Category: Uncategorized

In Which Steve Hayward… “Proves”… Erh… A Lil’ “Too Much”

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This is precious. Steve Hayward — ever “a bulb that doesn’t burn so brightly…” imagines that he’s shown us the problems with US progressive politics (which, in this particular instance, he has defined as Covid-19 abatement / public health measures supported by a large majority of the US population — in 2020 to 2021). [BTW, wasn’t Tangerine president, then? Never mind — just go with it.]

But his chart only shows that even in his best year and a half, Tangerine was roundly eclipsed by Bush 43 / Cheney — back then, in the middle of a global financial meltdown of 2007-08…

Charmingly, the graph purports to measure economic freedom — or how free, from government intrusion, and thus how ‘profit maximizing‘ US citizens were… during a given year.

Let that sink in — those GOP capitalists were far better off at the end of Bush / Cheney — than through almost any moment of Trump.

And, as long as we are debunking Hayward’s nonsense — since the bottom of the scale is clipped off, at a 6.5 (thus distorting the up/down effect appearance)… it is equally clear that there was (even in these stilted self-definitions) only a tiny fraction less of it under all of Mr. Obama’s two terms.

0.12 less (that was Mr. Obama’s score) than a score of 7.0, Tangerine’s all time high….

Yep — and that is only about a one and one half percent difference.

So… as I say, Mr. Obama spent more (~3 years or so) of his eight years at a higher score than Tangerine’s (at only about 14 months above BHO)… and even then, Tangerine was “ahead” by about one percent only, during that very short honeymoon period.

And remember — this is on the hard-right’s own cherry-picked data sets.

HILARIOUS, Steve… Call your therapist… or get some more Ketamine main-lined.

Ebola: J&J Apparently Has A Two Dose Candidate… But That’s Sub-Optimal, And Not FDA Approved Yet.

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The truly disturbing wrinkle here is that it is unlikely the “Zaire” version of the vaccine, developed by NewLink/Merck, will be very effective against this Sudan mutation, in the Ebola virus.

It is encouraging that JNJ has a candidate, but the fact that it is a two dose regimen… makes compliance / logistics a difficult problem, since so many of the “contacts of contacts” are transitory — workers who commute long distances (to the mines, for example)… and may live for long periods of time, away from where the outbreak was (and the vaccine stock is administered).

So — while there is cause for hope, given how far up the curve we are on a Sudan version of an mRNA based vaccine for Uganda… this remains a fraught situation. Here’s the latest from IDSA, quoting WHO, with now 23 confirmed deaths in Mubende District:

…As of 25 September 2022, a cumulative number of 18 confirmed and 18 probable cases have been reported from Mubende, Kyegegwa and Kassanda districts, including 23 deaths, of which five were among confirmed cases (CFR among confirmed cases 28%). This is the first Ebola disease outbreak caused by Sudan virus (SUDV) in Uganda since 2012….

It should be anticipated that there will be more cases and deaths reported in the coming days, including beyond the initial outbreak area in Mubende District. If cases are found in the capital city of Kampala, not far from the international airport in Entebbe, then there is risk of international spread beyond the six regional nations that the World Health Organization specified in an initial focus on in its press conference last week….

This may yet require a highly-focused push, among Merck and JNJ as partners, to design and test a new interior, for the old “container” — employed in the Zaire (highly effective) vaccine stock, used in DRC, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. We shall see.

But keeping a good thought for the at-risk miners (and all the other workers, who travel) around Mubende District and beyond… is where my head is at, this morning.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Says The Left “Wants To Kill” All On The Right, Globally… Uh-Huh.

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Tonight, John has to go about 2,000 miles, across an ocean — to make a stupidly deceptive claim… a claim that all on the left wish to murder… those on the right.

The offender? A British video game in which killing the late and former PM Thatcher is one level of the game.

That, he says, evinces a planet-wide and lawless, murderous proclivity. Of all leftists. [His words.]

But about not even two years ago, when one Kyle Rittenhouse — living not even 250 miles from John’s home (i.e., not an ocean away!), a guy he’d praised for being an AR-15-toting juvenile… who killed unarmed people at a street protest… released his original version online game, in which the hero is Kyle, with his AR-15, and he is to kill off as many antifa and hammer and scythe flag toting “communists” as he can…

Hinderaker didn’t even… peep.

And, more recently — when a Truth Social/Trump acolyte opened fire on the FBI’s HQ in Ohio, a few months ago this summer, and ultimately suicided himself by cop, Hinderaker said… nothing.

And, perhaps most tellingly, when 01.06.21 rioters led inexorably to the self-defense by cop death of Ashley Babbitt (ex-USAF), he tried to blame that on leftists, as well. Damn.

Who, again is the more lethally-violent and virulent?

Do tell.

You tool.

[SECOND UPDATE:] The Situation In Uganda: Growing Significantly Worse, By the Day… Second Ebola Update Of The Day.

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UPDATED: 09.27.2022 @ 9 AM EDT — I am embarrassed to admit that I did not appreciate that this outbreak is being identified as primarily driven by a variant of the “Sudan” Ebola virus, per CIDRAP’s reporting. As such, the existing, approved “Zaire” Ebola vaccine stock is thought not to be effective in arresting the spread. A new vaccine must be created, using the killed Sudan version virus’s interior, packaged in a benign casing — just the way the Zaire vaccine was created. But that effort will take months. This is a very serious situation… and fatalities are rising by the day, near the gold mines to the west. End updated portion.

This BBC report is an exclusive, and is being disputed by local Ugandan political leaders. But the outlet stands by its reporting.

This is, in substantial part, why the WHO exists: it must enter and take lead here. Both bringing needed safety kits to all workers, and enforcing safe practices. . . even if the MDs on the ground are chafing under them. Otherwise, this is likely going to be a “back to 2014-era” outbreak (with cases measured in double digit thousands, not single digits of tens):

…”Most times you come into contact with a patient and you use your bare hands,” one worker told the BBC anonymously.

All trainees at Mubende’s regional hospital say they are on strike and are demanding to be moved somewhere safer.

But Ugandan health ministry spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona told the BBC there was “no strike at the hospital”.

Yet all 34 of the hospital’s interns – including doctors, pharmacists and nurses – have announced their decision to strike in a joint statement.

They say they are being put at undue risk because they lack appropriate safety kits, risk allowances and health insurance.

Six interns at the hospital have already been exposed to the virus, and are awaiting their test results in isolation….

This must only be called what it is: alarming. The WHO needs to assert itself forcefully in Mubende District. Workers must be protected. Full stop.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker — A Whyte Old Fart, Who Is Afraid Of City Living…

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Tonight (without living in or near one) Hinderaker tells us how “unlivable” most larger cities are. But he openly excludes from that broad falsehood… all cities run by GOP mayors (or under the thumbs of GOP governors).

So… we do know he has no idea what he is talking about. That’s a given.

But it is precious that in the ruby red run city of Little Rock, Arkansas, where an old whyte COO of a public company brawls, in college football parking lots, ultimately… biting the nose off of an innocent driver, without provocation… John is just fine with THAT.

Why? Because he can see HIMSELF in the geezer, at right.

Damn. Just… damn.

Hitting A Fired Bullet, With Another Fired Bullet, 7 Million Miles Off, Moving At 14,000 MPH! Only 17 Meters Off Dead Center.

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And we watched it all, in near real time — at under 40 seconds after it transpired, out there in the blackness — just allowing for speed of light transmission, and three more seconds to render the images, each.

Here it is — a complete success. That is actual DART onboard cam footage, below, BTW. We will have to wait a day or two to see how much it perturbed the orbit of Dimorphos (via ground based and space based telescopes), though:

This is an amazing evening, for humanity: the first time any human made object has moved the orbit of a celestial body of size. Whoosh — grinning.

नमस्ते

Something Called “Red-pilled News” Offers Hilariously Ignorant Comics…

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I’ve seen this nonsense… rattling around for a week or so, on Truth Social and lately, on Gab[dot]com.

I’m pretty sure Steve Hayward at Whopperline has run it once or twice too.

All these people are deeply uneducated — except the Power/Whopper-line boys.

They clearly know better. Yet they persist.

So — we will do no more than answer by return graphics.

Now you know. “A well regulated…” is the very first clause. It is a limit, on all that follows. That is simple sentence construction — a skill all the founders were well-versed in applying. They meant what they wrote — verbatim, in a sentence to be read as a whole — not one trailing clause, to control all that came before it. [Ask yourself: if the reverse were true, why write that first clause at all?]

Scalia made up a fake doctrine, in Heller. Made it up, from whole cloth.

So… shut it, boyz.

Discouraging Central Ugandan News: Seven Contacts Of Contacts Fleeing Health Interviews As Ebola Cases Double.

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The fear of a “knock on the door“, from a public health worker… is not without a semi-rational (if historical) basis in Africa. Decades ago now, there were highly-unethical experiments on people of limited means, with new Western drug candidates, and even some “purges” under the guise of public health, by a few dictatorial regimes.

But those days have passed, and this developing Ebola outbreak is now in two provinces in central Uganda… and could become much worse, if substantial numbers of the known contacts refuse or evade vaccinations.

We will hold out a positive thought — that common sense overtakes superstition soon among the people at high risk. Otherwise, we will see much more dying than in any of the recent DRC flare-ups (each of which ended with under ten deaths total). We are at double that, now in Mubende, Ugana (though I do suspect there was some intentional delay in reporting the first five cases, again out of fear — by local authorities). So it may not be the rapid spread a four day doubling might imply — that may just be a delayed first reporting. Here’s the latest, from Bloomberg:

…An outbreak of Ebola in Uganda spread to two new districts as the death toll doubled from Friday.

Two new districts reported cases of the Ebola-Sudan strain of the viral hemorrhagic illness after it was first detected in the central Mubende district on Sept. 20. At least 34 people have contracted the disease and 21 have died, the Kampala-based Ministry of Health said on Twitter late Sunday….

Daunting news, to be sure — but we will await the night skies, and first images and video of a Coliseum sized collision in deep space. Smile.

नमस्ते

Could All Be Rather… Spectacular: DART’s Dimorphos Impact, Tomorrow Night.

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The last time we saw similarly dramtic footage was when we saw OSIRIS-REx do a “pogo-stick” — and lift about a cubic ton of material, off of another asteriod (called Bennu) about fifteen months ago….

This also promises to generate some very interesting footage — and the fine people across the pond, at the European Space Agency, have provided the base graphic at right for a sense of scale.

…The 160 meter diameter Dimorphos asteroid compared to Rome’s Colosseum….

NASA’s DART spacecraft will collide with the Dimorphos moonlet, in orbit around the larger 780 meter diameter Didymos asteroid, in a bid to change its orbit. In 2026, ESA’s Hera spacecraft will arrive at the Didymos system to perform a close-up survey of the deflected asteroid….

Do stay tuned, later on Monday night! Grin… with a CGI imagined version below, now:

नमस्ते

I Don’t Care That Hinderaker Traffics In Rumors That Have Been Debunked… About China.

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

No — that’s his right, in a free America. [See his earlier misuse of our freedoms of expression — as to China “takeovers” in the archive image at right.]

And to be sure, I have no fond feelings for Xi — his Muslim extermination / re-education / concentration camps, his ruling elite party oligarchs getting luxury medical tourism visas to Macau, while many millions of Chinese children struggle with hunger in the interior…

But I do think when a rumor of a coup is debunked by our own intelligence community… John ought to at least run a correction.

[In fact, it is far more likely that he is in quarantine, either with a positive test in his inner circle, or COVID symptoms himself… that will be confirmed, when he re-emerges on or after September 28, given he was last seen in public on September 14.] Sheesh.

But Hinderaker won’t ever correct his… errors.

As I say… I don’t really care — but he is deeply personally irresponsible, with his readers.

Out.