Category: Uncategorized

Elon Musk Has “Moderate” COVID-19; Erykah Badu Was Positive In One Nostril, But Not The Other…

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

For his part, Mr. Musk also first received conflicting results (and made some rather inane, and immature comments about it all). Here is the story on Ms. Badu. It points up the need for a gold-standard so-called polymerase chain reaction test being conducted, if the symptoms are mild / non-existent, before taking the more drastic, and side-effect laden, therapies. So we mention these two cases — as object lessons.

I will also note that the occupant of 1600 Penn has tweeted that Mr. Biden won the election. Progress of a sort, but the tweet goes on to rant about a “rigged” election process.

Whatever, moron. Here’s the headline story, from the Beeb:

…Mr. Musk, who has 40 million followers on Twitter, said about his symptoms that he was “a little up & down. Feels just like a regular cold, but more body achy & cloudy head than coughing/sneezing”.

On Friday, he had questioned the veracity of rapid antigen testing, tweeting: “Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse.”

He said he was awaiting the results of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, which are regarded as the gold standard by epidemiologists and the one used most around the world….

It is time to smile more… and fret… less (ref. Hamilton), methinks. Onward, grinning….

नमस्ते

John Blames Groups, For Individuals’ Actions — But Only When The Groups Are NOT Far Right.

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In formal logic, it is called the fallacy of composition.

What is true of one, or a few — is not likely true of most, or all — in the matters of… human variety. In assessing… groups of people.

But tonight that is just what Hinderaker does — blame all, for the act of one.

I don’t blame all Republicans for Trump’s violence. I blame him.

Simple. See? Simple (are thee), oh Johnny.

Does John Dispute 60 Years Of Mandatory Federal Seatbelts?

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Tonight we are “treated” to Hinderaker’s unhinged opinion that mask mandates are beyond the reach of the federal health emergency regulations, due to “erh… constitution” — with no citations to cases or sections. All while record numbers fall dead in his “freedom loving” territories — filled with… bears of very little brains called… Dakotans.

John ignores a century of federal orders (all upheld by the courts, uniformly) to quarantine various people with particularly communicable diseases, the federal emergency powers (no looting/curfews, lock-downs and evacuations) we see in natural disaster relief efforts — and perhaps most tellingly, but most benignly… our seat-belt laws. But let us focus on public health policies, directly.

All Mr. Biden need do, on his first day in office, is label COVID-19 a national disaster, and a health emergency. Then as Commander in Chief, under dozens of already passed statutes, he may impose temporary orders — including a vaccine mandate, when one becomes available. But to start with, he may fine people who enter public spaces without a mask.

They are impeding interstate commerce and he has nearly plenary power to make safe the public spaces for continued commerce.

John just has forgotten what little law he once knew. He always was just a smile and a haircut. Please John — read on:

Just last term (May 2020, in a case out of California), the Chief Justice offered us this, in his concurring opinion, and consistent with judicial modesty, he leaves such questions not to courts, but to officials accountable to the people from time to time at the ballot box, thus:

“…The precise question of when restrictions on particular social activities should be lifted during the pandemic is a dynamic and fact-intensive matter subject to reasonable disagreement. Our Constitution principally entrusts “[t]he safety and the health of the people” to the politically accountable officials of the States “to guard and protect.” Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U. S. 11, 38 (1905). When those officials “undertake[ ] to act in areas fraught with medical and scientific uncertainties,” their latitude “must be especially broad.” Marshall v. United States, 414 U. S. 417, 427 (1974). Where those broad limits are not exceeded, they should not be subject to second-guessing by an “unelected federal judiciary,” which lacks the background, competence, and expertise to assess public health and is not accountable to the people. See Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469 U. S. 528, 545 (1985)….”

It would seem no leap at all to say if the government can keep churches from gathering in excessive concentrations (in the above case), then mandating the largely non-intrusive, simple act of wearing a mask is well inside the “especially broad” right to exercise of powers above.

See also, existing (since 2003 under Bush 43, post 9/11) Executive Order No. 13674, §1, July 31, 2014, 79 F.R. 45671:

“…By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 361(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 264(b)), it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Based upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the “Secretary”), in consultation with the Surgeon General, and for the purpose of specifying certain communicable diseases for regulations providing for the apprehension, detention, or conditional release of individuals to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of suspected communicable diseases, the following communicable diseases are hereby specified pursuant to section 361(b) of the Public Health Service Act:

(a) Cholera; Diphtheria; infectious Tuberculosis; Plague; Smallpox; Yellow Fever; and Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers (Lassa, Marburg, Ebola, Crimean-Congo, South American, and others not yet isolated or named).

(b) Severe acute respiratory syndromes, which are diseases that are associated with fever and signs and symptoms of pneumonia or other respiratory illness, are capable of being transmitted from person to person, and that either are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic, or, upon infection, are highly likely to cause mortality or serious morbidity if not properly controlled. This subsection does not apply to influenza.

(c) Influenza caused by novel or reemergent influenza viruses that are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic.

Sec. 2. The Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, shall determine whether a particular condition constitutes a communicable disease of the type specified in section 1 of this order.

Sec. 3. The functions of the President under sections 362 and 364(a) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 265 and 267(a)) are assigned to the Secretary.

Sec. 4. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit enforceable at law or equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, entities, officers, employees or agents, or any other person.

Sec. 5. Executive Order 12452 of December 22, 1983, is hereby revoked….”

Sit down Hinderaker — your bacon is… burnt.

Hinderaker’s Silly Lamentations Dept.: Big Fat Lying [Likely Non-Paying] Client Dropped By White Shoe Firm.

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This has exactly zero to do with fear (or very near to it) — unless we include the fear of suborning perjury, in a court of law, costing the involved lawyers their licenses, of course.

The replacement will apparently be Rudy G. — a man already likely to lose his in a year or so, due to his antics for Trump — so, that all makes a certain sort of Trumpian sense, in a way. What more has he to lose? Certainly not his untucked shirt tails….

Hinderaker would have us believe that the president is being persecuted, by powerful law firms that will no longer represent the likely Welsher. [Old school Baker & Daniels used to call that a non-compliant client. We dumped ’em — and John in particular was ruthless about it.] It is just solid business sense, not to take on known liars — especially ones that don’t pay bills.

So, my view is… his bad faith claims (devoid of any actual hard evidence) are likely to lead… ultimately to prosecutions (think Mitchell and co., in Watergate)… for any lawyer who abuses the process — should these numb-skulls [cough! Rudy G.] persist.

But long before then, Trump is going down for tax fraud in New York state court (no Pence pardon possible, there — state charges!).

See ya’ in the funny papers, Johnny.

Belated Good News: Merck Wins Accelerated Approval In Certain Triple Negative Breast Cancers

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The Keytruda® juggernaut marches onward, allowing Merck a consistent, exceedingly high revenue franchise, from which to fund partnerships in other worthwhile, high burden arenas, like HIV and COVID-19.

In truth, this news came out earlier this week, but there were sweet surprises last evening, so I’m just getting to it over coffee this morning. Here’s the bit:

. . .The FDA granted accelerated approval to pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy for treatment of patients with locally recurrent unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer whose tumors express PD-L1. . . .

As ever, Merck is very well positioned — to once again be the world’s most admired company, as the third decade of the 21st Century opens in a few weeks (as it was, in the middle to late decades of the last century).

We remain hopeful, open and smiling here — for a rekindling of that auspicious stature, in relation to the world at large, and specific portions of her precious human cargo. So, onward!

नमस्ते

John Hinderaker: Here’s Your Golden Turkey Winner: Without. A. Doubt!

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Hinderaker’s far right “think” tank is sponsoring a “wasteful government spending” award, in the Sen. William Proxmire (D) tradition. Charming. Not one of his nominees/examples, though, even remotely approaches $50 million… and (unsurprisingly!) none… focus on federal waste — under Trump.

Let me declare the winner, without even a shadow of doubt (see at right): I do not mind that Trump golfs.[ Mr. Obama did — but far less often in eight years, than Trump has — in under four.]

No, it is not that he golfs. It is that he pays himself to go golfing. And he pays himself exorbidantly. Published reports, sourced from inside the clubs, and his own federal filings, regularly recite over $900 per room, per night, for each of the perhaps 150 people in his security detail, and his staffers. And around $50 for each meal for each such person. His club even charges them $6 per bottle of water — for which he pays about $0.39 per bottle.

It is the pure pettiness of his self-dealing greed/grift here that let’s him win the prize.

Oh — that and he has paid himself over $142 million, via this little cha-cha. [Current as of 11.08.2020 — it will increase as he golfs his way into December 2020 — at Mar-A-Lago, Florida. Images above are from his club in Scotland. All of this is well vetted at that website.]

This, every penny, is from our taxpayer coffers. That’s some $400 hammer, John — or a $300 toilet seat, as we saw in Vietnam. Think about $142 million, every time he brags that he is not pocketing the ~$400K presidential salary.

“He would never even think of taking… so little” — for attempting to destroy our democracy, day by day.

Yes, John — people still care about wasteful government grifting. I just wish you actually still did — when and where it matters.

Out.

In Which Paul M. Claims Unfair Debate Moderating Caused Trump’s Losses. Huh.

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I realize that accepting Trump’s losing by exactly the same margin in the electoral college tally, as he claimed was a “landslide” in 2016 (to say nothing of the fact that he lost by a popular vote margin of now over 5.3 million this time, having lost by almost 3 million votes in 2016)… is hard for the PowerLine boys.

Really, I get it. I was in a fog in 2016 for a few days. But I didn’t blame HRC’s loss on anyone, outside of the lack of WI, PA and MI blue turnout.

But Paul’s tonight is just… silly.

To credit Chris Wallace with destroying Trump’s chances, via honest questions about the pandemic (undeniably on Trump’s watch, alone), and not Trump’s preposterous lies in reply — as well as his choice to ignore the debate rules, and try to talk over Mr. Biden incessantly… is to live on the other side of Alice’s looking glass.

But that is where the frothy right is now, bounced out of all but a small few of meaningless suits to challenge modest packets of local votes: there is literally no changing the result.

Trump is… done.

So blather on, guys. Only the Parler crowd cares now. Reality-bound America has decided. No more Trump.

Cheers.

No One Imagined [1600 Penn Occupant 45] Would Be “Firing On” At Least 130 Members Of His Own Protective Service Detail: Wa Po

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The Wa Po broke the story first, but since it is paywalled, I quote below a local source.

From BayNews9 then:

…The report, citing numerous government officials who spoke to the publication on the condition of anonymity, says at least 130 members of the agency assigned to protect the president and the White House during travel have been ordered to quarantine after either testing positive for coronavirus or coming into close contact with another infected coworker.

In the final days of Trump’s campaign, the president launched a massive multi-state tour in the weekend leading up to the Nov. 3rd elections. On the Saturday before Election Day alone, the president visited Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin, making multiple stops in the latter three states to host massive rallies.

On Election Eve, the president’s campaign required five separate groups of Secret Service officers — each cohort including a minimum of 20 employees — to travel to as many states, according to The Washington Post. Part of the Secret Service’s job is to secure the perimeter of events and sweep the area before the president arrives….

Unconscionable. He’s lost Arizona, and his reputable lawyers are withdrawing from the meritless suits — so his suits are being dismissed, as I type this. Moron. Out, grinning just the same — 68 days.

नमस्ते

There’s Always… More Kabuki Theater: Wilbur Ross At Commerce Dept. Says The TikTok “Ban” Orders Will be Voluntarily Delayed…

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Okay — let’s keep the bidding straight here. We have the propaganda, out of Wilbur Ross — at Commerce: here is a typical Wall Street generated report on it, of this afternoon.

Here is the truth: two federal Eastern Seaboard courts have enjoined Wilbur Ross, Chad Wolf and. . . “the one who shall not be named” (soon to depart 1600 Penn. — in about 69 days, now), from trying to implement the so-called ban. There are also orders by federal judges in California, prohibiting Commerce from taking action against WeChat, or its users.

In sum, the government sees that there is no path consistent with the First Amendment, for this ill-starred nonsense. . . so it delays / withdraws — knowing full-well it has no power to move forward, in any event. Here’s a bit from the TikTok ruling of last month — so that the people may know it was not Wilbur Ross’s largess, but the patient but forceful adherence to ordered liberty, from within the federal judiciary that caused calmer heads to prevail:

. . . .Section 1702(b)(3)’s express limitation applies to “commercial” informational materials. If prohibitions on business-to-business transactions could not constitute the regulation of “informational materials,” then there would have been no reason for Congress to include the word “commercial” when defining the scope of § 1702(b)(3)’s limitation. United States v. Menasche, 348 U.S. 528, 538–39 (1955) (directing courts “to give effect, if possible, to every clause and word of a statue”).

To be sure, TikTok (like a news wire, which is expressly identified in IEEPA’s carveout) is primarily a conduit of “informational materials.” In that sense, it is (among other things) a “medium of transmission,” and IEEPA provides that this carveout applies “regardless of format or medium of transmission.” 50 U.S.C. § 1702(b)(3). That is especially true where, as here, the transmitting medium is inextricably bound up with and exists primarily to share protected informational materials. . . .

There is something to [the government’s counter-] argument, especially as foreign adversaries’ use of information
and data (and the United States’ efforts to respond to and combat those efforts) becomes ever more important. But it does not find support in the text of the statute. In fact, subsection (b)(3) forecloses even the indirect regulation of news wires, another parallel kind of information medium that foreign adversaries could exploit to promote misinformation. To be sure, TikTok’s users share more than just news, but that fact makes it more likely that the prohibitions here fit within the plain meaning of subsection (b)(3).

Like the informational-materials limitation, § 1702(b)(1) states that IEEPA’s grant of authority does not include the “authority to regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly. . . any. . . personal communication, which does not involve a transfer of anything of value.” 50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(1). It is undisputed that the Secretary’s prohibitions will have the effect of preventing Americans from sharing personal communications on TikTok. Reply, ECF No. 26, 12. As Plaintiffs put it, the prohibitions “will destroy this online community, first by requiring the removal of TikTok from. . . U.S. app stores, and, when the remaining Prohibitions come into effect on November 12, 2020, shutting down TikTok entirely. . . .”

For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction is granted as to paragraph 1 of the Commerce Identification. . . .

It is particularly delicious. . . that textualists (like Scalia before her, and ACB perhaps, herself — to come) are absolutely foreclosed from arguing about a speculative intent of Congress, as we see above — from Judge Nichols — where the plain language of a statute prohibits something 1600 Penn wants to do. Delicious. And that means the courts need not even reach the clear first amendment violations, to strike this nonsense. [I will, perhaps immodestly, note that the able judge above repeated, nearly verbatim, my analysis — from the first week of August 2020.] Onward, grinning.

नमस्ते

Paul M. Simply Did Not Understand (Or Follow) The Supremes’ Progeny After Bakke Was Decided…

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It is sort of silly, that these students were convinced to spend six years, on and off… chasing a dead letter.

Harvard was always going to be allowed to select students on multiple dimensions beyond just raw GPA, and SAT or ACT scores.

To argue otherwise, was to be stuck in a time warp where no cases were decided after Bakke, in the late 1970s. But that, in a nutshell, sums up the stunted development, in the law more generally, of Paul M., and John Hinderaker, as well.

Yes, the make-up of the court has been shoved rightward, by the three Trump appointments. But depending on how Georgia’s Senate runoff races end, it may well be that… 13 Justices will decide the case, should the students be granted cert.

I suspect there are a plurality of at least five opinions (even among the existing nine) to say that private schools, like Harvard, have the right to use multi-faceted , and differentially-weighted admission factors (under Grutter v. Bollinger, decided almost 17 years ago now), to achieve a student body that reflects the increasingly diverse experiences of more and more Americans.

Until it reaches the Supremes, though — if it ever does — this First Circuit opinion will remain good law, as Bollinger is controlling Supreme Court law, here. Wake up, Paul. Smell the coffee — it is strong, and… it is increasingly… black.

Namaste….