

In the 1970s, astronomers realized that the CMB had a so-called dipole structure, which was later measured at high precision by NASA’s COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) mission. The CMB is about 0.12% hotter, with more microwaves than average, toward the constellation Leo, and colder by the same amount, with fewer microwaves than average, in the opposite direction. Astronomers generally regard the pattern as a result of the motion of our own solar system relative to the CMB at about 230 miles (370 kilometers) per second.

This motion will give rise to a dipole signal in the light coming from any astrophysical source, but so far the CMB is the only one that has been precisely measured. A team led by Alexander Kashlinsky at the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center searched for the gamma-ray equivalent of this signal by adding together 13 years of data from Fermi’s Large Area Telescope.

Analysis of the resulting data revealed a part of the sky where more high-energy gamma rays are arriving than average, but at a level 10 times higher than expected – and in a different part of the sky than the CMB dipole.

The scientists note that the gamma-ray signal they uncovered is in roughly the same part of the sky – and at very similar levels to – an as yet unexplained dipole in the arrival direction of the highest-energy cosmic rays. They suggest the two may be related, with sources yet to be identified producing both signals….

So at present, it does not seem to be solely an artifact of the notion that our Milky Way (with us inside it) is wheeling through the night sky, in a whirlpool fashion, at 230 miles per second (thus changing our orientation, relative to the rest of the Universe / night sky in an appreciable way — every few days). That’s our tiny local solar system animated, at immediate right, as we pull out of it, by the way.

[Could it be that all of space-time slowly revolves around a long, vertical and vast “polar region” — from which this “arrow” emanates — and returns? And that pole is generating gamma rays, at one end, and absorbing them at the other side of the Universe? Something like the way our solar system revolves around an imaginary pole, which is perpendicular to our local solar system’s orbital plane? And on a grander scale, the way the arms of the Milky Way spiral around a similar imaginary vertical pole?!]

Who knows? But… there is thus a worthy puzzle — for future generations of astronomers… to work on. Onward, smiling.

नमस्ते

Mirengoff — Call Gov. Abbott And Gov. DeSantis — That Is Where Health Care Access Is… Plummeting.

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And — no coincidence! — these are the two states with large populations of people living below the poverty line — states that have refused to expand Medicare/Medicaid, even though the feds are offering to pay between 95% and 90% of the cost of the coverage for more Americans of limited means, in every state in the union.

My central point is to call BS, on Mirengoff’s statement this morning, thus:

“…Access to health care may be “insufficient,” but I doubt there is less of it now than there was before Obamacare expanded free and partially subsidized health care. Yet, life expectancy has been declining….”

So… the idiot denies the reality created by… the state governors in red states: life-expectancy is declining most sharply in… yup… Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Florida.

So — Paul, you have only your own barbarous GOP denial of medicines policies to blame here.

Just sit down, chucklehead.

Out.

Tonight, Hinderaker Returns To His Old — And Wild — Lies, About J6… And Gets The Law… All Wrong.

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Hinderaker has several times argued that there can be no insurrection, without drawn firearms. Guns — in the hands of the insurrectionists. Poppycock.

Of course this is a patently stupid defense, as my commenters have ably noted, and is not in accord with federal law. A large enough crowd — with their bare fists alone — may cause a very effective insurrection. And many of these thousands in the crowd had stun guns, bricks, bottles and bladed standards — as well as blackjacks and (sharpened on site) sticks. They were fully capable, by sheer numbers, of killing perhaps hundreds… and people did in fact die. [They need not succeed in their goal to have committed felonies — that’s clear as day under federal law.]

But the main thrust of Hinderaker’s post tonight, is to urge the Supremes to tell Colorado that it has no “states’ rights” power to invoke Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, against Tangerine based on J6.

He’s wrong there too. But at least he admits that the Supremes might (and I think WILL) defer to the Supreme Court of Colorado, in its final judgment, since a duly convened trial (at which Trump put on a defense, and lost) already found the requisite facts, to invoke the self executing clauses of Section 3.

And, John admits that 41 per cent of self-described “independent” voters agree that Colorado has the right (and/or duty) to exclude his name from the ballot, in that state. Add that to the vast majority of Democrats who clearly feel this way, and…

That almost certainly means Trump cannot win a nation-wide election, no matter how one slices it. [John essentially admits this, as well.] His later typed bit, about generic ballots still almost ten months out, is utterly… meaningless. So I won’t link it.

So — I am smiling broadly, tonight. Thanks, Hinderaker.

Gov. Abbott’s Lawyer, In His Complete Loss On The Land Razor Wire Cases (Eagle Pass / Del Rio) Won’t Argue The Fifth Circuit Appeal Of That Loss.

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Texas Deputy Solicitor General Ari Cuenin has left the offices of state government, in Texas.

No reason was made public — my guess is he will soon turn up in private practice, somewhere — but that announcement has not yet been press released.

With the argument in the case at right due to take place in about 24 elapsed days (in the first week of February, 2024) — his underling, Aaron L. Nielson, will now handle the (likely losing appellate) argument in Houston. Here’s that bit from a filing tonight on the PACER docket:

…I write to advise the Court that Deputy Solicitor General Ari Cuenin has left the employment of the Office of the Attorney General.

Undersigned counsel requests that the Court permit Mr. Cuenin to withdraw from the representation of Appellants in this matter. Aaron L. Nielson previously filed a notice of appearance and will serve as lead counsel in this matter….

I suppose it is possible he no longer wishes to be associated with people who want to see children’s flesh lacerated by concertina wire. I dunno. We will see where he turns up. Onward, into a very frigid January night, here.

नमस्ते