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After I’d Fallen Asleep Last Night — Secure In Believing The 11th Circuit Had Spared Mr. Smith… Justice Thomas Issued An Entirely NEW Order — To Kill Him.

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The only thing that spared him was… that the Alabama prison guards could not find a vein before midnight, local time.

But the Eleventh Circuit had by 8 PM granted a right to briefings on the notion of lethal injections for infirm, and older inmates, whose veins may be very hard to tap.

And again, the SCOTUSBlog has all the torturing details. This stop-start-stop is itself a violation of the Eighth Amendment, if nothing else is:

…Shortly after the court issued its brief order around 11:20 p.m. EST, Alabama officials attempted to carry out a lethal injection of Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted of a 1988 murder-for-hire. But they called off the execution when they had problems inserting intravenous lines to administer the lethal drugs.

It was the second time since September that Alabama began an execution only to cancel it midway through the procedure due to problems accessing the prisoner’s veins….

The death warrant expired at midnight, and so Mr. Kenneth Smith… did not. His Eleventh Circuit arguments will likely be heard next week. Damn. What is… wrong with Clarence Thomas? We must put an end to all this… lunacy. We are… barbarians here.

Sickening.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Thinks Felonies Committed For “Egotistical Reasons”… Aren’t… Felonies?!

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The poor guy doesn’t know which way is up.

He’s gone ‘round the bend.

Tonight he tells us that since (he assumes!) Tangerine hasn’t (yet) fenced/sold any of the secrets he stole… there was no crime.

Damn, John.

Possession is a felony here.

And likely, “the payoff” went to / through Jared, who likely showed the secrets to certain Mideast interests, in exchange for ~$2 billion in funding / lending.

But let’s assume Hinderaker can prove the thefts were not financial, at all — and purely… egotistical in nature.

I don’t really recall Madoff being released without charges… when he stole from tons of charitable endowments… to be the biggest mench in every ballroom in Manhattan.

Nope. I recall… he died in jail.

Take heed, senile old John. Take… heed.

Out.

Of Concern: A Possible Ebola Case, Northeast Of London, In Essex | Colchester?

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The potentially viral patient recently returned from Africa to the UK. . . and presented overnight with symptoms that do not definitively exclude… ebolavirus, of one sort or another.

Tests have already been run today, and the UK authorities are awaiting definitive answers. But s/he will need to consistently test negative for 21 more days (as was previously the outcome in a similar suspected case in Tel Aviv, Israel), before all is clear. And in the mean time, wisely — the health authorities have closed off the involved hospital.

This is all taking place about an hour and a half’s drive (north and east), from the center of London. Here’s the latest:

…Health officials are investigating a potential Ebola case in Colchester, after a patient with suspected symptoms returned to Britain from Africa, where a strain of the deadly virus is circulating in Uganda.

On Wednesday, part of Colchester Hospital in Essex was closed to new patients amid concerns that a patient with a travel history to Africa was developing early symptoms of Ebola, a deadly hemorrhagic fever.

The Telegraph understands that officials at the UK Health Security Agency are testing the patient for a range of diseases as part of routine infection control protocol that kicks in when suspected cases emerge in travellers….

Those vaccine candidates cannot get tested rapidly enough, in my estimation. Now you know — holding a good thought, tonight here.

नमस्ते

[U: Stay Granted, On New Arguments!] Alabama To Execute A Man Anyway, After Jury Voted 11-1 To Give Him Natural Life Without Parole…

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UPDATED — Based on precedents finding lethal injection to be cruel where a vein cannot be secured in elderly, infirm patients, the Eleventh Circuit has granted a temporary stay of execution, while briefing occurs on the factual issues — which include that Mr. Smith’s vein likely cannot be found, even in recent medical exams. This will likely go back to the Supremes tomorrow. But I’d not expect a new death warrant now, for several weeks. Here is his cogent brief to get the stay. Good news. End update.

Amy Gou — ably writing, again at The SCOTUS Blog has it all down cold — in unsparing prose.

In just about four hours, at around 5 PM this evening, Alabama will ignore a lawfully-empaneled jury’s vote, in a capital murder case — and despite 11-1 saying he should live on… Alabama will execute him, solely on a single local (elected; political; GOP) judge’s say so.

I gather in ruby red Alabama, the Constitution’s guarantee of a jury of one’s peers, in capital cases… is a mere “guideline”. If inconvenient, the Constitution’s 240 year old commands may be swept aside — if GOP frothers decide… they’d like to do so, even on a blood-thirsty whim, despite a jury’s clear and lawful instruction — for mercy:

…By a vote of 11 to 1, the jury in Smith’s 1996 capital trial recommended that he be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The trial judge overrode that decision, however, and sentenced him to death. Alabama was the last state in the United States to permit judicial override in capital cases.

It outlawed the practice in 2017, but not retroactively. Smith argued that his execution, greenlit by a practice that is no longer permitted anywhere in the country, would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments….

That the Supremes did not summarily overturn this travesty is proof of what Tangerine’s hard right wing has wrought: fascism, in the face of a strict Constitutional command. Damn.

And that makes three, just this week — from the “Putin/Xi/Taliban” wing of the Supremes (six justices, in all).

Meanwhile, John Hinderaker whines because the Minnesota (Democratic) Governor’s comms aide used harsh language — in a tweet to a Republican Lt. Governor. Grow a working forebrain, John. The above is… just a second… murder. Please explain the GOP position here. Use harsh language if you like. Just… damn.

नमस्ते

Elizabeth Holmes-ian Arcania Quiz™ — Can You Best… BillyTheKid?

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This one (as it was five years ago!) is 100% courtesy of BillyTheKid!

You may now download (*.pdf) the elizabeth-holmes-pop-quiz — thanks, Billy!

There are at least three questions as to which I will be solely guessing! I have no idea as to those three, but I will not google. Heh.

I will post it in the morning, and All entries are due not more less than fifteen minutes after her sentence is handed down.

It will be a *.pdf file format that you may fill in and submit — or you may post your answers in the comments, as a numbered set of answers / comments.

Should be very good fun!

Braggin’ rights are all the winners will get, though — I’m afraid.

And… feel free to make a guess at sentence length, and restitution order amounts, if you like — as the last or first, un-numbered, answer to the quiz!

Onward, to Friday!

STAT + Has A Scoop: The Three Sudan Ebola Vaccine Candidates Are Beginning Head To Head Testing Inside Uganda…

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This is a very welcome development. And yet, it may come so late in the current outbreak cycle in Uganda, that a definitive proof of efficacy will be… under-powered, for lack of an “n” large enough. We shall see.

But it is good news, and far better to have a working vaccine you no longer need, than to have no vaccine candidates available, when a flare up occurs. And they invariably do.

Here is the latest — even as weekly new case totals have begun to decline, in-country:

…The three experimental vaccines that will be tested build off of existing vaccine experience. One is being produced by the not-for-profit group IAVI and uses the same vaccine platform as Merck’s Ebola Zaire vaccine, Ervebo; in fact, Merck made the doses that will be used in the clinical trial. It uses a livestock virus known as vesicular stomatitis virus that has been modified to carry a key protein from the Ebola Sudan virus….

The two other vaccines — one is being developed by the Sabin Vaccine Institute, a nonprofit, while the other is being developed by the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute — use adenoviruses that normally infect chimpanzees to introduce the immune system to a surface protein from Ebola Sudan viruses. The Jenner Institute used the same vaccine platform when it designed AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine….

Now you know — with some Elizabeth Holmes-ian arcania / trivia up… next!

नमस्ते

Astonishing! With ZERO Evidence, Hinderaker “Divines” That Target’s Theft Problem Is… “Mostly” Brown And Black People.

~ condor ~ 5 Comments

Well — nothing should surprise us, any longer — from the Nouveau Klanner, John Hinderaker.

Earlier today, Target reported that it has seen some $400 million in what it called “organized theft” losses, in the first nine months of 2022. That’s awful. But no Target spokesperson, or law enforcement officer / body has offered ANY breakdown of who, exactly, it is… that predominates… in these “organized” heists.

[Unsurprisingly, if these organized crime crews are successful, the perps are NOT apprehended, and so… there is going to be no reliable data on make-up of the successful criminals.]

But Hinderaker jumps right in, and speciously makes it a color issue:

…My guess is that they find the issue of “organized retail crime” to be racially sensitive, and, being thoroughly woke, they would rather not talk about it, or do anything about it….

Charming — without even a whiff of data — he thinks it a black and brown problem.

This man… needs to stop writing, altogether. He’s a lost, aging and infirm… racist.

Damn.

What a tool.

NASA’s Next-Gen Space Scope Captures The “Bottleneck” — Of A Forming Protostar, At Only 100,000 Years Of Age…

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It is a wonder, to be sure.

And perhaps — just perhaps — some several billion years hence, inside that central proto planetary disk (only a few pixels across in this image at the “neck”)… somewhere… DNA may also evolve. And with it, what we consider to be… life.

It has likely already occurred millions of times before, elsewhere — in addition to here, in the warmth of our own modest Sol. But we cannot be certain of that — even if the math strongly suggests it to be so. Here’s the latest, in any event:

…NASA’s [newest] Space Telescope has revealed the once-hidden features of the protostar within the dark cloud L1527, providing insight into the beginnings of a new star. These blazing clouds within the Taurus star-forming region are only visible in infrared light, making it an ideal target for the Near-Infrared Camera….

The protostar itself is hidden from view within the “neck” of this hourglass shape…. The region’s most prevalent features, the clouds colored blue and orange in this representative-color infrared image, outline cavities created as material shoots away from the protostar and collides with surrounding matter. The colors themselves are due to layers of dust between [the ‘scope] and the clouds.

The blue areas are where the dust is thinnest. The thicker the layer of dust, the less blue light is able to escape, creating pockets of orange….

Now you know, with several inches of snow due here in the next five to seven days — for Thanksgiving. Grinning ear to ear, since everyone will be home — just… outstanding. Smile.

नमस्ते

The Eleventh Circuit Mar-A-Lago-Stolen-Top-Secret-Documents Appeal Will Be Argued… Next Tuesday: Expedited.

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We shall see, but I would expect Team Tangerine to lose, and lose “bigly“, here. [My last substantive backgrounder on it all is here.]

This is an appeal of the denial of any stay, against the government’s investigation of stolen top secret documents found at Mar-a-Lago. His time avoiding indictment is drawing to a close.

Here’s the order (and if I’m not busy on Tuesday, I’ll listen in; in any event there will be a live link to the audio stream here — by Tuesday morning):

…ORDER: Counsel for each party is DIRECTED to appear on Tuesday, November 22, 2022, at 2:00 p.m., in Atlanta, Georgia, for the oral argument of this appeal….

Sweet… onward, grinning.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker (Preposterously!) Lauds Texas Gov. Abbott — To Avoid Talking About Trump’s 2024 FEC Filing…

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Tonight, John informs us that the malevolent cabal of morons running Texas under the GOP’s aegis… have decided to raise an army — and take on repelling what they call an “invasion”.

No matter that most of these “invaders” are… being paid to mow Abbott’s donors’ lawns, run their manufacturing plants, and oil rigs… and handle restaurant operations — for the wealthiest one per cent of Texas (mostly GOP-ers)….

But in Hinderaker’s hateful telling, this is the Alamo all over again. [And it is likely to end just the way the Alamo did.]

Hinderaker blithely ignores that immigration and border security are exclusively seeded to the federal Executive branch (in our founding documents), not to the various states. This is so — not least of which — to avoid a series of unending chaotic / conflicting local vigilante actions.

Like this one. Abbott will be enjoined by the federal courts.

And all of this tempest in a Texas teapot… allows the Powerline boys to turn the page — and ignore Tangerine’s filing for 2024.

They are desperate — after the drubbings in the midterms — to push Trump down the memory hole.

And the Cumquat Pol-pot is NOT going to oblige.

I love it. Let him stay in — even past the GOP’s convention, and nomination of some other name… and form his own third party.

That is what I hope for (almost) most fervently.

Of course, this is the series of unfortunate events… John most fears. He well-knows if they don’t stop Trump now… no matter who the Democrats or Republicans nominate (assuming that’s not Trump)… the GOP candidate will lose. The Democratic Party candidate will coast to victory, no matter who it is — after Trump siphons off about a third of all otherwise GOP voters.

This is Ross Perot 2004, but in reverse.

I just hope Trump doesn’t fold too early.

And now, maybe… just maybe, I’d like to see an indictment held until about November 21, 2024 — if he ends up a third party candidate for 1600 Penn. as I surmise….

DELICIOUS.