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Fly Well, Col. Walt Cunningham — Last Of NASA’s Apollo Seven Original Crew…

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So we see that yet another of the early NASA greats has passed. He was 90 years young.

As a brave pilot, Navy / USMC / war-hero and brilliant Ph.D. level physicist. . . even before he blasted into space… this man, like so many of the current and former NASA astronauts — achieved much at an early age. And he continued to distinguish himself into his ninth decade on the planet. Here’s the full obit / story, from NASA, overnight:

…“Walt Cunningham was a fighter pilot, physicist, and an entrepreneur – but, above all, he was an explorer. On Apollo 7, the first launch of a crewed Apollo mission, Walt and his crewmates made history, paving the way for the Artemis Generation we see today,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA will always remember his contributions to our nation’s space program and sends our condolences to the Cunningham family.”

Cunningham was born March 16, 1932, in Creston, Iowa. He graduated from Venice High School, in Venice, California, before going on to receive a Bachelor of Arts with honors in physics in 1960 and a Master of Arts with distinction in physics in 1961 from the University of California at Los Angeles. He then completed a doctorate in physics with exception of thesis at the Advanced Management Program in the Harvard Graduate School of Business in 1974.

The Cunningham family offered the following statement: “We would like to express our immense pride in the life that he lived, and our deep gratitude for the man that he was – a patriot, an explorer, pilot, astronaut, husband, brother, and father. The world has lost another true hero, and we will miss him dearly.”

He joined the Navy in 1951 and served on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, retiring with the rank of colonel. He flew 54 missions as a night fighter pilot in Korea. He worked as a scientist for the Rand Corporation for three years. While with Rand, he worked on classified defense studies and problems related to the Earth’s magnetosphere. Cunningham has accumulated more than 4,500 hours of flying time in 40 different aircraft, including more than 3,400 in jet aircraft.

Cunningham was selected as an astronaut in 1963 as part of NASA’s third astronaut class….

Travel well, Walt — and do travel light — (by Apollo standards… light), that is!

नमस्ते

A Fairly-Nuanced View — Of How MAGA-GOP… Is Dying Now, Right Before Our Very Eyes.

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After SIX failed votes… perhaps it is best to admit it: GOP is DOA.

But to be fair, I will start by simply quoting the morning’s Politico editorial, by Jeff Greenfield:

…For instance, you might think that Republicans are concerned about their inability to win the presidential popular vote. Once upon a time, they won it more often than they lost; from 1952-1988, the GOP won it seven out of ten times. Since then, they have won it once, and lost it seven times….

True, that is not how presidents are elected, but rather than trying to broaden their share of the vote, Republicans prefer to talk about “voter integrity,” and raise questions about those voters in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit. One top Wisconsin GOPer even said that if you don’t count Milwaukee or Madison, Republicans would win every statewide contest. Behind these “voter integrity” proposals is the unspoken conviction that “the wrong people” are voting….

MAGA’s goals are clear: suppress the brown- and black- and women’s- vote. The MAGA wing knows it and the GOP cannot win another national election, on the “merits” of its policies (since the same are expressly ANTI- black and brown and ANTI-LGBTQ+).

So — it must tamper with “who” may vote, if it is to survive. [The back story on the joker MAGA-guy at below left is here, FYI.]

As deplorable as Kevin McCarthy has shown himself to be, he is not likely to try to expressly disenfranchise the voters of Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, LA or Philly and Milwaukee. That’s a bridge too far — even for him. [But not, apparently, John Hinderaker.]

And thus, MAGA must try to decapitate him, before he ascends to power. And the previous GOP concessions to these rabble-rousing morons… have only emboldened them.

If not this week or next, the GOP will… die, come this fall — when these same chuckleheads prevent the government from being funded — in the very same fashion as they are showing their collective asses to GOP leadership right now… charming.

Is this what it looked like when the Know-Nuthin’s died out? And the Whigs… before them?

Probably not this visible, as spectacles go.

But I’m. Down. For. It.

So… Rally on, Matt Gaetz! You, MGT and Boebert won’t even listen to Tangerine, hisself — any longer!

Flawless — but you 15 or so… too soon will die, secure in the knowledge that you killed the party — and killed it, well!

Read This Book… Cover To Cover. [Don’t Steal It.]

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We begin our series on climate — and the human race’s responsibility to leave the Earth to our grandchildren, in better shape than we were handed it… with a look at the Great Lakes — the fifth largest source of fresh water on Earth.

Do go read “The Death And Life Of The Great Lakes“, by Dan Egan. Consider well, within these pages… what each of us might do, to help — even just a little bit. I’ve chosen to highlight the hopeful — as opposed to the usual doom and gloom, on these topics — in an effort to motivate fence-sitters.

People who know this is an urgent problem — but are unable or unwilling to sit through lots of frankly alarming statistical arguments. This is a telling of the history from which we hoepfully will now depart, as to these azure jewels of North America.

But wherever you do start, start by reading, widely — to get educated on the enormity of these tasks, ahead. We will need great efforts, and a series significant shifts from the old ways of thinking about resources (as things to be preserved, not just exploited by the highest bidders). Onward, smiling… into 2023.

नमस्ते

[U: Hinderaker, Too!] Not That We Need Any More — But Proof The GOP Is… DOA (THREE Failed Internal GOP Speaker Votes).

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Update — later this evening, John Hinderaker admits to what we all saw with our own eyes, today: after a public spectacle last seen over a century ago, the GOP was unable to secure and seat a Speaker — on three tries. That level of ineptitude, on the public national CSPAN broadcasts… is in equal measure both delicious, and astonishing. The MAGA wing cannot even understand the damage it is inflicting. Some of the MAGA GOP folk said they don’t care if Hakeem Jeffries becomes Speaker, due to the GOP failures of procedure.

These MAGA morons (formerly encouraged by all the Powerline boys) are absolutely incompetent at any form of politics that does not entail scorched Earth. And it will be our job to remind all moderate voters in 2024… that these people offered… literally nothing remotely constructive… to a nation beset with problems. Problems that are fixable if we lock arms, one to each — but intractable — if MAGA insists on simply preventing all forms of progress.

Should all be very droll, now. Congrats, John! End update.

[Mid-afternoon on 01.03.2023:] Hayward seems to think being a fractured, in-fighting, whining, do nuthin’ 19th Century policies party… is a good look for the GOP.

I will agree with him — because… it means that the main-line GOP (and Tangerine’s MAGA loons) are little more than “Walking Dead” extras.

Hayward openly admits that his best case (after praising Joe McCarthy, of the 1950s)… is that the GOP puts its head between its legs… and waits for the mid-air, DC-8 dropped engine style crash, in 2024.

D A M N.

Just… damn.

Just One Thought… For The Open Of 2023…

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The GOP (under Tangerine/MAGA thrall) has become a farce. Here (below) is proof-positive.

That’s “the open of 2023″ thought.

In trying to secure the Speaker of the House seat for himself, Kevin McCarthy (R., CA) now says he will support the Gaetz measure.

That is, the Speaker now (and the GOP, overall) agrees that the motion of any ONE Rep. may logjam the entire House, on ideological or retributive grounds — and seek a removal of the sitting Speaker.

This rule change will — in the future — allow a man like Gaetz, or a woman like MTG or Boebert to stop even a 286-to-1 bill from advancing to the Senate (even if it is 99-1 in favor at the Senate as well). . . while the one MAGA member extracts his/her tributes and payoffs, from the GOP leadership.

This transforms the House into a series of individual mini-presidents, with a solely “rules-created” veto power. These would-be mini-despots need not even be the majority, or ranking member — of any committee.

That is. . . insane.

Rule — by the gate-keeping of Boebert / MTG veto power? Yikes.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Again Suggests… A New Confederacy, In Vain Effort To Overcome GOP’s National Electoral Losses

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Y A W N.

Again — perhaps due to the realization in this new year, that nationally, the GOP’s brand has been mortally wounded by Trumpism… and that Republicans may never win another nation-wide contest… Hinderaker proposes seceding from the Union, with just Texas, Florida and the Dakota territory.

That “idea” is… self-refuting (see mine at lunch today, on Texas).

The three states would starve. The other 47 could do just fine without the three’s energy — and Florida cannot grow a wide enough variety of produce to feed the other two.

But all this really amounts to… in the end… is proof that John’s cheese has slid off his cracker.

Again.

Hilarious!

Electric Lies In Texas: Hinderaker Cannot Reason Competently From Actual US Data.

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It is all deeply fascinating, here on the first afternoon of… 2023, as I rise after a night of revelry (actually deep into the morning hours) in the desert warmth… that Hinderaker decided to complain about “leftists” killing people via environmental science, yesterday morning.

Yes — you read that right. The senile, embittered old whyte guy thinks it is “leftism” that has caused poor Texans to freeze to death in their homes — about a dozen in the last three weeks, and over 100, in February 2021.

What John failed to mention — and in fact, ignored in real time, is that in February 2021, as over 100 died… a GOP/Gov. Abbott’s turning of a blind-eye to decades of continuing… mini ENRON policies of privatizing electric grid distribution systems inside the state of Texas, called ERCOT, is what led to the weather deaths. Many of the Texas GOP’s heaviest donors effectively price gouge the ordinary Texans in times of need, under a completely lawful [but deeply immoral… rich whyte guys only club (mostly legacy last Century oil families)].

Many localities instantly saw the price of electricity sky-rocket up to 10,000% to over $15,000 for a week… in February 2021. So many froze to death, because they were cut off from the power grid, entirely.

Yes, it was weather that immediately caused the shortages, but it was the fact that Bitcoin miners (among others) were selling their power credits back to Texas… for $2,000 per KwH in some cases, that killed humans.

This is a fact. It is also a fact that this is due to Texas never structurally addressing the corruption of Enron — and its implosion 23 years ago.

In sum, in the US, in GOP controlled states, the cost of energy is far more a product of corrupt, decades old monopolistic seller/reseller arrangements… than a scarcity of wind (as John preposterously posits).

Yes, energy costs real money, John — but “leftists” aren’t why it is high, this year. Or really, in any year. It is Gov. Abbott and his cast of crooks in Texas that are the long-term root cause, and the primary current proximate cause, here.

Cheers — do try to read up and educate yourself, in 2023, buddy.

ReliefWeb, On Uganda/Ebola: We Are Still At Least Ten Days Away, From “All Clear”.

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A minor year-end 2022 point: despite the Ugandan President’s premature declaration, ReliefWeb set the record straight, three days ago.

The all clear in Uganda is now set for ten days from today. January 10, 2023 (assuming no new cases are reported). Here’s that bit:

…[28 Dec. 2022] Today marks 101 days of responding to the EVD outbreak and 29 days since the last confirmed case….

Case Fatality Ratio (CFR) among confirmed cases still stands 55/142 (39%). No active contacts are currently under follow-up….

Now you know — but clearly good news, that no new cases have emerged in over a month’s time.

नमस्ते

Funny. Scott Didn’t Mention Any Of This — As To Tangerine’s Shockingly Suspicious Tax Returns (2016-2020)…

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This morning, the last of 2022, Mr. Johnson purports to yawn at the Trump IRS 1040s being released (as Trump himself promised six years ago he would — which alone, in any rational world — should doom his 2024 run).

Johnson picks on the easy (less damning) stuff, almost exclusively.

Most of all, the idea that Trump had a Chinese business bank account (which he failed to disclose between 2017-2020!) — while “serving the people” at 1600 Penn… is damning. And unprecedented in 200 plus years. [Imagine if BHO 44 had hidden a personal, private Chinese banking relationship from 2008 to 2016?!]

It is also telling that Scott doesn’t mention that the IRS failed to conduct annual audits of Baby-T, though every other modern President (since Truman at least) endured such annual IRS audits.

But that would puncture the faux balloon that the swamp was out to get Tangerine, from the get-go.

So… overall, Scott is lying here about their import and relevance… today, and even for going into 2024.

Prosecuting outright tax fraud (as the NY AG is, at present) is never “just politics”. Don’t let the Powerline boys lyingly say otherwise.

Cheers!

“Year In Review” Dept.: A Very Good 2022 — For Both Merck And Lilly; And Clearly A Bad One For Pfizer.

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Of all the mega cap pharmaceutical companies — it has been many years since either Lilly or Merck posted the top returns, overall. But it is also true that both Lilly and Merck manage assets pretty conservatively, never “getting out over their skis“, so to speak — not over-extending in any one promising but as yet undelivered area.

On the other hand, Pfizer had often been the top returner, in the last few — in those go-go times — which are now a full year in the rear view mirror, in the overall market.

Thus, unsurprisingly, Pfizer has been known to “over-bet” — on the come. In this year, that has come about to bite them — especially in the waning of the most lethal strains of COVID-19, and the leveling off of Pfizer’s COVID therapeutics sales. But, if one believes that the stock market will struggle well into 2023, before it recovers (as I do), Merck and Lilly will be better bets than Pfizer.

Here’s a bit of it all, from SeekingAlpha / Yahoo Biz:

…Merck shareholders have much to celebrate as the company is the best performing large US pharma of 2022 with a return of ~44% this year….

The company was also rumored to be close to buying Seagen for ~$40B, though the deal has yet to materialize.

Merck has also benefited from EPS beats in the first three quarters of the year….

With a year-to-date return of 34%, Eli Lilly had the second-best return of the year.

Perhaps the biggest development for the company was the approval of diabetes medication Mounjaro (tirzepatide) in May. Mounjaro sales are set to surge when the drug gains an additional indication as a weight-loss therapy, which Lilly is pursuing….

Pfizer was the worst performer, down about 10% in 2022. Despite earnings beats in the first three quarters, the company has been hobbled by declining sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and antiviral, Paxlovid….

There you have it. To be clear, all of pharma is a very safe bet, overall, against inflationary times — as even Pfizer’s decline only roughly approximates the erosion in buying power from consumer price inflation in the US in 2022. Musk’s Tesla is off over 65%. And Bitcoin is off ~68%.

And so, I wish all of you… very good cheer, and a wonderful… new year!

नमस्ते