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Horowitz And Hinderaker — Open Lies, About A Video-Taped Event… On 01.06.21: Blood Libel.

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I’ve shown the relevant angle on the video feed here, many times before. Tonight, I offer a still image, from that same video footage — of Ex-USAF Ashi Babbitt, forcing her way through a glass opening (well inside the Capitol) — a glass wall she herself helped to kick in, and ALL after being warned to stand down, by a police officer (whose pistol was already drawn and aimed at her, dead center, in her field of view). The officer specifically shouted “halt or I’ll shoot!” As ex-military, and even amid all the chaos around her, here — she well knew what would happen if she disobeyed that order.

She charged in; true to his word, he fired under two seconds later, and she… died.

That’s what’s on the video tape — from multiple angles. But David Horowitz, and John Hinderaker in quoting him — lies about her avoidable death. Avoidable, had she obeyed a lawful police order to stand down.

But Horowitz called the well-justified shoot… “cold blooded murder“. That is a God-damn blood libel lie. Just… Damn.

Here is the quoted bit, in John’s:

“…Ashli Babbitt [was] a forty-year-old five-foot tall unarmed woman and 14-year air force veteran. She can be seen on video tape standing among several Capitol Police officers threatening no one, when an outstretched arm holding a firearm is also seen on the same tape taking aim at Ashli and murdering her in cold blood….”

This sort of lying arguably incites insurrection, anew. Horowitz should be called to answer for this — and held responsible in civil damages, by the officer and his family. So too, Hinderaker — for churlishly repeating what he well-knows is a damnable lie.

Disgusting. Out.

Trump v. Biden — What Sets Their “Documents” Cases… Apart, John?

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I woke up here on Sunday, a little more agitated about Hinderaker’s document lies, overnight. So here is likely my one and only shot at his.

First off, there is the sheer volume of Trump’s theft: over 11 times as many as Biden’s newly found documents, at around 325 to 21. And there’s the notion that Trump tried to claim they belonged to him, not the office of the Presidency, despite the fact that they bore classification markings. And there were at least 46 EMPTY classified folders, at Mar-A-Lago — which strongly suggests at least 46 documents from Trump’s thievery… are still missing (buried at Bedminster, inside Ivana’s coffin?!). The differences are stark, in sum.

As EW says, in the case of at least one document, which was stored in a desk drawer in his office (along with other pictures and memorabilia), given that it bears his own hand-written notes, dated after 01.21.21, it is clear that Trump both accessed, and used these classified documents — at least once after he left the White House. [Nothing of the sort is known of Biden’s found scraps in dusty boxes, mostly from pre-2016 — and some going back to his days as a US Senator (early 2000s).]

As EmptyWheel cogently points out:

“…[T]here are press reports that Trump otherwise accessed documents after DOJ started looking for them — in part, by curating the ones he was willing to send back in January 2022 and hiding some from Evan Corcoran (his own lawyer!) so they wouldn’t be turned over in the June 2022 search — this compilation seems to show that Trump not only knew the classified records were in his home, but he used them, at least once, after he left the White House….”

As EmptyWheel carefully points out, on the other hand, we cannot yet be certain that Mr. Biden did not access these few other documents, after 44’s Presidency. True. But we can say unequivocally that Mr. Biden has been trying to immediately give them all back, as they are found — while Trump both lied about their very existence, and then stole them for over 18 months.

Obstruction, in sum — is a difference — a key difference. As is the numerosity, of course.

This will likely be my only “compare and contrast” entry on this, to put the lie to the Powerliner boys.

Cheers.

[U] This Is A Sad Obsession, And A False One, From The Addled Mind Of Hinderaker…

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Now for about the ninth time, tonight — Hinderaker tries to tell the transparently preposterous lie that some future “world government” is going to force him to eat… bugs instead of steak and chicken and pork.

It is actually pretty sad… that Fox, and the frothy hard right GOP-ers (utterly out of real talking points / wedge issues) think that their base voters are actually this stupid. Stupid enough to believe that a world government (of any sort!) will be able to overturn 245 years of independence in the US — and/or that the wealthiest people on Earth will NOT be able to buy all the steak they want.

But somehow, these formerly Ivy-educated loons… are convincing themselves of this nonsense… so, I’ve made a new graphic, tonight (at above left). It will be back-filled on other stories like this one, from the last few months, involving Hinderaker’s senile lunacy — and lying.

Sheesh, John — get a grip, buddie.

Oh — and… Updated: late night on Saturday, John is back to pushing a false equivalency (claiming that immediate surrender of documents is the same as stealing and lying about it, for 18 months). Yawn.

Steve Hayward — And Largely Inadvertent Truth Tellings.

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Steve finally wrote something about George Santos. But only after it was established that he (i) used a fake Jewish sounding name for a GoFundMe, and pretended to be “Jew-ish“, (ii) kited checks in Brazil, (iii) had a male room-mate come forward who says George Santos is a made-up identity, that the guy now called “George” never attended any college, let alone an Ivy… and that he occasionally impersonated his former boss, in an alleged Ponzi scheme; and finally… (iv) photos of Santos surfaced, in drag — doing drag queen shows, in South America some years ago.

But it was only item (iv), just revealed overnight, that presumably finally led Steve to write this:

…So this George Santos fellow in New York seems not just to have a serious problem with the truth, but might actually be mentally ill….

So… to sum up: a GOP Long Island Congressman stealing funds, impersonating others, and pretending to be Jewish, as well as lying about attending a prestigious university… are all fine.

But if you were born with anatomical male parts, and then later put on lipstick and/or eye-liner, well… the hard-right GOP has zero use for you. You are now… “mentally-ill”.

In a fascinating fashion-footnote, I’d note that none of the three Powerline boys have as yet condemned the New Mexico state GOP failed candidate who shot up the homes of the Democratic winning candidate, and other officials… that he deemed responsible for his loss at the polls.

Shooting up homes: GOP approved tactic. Putting on a dress — with bare arms, in the state-house! — (ref. Mizzou GOP) is… a mental illness, sez GOP.

Damn.

Hinderaker: Fading Away… Into Obscurity… Day — By His Fretful… Day.

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Welp.

When all you can find to whine about is how bad local schools are, or how some guy annoys you — one who holds no nationally-elected office, but was last a candidate for one, almost two decades ago, now… or about the size of the federal debt…

You have — congrats! — reached senility.

Full on… senility.

Or… equally likely, this is all Hinderaker and the Powerline boys can write about, because there is not a single thing about the hard right GOP (Gaetz, Boebert, MTG and George Santos, for example)… that is NOT utterly cringe-worthy. Even to the hard frothy right wing of the GOP.

And that’s all before we mention that Tangerine (their collective leash holder) was just fined over a million dollars (as were his incompetent lawyers)… for bringing vexatious litigation against his political opponents — in suits palpably devoid of any colorable legal arguments (in the 2016 election cycle).

H I L A R I O U S.

Bub-bye guys.

Seagen Gets A Nice Nod, From FDA — In Oncology Arena… Will It Rekindle… Merck’s Appetite? We Shall See.

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Honestly, I think industry-wide, valuations have come in, a bit (since the heady days of last summer) — and if the two sides were (as rumored) around $10 billion apart, last summer… this FDA nod may just have widened the gap. Merck (generally) would be arguing that some water has run out of all of life science companies’ tubs… while Seagen will be touting this new and very substantial cash flow and profitability franchise… to up its valuation.

So… no, I’d expect that the M&A ship… as to Merck/SeaGen, has passed. But I could get surprised. Specifically, I think Seagen would want more than $40 billion now, to sell itself. Here’s the bit — from FiercePharma’s reporting, earlier today:

…The FDA on Thursday granted an accelerated approval to Seagen’s Tukysa as a second-line treatment along with Herceptin for RAS wild-type, HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic colorectal cancer. Specifically, the drug is approved in combination with Roche’s Herceptin for patients whose cancer progressed after treatment with fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin- or irinotecan-based chemotherapy.

With the approval, the combination becomes the first FDA-approved treatment for HER2-positive metastatic colorectal cancer, Seagen noted….

Now you know… stranger things… could (in fact, have) happened. Grinning, out into the night here — with snows due again tomorrow night…. sigh.

नमस्ते

Amazon Cited By OSHA — For Second Time In Under A Year: Unsafe Worker Conditions In NY, FL And N. Illinois

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Not terribly surprising, but Amazon has (again — twice in under a year!) been fined for exposing Illinois, NY and Florida line workers to dangerous lifting / twisting repetitive motion / stress injuries. [With just one of dozens of prior posts, on it all — here (search “Amazon”, in the box for the rest).]

The long applicable OSHA regs clearly set out maximum loads, and maximum repeated motion parameters, for working on an “assembly line” distribution / package hub facility. Amazon repeatedly broke those rules, endangering (if not already injuring) its workers.

Here’s the latest, from Vice news:

…The Department proposed a penalty of $60,269 for the violations.

“OSHA investigators found Amazon warehouse workers at high risk for lower back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders related to the high frequency with which workers are required to lift packages and other items; the heavy weight of the items; awkward postures, such as twisting, bending and long reaches while lifting; and long hours required to complete assigned tasks,” the OSHA press release reads.

“OSHA also reviewed on-site injury logs required by OSHA and discovered that Amazon warehouse workers experienced high rates of musculoskeletal disorders….”

Jeff Bezos makes, and made, his billions — by extracting from labor… far more than a day’s honest sweat. No, he is wantonly indifferent to the risks of injuries, and actual injuries his policies inflict on that labor. All to make the last few pennies of his capital gains. That is no fair trade — and that is why a union is needed, to reign in his feckless excesses.

A day’s labor should never be “simply assumed” to also cost the worker / cause life long, debilitating injuries.

Damn.

Januvia®: [Diabetes Medicines, Generally] In Short Supply. Thus Merck Has An Okay From FDA To Remediate Tiny Nitrosamine Contaminant Levels By Year End 2023.

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First off, let’s define the itty-bitty scale here: this would amount to about 0.037 of a milligram per LITER of fluid, or powder. Thus this is effectively — and merely — a drop, in an ocean, here. [Your tiny aspirin pill contains about 250 ml of active ingredients in each small powder pill tablet — so, over 50,000 times more than this nitrosamine level.]

But that level of contaminant — at a top end of about 37 nanograms/ml — slightly exceeds the GMP specs that FDA originally approved for Merck’s Januvia® and Janumet®, as long term sales leaders in the diabetes space.

To be clear, though, in concentrations of many thousands of times higher than this… in animal study models, some excess cancer rates were observed. [Clearly then, the risk of “going without” one’s diabetes medications. . . greatly exceeds any risk from taking the drug.] But as I say, the whole space is undergoing a supply shortage, with similar contaminants turning up even in the generic versions at Lupin and Glenmark, out of India.

So, FDA has wisely given Merck a provisional green light (until year end) to continue shipping while remediating it. The company now knows the source of the contaminant, and while it will not disclose whether it is due to problems with an API supplier (possibly in India or China), or residing much closer to Merck’s own captive facilities — it says it will have it all fixed up, by January 2024.

Here is the bit, from FiercePharma, earlier today:

…In a report to the FDA, Merck says it has figured out how its blockbuster type 2 diabetes drugs have become contaminated with nitrosamine. And the company has told the regulator that it can fix the issue by the end of this year, a source told Bloomberg….

Now you know — off to the flannel sheets… chanting my name… sweet and low, but chanting, just the same. G’night.

नमस्ते

Scott Johnson, This Morning: “Stupid Is, As Stupid… Does.” Sheesh.

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Again, it seems the Powerline boys cannot grasp the difference between finding — and stealing.

And Scott would somehow believe that Mr. Biden meant to steal documents when he left the White House in 2017. Back in 2017. Ones he hasn’t even looked at — in now almost seven years. Let that sink in.

As we well know, Mr. Biden has (in contrast to Scott’s drivel) turned everything found over — to the proper authorities all within 24 hours of each discovery. And his lawyers have so sworn. [Note here that Tangerine’s didn’t — until after a search warrant was executed. And even then they were, at best — woefully ill-informed. More likely, they were gee–ing, for Donnie-T.]

But Scott wants us to think that this is a monumental crime by Mr. Biden.

He wants that so desperately, because he well-knows that the if the world focuses on the fact that Tangerine repeatedly lied about having documents, after holding the same for over 18 months — and forced a search warrant execution, after it became clear he was lying about having no more documents… well, that would look bad for all the GOP who were willing toadies for him, including all the Powerline chuckleheads.

[U: After Midnight] Erh, Yeah — John: The Hon. Rep. Is SHELIA — Not “Shirley”

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I won’t even read the rest, as Hinderaker cannot be bothered to get the first names of Democratic Black US Representatives… right.

Again, his sneering distain for people who don’t hate the way he hates (a la 1940s Alabama) is palpable. He says he doesn’t know what replacement theory is — and that he’s never met a whyte suprematist.

Yet he obviously sees one, every morning (in the mirror) when he picks up a razor, to scrape his beak.

Damn, John. You are one… burnt soul.

Updated, after midnight: Hinderaker is vexed later tonight, it seems — about Davos. He’s just butt sore than no one invites him to any serious economic forum. At all. But he and Steve and Scott are “teaching” their rubes a class in twisting Alexander Hamilton’s words beyond recognition — that’s all they’ve got going.

So when John cannot fathom why fewer burger flipping jobs will exist in the coming half century… we might just chuckle. His own attempts to dictate by fiat (in the early 1980s), half a century ago… have ironically now led young people to move in a counter-revolution against his “‘80s values”.

Yet… that later Anti-80s counter revolution…looks like… his own, circa 1969-1971, when he and others forcibly occupied the President’s offices at Dartmouth… to end the undeclared war in Vietnam.

Now he is dying out day by day, and… all that he rallied against, at age 21… has come back to haunt his embittered dotage.

Hilarious!