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John’s Been To One Hotel In Paris — Says Its The Only Place In The Country He’d Ever Stay. Precious.

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While trying to make up for his insipid post of last week, decrying a kids’ board book in a department store in Paris, at Christmas… today John offers some photos to show he actually did go inside the Louvre… for about 30 minutes.

He apparently did not see my favorite, the Musée d’Orsay (even though he had extra days there). He took in no street performances. He claims the 16th Arr. is the only place in Paris worth haunting — as it is home to almost all the far right factions, in Paris (western-most, on the map — and not surprisingly, suffering an about 30 per cent decrease in population over the last 50 years). What a provincial lil’ Dakota-bred gnome he is. Me? I prefer staying in the Fifth (when upscaling), or the Twelfth (when just bouncing in and out). [The Fifth is home to the Sorbonne University campus.]

All trivial, I know — but it does explain quite a bit about his inability to accept the jostling that all the rest of us… recognize as part of living in “the real world.”

My hunch is… he won’t see the Beyoncé “Renaissance” documentary either. But I did — with my adult daughter last night — it is… highly recommended!

Out.

[U] The Sacklers — At The Supremes — Tomorrow Morning…

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Of course, the family is not personally appearing — but the bankruptcy lawyers for what was Purdue Pharma know what the real stakes are: over $6 billion being kept safe, and sheltered from any consequences of the family’s decision to push highly addictive opioids, branded as OxyContin® — not unlike street criminals — on the nation. And now hundreds of thousands of Americans have died, as a direct result.

Updated — listen to ScotusBlog’s ever capable Amy Howe on this whole debacle: “Purdue Pharma’s blockbuster opioid OxyContin first came on the market in 1996. The company conducted an aggressive marketing campaign for the drug, selling it as a relief option for a broad array of pain, from cancer to long-lasting sports injuries, and generating some $35 billion in revenue. The company suggested that because the drug was made with an outer coating to slowly release its active ingredient, it was less susceptible to abuse. But OxyContin proved to be highly addictive, leading to a serious public health crisis. Between 1999 and 2019, nearly a quarter-million people died from overdosing on prescription opioids like OxyContin, outstripping car accidents and gunshots as the leading cause of accidental death in the United States….

Purdue Pharma has twice pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges relating to its marketing of OxyContin. Along with members of the Sackler family, some of whom were actively involved in the development and marketing of the company’s drugs, it was also a defendant in thousands of lawsuits, seeking more than $40 trillion, accusing them of having deceptively marketed the drug….”

That is, Monday of this week, the Supremes will hear argument on whether victims’ families getting a little something shortly is better than making billionaires pay in full — perhaps more than a decade from now. But make no mistake: that is what the statute as written requires: pay in full — for frauds.

So it is my view that the Jamie Sprayregen long ago engineered ingenious gaming of the federal bankruptcy residual powers, in several cases, evolving and expanding over time (in judge made “law”) — that led to the free passes for billionaires who don’t even file a chapter personally… must end.

If keeping $6 billion is allowed as an outcome for depravity on this scale… we have failed, in our claim to be a society of ordered liberty, under the law — with equality before the law. [The people with the gold cannot be allowed to just make up the rules.] Here is the latest reply brief from the US Trustee opposing the giveaway to the billionaires:

…This case concerns the reorganization in bankruptcy of respondent Purdue Pharma L.P. and its affiliates, stemming from their role in fueling the opioid epidemic that has ravaged families and communities throughout the Nation. In approving Purdue’s reorganization plan, the court of appeals relied on residual provisions of the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. 101 et seq., to validate a sweeping nonconsensual release of nondebtors’ claims against other nondebtors — the Sacklers and a host of associated individuals and entities. That release extends to claims based on fraud and other willful misconduct that could not have been discharged even if the Sacklers themselves had submitted to bankruptcy and thereby surrendered their assets for distribution to their creditors. The plan instead permits the Sacklers, who would otherwise face claims alleging damages in the trillions, to obtain full repose while keeping billions of dollars that they siphoned from Purdue in the years before these Chapter 11 proceedings….

[The] defenses of the Sackler release illustrate the radical nature of the power they would locate in a modest catchall provision of the Bankruptcy Code. The release here unequivocally involves direct claims against the Sacklers. Those claims are private property of those claimants, but the plan disposes of them as if they were property of the estate. The bankruptcy power to modify creditor-debtor relations does not include the nonconsensual restructuring of relations among nondebtors.

Plan proponents make an equally fundamental error by conflating the subject-matter jurisdiction of courts sitting in bankruptcy — the authority to hear claims related to the estate — with the authority to deem those claims resolved for $0 regardless of their merits under applicable state law. Plan proponents invoke necessity, but necessity cannot justify taking what is not theirs….

Now you know. The NYT also has a good story on the implications, this morning… onward.

नमस्ते

Truly… An Immortal Voice: Maria Callas Born In Manhattan — Exactly 100 Years Ago, This Day…

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I am at a loss for words — to adequately describe the splattering of emotions I felt, the first time I heard a recording of her voice, singing Carmen.

It wasn’t this one, in the German video, below — it was of an earlier vintage, and on vinyl. But I almost leapt off the couch. And as said below — her radiance shown through — like a lantern on a fog shrouded night — in every photo ever published of her, and that glorious era — what came to be known as… Camelot:

. . .This Saturday sees the centenary of Greek-American soprano Maria Callas, born in New York on 2 December 1923….

The singer made her professional debut in early 1941 and rose to stratospheric levels of fame in the 1950s and 60s. She was famed for her Verdi, Puccini and bel canto singing, captivating stage presence with a personal life never too far from the celebrity spotlight….

The soprano frequently travelled between London, Milan and New York, living a life of glamour befitting the age and her celebrity status….

Utterly flawless….

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Often Forcefully Pushes A “Crime Victims’ Rights” Agenda — When Mercy Is Sought… For Murderers. Hmm.

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And to be certain — with a little brother doing life without parole, myself — I firmly believe that no incarcerated inmate (regardless of prior offense) should be shanked 22 or more times in a prison library. [I hold this view, even about Jeffrey Dahmer, who was beaten to death with a mop handle in a shower and then violated, some years after his serial killings / cannibalism convictions. John plainly cheered his beating death at the time. He and Steve Hayward both did.]

So it is… that I am more than slightly… put off, by Hinderaker’s bleating for Derek Chauvin. [But let’s be clear, a final — now non-appealable verdict found that he MURDERED Brianna Floyd’s father in cold blood, on the street — while the man was defenseless. George Floyd had no chance to fight back, against Derek Chauvin — but we are told Chauvin was able to throw/trade quite a few punches, with his assailant, in the Tuscon, Arizona medium security prison library.]

Yes, true — no one should be stabbed. And yes, ALSO true: the guards have families too. They are entitled not to get killed by prematurely rushing into a violent altercation with knives. The updated, and now published reports say the guards… pepper sprayed the attacker.

That likely only slowed the attacker down. And these guards are not likely to risk their lives, for an inmate like Derek Chavin. It is… wrong, yes — John is correct about that. But we all know it happens.

Yup. Prisons are awful places. [It is also odious that Hinderaker hints (falsely), but does not say aloud that the FBI might have engineered Chauvin’s stabbing (solely because the attacker had at one point been an FBI informant, in a Mexican gang crimes case). That is libelous.]

John would do better to advocate for more prison reform far and wide, if his column this morning is… in earnest.

But I suspect it is not. It is just more… race-baiting.

Hey John: where is your column on this at least equally deep tragedy: young Brianna is growing up without her father? Where?!

Out.

GSK Bought A Cough Candidate — And Is Now Redesigning Its Clinical Trial, After “Going To School” On Merck’s Difficulties At FDA…

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First — as to the Merck gefapixant candidate review at the FDA Advisory Committee two weeks ago: it obviously only covers the potential US market. Merck’s cough drug, gefapixant (branded as Lyfnua®), is already on the market in the EU, Japan and Switzerland — with what must be called… only middling uptake.

And some of the reticence Merck encountered at the Advisory Committee then, is FDA advisors (rightly, in my view) predisposed toward only green-lighting medicines that show a measurable clinical, real world benefit — given the price points at which nearly all new medicines are now launched.

FierceBiotech has done a great job explaining how the “business” of smarter clinical trial design can lead to differing outcomes, on two (chemically) very similar drug candidates — at FDA. Do read it all, but here’s a bit:

…[T]he [GSK new clinical trial features] a central adjudication that ensures patients in the trial are in fact experiencing chronic refractory cough. Then, the trial is enrolling only the most severe patients….

“Because as you get to lower cough rates [as was seen in the Merck trial], it can be a bit idiosyncratic as to what’s the mechanism causing the cough, whereas patients with more severe high cough frequency typically are those that have cough generated via the neuropathic pathway, which is where camlipixant works,” Miels explained.

[B]eing first, Merck also had to contend with the fact that the FDA had no regulatory precedent in the indication. The agency noted it had “limited experience with the endpoints used in this program.” So Merck, and now GSK, are treading new regulatory ground. The FDA has not officially ruled on gefapixant but is expected to do so by Dec. 27….

We shall see — but Merck may have to seek a secondary end-point/trial redesign, in order to clear FDA. And GSK may still be over a year away from getting its trial to a point where the FDA staff can review it. So this is a longer term horse race, for the US market to be sure.

Onward. Ever… onward.

नमस्ते

[U — Double Shot, Of Hayward Idiocy!] Yesterday, Steve Offered ANOTHER Monumentally STUPID Chart. Ugh.

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Yesterday, Steve tried to tell us, based on very dubious research, that US women are “deadbeats” — on their college loans — at about a 20% higher rate than similar men. They take 20% longer to repay (let’s just pretend that something in the 10% to 20% range might be defensible, on more rigorous / real data — for the sake of argument, at least).

Gee, Steve — didn’t you know that the average college educated woman makes about 20% less than the similar average man does, to this very day?

Of course he did. He’s just this malignant — as a sexist loser.

What a putz. Yes, that could explain why it takes them 20% longer to repay, you malignant moron.

Pew research offers us the reality, to this very moment:

…In 2022, women with at least a bachelor’s degree earned 79% as much as men who were college graduates, and women who were high school graduates earned 81% as much as men with the same level of education….

And all of that is BEFORE he purports to chart a look at race and ethnicity — where there are (at least as reported in his data) similar disparities. Also largely explained by earning differences, on average — but with the confusing variable that proportionately more people of color and of limited means end up borrowing from FOR PROFIT student lenders, many of which charge over 11% annual interest, once a student misses a single payment. [In the data, we would also note that on average college educated Asian-American men earn well over even the whyte male average — a tech effect, perhaps… but that explains why they are paying down fastest of all groups he purports to cover. Sheesh.]

And in many cases, the student loan can approach a 20% interest rate. These for profit shops use the FACT that no one may discharge student debt in bankruptcy… to run essentially pay-day loan scams, under cover of law.

So yeh — Steve Hayward? He’s a… putz.

UPDATED –Friday Night, Late: O M Gurd. His Friday yutz chart purports to show that immigration will be an issue that gives the GOP the lead to 1600 Penn, in 2024.

Poppycock. If the tick up this year means anything, Steve — please explain why for all eight years of Bush 43 / Cheney (2000 to 2008) it was at historic highs, almost at 50% of America supposedly dissatisfied — that too many immigrants were arriving? And why — through about six of the eight Obama years, it was falling, and generally trending below 40%, on the “dissatisfied” dimension.

And now… all it has done under Mr. Biden, is tick back up to just under 40%.

It was only Trump’s lawlessness that beat those numbers down, for about three years.

And — confidential note to Steve: College educated independent suburban women… DON’T vote for lawless dictators with (likely, by then) felony records — as a rule. Especially ones who relish trying to… “grab them by the p*ssy“. All while demanding that this same crook be put in charge of controlling / regulating their uteruses…? Yeh. Uh huh. Ride the lightning, son.

Cheers.

Out.

And Texas Just Lost, On The Floating Razor Wire, In The Fifth Cir. — The Federal Agencies May Immediately Drag It Completely Onto The Texas Shore Of The Rio Grande…

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This SECOND opinion of the afternoon — a snowy Friday “double whammy” — out of the very conservative Fifth Circuit… is a clear warning to Gov. Abbott that he will ALSO lose, in the Fifth, on his odious land based lawless razor wire barriers. [See immediately prior post.]

The river case, along a stretch called Eagle’s Pass — of the Rio Grande… has now been decided on appeal. The trial court was correct in ordering the barrier dragged immediately out of the water, at Texas’ expense, and dumped on the Texas side shoreline, in a fashion that won’t endanger human life.

This is, in sum, a complete repudiation of Abbott’s multi billion dollar waste of Texas tax money called “Operation Lone Star”. [It might have more accurately been called “Cruelty to The Helpless — and Graft for Texas-Sized GOP Donors / Construction Firms.”] Do read it all — it will control, in many respects, the outcome in the land based razor wire barrier case. The MAGA GOP of Texas could not have suffered a more complete set of losses, at the border, over the last two days… if it had intentionally TRIED to lose:

…In July 2023, Texas, at the direction of Governor Greg Abbott, installed a floating barrier in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas. The United States filed a civil enforcement action against Texas, alleging that installment of the barrier violated the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899 (“RHA”). The United States moved for a preliminary injunction, which the district court granted, ordering the defendants to cease work on the barrier and to move it to the Texas riverbank. Texas timely appealed.

This court entered an administrative stay. Finding that the district court did not abuse its discretion, we DISSOLVE the administrative stay and AFFIRM….

In [a federal agency engineer’s] declaration, he indicates that the Corps “were unable to determine, among other things, the exact methods of construction and whether the floating barrier was sufficiently anchored to ensure it remained in place,” as well as “any overall effects from the floating barrier on public safety, use of the Rio Grande in that area, and other public interest factors.” Finally, “because no information was submitted for project evaluation and potential permitting, it is unknown if the structure meets engineering standards to withstand predicted high flows. Should segments of the structure, or the entire structure, become unmoored from its location and travel downstream, further risks to navigation and safety could reasonably be assumed.” This is particularly troubling considering the August 15, 2023, declaration of the United States showing that nearly 80 percent of the floating barrier had drifted out of alignment and into Mexican waters.
The ambiguity and concerns surrounding the impact of the floating barrier, which have not been properly evaluated by relevant agencies because of Texas’s unilateral action, support the grant of a preliminary injunction….

Of course, this means far fewer asylum seekers will risk death by wading into the Rio Grande — a course of conduct allowed by our treaties with Mexico (no matter how much the MAGAts lie about it only being “allowed” at designated ports). This is the law. We respect it. Full stop.

नमस्ते

Update: The State Of Texas Now Wants A Largely Preposterous “Emergency” Injunction, For All The Same Dumb Reasons It Just Lost On, “Regular Way”… Yikes.

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Well… this would just be… comical — except that it wantonly wastes Texas taxpayer dollars on frivolous, vexatious motion practice.

The lawyers for Gov. Abbott now seek an emergency injunction, during its interlocutory appeal of the loss, yesterday… as to the very same injunction. Cra-cra.

USDC Judge Moses, and more importantly, the Fifth Circuit, will not grant it. The federal agencies’ views on the matter, just now filed… will (as before) prevail:

…Texas’s requested injunction would also increase the chances of harm to migrants. Specifically, it would prevent Border Patrol from being proactive to avert emergency situations before they arise. Given Texas’s own acknowledgement that “human life is paramount,” Hr’g Tr. at 28, ECF No. 37, and that “[p]rotection of life is first,” id. at 79, it is difficult to understand how insignificant costs in Operation Lone Star’s multi-billion dollar budget override those interests. See Defs.’ Supp. Br. at 15 n.4….

[Moreover,] the costs to Texas of having to repair cut wire [Ed. Note: in the highly unlikely event that Texas wins in the Fifth Circuit — estimated at under $1,000] are significantly less weighty than the harms to the federal government from an injunction impairing its ability to enforce the immigration laws and prevent loss of life. Moreover, Defendants were seeking the restoration of the status quo — not a limitation on the other party’s conduct, see Boire v. Pilot Freight Carriers, Inc., 515 F.2d 1185, 1194 (5th Cir. 1975) (“[T]he status quo to be preserved is the last uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy.”)….

Now you know. The “more common than thought rocky worlds around larger solar mass disks” discussion will wait for a more sanguine Saturday morning now. Smile.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker’s Chase… For The… Money. Musk’s Money. Hilarious.

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For a month now, John has been rabidly pro-Israel — to the point of calling for the Gazans to be “eradicated”. That was the word he used. And he regularly conflates “Palestinian” with “Hamas”. There is some overlap — but it is not a circle, in the form of a Venn diagram. And he knows it. But it feeds, as ever, his chasing of hard right elements in the Jewish community — ones that might send him… checks.

But suddenly, this morning — Hinderaker sees an opening to curry favor with the check book of Elon Musk. [Not that the guy even knows Powerline exists, mind you — nor that he would care, if he did know.]

But John, ever being John — is just “having a sad on”, that he too is suffering readership and funding declines, after supporting Tangerine — and racism — for a decade.

And it is all because Hinderaker imagines he is like Musk — and a chaos agent in his own right. Precious. And ironic.

[From here, I will simply repeat mine of early this week — when Musk went on his apology tour. Both he and Hinderaker… can’t figure out what they believe in — other than money, of course. Charming.]

Dateline 11.28.2023 — Well… when you can’t read the room… you end up spending a lot of time doing damage control, and apology tours. That is Musk’s life now.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Here’s the NYT on it all, and a bit:

…Elon Musk traveled to Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, touring the scene of a Hamas attack in a visit that appeared aimed at calming the outcry over his endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X, the social media platform he owns….

Dozens of major brands suspended their advertising on X after Mr. Musk this month agreed with a post that accused Jewish communities of pushing “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” The flight of advertisers threatened to cost X tens of millions of dollars, and the White House denounced Mr. Musk for “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate.”

On Tuesday… Mr. Musk wrote on X that “actions speak louder than words.” Wearing a flak jacket, he toured Kfar Aza, an Israeli kibbutz where dozens of people were killed during the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7….

So it goes, with Elon — I truly believe he is on the autistic spectrum, or said another way, just this out of touch, on the emotional intelligence scale. That does NOT excuse any of it, as he ought to get educated before he speaks — but this is now a nearly decade long pattern of his: blast out something idiotic (or worse); then either deny it happened (cave rescue insults) or end up on an apology tour — as here.

Onward.