Category: Uncategorized

[U: Judge Rules. “Nope — Not For Trump’s Convenience…”] Tangerine Doesn’t Get That He’s NOT In Civil Court, Any More…

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He’s been ordered to pick two days, on or before Friday, August 11, in a FELONY matter, in federal court.

He thinks it wise to flaut that order. He “wants” both his lawyers to be there.

That is not among his choices. That is WHY he has two, not one. Either may cover for the other. That will be the able USDC Judge’s response. This will go forward. Likely Thursday, now.

The thumbing of his very large nose at a very capable DC Judge — a woman of color, in a felony matter… is immensely unwise. Buckle up for some… fireworks.

Old Tangerine could get a few days in the can, for contempt — yet, pre-trial — if he keeps this up:

…By Minute Order on August 7, 2023, the Court directed the parties to meet and confer and inform the Court, by joint notice, “of two dates and times on or before August 11, 2023 when both parties are available for a hearing.” The parties have conferred and hereby provide notice. The Government is available at any time on August 9, 10, or 11.

The defense [Trump] represents the following:

President Trump will not appear. However, he would like to have both his counsel John Lauro and Todd Blanche at the hearing. Todd Blanche is not available on Thursday, since he must appear for a court proceeding in the prosecution brought against the same defendant, President Trump, by the Special Counsel in SD Florida. Mr. Lauro is available on Thursday, with a preference for an afternoon setting. However, since we lost Friday as an option, we would respectfully request a setting on Monday (after 12:00 p.m.) or Tuesday (all day) to allow for both Mr. Blanche and Mr. Lauro to be present….

That’s. Not. How. This. Works.

His statement (at right) looked like a threat, aimed at witnesses to his indicted felonies.

This is… going to bite him.

He’s “not in Kansas, any more….”

Updated, after 6 pm Eastern — The able USDC Judge just chose Friday at 10 AM. That means it will be only one lawyer for Tangerine. “…MINUTE ORDER as to DONALD J. TRUMP: The court hereby schedules a hearing on the parties’ respective protective order proposals in this matter on August 11, 2023 at 10:00 AM in Courtroom 9. The requirement of Defendant’s appearance is waived for this hearing. Signed by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on 08/08/2023. (lcc)….” He better get his sh!t together. End, update.

Out.

नमस्ते

And, Speaking Of Dropped Data… That Cute Lil’ Mars Copter Made A “Fail-Safe” Early Landing On Flight 53… All Is Well, Though

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So it is not just on Earth (and terrestrial in flight nav systems) that a bit of dropped data may cause some… disorder. It happened on Barsoom, in July.

But the fail-safes all worked flawlessly, and now as of August 3, it seems the ‘copter is ready for regular science operations, again. Here’s the bit (but do expect solar flare related data drops, today on Jasoom):

…NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter successfully completed its 54th flight on Aug. 3, the first flight since the helicopter cut its July 22 flight short. The 25-second up-and-down hop provided data that could help the Ingenuity team determine why its 53rd flight ended early.

Flight 53 was planned as a 136-second scouting flight dedicated to collecting imagery of the planet’s surface for the Perseverance Mars rover science team. The complicated flight profile included flying north 666 feet (203 meters) at an altitude of 16 feet (5 meters) and a speed of 5.6 mph (2.5 meters per second), then descending vertically to 8 feet (2.5 meters), where it would hover and obtain imagery of a rocky outcrop. Ingenuity would then climb straight up to 33 feet (10 meters) to allow its hazard divert system to initiate before descending vertically to touch down.

Instead, the helicopter executed the first half of its autonomous journey, flying north at an altitude of 16 feet (5 meters) for 466 feet (142 meters). Then a flight-contingency program was triggered, and Ingenuity automatically landed. The total flight time was 74 seconds.

“Since the very first flight we have included a program called ‘LAND_NOW’ that was designed to put the helicopter on the surface as soon as possible if any one of a few dozen off-nominal scenarios was encountered,” said Teddy Tzanetos, team lead emeritus for Ingenuity at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “During Flight 53, we encountered one of these, and the helicopter worked as planned and executed an immediate landing.”

The Ingenuity team is confident that the early landing was triggered when image frames from the helicopter’s navigation camera didn’t sync up as expected with data from the rotorcraft’s inertial measurement unit. The unit measures Ingenuity’s acceleration and rotational rates – data that makes it possible to estimate where the helicopter is, how fast it is moving, and how it is oriented in space….

So — all is well that ends… well, said the Bard. He was right. And as to that hotel re-opening, we are not even remotely… at the end, yet. Smile….

नमस्ते

Scott Johnson’s “Fish and… Bicycles” Analogy… Damn, Son… Just… Damn.

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So — I get it. The Powerliners are clutching at straws, now that the Tangerine Dotard is… cornered, and likely going to jail, at a some cushy Club Fed, in mid-2025.

They are making the most… preposterous arguments, now. Consider Johnson quoting Strassel, without reflection or analysis — to suggest that forgiving student loans, authorized by a 1965 statute and a 2019 one… is the same as exhorting a crowd for the violent overthrow of the government — from which one was just fired, by the people… as the outcome is being certified by one’s own outgoing Veep, thereby endangering his life.

Wow. That’s some hare-brained nonsense, right there:

…What’s the betting someone told President Biden he didn’t have the power to erase $430 billion in student loan debt. Oh, wait! That’s right. He told himself. “I don’t think I have the authority to do it by signing with a pen,” he said in 2021…. Yet Mr. Biden later.. took action [by executive order]… until the Supreme Court made him stop….

Just… damn. So, in Scott’s telling, we should have waited for the Supremes to rule that Trump was wrong, in sending goon squads to try to kill his own Veep?!

Cool story bro.

The overthrow of the Republic is… just a lil’ different, than using the National Education Act of 1965 (which plainly allows just his outcome!) to forgive student debts for low income Americans.

But Scott already knew that.

Out.

There Will Be A Hearing BEFORE Friday — On Trump’s “I’m Coming After You” Written Threat.

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In DC tonight, the able USDC Judge Tanya S. Chutkan has told Tangerine’s lawyers to name two times and dates — when they are available this week, before Friday, for a hearing on what exactly the dotard meant by that written threat.

Of course, one cannot decide what are appropriate limits on what Trump may see — and what remains “his lawyers’ eyes only” — without deciding whether he meant to threaten witnesses or the prosecutors or someone else.

So we will have some more street theater in DC this week — but Tangerine is excused from having to attend. That suggests, even though she’s a very fair and capable jurist… she is not inclined to gag Trump directly. [He is a candidate for office after all.]

But she will no doubt warn his counsel that he will be gagged if he speaks in any threatening manner about either the judge, the prosecution or the putative witnesses, in this felony criminal matter.

Here’s the order:

…Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED that no later than 3:00 PM on August 8, 2023, the parties shall meet and confer and file a joint notice of two dates and times on or before August 11, 2023 when both parties are available for a hearing. Signed by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on 08/07/2023….

Now you know. Hilarious — the guy is… his own worst enemy.

Out.

You May Experience Some “Extra” Cell Call Disruption In The US, Or AM Radio Static… Tomorrow.

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Heads up. There was a mid-level solar flare / magnetic arc event on the Fifth. It should wash over most of North America during the daylight hours, tomorrow.

That may mean some static, dropped calls and some AM radio “crackling”. Hopefully, not much more than that.

…An eruption from the sun on August 5th is likely to come to Earth and cause a moderate (G2) disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field, a geomagnetic storm.

When will it get here? Tuesday, August 8th after midnight EDT or around 6 a.m. UTC….

There was also a more severe flare, today, on the 7th, but it fired off-axis, away from Earth, so this should be about it, for this week, anyway. But if you intend to anything telecom or radar critical, like fly a light plane solo, tomorrow… you know: get real-time, expert level solar storm updates — from NOAA, in Boulder, Colorado. Out, grinning… be excellent to one another.

नमस्ते

An Increased Spend, And Added Potential Arenas: New “Second Stage” Of Ginkgo/Merck Collab — Potentially Nearly A Half-Billion Dollars To Ginkgo, Over A Decade…

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This is very good news for Ginkgo — and potentially for Merck as well, but it takes very dramatic advances to move the needle at Rahway, just as a function of Merck’s overall size.

In any event, a little under a year ago, Ginkgo Bioworks announced an up to $500 million stock mix and match equity shelf offering, for longer term capital needs, along with a collab with US major Merck. At the time the funding was said to be worth around $144 million. Today, to help offset the decline in its share prices occasioned intermittent share issuances under the shelf, Ginkgo let it be known that the overall funding is now just north of $490 million, over about a decade — if all milestones are met. Merck’s added collab dollars signal a solid move, in tandem with a long term player.

Here’s the latest bit [with my backgrounder from October 2022 here] — at MarketWatch:

…Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings Inc. were rising more than 5% in Monday’s premarket trading after the company said it was collaborating with Merck & Co. Inc. on improvements in biologic manufacturing. Ginkgo plans to use its abilities in cell engineering, ultra high-throughput multiplexed screening, protein characterization and process optimization to boost yields and drive improvements in production efficiency.

The company is eligible to rake in an aggregate total of $490 million in upfront research fees, research milestone fees, option license payments and commercial milestone payments, according to its release….

We’re thrilled to leverage our platform to improve the production of biologics in collaboration with Merck. In particular, we will utilize some of our unique capabilities, such as automated protocols to do predictive ultra high-throughput multiplexed screening, product characterization and process optimization. It’s exciting for our team to drive impactful and technically innovative work, and to do so shoulder-to-shoulder with our counterparts at Merck….

Here Merck is also finding more environmentally friendly ways of getting from raw materials, to finished drugs and therapies. And to be certain, the roster of Ginkgo’s existing collaborations already reads like a “who’s who” of 21st Century pharma. Now you know… onward, smiling.

नमस्ते

A 500 Million Year Old “Dune” Style Sea Worm, With Armor Plated Bristles… Found, In Northern Utah…

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About the length of an iPhone, this is one bizarre Cambrian fossil, at right.

It is a wholly unknown type of sea-worm — and you know these sorts of “time out of mind” discoveries, especially in the mountainous West… fire my imaginings — they are thrilling, indeed.

Here’s the bit:

…When she found the fossil, Rhiannon LaVine, a research associate with the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, was part of a team camping and carrying out fieldwork in the High Creek area of the Spence Shale. This is a geologic formation straddling northern Utah and southern Idaho. Since the 1900s, the area has been famed for its abundance of some 90 species of Cambrian trilobites and soft-bodied fossils….

As the discoverer of the new fossil worm and a co-author on the paper describing it, LaVine bestowed the species with its scientific name: Shaihuludia shurikeni. Shai-Hulud is the indigenous name for the worms on the planet Arrakis in the “Dune” novels by Frank Herbert, while “shuriken” is the Japanese word for throwing star, representing the shape of the blade-like chaetae (chaetae are the stiff bristles that characterize many annelids)….

Now you know… and that’s great STEM content, indeed: immortalized in the history of natural science as the discoverer of a new species. Not entirely coincidentally. . . a decade is by no stretch… a half a billion years, but in some ways… it seems vaguely… alike. Smile.

नमस्ते

[U] An Impotent Septuagenarian Indicted Faux-Mobster Wants High Office (AGAIN)? And The GOP Likes This?!

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Updated: By mid-day on Saturday, Tangerine had published another written blast on his social media site, saying his threat was aimed at “RINOs” — like the Koch Brothers, who are actively opposing his run, with ads, and money for other candidates. Uh huh.

Even if we believe that is to whom he meant to refer in saying “I’m coming after you!” — in all caps, no less… that sounds like he intends to use lawless means to intimidate voters and Super PACs that will not give him money, and support. Of course, that too is unlawful — but we all know he meant to intimidate anyone who might give evidence against him, a day after he was arraigned on J6-related felonies. This guy — just cannot shut up, to save his own skin. End, updated portion.

So… overnight, the AUSAs assigned to the Special Counsel Jack Smith, in DC, have asked for a protective order, restraining the Tangerine Dotard from threatening witnesses, in his felony matters. [See at right.]

Any other indictee (even non-violent crime defendant) who made such a public threat would likely be jailed until trial (reference Martin Shkreli’s 2017 cases).

What I really intend to note is that the GOP sees this impotent, deranged geezer as its only shot.

The level of self-delusion in GOP offices — nationwide — is truly… jaw slacking.

I’ll stop there. For now.

Out.

A Previously $600 Million Bio-Bucks Collab With Merck — At Seagen — Will “Step Back”, On Ladiratuzumab Vedotin Combo Trials…

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While the data does also suggest there are other pathways showing better efficacy in combination with juggernaut Keytruda, it should not escape notice that Pfizer will own Seagen very soon, and Merck is likely in no hurry to spend cash R&D that simply gets funneled up to consolidated Pfizer coffers.

But as I say, the Merck/Seagen collab will roll forward on other candidates — and this mothballing is driven by hard data, as well.

In any event, here’s the latest, from Fierce Biotech:

…The company — which is in the process of being acquired by Pfizer — briefly noted in a second-quarter earnings filing Thursday that ladiratuzumab vedotin, or LV, is being deprioritized. Merck confirmed in an email Thursday afternoon that the company is in the process of discontinuing the program.

“LV has been shown to be clinically active with a tolerable safety profile, however, the emerging treatment landscape with newer therapeutics introduces a higher efficacy threshold,” Seagen said in a statement to Fierce Biotech.

Merck in September 2020 ponied up $600 million for the ADC, alongside a $1 billion investment in Seagen, at the time known as Seattle Genetics. The companies planned to co-develop LV in combination with Keytruda for breast cancer and other solid tumors. The therapy was in phase 2 testing at the time but little has been detailed about the clinical program since. LV could have been a rival to Gilead Sciences’ Trodelvy….

Now you know… and so, on a Friday, late — good night, now to all of good will….

नमस्ते

John Hinderaker Asks Why Tangerine Is STILL Front Page News… SERIOUSLY?!

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Hey, John — you mentioned four former Democratic Presidents or Nominees (and two from the GOP), for that office. Yes, all of those mentioned were put out of office, as you describe — and rapidly faded from the headlines of the NYT and Wa Po.

All true (but by the way, none of them sought the nomination in the next cycle, as Tangerine forcefully has — but why… quibble, right?).

So, no — just one question — then I will take my seat, looking back over my shoulder — while laughing… at you:

Name any former President, from any party… ever, in now almost 240 years… who was indicted on felony counts (over 80 now in total) not once, not twice, but three times (and very shortly in Georgia, a fourth time).

Right — when the former leader of the free world loses a sex assault case in state court in New York, and then gets indicted three / four times — for felonies that include depriving the people of the result of their votes (under the Anti-Klan Act), and lying about stealing Top Secret documents as he left office… yep… that’s gonna remain newsworthy… likely for decades.

He is both a headline, and an object lesson — for dolts like you, who thought when nominating him in 2016 “well, how much damage can he do — he’s a moron, afterall…?”

Yep. John — you own all this. And the wipeout losses for the GOP coming in 2024. [By way of footnote, I cannot think of any former CoC in the last century who had as much as a traffic ticket, after leaving office, come up. Can you? Nixon of course, is at least a partial contra-example, but because he promptly resigned (to avoid jail!), he too faded from view. Remind me: wasn’t he… GOP? Yep… he was. Seems like a party level problem.]

Cheers.