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Teaching Hinderaker That Magellan Personally Kept Slaves.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Hinderaker — as ever — pops off about things he doesn’t bother to research.

Tonight, it’s Magellan. John says (without evidence of any kind) he had little to no interactions with slavers.

That is laughably… wrong — two seconds on Google proves it.

No, Hinderaker — he is known to have owned slaves… aboard ship. [He freed one upon his death by will. The man’s name was Enrique of Mallaca. He was of mixed race.]

Moreover, Magellan forcefully kept indentured servants long after they paid their debt.

He did some notable things, true. But as to the charge of being… utterly dishonest… he is guilty.

There are plenty of honest people to name cosmological structures after.

Cheers, chucklehead.

Out.

Once Again, Steve Hayward… Doesn’t Know… Much.

~ condor ~ 2 Comments

This is no surprise. Once again, Steve comes to a snap judgment — without understanding the data in the chart he posts. He’s just a chucklehead.

This time, it is whether Roman Catholic priests (on the basis of their own subjective self-evaluations) are more — or less — “progressive” than their predecessors self-reported to be, in the early 1960s.

In the main, priests who would have answered in the early 1960s would have felt less free to indicate how they really felt, prior to the elevation of the progressive (for the times) John the XXIII.

Also, in the main — most of those early 1960s priests… are either retired or long dead.

But most importantly, what has changed in 62 years… is what the word “progressive” means, to the average US priest. In 1960… it would NEVER have included a favorable view on a woman’s right to an abortion. It would have referred to Christ’s “social gospel” (Matthew 25:31-46) — of all of us being our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers — and thus being supportive of the US Civil Rights movement, and MLK’s “War on Poverty”, LBJ’s Great Society programs… and later, opposing war in Vietnam.

So here in 2020s, when a US priest says he is “orthodox” — in the main, he means he doesn’t agree that women may abort a zygote, without sinning. That’s all. That is the litmus test for US priests.

They mean… can they in good conscience say that human beings are not formed at conception, or a day after — when just a dividing cell line. The orthodox answer of course is that humans begin at conception.

And that is the central dividing line in the US Catholic church at the moment. To be progressive is to say that a fetus may be aborted up to and through the second trimester (the old Roe dividing line). [I suspect, but cannot independently verify at present that most EU Catholics would see it the same way, as well.]

So what has happened in 62 years is that the definition of “progressive” has shifted.

That’s all, Steve. Please offer contra- evidence — if any there be. I would also note that, in his own chart, the tiny minority — 20% in 1960 who claimed to be “progressive” — are now the same 20% who use that word to mean something else, in 2020. Same, as to the 80% who claim orthodoxy, in their views. [We are seeing in the chart what appears as a minority viewpoint — not what the word itself means here, three generations later.]

To be clear, despite what might be inferred from the first graphic above, I speak as a recovering US Roman Catholic — here, raised in a mountain town, as a “conservative” Catholic family of nine children. That was how I was raised — but it is not the lens through which I view the world, this evening.

So, in sum — I know a little more about it than Steve does.

So… do sit down, Steve.

Highest Del. Court: As Between Merck And Bayer AG, With Bayer Paying $14.2 Billion For A Merck Subsidiary Company, Merck Was Ruled Unable To Say Bayer “Assumed” The Old Talc Liabilities…

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As a [very!] long-in-the-tooth pharma M&A lawyer, I can confidently say there is well-vetted, very clear language (we all know how it reads) to make sure — as you are selling someone a company, and/or its associated product lines — that you will NOT, as seller, be responsible for the past (and, in other cases — future) liabilities that arise — from alleged product defects.

That language was… in fact missing, from the Stock and Asset Purchase Agreement Merck and Bayer signed, back in 2014. And so, Merck’s stock is trading off just a bit, on the NYSE, with news that the Delaware courts have uniformly now ruled that Merck must indemnify Bayer for these products liability claims. Here’s a bit from Bloomberg, but I’ll quote only the decision itself, as the Law portion of Bloomberg resides behind a paywall. And, btw — I am 100 per cent sure of my answer, having read the deal myself (and knowing that no one would end up “net” paying over $10 billion for these consumer health assets) — and having handled similar claims with respect to the old boluses of mammary implant litigation, many years ago. . . on nearly identical Stock and Asset Purchase Agreement clauses. Enjoy:

…Had the parties intended to impose the time limits set forth in Section 10.1 [Indemnification] on the Section 2.7(d) Liabilities, then one would expect explicit language to that effect. Instead, the parties expressly stated that “nothing in this Section 2.7 shall affect [Bayer’s] rights pursuant to Article X [in Indemnification]….”

Looking at the purchase price provision of the SAPA, I am further convinced that Merck’s position is untenable. Section 2.8 of the SAPA governs the purchase price of $14.2 billion agreed upon between the parties; this consideration is given by Bayer in exchange for the “Company Common Stock and the Transferred Assets, and the assumption of the Assumed Liabilities.” The explicit acknowledgement of the Assumed Liabilities as consideration contrasts with the absence of any mention of Bayer’s assumption of the Section 2.7(d) Liabilities. If these sophisticated parties intended for Bayer to eventually assume the Section 2.7(d) Liabilities retained by Merck, one would expect to see that transfer addressed as part of the consideration as it was with the Assumed Liabilities.

This absence further highlights the flaws with Merck’s argument. Accordingly, considering the commercial context, the structure of the transaction, and other provisions of the SAPA, Merck’s asserted interpretation of the SAPA must be rejected….

And… Bayer paid (at least in part) $14.2 billion for the right to be indemnified from old talc claims on these consumer health businesses. So, while Merck may try a “Hail Mary” / long shot attempt at asking the US Supreme Court to take the question on cert., it is likely this ends here — and thus, with Merck on the hook. Now you know.

नमस्ते

Compensation Is Owed To The Descendants Of The Third Battalion/24th Regiment US “Buffalo Soldiers” — In Houston’s Organized Lynchings.

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Nope. I’ve not mentioned this one, before — but my erstwhile Anon. commenter is absolutely right. It both belongs here, and represents justice too long denied, by the US Army.

Of course, this was little more than organized mass lynching, down in Houston, as the US entered WWI. It is… disgusting. And we all retain… a sworn duty to make amends. Here’s The Guardian (UK) on it all — and a bit:

…Christine Wormuth, the secretary of the army, said in the statement that the move marked the army’s acknowledgment of past mistakes and sets the record straight.

“After a thorough review, the board has found that these soldiers were wrongly treated because of their race and were not given fair trials,” Wormuth said.

Military records will be corrected to the extent possible to recognize service as honorable and their families might be eligible for compensation, according to the army.

In August 1917, four months after the US entered the first world war, soldiers of the all-Black Third Battalion of the US army’s 24th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Buffalo Soldiers, marched into Houston where clashes erupted following racial provocations.

The regiment had been sent to Houston to guard Camp Logan, which was under construction for the training of white soldiers who would be sent to France during the first world war. The city was then governed by Jim Crow laws and tensions boiled over….

Out of 118 soldiers, 110 were found guilty in the largest murder trial in US history. Nineteen of them were hanged.

According to the army’s statement, the first executions happened secretly a day after sentencing. It led to immediate regulatory changes prohibiting future executions without review by the war department and the president….

Our history is sordid, indeed — and is widely littered with such atrocities. Damn. Just… damn.

And lest you cluck-cluck, that “that was then“… even as late as Summer 2020, Houston’s National Museum For The Buffalo Soldiers was still being sporadically vandalized — with racists’ slogans (including a swastika, and a misspelled word for Democrats — not exactly geniuses). See above.

So, yes — we still have a long way to go — now, let us all… resolve to do better. Onward.

नमस्ते

Tangerine Thinks He Can Dictate What A Felony Indictment Is Allowed To Allege — From A Grand Jury, No Less…

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Tangerine’s lawyers aren’t the sharpest bunch of tools, in anyone’s shed.

Even so, this is silly. Tangerine has been litigating the notion that parts of what Jack Smith alleges, based on his presentation to the grand jury… inside his own indictment… cannot be shown to the jury, as it will “inflame their passions“.

Yes, well… when one commits seditious felonies against the peaceful transfer of power — and encourages threats on the life of the vice president, and speaker of the house… the language will be… “inflammatory” — because the FACTS are… damaging to his false narrative.

That’s all we really see here — a guy trying to escape the logical inferences from his odious rhetoric on and shortly before… 01.06.21.

He will not succeed. And he is very likely to go to jail, when the dust settles, and a jury returns its verdict, on the evidence. It is especially precious that he is quoting Mr. Rhodes, a disbarred lawyer, convicted felon and former leader of the OathKeepers, who is now serving 17 years for his sedition… in defense of the “harmlessness” of Tangerine’s exhortations.

[The word of a felon doing a 17 year stint, that another indicted felon (set for a March 2024 trial) was NOT the main reason the first felon committed his own felonies… isn’t exactly the best way… to win a motion, bud.]

Suck that, Hinder-puss.

Out.

These Stories Always… Affect Me, Viscerally. This Time, In Northern India — 40 Miners… Trapped: Day Five.

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This is technically wholly-unrelated to the subject of this blog — but it is related, to how my youth led me to be able to… write this blog. So feel free to scroll on by, if it doesn’t resonate with / interest you.

There has been another mine / tunnel collapse — this time in India, working on a highway project. See at right. There is plenty of air, but if not reached in a few more days, water could become an issue. We will keep a good thought in our meditations for them. Here’s Reuters on the latest:

…Rescue workers renewed efforts on Thursday to reach 40 men trapped for a fifth day inside a collapsed highway tunnel in India, though progress was slow as they began drilling through rock and soil debris.

Authorities said they were confident an advanced drilling machine flown in from New Delhi will speed up the rescue at the site in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

The plan is to drill and create space for a pipe that can be used by the trapped men to crawl to safety….

My wish: “Let all those who’ve ever gone below, into the dark, with billions of tons of overhead rock, waiting to fall on them… forever keep in their hearts… those who still do.” It is dangerous work — and in India, it scarcely pays a living wage. Damn. Hoping for the best, here. And, this makes 4,700 posts at this Powerline review joint. Out.

नमस्ते

Hilarious — Hinderaker, A Hard Right GOP Chucklehead, Is Whining That EV Owners Get Too Much In Govt. Subsidies…?

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What an obvious hypocrite. Here’s his conclusion tonight, verbatim:

…There is an obvious difference, of course — the regular car driver pays for his own car and his own gasoline. The EV driver doesn’t pay for his own charge. In fact, he pays a shockingly low portion of the cost of operating his vehicle: less than 7%. Suckers ratepayers and taxpayers pony up the rest…. Some things are just too dumb to happen, no matter how much graft may lie behind them. I think EVs will prove to be in that category….

Hmm, as a poignant aside to my main point: would it be… impolitic to point out that Hinderaker’s think tank took welfare into the neighborhood of $205,000 and paid none of it back, during COVID-19? [It shouldn’t be. But I digress.]

Mr. Hinderaker — do come on over, and take a look at Bitcoin mining — in rural West Texas.

You’ll be… gob-smacked!

If it galls you that “rich people” get EV “welfare” — how about money losing capitalists, into the billions, since 2017 — all while having ratepayers fund their crazy folly coins?

I predict… crickets — because… “muh freedum” and “capitalism”. And… Texas.

The irony here, is pegged off scale high to the right.

As long as the NASDAQ price of Riot is showing us some sheer lunatic upward moves… why not, I guess? Let’s all laugh at the corporate welfare Riot gets, from Texans.

Charming.

Out.

[U] This Is Looking Worse — Not Better — As To An Open Bias, By USDC Judge Moses, In West Texas…

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Updated: late this afternoon, all parties picked Tuesday November 21, 2023 in the afternoon for the next conference with Judge Moses. The Biden Administration has requested (as per federal rules of procedure) her entire hearing be… on the record. Nice. End update.

I was hoping that — once confronted with the fact that she was going to potentially get nearly a half-billion documents submitted (from the feds, alone — more, from Texas!) in response to her sua sponte “discovery” order — she’d return to what is bedrock black letter law, in the federal courts and ask for a handful of representative emails.

Erh… nope.

Tonight, she entered a new order which, in truth, will also immensely burden the State of Texas government attorneys, for the next few months. But it now seems plain that her main objective is to drag her feet (by insisting on ridiculous, non-rules compliant, abusive discovery / production — which will take months, if not a half year to complete)… all while as she puts it, she keeps the federal government enjoined from removing the clearly unlawful land based razor wire barriers.

She’s moved back the dates, and now says she’ll “discuss” an elongated time line for deliveries, but she’s insisting on getting a review of 26,000 employees’ emails — any of which might mention “concertina wire” or “razor wire”, for the last three years. As the border patrol custodian of records pointed out, this will generate responsive documents into the middle hundreds of millions.

And this is before the State of Texas pulls all their records — likely of similar volume. So… a billion or more emails, in some small portion of which the two sides are likely snippy with one another. Charming.

But the TRO can be — and ought to be — decided by looking at the federal statutes, alone. Those grant the federal government agencies exclusive control over border matters. Not not not the state level Texas Rangers. This is plainly “lawfare” — by a GOP federal judge — all while claiming NOT to pre-judge an outcome. It is purportedly a burning emergency hearing, according to GOP TX Gov. Abbott… so if he is genuinely interested in a decision, he too should vigorously resist having to spend months and months, and millions of dollars in Texas taxpayer funds, to wade through his own millions of emails.

But we will bet you a Buffalo Nickel he’ll… clam up. He will let the delay she’s engineered for him play out. [And it seems clear she’s thinking/betting Tangerine will win (HAH! Not a chance!) in 2024, and she’ll have been a hero — for throwing sand in the gears of more humane federal border enforcement polices, at the federal level.] Damn — read this two pager end to end, tonight — but here is the most preposterous bit:

…It is FURTHER ORDERED, for the parties’ understanding, that the Court orders document production because the Court does not wish to presume one way or another about the evidence; because of testimony of one of the Defendants’ witnesses at the November 7, 2023 preliminary injunction hearing; and because the Court cannot decide this motion without the ordered documents;

It is FURTHER ORDERED that the parties tentatively have until November 21, 2023 at 12 p.m. to produce the documents that the Court ordered on November 9, 2023 to be produced, as modified by this order, through a virtual link that the Court shall send to the parties;

It is FURTHER ORDERED that, because the parties are amenable to a second hearing on November 27, 2023, the Court shall hold a virtual conference with the parties on either November 16, 17, 20, or 21, 2023, to discuss allowing the Defendants more time to produce documents, extending the temporary restraining order, and rescheduling the second hearing; and

It is FURTHER ORDERED that the parties consult each other to identify mutually convenient dates and times for the virtual conference, and to inform the Court of same as soon as possible….

This is simply… beyond the pale. It’s all dressed up as being careful — when in fact, it is transparently obstructive — of federal statutory rights. And I’d expect the feds (and maybe even Texas) will say so, on the 27th. Yikes.

नमस्ते

Hmm. Where Are All The Super Earths?

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It turns out that exo-planets come in may varieties and sizes. This we know, now that Kepler has identified more than 5,000 of them — and the JWST is identifying dozens more, every day — almost incidentally.

But an abiding mystery has been… why are there so few rocky “Super Earths” — ones with atmospheres, and about two and a half times the size of our Earth?

Well, a bunch of smart NASA exo-planetary scientists have likely solved the mystery — with a bevy of older Kepler data, thus:

…Some exoplanets seem to be losing their atmospheres and shrinking. In a new study using NASA’s retired Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers find evidence of a possible cause: The cores of these planets are pushing away their atmospheres from the inside out.

Exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) come in a variety of sizes, from small, rocky planets to colossal gas giants. In the middle lie rocky super-Earths and larger sub-Neptunes with puffy atmospheres. But there’s a conspicuous absence – a “size gap” – of planets that fall between 1.5 to 2 times the size of Earth (or in between super-Earths and sub-Neptunes) that scientists have been working to better understand….

[E]xactly how these planets are losing their atmospheres [and shrinking back to near Earth sizes] has remained a mystery. Scientists have settled on two likely mechanisms: One is called core-powered mass loss; and the other, photoevaporation. This study has uncovered new evidence supporting the first….

Now you know… now, a middle school geared NASA explainer:

And… hey there, you “Super Earth”, out now, around the border — (likely on a field trip) — grinning….

नमस्ते

Well — Just As I Said — USDC Judge Moses’ Order Is Transparently Unworkable. Was It So, By Design?

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I’ve been following this for about three weeks now. TX WD Chief USDC Judge Moses entered an order, in an “emergency” preliminary injunction hearing case, which is supposed to help expedite “an emergency ruling“… on the permanent injunction Gov. Abbott seeks.

But to decide whether the TRO should continue, while the litigation progresses — against federal agencies removing land based razor wire around Eagle Pass, Texas… she has asked for delivery of about a billion emails and other documents. To her chambers. And that’s not including any of the other side’s documents — ones generated at the state level, by local Texas officials. Wow.

It is hard to imagine any emergency ruling that would require the immediate review — of one- to 1.5 billion documents before a decision might be made. So it feels as though the Chief Judge has designed her sua sponte “discovery” order… to delay any resolution, rather than reach one.

And that’s before we discuss the notion that, in APA suits like this one, general discovery is not allowed (at all), by federal rule. The relevant question is what did the agency finally set out, as the basis for its action, in an official writing, and then rely on (a public record), not not not what “mean things” did the state and fed agents say to one another, over a three year time frame. Geez.

Finally, it is nearly certain that about 90% of those 1.5 billion emails are “deliberative documents” — and thus exempt from disclosure in any event, in a federal court — especially so, as part of some wild sua sponte discovery fishing expedition. Here’s the eight page motion we mentioned would be coming, as of yesterday evening, along with the seven pages of factual support, in the form of a declaration from a duly-informed records custodian, at federal border patrol (below is just a taste of the would-be ludicrous result, if Moses’ order were to be enforced).

…CBP has approximately 16,000 Border Patrol Agents assigned to the southwest border, comprising approximately 26% of the CBP employee workforce. Applying the monthly averages set forth in Paragraph 6, and limiting the data parameters from March 6, 2021 to the present, searching for emails responsive to the Court’s Order would necessitate searching a universe of approximately 882 million emails, consisting of approximately 832 million emails received and approximately 50 million emails sent. Limiting the search to the more than 1,500 Border Patrol Agents assigned to U.S. Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector would mitigate the universe of emails, though not adequately, still leaving approximately 85 million emails, consisting of 80 million emails received and 4.8 million emails sent during the period of March 6, 2021 to November 9, 2023….

[Limiting the search to just eight federal agents, and removing duplicates], 310,636 documents remained in the collection, comprised of 152,096 emails and 158,540 email attachments and standalone documents….

So — applying Occam’s Razor, one could logically assume that Judge Moses is looking to delay things, while her team has the temporary advantage, and probably set off an entirely separate side show piece of litigation about whether the feds must produce some one billion documents, redacted to protect identities, in under a week. Her next hearing is supposed to be next week.

As I say — either she voluntarily modifies her order, or the Biden Administration may very well bring a separate suit (or even seek to have her removed — as the judge — for a showing of bias here, in simply ignoring controlling federal law). Do stay tuned.

Grinning on a sunny morning, with my eldest home for a month, then back out, and on to London, the coast of Mexico… and then Nicaragua for a month — with a stop in Arizona, at Christmas, in between. Woot!

नमस्ते