A “Novel” Idea? An Administration That Follows The Law As Written, From [Trump’s] Congress?!

October 6, 2023October 6, 2023 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

The non-story of the day is that far right outlets claim Mr. Biden has “reversed course” — and is building new border wall sections.

Erh… Nope.

As Scott’s own quotes make plain, what is happening is the Administration is following the law that Congress (under Trump, BTW) laid down — it required these funds be spent on border walls. The Biden team has repeatedly lobbied the (disarray / GOP led) House to shift that spending priority by a later act / law — which it has failed to do.

So — in compliance with law, federal agencies like Border Services must spend it on a wall section.

This is no story — except if one believes… following the law is… an outrage. As Scott himself quotes:

“…The construction project reported today was appropriated during the prior administration in 2019 and the law requires the government to use these funds for this purpose, which we announced earlier this year. We have repeatedly asked Congress to rescind this money but it has not done so and we are compelled to follow the law….”

Yes — sometimes one must follow laws one disagrees with. This is (apparently) considered a novel concept — after the time of Trump, according to Steve Bannon, Powerline blog and Breitbart, et al.

Y A W N.

So… Paul Mirengoff, Like Hinderaker, Agrees That Matt Gaetz… Just Cut His Own Throat Here…

October 5, 2023October 5, 2023 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Yep.

Paul, like John… now agrees.

Matt Gaetz is exactly the sort of clown these guys… deserve. A malign moron, unable to see even two moves ahead… on a checkers board.

All of them — ALL! — backed Trump.

And this sh!t-show is the inescapable, logically compelled, outcome of any of any of Trump’s ongoing influence inside the GOP: a race to the bottom.

Matt Gaetz is literally… the bottom. Mirengoff expressly says so, tonight.

Cheers boys.

ProPublica Reporting — I Don’t Want To “Oversell” The Premise Here — But It Does Strike Me As Plausible.

October 5, 2023October 5, 2023 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

The idea that a vaccine’s development would be intentionally delayed — while people are dying — solely to milk more profit, for a multinational pharma… is a notion I cannot fully endorse as being… likely. But sadly, I do have to admit — it is at least… plausible. Please do go read all of this, and come to your own conclusions. [I must say, a federal trial court opinion has found that Martin Shkreli ran a low-rent version of this caper — for at least three years.]

In any event, here’s the long form story — certainly a thought provoking read — and a bit:

…Several experts said that Gates MRI should test other adjuvants with the vaccine’s antigen. That includes Farrar, who said it would be “very wise” to start looking for a new adjuvant. He is one of the few people who has seen the agreement between Gates MRI and GSK as a result of his previous role as director of the Wellcome Trust. Farrar is now helping to lead a new TB Vaccine Accelerator Council at the WHO and said he believes one of the group’s roles would be to find solutions to any future problems with the adjuvant.

Gates MRI declined to answer when asked if it was considering testing other adjuvants with the vaccine’s antigen. GSK, along with several other scientists and regulators that ProPublica spoke with, expressed that using a new adjuvant would require redoing all of the long and expensive clinical trials.

U.S. government officials, meanwhile, are working to identify adjuvants that aren’t already tied up by major pharmaceutical companies….

Onward. I’d like to hope that this cannot be true. But the realist inside me… sees it as… a possibility, with the vast number of greedy, small men now roaming the Earth. Ugh.

नमस्ते

The Fifth Circuit Heard Oral Argument This Morning, And Was Quite Skeptical — About Gov. Abbott’s Claims On The Rio Grande.

October 5, 2023October 5, 2023 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

This is in no manner surprising.

As we said it would be, the Fifth Circuit panel seemed very dubious about the Texas state lawyer’s claim that there was no evidence to support the preliminary injunction, a panel member interrupting her at one point to say “it is simply inaccurate to suggest” that the trial court had no evidence for its factual findings — on “obstruction” and “navigable waterway”. Here’s a bit from the fine federal District Court’s earlier opinion — but do listen to the whole 30 minutes of back and forth, as an .mp3 file from this very morning:

…Texas’s construction of the floating barrier has violated two of the three courses of conduct proscribed by Section 10 of the RHA. The first clause of § 10 prohibits “[t]he creation of any obstruction not affirmatively authorized by Congress, to the navigable capacity of any of the waters of the United States.” Id. The second clause makes it unlawful “to build or commence the building of any wharf, pier, dolphin, boom, weir, breakwater, bulkhead, jetty, or other structures in any port, roadstead, haven, harbor, canal, navigable river, or other water of the United States, outside established harbor lines, or where no harbor lines have been established, except on plans recommended by the Chief of Engineers and authorized by the Secretary of the Army….”

So it is, that Gov. Abbott is about to see an order from the Fifth Cir., removing the stay — and enforcing the District Court order to tear out the barrier, and drag it to the Texas shore — leaving it there. In fact, one panel member noted for the record that there is no evidence that moving it to the Texas shore will alleviate the government of Mexico’s concerns — which of course, is the exclusive province of discussions with Mexico, and the federales — who are in charge of treaty making and US / international policy. A place where the numb-skulled Governor of the State of Texas has… no role, according to our Constitution.

Onward. Now you know. Look for an order, as early as next week.

Out, grinning now… with live Lyric Opera on tap, for this coming Saturday night — with baby girl, and tix, for the “Flying Dutchman“, and on closing night, no less! Woot!

नमस्ते

So… Man Bites… Dog, Commander. Really, Scott?

October 5, 2023October 5, 2023 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Welp.

We understand.

There is nothing left of principled discourse — of the dissenting variety at least — in the current train-wreck that is the GOP.

As Exhibit A this morning, we are “treated” to about eight paragraphs from Scott Johnson, as to why it is a national “homeland security” style calamity that the President’s dog has moved to… Maryland. [He apparently gets too aggressive around strangers — which is just about 95% of the people who end up with day passes at 1600 Penn. Yawn.]

Meanwhile… in Manhattan, the current GOP lead contender for the nod, in 2024 — to run for 1600 Penn… is being sanctioned for threatening a court clerk, while releasing her identity on his social media (falied) platform — and trying to intimidate the judge, the NY AG and assorted felony witnesses.

On. The. Record.

This is your boy, Scott. Claim him — or shut up about what you think is wrong with the current President’s handling of his pets.

So… 92 felony counts across four separate indictments in four court-rooms — plus a $250 million civil NY bank and tax fraud case, where he’s already liable, according to the sitting judge. But… the sweet if aging “Commander” — a Presidential pet — is your main focus?!

Damn, son… you are just… irrelevant. And failing, at… the distraction ploy.

Utterly.

Hinderaker FINALLY Admits To What Matt Gaetz Is: No Statesman; No Dog Catcher… Just A Miscreant.

October 3, 2023October 3, 2023 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Well… it took John almost ten years to come around to it… but he finally will call the thing by its name.

Matt Gaetz is… in truth, exactly what John bargained for, in backing Trump in 2016 and 2020.

He’s just the sort of crook that a Trump would… spawn.

He cares not a whit about his party — nor least of all, effective governing.

He cares only about fund-raising, and viral clicks.

And if that means smashing up a china shop… he’s all for it.

But if/when McCarthy cuts a deal with a progressive bunch of Democrats (to reclaim his Speaker’s gavel), and agrees to push at least some of the AOC agenda through… well, only lil’ Matt Gaetz (and his crew of eight, including one Tennessean who is likely now to lose his seat outright!) will be out in the cold.

Charmingly… delicious!

Thanks for the grins, John!

Scott Kelly’s Formerly “Longest Continuous Duration In Space” Record — For Any Human — Has Fallen. Frank Rubio Now Holds It, At 371 Days.

October 3, 2023 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

To be certain, this is an advance in space science learnings — for potential crewed missions to Mars, for example.

But as we may readily see in the photo at right (and as we learned from Scott Kelly’s time aloft) the micro-gravity, and let’s be honest — radiation — takes a toll on human bodily integrity and saps… muscle strength.

It is my somewhat informed opinion that we ought not send a crew to Mars until we develop much better radiation shielding, for the harsh environment, on the way out — and the way back. But science did advance last week, with his safe return. Here’s that story:

…Expedition 69 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is carried to a medical tent shortly after he, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev landed in their Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023.

The trio… returned to Earth after logging 371 days in space as members of Expeditions 68-69 aboard the International Space Station. For Rubio, his mission is the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut in history….

Now you know — but being carried to a med-tent after just over a year, suggests wasting/safety may be an important factor — in any future attempt, to send a crew to Mars. That’s likely to be close to two and a half- to three- year journey — round trip.

नमस्ते

And The Powerline Boys Traffick In Insipid Non-Science, On COVID-19 — Yet Again. Y A W N.

October 3, 2023 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Complaining that their local Star Tribune newspaper, in the twin cities, won’t print some former lawyer’s amatuer (and largely false) take on some REAL COVID-19 learnings, the boys reprint the critic… as a supposed marker of “data science“.

As to the critic’s bleatings, Mr. Kevin Roche — the only “data science” going on there… is that Mr. Roche is (inadvertently) right — only insofar as he decries “bad data” leading to bad science.

The problem is that it is his own bad data — and bad science he rails against.

Y A W N.

With him, it was ever thus — and with the Powerliners, too — to a man.

Hilarious.

It Rings The Bell — An Echo, 122 Years Later: Nobel In Virology…

October 3, 2023 ~ condor ~ Leave a comment

In A Sublime Echo Of The First Nobel Ever Awarded, Katalin Karikó And Drew Weissman Win For mRNA Work — Virology, Like Emil A. Von Behring In 1901…

To be certain, the woman at right so richly deserves this. She was often told that her work (in central Europe two decades ago, and even after) would be a dead end… or “less than important“, at least.

Now it is no exaggeration at all… to say she has saved well over 20 million lives globally in the past decade alone. And in fitting fashion, she harkens back to the first Nobel in medicine (1901), to the man whose name would grace what became Dade-Behring… in virology (but like him, that company is now long gone as well).

Here’s Nature, with much more on her story (and an older backgrounder of mine on the topic):

…This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to biochemist Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman for discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

The vaccines have been administered more than 13 billion times, saved millions of lives and prevented millions of cases of severe COVID-19, said the Nobel committee.

Karikó, who is at Szeged University in Hungary, and Weissman, at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (UPenn), paved the way for the vaccines’ development by finding a way to deliver genetic material called messenger RNA into cells without triggering an unwanted immune response.

They will each receive an equal share of the prize, which totals 11 million Swedish krona (US$1 million)….

Excellent. Just… excellent. Onward — be excellent, to one another.

नमस्ते