The Current Sudan Variant Ebola Outbreak Has Apparently Crossed Into South Sudan: Five Cases, At Least…

This is quite. . . unfortunate (but not unexpected) news. Without a vaccine, and the travel habits of workers, especially migrant miners, the 2022 Ebola outbreak could become a regional, as opposed to “in Uganda only”… problem.

The Sabine Institute needs a green light to get underway with trial ring vaccines as soon as humanly possible. Which means the Ugandan authorities need to clear the study design, and let the workers start vaccinating contacts, and contacts of contacts — now over 400 of them. Here’s the latest, from South Sudan papers:

…The Ebola virus outbreak in Uganda may have spread into neighboring South Sudan, although authorities there are still working to confirm active cases.

Health Minister Yolanda Awel, meeting with President Salva Kiir on Monday, confirmed that suspected cases have been identified and isolated near the country’s border with Uganda, according to a government statement. Some media reports say one of the unconfirmed cases, that of a man in Kajokeji County, has already died.

Lab samples from five cases, all arising from the three Equatoria provinces, have been sent to South Africa for testing. “The health minister revealed that her ministry is well prepared and working hard to prevent the Ebola outbreak in South Sudan,” the statement said….

Now you know — a dangerous moment, indeed on that continent. Next up? Musk — from another property, of yesterday. Grin.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Thinks Musk Is Going Ahead With Twitter, To End “Woke-ism”. Precious.

We do know that as someone slips into dementia and senility… they tend to lose a grip on why people of the current age do certain things. They cannot longer discern what motivates modern life. And those who live it.

The senile (cough — like Hinderaker) choose instead, to put on rosy bifocal glasses, and re-imagine a time gone — gone, into the mists — by now over three fourths of a century.

So it is, tonight that John waxes… loony, on the whys and wherefores of Musk’s re-newed bid for Twitter.

Of course, we all know (as practicing public company M&A lawyers) that Musk’s counsel told him he will lose at trial at mid-month, and be ordered to spend the ~$44 billion he promised, in the beginning — no matter what (plus perhaps $60 million in opposing legal fees, from a bruising, document and witness intensive multi week trial).

So, we think… he is just going to swallow his medicine, without a spoonful of sugar.

But John thinks it is all about showing the libs they are… wrong, regardless of price.

How utterly… precious.

Silly, too. Get a grip, Hinderaker.

Out.

[U, X2] SUPREME NONSENSE, From Tangerine Lawyers: The Eleventh Circuit Has “No Jurisdiction” To Review An Inferior Court’s Order?! Seriously?!

UPDATED X2 [10.13.2022]— Just as we said, a one liner: “…Application (22A283) to vacate the stay entered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on September 21, 2022, presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied….” Yawn. Trump will be indicted now, for certain. End second update.

Earlier, on 10.04.2022, Justice Thomas put in the docket that he wants the government’s opposition papers on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 by 5 PM EDT. Those papers will not contain anything he doesn’t already know — this dispute is not remotely ripe for the Supremes’ review. Trump hasn’t yet even formally asserted any declassification defense (i.e., his sole means of seeking redress from a civil court), and yet, after he was caught red handed with top secret documents he lied and said he no longer had… he wants the Supremes to effectively end the indictment (criminal) process. So… yes, it will still be a bit…. end update.

Well… I suppose… nothing should surprise me any longer, from the army of dunces representing Tangerine… but this is… just jaw-slacking — in its bad faith ignorance / audacity.

Team Tangerine just asked Clarence Thomas (who hears emergency petitions out of the Eleventh Circuit) to have the Supremes decide that the orders of Judge Aileen Cannon, a USDC Trial Court Judge… may not lawfully be reviewed, by her own designated appellate panel, since it involves… a former guy / dotard. [I guess.]

This is hilarious: so, in Trump-world, no favorable ruling he ever gets may be reviewed by a higher court (except that he here asks the Supremes, for a… review!) — because he was a former guy.

His lawyers say that a stay of an injunction “impedes” the Special Master’s work, in the event that (certainly!) the Supremes do believe in regular federal appellate review of trial court plain as day errors of law.

He in no manner explains how the stay slows the Special Master down. No — in fact, he is seeking the opposite: a stop on all DoJ activity, while Clarence scratches his big old head over this.

I predict (in zero surprise!) his filing will be denied in an unsigned 6-3 order… within a few days… or a week.

Grinning — out.

1980s Trickle Down, In UK — RE-RE-pudiated. And Brexit Hangovers, Persist.

The idiots at Powerline, Steve chief among these… but Scott, and Johnnie too… seem lost in a land… a land — over forty years gone. Vanished into the mists of largely-mythical histories of the whyte conservative evangelists.

The “trickle down” that Thatcher and Reagan claimed would come… never did. And it left both the British and US economies in messy recessions, which here Bill Clinton was able to right. Over there, John Major did so.

But to hear these morons tell it, the sole reason for the two administrations… was to hand taxes BACK to the millionaires and billionaires, in both economies — for free.

Well, here in the modern economic world, Liz Truss has been handed her a$$, in under 30 days — on it all. And the boys seem befuddled, that no one was fooled, this time around.

Charming. But make no mistake, she will have to live with the hangover Boris self-inflicted / created in Britain, from the silly BREXIT junk. At least we’ve avoided that — though Tangerine did create this inflationary spiral (we are still dealing with), via his all-time record deficit spending, and stupid “printer go bbbrrrrr!” easy money policies — looser than any, by any president… ever. In history.

Out.

[U: PSA | Covid] ATLAS Telescope At Sutherland, South Africa: Dimorphos — In A Celestial Cloud Plume, From DART Strike…

While small, this gif at left may be the best full field of view movie of the event, I’ve yet run across.

Kudos — to the team inside the ‘scope shack, in Sutherland.

…“The ATLAS telescope system was well positioned to observe the impact from Earth, and we were fortunate to have excellent weather at the ATLAS telescope at Sutherland, South Africa,” said IfA Astronomer Larry Denneau, an ATLAS co-principal investigator.

“Our robotic operation and automatic data processing were able to produce measurements minutes after each observation, giving scientists immediate feedback about the observable effects of the impact….”

“The DART mission struck the little moon of Didymos named Dimorphos hard enough to reduce its orbital period from 12 hours by about 5 minutes. Therefore the eclipses we can observe from Earth will occur earlier and earlier, and after a week or two we will have a very good measurement of how much Dimorphos recoiled after being struck by DART,” said John Tonry, IfA professor and ATLAS principal investigator. “Given this new information, it will be possible to plan a mission to divert a dangerous asteroid: how early must it be struck, how massive must the spacecraft be, how fast must it be traveling….”

Now you know. [And, as a side-light/PSA: each of my grown sons were at separate celebrations in the last two weeks, and both — out on the West Coast have tested positive, despite being vaxxed and boosted. My daughter who also was at one of the celebrations… has remained negative (but she had caught it, and was pretty ill for a bit, in Columbia — just a year ago, so she has additional likely immunity to variants).

Both are showing only mild symptoms, as is pretty typical for strong athletes who avoid any and all even semi-toxic lifestyle choices. Crazy world.]

Mask up in crowded spaces, people — I still do, despite three Moderna and one Pfizer jabs, already. OTOH, I’ve never even had a flu, in 20 years — one or two runny noses — but never been sick a single day, in now almost 30 years. [So, I may be naturally immune.]

You just don’t know about the people within six feet of you, at any given moment. And no current vaccine can cover all possible variants and mutations. Damn.

नमस्ते

Trump’s “Defamation” Claims Against CNN: LOSERS, But The Onion’s Brief? PRICELESS!

I won’t even look beyond the first three pages, of Tangerine’s latest failing defamation suit, in South Florida. It is… utterly execrable. [I will note that, in order to avoid even mentioning Trump’s lunatic filing… Hinderaker re-invents US policies in farming communities… as the primary cause of world hunger. I know — crazy pants for certain, but there you have it. I’ll leave that for some other “slow news” night.]

Instead, I will quote at length from a real gem of a filing, from The Onion some years ago:

…The reasonable-reader test gauges whether a statement can reasonably be interpreted as stating actual facts, thereby ensuring that neither the least humorous nor the most credulous audience dictates the boundaries of protected speech. Milkovich v. Lorain J. Co., 497 U.S. 1, 20 (1990); Mink v. Knox, 613 F.3d 995, 1005 (10th Cir. 2010); Moldea v. New York Times Co., 22 F.3d 310, 314 (D.C. Cir. 1994); see also Golb v. Att’y Gen. of N.Y., 870 F.3d 89, 102 (2d Cir. 2017) (“[A] parody enjoys First Amendment protection notwithstanding that not everybody will get the joke.”)….

This Court has traditionally been hesitant to chill speech, and the prospect of chilling parody by imprisoning its practitioners provides equal cause for caution. “What may be difficult to communicate or understand when factually reported may be poignant and powerful if offered in satire.” Rogers v. Grimaldi, 695 F. Supp. 112, 123 (S.D.N.Y. 1988), aff ’d 875 F.2d 994 (2d Cir. 1989). “ ‘[T]he last thing we need, the last thing the First Amendment will tolerate, is a law that lets public figures keep people from mocking them.’ ”Cardtoons, L.C. v. Major League Baseball Players Ass’n, 95 F.3d 959, 972–73 (10th Cir. 1996) (quoting White v. Samsung Elecs. Am., Inc., 989 F.2d 1512, 1519 (9th Cir. 1993) (Kozinski, J., dissenting)).

The Onion intends to continue its socially valuable role bringing the disinfectant of sunlight into the halls of power. See Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 67 (1976) (quoting Louis D. Brandeis, Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It 62 (National Home Library Foundation ed. 1933)). And it would vastly prefer that sunlight not to be measured out to its writers in 15-minute increments in an exercise yard….

In sum, CNN cannot libel even Tangerine-hued garbage… simply by observing (accurately, I might add) that… it stinks.

Any Pretense That Tangerine Has Suffered Any Civil Injury May Now Be… Abandoned, Out Of Florida: He Seeks Even MORE Eleventh Circuit Delays…

Well… not that it will surprise anyone paying attention… but Team Tangerine just opposed a federal motion to have the Eleventh Circuit appeal expedited.

The reasoning? Each of his incompetent lawyers ostensibly needs more than 30 days to prepare for oral arguments. Thirty months or thirty years, the result is not changing: his purported civil claims are simply preposterous.

Well over a month ago, he claimed that the FBI’s seizure of some of his press clippings and clothes… and a framed picture or three… was a barn burning emergency — that he needed HIS personal documents back, immediately. Here after now three separate Trump delaying motions (in USDC “Crazy” Cannon’s trial level court, in Ft. Pierce, FL), and at least two appellate delaying filings have been docketed… color us… skeptical.

He is just desperate — wild-eyed — not to be indicted before November 7, 2022 comes and goes. Me? I don’t care much. His acolytes will mostly lose (Cough — H. Walker in GA). And he WILL be indicted. He will be on no one’s ballot by 2024.

Out.

नमस्ते

India’s Inaugural Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) Has Come To An End, After Eight Years, In The Cold Barsoomian Skies

The mission was, by any and all measures, a full success. [Though in fairness, the methane sensor never really worked, as it suffered from a lack of communications between the design and build teams — and had to be repurposed as a reflected sunlight sensor, off the surface of Mars — as a way to estimate ancient potential H2O content.]

Even so, as with all spacecraft, eventually the fuel runs out. And since she lost the ability to maneuver, she could not avoid a second eclipse event in a month… and that seven hours of utter darkness drained her batteries, completely. Here’s the story, from The Hindu.com:

…The ₹450 crore Mars Orbiter Mission was launched onboard PSLV-C25 on November 5, 2013, and the MOM spacecraft was successfully inserted into the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt. “Right now, there is no fuel left….

“[R]ecently there were back-to-back eclipses including one that lasted seven-and-half hours,” officials said on condition of anonymity, noting that all the propellant on board the ageing satellite had been consumed.

“As the satellite battery is designed to handle eclipse duration of only about one hour and 40 minutes, a longer eclipse would drain the battery beyond the safe limit,” another official said….

It had a great ride — but as with all things… the go-cart racing, and the elliptical, twisty style track, itself… has come to an end, around Barsoom, for India. Onward — smiling, just the same….

नमस्ते

And Tangerine STILL Hasn’t Returned All The Documents He Stole / Owes: NARA

Y A W N.

Trump is so bad at keeping track… of everything, and anything, really… it would not be surprising to learn that he doesn’t even remember where he stuffed everything he stole.

But make no mistake — he fully intended, and specifically intended — to steal top secret US government documents. While we cannot yet prove that the motive was to sell them, that would be entirely consistent with his life-long crime spree.

So, all of the SFGate‘s reporting is both maddening, and unsurprising. My advice? Don’t even bother with more search warrants — just bring the charges. [There are absolutely at least 101 specific top secret documents (and multiple hundreds turned over in June 2022, voluntarily), not subject to any judicial constraint now, given the 11th Circuit’s stay order — upon which he may be indicted. Just show these to the no-doubt sitting grand jury in DC, and get on with it.]

So, all of the SFGate‘s reporting is both maddening, and unsurprising. My advice? Don’t even bother with more search warrants — just bring the charges. [There are absolutely at least 101 specific top secret documents (and multiple hundreds turned over in June 2022, voluntarily), not subject to any judicial constraint now, given the 11th Circuit’s stay order — upon which he may be indicted. Just show these to the no-doubt sitting grand jury in DC, and get on with it.]

That he still is in possession of documents NARA knows to exist, but haven’t yet been returned to “we the people“… is simply insane. Insane, unless his sole motivating engine… is crime. Or more precisely, money from the crime of selling US property.

Damn. Just damn. But… it is time to take the beast, where he stands.

Issue that indictment, already. Let’s get to a multiple felonies trial… post haste.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Knows Thomas’s Isn’t A “Thought Crime”…

Tonight John wants people to “Leave Ginni Alone!” (ref. The Brittney Spears meme).

The idiot claims she’s being persecuted for her thoughts.

No John, she (allegedly) hired the busses that transported the domestic terrorists on January 6, 2021.

That’s aiding and abetting.

Not thought crime. Not at all.

If she proves up that Eastman advised her that the acts were lawful challenges to a disputed election, then the crime fraud exception means she must disclose his reasoning.

After which, Eastman (and Navarro) may too be indicted.

So… again, stop lying Hinderaker.