Category: Uncategorized

Apparently Paul M. Hasn’t Seen The Death Breakdowns, By Race… From Covid-19.

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In this piece of impotent, insipid rage — timed to fall next to King Day 2022, Mirengoff claims vax cards at restaurants and theaters in DC (and Chicago and LA) are unfair because fewer POC (proportionately) are vaccinated, than whites proportionately.

The willful ignorance here… is sad. He knows the truth: proportionately, in DC, and Chicago and LA more people of color and the elderly have died from the virus — than younger whites.

So, perhaps it is a rational use of public health/police power… to force the issue.

The weight of the available science says that’s the only way out of this pandemic.

Paul knows it — but he wants to complain about stuff he knows is… faux outrage. And it feeds his audience’s “faked white grievances” agenda.

Pretty pathetic.

To Be Fair, Merck’s Molnupiravir “Won” A “Fourth-Worst” Shkreli Award… 2021, Under Rob Davis

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From about 2007 to 2009, I was a Merck supporter at my main property (as it was largely a more honest counterpoint example, to what was then Schering-Plough). Then Merck chose a reverse merger / subterfuge acquisition of Schering (Schering was failing). The subterfuge transaction was an effort to avoid paying J&J billions, in terminating / competitor royalties — on some prior collaborations (the gambit failed).

And so, from about 2010 to mid-2013, I was pretty skeptical about CEO Clark’s motivations in running Merck. Over a period of about six subsequent years, Kenneth Frazier convinced me that while the company is fairly interested in making profits — it is also increasingly mindful of its role as a life saving medicine provider / steward / citizen of a global community, too.

So it is with considerable chagrin — that I must note here, under new 2021 CEO Rob Davis, the company has “won” a mention in the Lown Institute’s Annual Shkreli Awards. [Prior “winners” include Jared Kushner, and the Sackler family.]

Whether I agree with the assessment or not, is of no moment — I will report it, especially since I have been unsparingly critical of Shkreli himself. Here is the link, and the part pertaining to Merck:

…Drug manufacturer Merck’s pill molnupiravir was recently approved for emergency use to treat Covid-19 in the US, after it was shown to modestly reduce the risk of hospitalization or deaths in people with mild Covid-19. What’s the catch? Merck charged the US government $712 for a five-day course of the drug, although it costs only $18 to produce and was created using millions in government funding, according to The Intercept. Emory University originally developed this drug as a possible treatment for a mosquito-borne virus, aided by nearly $30 million in government grants.

Merck has granted a royalty-free license for molnupiravir for use in low- and middle-income countries, but the company still stands to make $5-7 billion from the drug. . . .

Now you know — and I do think the estimate of what the company will make on molnupiravir is… considerably too low. With Covid-19 variants still to be with us for perhaps two more years… I’d double the estimate: $10 to $12 billion, all in. Onward.

नमस्ते

Tangent: Virgil Griffith Update, From MDC And Covid-19 Bout Isolation…

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You may recall that Virgil Griffith decided to admit guilt on felony charges, on the morning of his trial in Manhattan, for (as the indictment averred) transferring very sensitive “sanctions-evading” tech to the brutal dictatorship running “socialist” North Korea, at a crypto- conference there after being warned by the US State Department officers… not to go, and not to give any talk on such tech.

Since July 2021, then — he’s been held in the MDC in Brooklyn, awaiting sentencing.

This is not patty-cake, at some (largely mythical) club fed. He is subsisting under very significant hardship, now (dangerous, to boot — so the irony of it all, is that he is now first hand experiencing at least a fraction of what his talk on evading sanctions could well-inflict, on real vulnerable humans still trapped inside North Korea). At least a glimpse.

He has trouble reaching his counsel, and has had at least one bout of COVID. You may read more below, but his sentencing hearing is now pushed out to mid-April 2022. He will have served over nine months, in very harsh conditions, by the time he attends his sentencing hearing.

Here is the three page letter, in full — and a bit:

…We make this request because since mid-December we have been unable to visit with our client at the MDC due to COVID-19, despite repeated efforts to confer with him, and we are uncertain when that will change so that we can work with him to prepare for his sentencing.

Before Christmas, Mr. Griffith contracted COVID-19 and was subsequently held in isolation for approximately 10 days. Counsel was unable to have any contact with him during that time; we were not allowed to visit or schedule video or telephone calls. Despite Mr. Griffith having since being released from isolation, there have not been any in-person attorney visits permitted at the MDC due to the COVID-19 outbreak at the facility. In addition, we have repeatedly tried to schedule calls with him despite the facility not permitting call or videoconferences without explanation. It was not until this Tuesday, January 12, 2022, that we were able to have a telephone call with him. The prosecutors helped us secure this call, for which we are greatly appreciative.

It is worth noting that the MDC’s lockdown has also resulted in significantly reduced food rations, extremely limited opportunities to shower, lack of any time outside, and delayed access to necessary prescription medications for Mr. Griffith, imposing significant hardships on him….

Now you know — so think twice you boy-geniuses of the crypto- world, before deciding the laws are only for the little people.

G’night. It is not terribly hard to imagine that young Griffith thought that if Trump was over there, glad handing — and he was, just months earlier — why oh why should it matter if silly, tossel-headed Virgil told some tales out of school to wow the same North Koreans Trump was shaking hands with, in the DMZ.

But as they always say… following an ignorant, malevolent “leader” — is no defense to crimes against one’s own home nation.

Out.

It Seems Many Large Employers Are Keeping Their Own Vaccine Requirements…

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I think GE is the only one I’ve seen so far to decide it will repeal the requirement (earlier adopted) that all employees get vaccinated.

This makes a corollary point to one I made earlier, several times. At least a goodly portion of what the OSHA rule was designed to do was protect businesses with over 100 employees from some spurious suits from less than genuine religious objectors, and from people who claim it is in some manner a dog whistle for (ill-defined) purported invidious discrimination. Or sumthin’. I dunno.

It wasn’t — and isn’t. And it may well turn out that most of the Fortune 500 KEEP vaccines as a mandate, for employment. As a solidly science-based means to keep all their workers and their families… safer.

In that regard as well, the Biden OSHA measure is a success. Nothing in any part of the Supremes’ decision prevents employers from adopting policies voluntarily. And that may well render the Chief Justice mostly… irrelevant on this score.

Karma. But you read it here first: big companies have likely correctly realized that the risks of harm, from employees being unvaccinated (public health, mortality, lost time due to sickness and litigation about it) exceeds the risk of… a vax mandate inside the company.

Onward, smiling…. to the Sixth Circuit. G’night — busy news day — and snowy weather day, ahead tomorrow here.

नमस्ते

Update: Sirhan Will Not Leave Prison, Afterall…

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Overnight, in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom exercised some of his office’s power, and denied Bobby Kennedy’s assassin any release from prison (my prior backgrounder).

To be sure, it has now been 53-1/2 years. Is this a wise and just use of executive power? I am uncertain:

…California’s Governor Newsom has countermanded the decision to release Mr. Sirhan.

In an editorial, the Governor referred to the fact that the crime was broadcast on live television, during a dark season of political assassinations: five years earlier, his brother — a sitting President, and only months after Dr. King’s assassination.

I am not sure we would ever see a repeat of that — since security is so much tighter now.

So, I am not sure that is a very-persuasive factor for denying his release. It is true the majority of Bobby’s remaining linear family (and his widow) oppose release and that should count for something….

Onward, into a cold gray dawn… with a noticeable spike in German / Alibaba related IP traffic at the main site, which this mirrors — in the last 36 hours. Odd, that is.

नमस्ते

First Major Sedition/Terrorism Indictment Handed Down In 01.06.2021 Cases… More To Come.

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As ever, EmptyWheel is the go-to source on all of this. [Prior installments, from her linked there.]

The MSM news cycle on the Supremes sending the OSHA cases back to the Sixth Circuit is largely drowning out coverage of this development. It is not at all unexpected (for the self-professed leaders of the Oath Keepers), but it should be noted that these charges, if proved at trial, easily stack to nearly 80 years in jail for the ring leaders. Perhaps more important than the absolute number of years (i.e., sentence length), is the clear notion that if these leaders are found guilty, the trail of documents, texts, emails, cell calls on burner phones, and WhatsApp pings lead right to Roger Stone, and Rudy Guiliani — and thus almost certainly… to Tangerine himself (as he was in near constant contact with them).

And these charges would only need show Tangerine permitted it (and did not immediately and directly forbid it), for him personally to be part of the very same sedition / conspiracy — since he was then still the chief US law enforcement officer. See, 18 USC §1512(k); 18 USC §372; and 18 USC §371 among others — as relevant to Tangerine’s office, vis a vis his at least three hour delay in clearly and publicly calling on the Oath Keepers to stand down.

…If two or more persons in any State, Territory, Possession, or District conspire to prevent (Mr. Biden’s being certified as the winner of the 2020 election), by force, intimidation, or threat, any person from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the United States, or from discharging any duties thereof (including Mr. Pence’s certifying the state by state results — a ministerial act, required by statute), or to induce by like means any officer of the United States to leave the place, where his duties as an officer are required to be performed, or to injure him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or to injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, hinder, or impede him in the discharge of his official duties, each of such persons shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six years, or both….

As EmptyWheel points out, correctly — these charges could easily stack to… (drum roll!) over 80 years (effectively life without parole) — for each conspirator. Including, one day, Baby-T. Out.

नमस्ते

General Vaccine Standard’s Stay Is Back; But No Decision On Merits; Health Care Vaccine Workers’ Requirements Continue: Supremes

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UPDATED @ 6:40 PM EST — As I think about this nutty “half-baked” decision some more… I am fairly gobsmacked. The majority would tell us that because this precise calamity hasn’t been addressed before, DESPITE the very broad language from our elected Congress, we need to ask again… whether the Congress meant what it said, forty years ago.

That’s just about the exact opposite of what the supposed “conservative” Justices (now numbering five for certain) have consistently argued for 50 years: they invariably say we must give full effect to Congress’s exact words, and not add (or take away) anything. Orignalism, they call it. That seems to just be sophistry now.

The last time there was a pandemic of this order (1918)… there was no OSHA. There was no vaccine. But everyone wore masks, and if a vaccine had existed, everyone would have taken it — just as with polio, thirty-five years later. To argue that a reason to prevent this vaccine standard, despite direct authorization in very broad language from Congress, in CREATING OSHA as an agency… requires a legislative double-check, is silly. Precisely because pandemics seem to come only once a century, or so (or because we know that one cannot “undo” a vaccine)… the agency needs the ability to address emergencies, broadly construed. Any other reading of the statute is so illogical and unscientific… as to be unbecoming the purportedly learned jurists on the highest court. Realistically, Mr. Biden may have to rework parts of his standard, but some version is doubtlessly constitutional, and expressly authorized by dozens of statutes. End, update.

Well, that’s fairly surprising.

Chief Justice Roberts finds a limit nowhere articulated in the OSHA’s authorizing statutes. And he declines to call it a “major question”. Back to the Sixth now, on the merits. More but Here it is tonight:

…That is not to say OSHA lacks authority to regulate occupation-specific risks related to COVID–19. Where the virus poses a special danger because of the particular features of an employee’s job or workplace, targeted regulations are plainly permissible. We do not doubt, for example, that OSHA could regulate researchers who work with the COVID–19 virus. So too could OSHA regulate risks associated with working in particularly crowded or cramped environments….

Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly. Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category….

More later; I firmly disagree with that last bit. Mr. Biden was elected. Elections have consequences. Full stop. Not Roberts — and when not pressed for time, the Supremes should say so, as well. Falling silent — the dissent is correct — but I’m stuck on billable matters.

Out.

नमस्ते

In Which The NY ACLU Files A Killer Brief — Slamming NY State Judge Wood, For Trying To Restrain / Censor NY Newspapers.

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This just filed ACLU amicus brief is extremely well-argued. This reasoning will win the day, on appeal. New York state courts, at the appellate level, are very good.

You see, here in America, to protect us from what was 250 years ago (for over 700 years worth of oppression), governmental prior restraints on writing, scholarly thought, and the dissemination of ideas, among other ways — in the press — in most of what was then Western Europe… we adopted a First Amendment.

The amendment embodies, in just a handful of words, a bedrock of — and touchstone to — our shared notions of ordered liberty. The founders used just a few words, because they intended to covey that there should be essentially no prior restraints on a free press. [It intones “shall make no law. . .” and it means what it says, Judge Wood.]

So, we might be unable to overstate the importance of this moment. [It is, in passing, quite highly peculiar that Hinderaker regularly yammers on about big tech “censoring” him (it is not), but will never agree that a NY State judge cannot issue prior restraints (where the restrain benefits a far right nut job, he favors).]

…As an initial matter, the lower court erred in allowing its own views about what constitutes a matter of public concern to dictate the Times’ reporting. The Court of Appeals has long recognized that determining what constitutes a legitimate matter of public concern is primarily a job for editors. Judicial interference with the editorial judgment of newspapers abridges not only freedom of the press, but the right of the public to receive information and ideas. Although courts must occasionally review the press’s exercise of editorial judgment, that review is exceedingly deferential. It does not properly extend to the imposition of prior restraints on the press, which are particularly disfavored because they give courts unilateral authority to freeze public debate before appellate review has been exhausted. This grave judicial power should not be predicated on the public concern test’s open-ended legal standard, which gives too much room to individual judges’ subjective beliefs and biases. Both the New York State Constitution and the United States Constitution provide that the press and the public are the proper arbiters of whether and to what extent information is worthy of their concern, not the courts….

The lower court’s misapplication of the public concern test demonstrates the danger of allowing courts to enjoin reporting on the basis of their own determinations about newsworthiness. Contrary to the court’s conclusion that attorney–client communications are categorically matters of private concern, the public may have an interest in reporting about documents and communications that are subject to attorney–client privilege. For example, the public undoubtedly had a strong interest in the Panama Papers leak, which involved the disclosure to the press of millions of attorney–client documents describing shady business dealings by prominent public figures and officials. The First Amendment fully protects the right to report on such documents, so long as they were lawfully obtained by the press outside the discovery process. [Ed. Note: The NYT avers that these were.] Any other conclusion would radically undermine the New York and United States Constitutions’ guarantees of press freedom and the public’s right to receive information.

Accordingly, this Court should vacate the lower court’s Decision and Order imposing a prior restraint against the Times’ reporting….

Indeed — and so — now you know. Veritas will be on the hook for millions, to the NYT.

Onward, grinning….

Gratis — A Sample “All Employee Memo” Template — For Compliance With The OSHA January 10, 2022 Deadline

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By this morning, all US employers with more than 100 employees should have evidence to show that they are making good faith, reasonable efforts to meet the new OSHA workplace rules on COVID-19 risk abatement.

The best way to show that good faith, reasonable effort (short of already having completed a confidential verification of all employees’ vaccination cards) is to have at least formally notified all employees of the new requirements, as we mentioned last night. So — here is a version I used with a Chicago-based client over a month ago, as updated for the latest Supreme Court rulings:

Date: January 10, 2022

To: All Employees

From: HR Team Leadership

RE: OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard on COVID-19 Vaccination

On Nov. 4, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) requiring all private employers with 100 or more workers to ensure all employees are either fully vaccinated for COVID-19, or provide a weekly negative test and wear a face covering while working.

The United States Supreme Court has (as of early January) dissolved any stay of this requirement.

In order to comply with this new OSHA requirement, [Company Name] is issuing an updated COVID-19 vaccination policy effective January 10, 2022. The highlighted changes to our current policy include:

[Include any updates to the current COVID-19 vaccination policy such as:

▲ A requirement that all team members become fully vaccinated by a certain date — but in any event before February 10, 2022 (when enforcement orders may begin issuing from ASHA).

▲ The availability of paid time off for vaccination-related absences. The OSHA standard requires this.

▲ An option for weekly testing in lieu of vaccination (optional).

▲ Consequences of failing to comply with the employer’s policy (up to and including termination, after a ten day grace period, to get vaccinated).]

These changes are necessary to comply with OSHA’s ETS and will help to safeguard the health of our team members and their families, our customers and visitors, and the community at large from COVID-19. Implementing these measures are designed to help us to provide a safe workplace and potentially avoid circumstances that could jeopardize our business operations. [Consider including information about current employee vaccination rates, if helpful.] We view the vaccines and boosters as a way to express our shared values — of taking good care of one another, and the extended families, of ALL our team members.

Team members are required to provide documentation of vaccination status as described in the attached policy. Please review the attached policy and contact [name and contact information] with any questions. Information on penalties for false statements and records is provided by OSHA and attached to this memo.

While we understand that not all team members may agree with these new policy requirements, [Company Name] has an obligation to comply with OSHA standards or face stiff penalties for noncompliance. It is important to note that OSHA’s ETS will apply to all employers with 100 or more employees, and you will find that other employers will be implementing similar policies. Team members who do not comply with [Company Name]’s updated vaccination policy will be subject to termination and generally will not be eligible for unemployment insurance.

Team members needing an accommodation for religious or medical reasons should complete a request for accommodation form, which can be found at [location] and submit the form to [name and contact information] no later than [date].

The Occupational Safety and Health Act prohibits retaliation against you for exercising your rights guaranteed under the Act, including filing an occupational safety or health complaint, reporting a work-related injury or illness, or otherwise exercising any rights afforded by the OSH Act….

Now you know — with a hat tip for the orignal version (which I’ve marked up, above) to the non-profit Society for Human Resource Management.

नमस्ते

Unless The Supremes Step In Tonight, Or In The Morning — All Employers With More Than 100 Employees Must Inform Employees TOMORROW…

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…nation-wide, employers must inform employees starting tomorrow as to which policy the employer intends to adopt, to comply with OSHA’s new standards, in workplaces.

Many employers have already put out “company wide” emails and memos, electing one or the other. But tomorrow promises to be hectic, as the government has said starting tomorrow, it will begin to enforce the rules. It may call and ask, as to which option has been chosen, by a given employer, nationwide — and ask for evidence that the company has reasonably informed employees about how to comply, with specificity.

In the case of companies choosing the first option — univcersal vaccination, it would be presumptively good enough, to have each employee produce an orginal vaccine card, not a copy — and let the empoyer place a copy in the employee’s private health benefits file (on paper or electronically). For those choosing option two, it seems proof of testing may require the tests be done on site (or at least under employer-contracted supervision, so as to truthfully be able to report to OSHA by February, if asked).

…The Standard generally requires employers with 100 or more employees to implement a written policy that requires either (1) all employees to be vaccinated against COVID19 or (2) employees who are not fully vaccinated to wear masks and supply proof of a negative COVID-19 test at least once every seven days when working with others in indoor settings, with appropriate exceptions (such as for employees entitled under federal law to religious accommodations) under both options….

I would expect that most will choose the vaccination route, as it will minimize the personal injury /unsafe workplace suits, from employees who claim that co-workers gave them COVID, and OSHA had given the employer “cover” — for demanding vaccinations. If the employer did not do so, that might amount to… negligence.

Me? I am happy to be more in a quandary… about the temperature of the Olympic-sized pool water tomorrow (70 plus degrees by noon here), than whether any client of mine will find themselves neck deep in hot OSHA-waters.

[I am (still) “haunted by waters“, though — nonetheless.] Be excellent to your fellow workers — get vaccinated, and volunteer to let your employer / HR team lead know… about your status.

नमस्ते