I Will Be Busy With Family Stuff, But At 2 PM Yesterday, The Eleventh Circuit Heard Argument… And Was Skeptical Of Tangerine, On Mar-A-Lago “Top Secrets”.

Do follow EmptyWheel, both on her blog, and her feed on Mastodon Social (the grown-ups’ version of Twitter), to stay up to date.

She will have the most cogent insights over the holiday weekend — by a wide margin. From yesterday, then — a bit:

…[Judges] Grant and Brasher were on the panel that already held that Cannon erred in intervening given that there was no evidence of callous disregard for Trump’s rights, so I fancy DOJ’s chances….

For the reasons I laid out here, the decision the 11th Circuit makes, and how quickly they make it, will dictate how quickly DOJ could charge the stolen document case. DOJ likely has already discussed what documents they could charge without creating more national security damage….

Onward. But hilariously, she points out that yesterday, as if to prove egregious injuries — the Baby T. lawyers complained that the DoJ took Tangerine’s autographed Celine Dion photo. [It has since been returned.] Damn!

Now you know — Tangerine is plainly in sinking ship mode. And that makes me… smile.

नमस्ते

Supremes’ “Shadow Docket”: Tangerine’s IRS Filings To Be Shared With Congressional Committees, Now.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Really. Here’s the full order:

…TRUMP, DONALD J., ET AL. V. COMM. ON WAYS AND MEANS, ET AL.

…The application for stay of the mandate presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is denied. The order heretofore entered by The Chief Justice is vacated….

Yup. He’s gonna’ go through some… things. Grin.

नमस्ते

’60s TRIVIA: Actually, John — That Was Just The “Marlboro Man’s” Theme — A ’60s-’70s TV Commercial Soundtrack.

Hinderaker is apparently in London, at the moment.

He just saw some true British pageantry, as the South Africans come in for an official state visit, at Buckingham — to see Charles among others.

And he heard the British military band play a song he thought was from a movie, or a Western TV series….

In fact, it was the theme for the Marlboro cigarette commercials (yes, kids, we as grade schoolers watched enthralled, as above — we dutifully learned that truly rugged Western mountain cowpokes all preferred… cigarettes made by Marlboro. And we’d smoke ’em — in our own private planes — ones we’d fly ourselves, with our fetching blonde mates, no less. Damn — what an age that was!)….

You’re welcome.

Enjoy the show, John.

UPDATE: Shamed Into It, Alabama’s GOP Governor “Pauses” All Executions…

While this is good news… it is disgusting that it took a series of botched executions to get here.

And “botched” is far too kind a term for what — in at least two cases — occurred. What occurred… was torture. Barbarous, hours-long torture. Here’s the latest:

…[GOP] Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey sought a pause in executions and ordered a “top-to-bottom” review of the state’s capital punishment system Monday after an unprecedented third failed lethal injection.

Ivey’s office issued a statement saying she had both asked Attorney General Steve Marshall to withdraw motions seeking execution dates for two inmates and requested that the Department of Corrections undertake a full review of the state’s execution process….

But this does mean that Clarence Thomas will not, for quite a while now, be able to… kill Kenneth Smith with a stroke of his mighty pen. Out.

नमस्ते

I’ll Treat Hinderaker’s EV Remarks With All The Gravitas They Merit: NONE.

John today (again!) suggests there is no market, minus government subsidies, for Mr. Musk’s screamer electric speedsters.

This is transparently silly.

Let us suppose, just for fun — that John is right, that electric vehicles do not reduce the carbon footprint involved in personal transportation. [All we really know from John’s musings… is that he’s never driven a Tesla P85 in “Ludicrous mode”.]

Let us further suppose that the people who most like to go crazy fast in their cars… also (unsurprisingly) aren’t much interested in reduced carbon footprints. [Note: it doesn’t matter whether I think Musk’s cars are good (or bad) for the environment, in this telling. The point is… many still find them valuable, either way.]

And let us finally agree that many of these same lead-footed testosterone soaked whyte guys are… pretty wealthy — i-bankers, lawyers, MBAs and young plastic surgeons (for example).

It defies logic that they would shy away from buying a $110,000 P85 super-stomped — one that blows the doors off of almost every production gas-consuming vehicle on the road today.

The environment? They don’t give a crap, true. They just wanna go zero to 80 mph in under four seconds.

And they can. And they WILL pay for that privilege.

So again, all we’ve learned here… is that Hinderaker has never mashed the pedal to the floor in a Tesla P85, fully charged… in “Ludicrous” mode.

Yeh — John knows next to nothing about next to everything… any more.

No surprise there.

Merck To Pay ~$1.35 Billion For All Of Imago Biosciences — Getting A Bone Marrow Cancer Candidate, And A Pipeline…

Just to keep the old narrative arc / thread fresh — from the power-alley: this builds out more of a “future” oncology pipeline, in the main.

Of course, pembrolizumab is chugging along, mightily. But at some point near 2030. . . it may see a form of patent cliff in the US, so these add-on / add-in therapies for oncology / R&D candidates portfolios (like Acceleron’s and Imago’s) make sense — to hedge the bets. Here’s the latest:

…[Merck on] Monday [said] it will acquire cancer drug developer Imago BioSciences Inc… for a total equity value of $1.35 billion to expand its portfolio of blood disorder treatments.

The drugmaker’s offer of $36 per share in cash for Imago represents a nearly 107% premium to the company’s last close. Imago’s shares more than doubled in premarket trading to $35.65….

Now you know… still completely numb about Colorado Springs… these gun merchants… how do they live with themselves, as purely merchants of death — for both the evil, and mentally-ill people they more than occasionally… cater to? Good lord.

नमस्ते

The Colo. Springs Nightclub Shooter Is The Grandson Of GOP CA State Legislator…

Grandad was a vocal supporter of the 01.06.2021 nuts.

He remains a 2020 election denier:

…BOMBSHELL: The 22-year-old Colorado Springs mass shooter is the grandson of GOP California State Assemblyman @RandyVoepel from San Diego, who is also a staunch supporter of the 1/6 insurrection. 7:13 PM · Nov 20, 2022 · Twitter for iPhone….

And now his grandson is… a mass murderer — after targeting / injuring 25 and killing five, in a Colorado Springs club that caters to people who are gay and lesbian.

D A M N.

[U] Mr. Biden Should Win At The Supremes. There Is No Doubt Congress Delegated This Spending Authority To His Branch, Specifically.

Update: 11.22.2022 @ 2 PM EST In a completely “non-reviewable” move, Mr. Biden today announced that the ongoing moratorium on student loan collection actions will continue in all events until at least June 30, 2023.

No payments may be restarted until 60 days after that date.

This is all to cover the longest imaginable time that the Supremes might take to rule.

Now you know. End update.

In a non-Tangerine infected federal judiciary, these cases would have been dismissed at the trial courts’ level, almost immediately — within a few weeks.

That the Supremes will (again!) have to explain that speculative “what if. . .?” types of claimed harms… revolving around decisions to spend money clearly appropriated by Congress (under Tangerine, no less!) is not a way to gain standing to bring a suit, as a non-recipient of these funds… is all fairly comical.

But here we are, at the Supremes… again. The decision is likely in early January — that Mr. Biden may do what he has proposed. And the three or four lower courts’ silly, lawless and plainly-irrational rulings will be tossed into the ashbins, of judicial (partisan) history.

Here is Mr. Biden’s moving paper set — to have the Supremes declare that Congress meant what it said (again!) — these US government arguments are flawless; and a bit, from the same:

…Article III empowers the federal courts to decide only “Cases” and “Controversies.” U.S. Const. Art. III, § 2, Cl. 1. An Article III case or controversy exists only if the plaintiff has standing — that is, only if the plaintiff has suffered a concrete, particularized, and actual or imminent injury, the injury was likely caused by the defendant, and the injury would likely be redressed by judicial relief. TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190, 2203 (2021). Respondents cannot satisfy those requirements. The plan confers benefits on third parties, but it does not require respondents to do anything, forbid them from doing anything, or harm them in any other way….

The HEROES Act provides that, “[n]otwith- standing any other provision of law,” the Secretary may respond to a “national emergency” by waiving or modifying “any statutory or regulatory provision” governing federal student loans “as the Secretary deems necessary” to “ensure” that loan recipients who are “affected individuals” are not “placed in a worse position financially” because of the emergency. 20 U.S.C. 1098bb(a)(1) and (2). The Secretary’s action falls within that specific grant of authority….

I lament that we collectively are spending taxpayer funds on educating third-rate former law students (many of them from “Christian” law schools), who are all now federal judges, for life — about how our Constitution’s schema works… in real life. That would be in no small part… in opposition to the way “Christian” universities teach that “the God-clause” in the First Amendment embodied a positive religion, as opposed to the absence of one. [Above right, is an abridged timeline of my personal ancestors’ migrations — in no small part, to escape state enforced religions — beginning as early as 1000 AD. Certainly, the Potato Famine contributed, on what became my father’s line… but since the Crusades, what became my mother’s line was… wandering northward, into what became central Europe… to avoid state ordered confiscation, torture and murder.]

Much of this wasted effort stems from these jokers believing that because most of the founders followed Christian traditions… that there is a preference for their views.

It cannot be said often enough: the founders intended precisely… the opposite. Geez.

नमस्ते

After The Special Counsel’s Appointment… There Is Only One Relevant Line, From Hinderaker…

Okay — maybe five lines. [But the bolded last line, in the blue pull-quote below… is absolutely the most important. Heh.]

Therein… is the reality: John knows the charges in the coming indictment are… iron clad. Tangerine has been caught red handed. And now it’s all about getting him off stage, to save what’s left of the GOP, as quickly and quietly as possible.

But that guy will never, ever… go quietly. That’s the nature of the snake they chose, in 2016.

Still, I will quote Hinderaker (a rare event for me, in the last five years), as it bears wide absorption in the GOP halls. This guy… is toast:

…[T]he significance of this appointment should not be underestimated. I assume that Smith will be able to bring criminal charges against Trump in Washington, D.C., and it is almost a foregone conclusion that Trump will be convicted (of whatever the charges may be)….

In 2024, will Trump be the Republican nominee for president, or will he be trying to fight off a prison sentence? Or both?

The Trump investigation will likely result in an indictment and criminal conviction….

John really, really — like most of the GOP, now… wants him to just disappear.

Not. A. Chance.