[U] Pope Leo XIV Has Voted By Mail, From Vatican City… In The Illinois Mid-Terms; Tangerine Wants A Habba “Kickback”

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Indeed, I can confidently guarantee you that he did not vote Republican. Not for a single office on the Chicago ballot form.

His polling place technically remains inside the City of Chicago. And every one of his public announcements on any American political topic has repudiated everything for which the MAGA / GOP stands / espouses.

Yes, all of it is well with my soul, even though I no longer consider myself a Catholic.

Onward. Do be like my favorite Pope – go vote.

UPDATED: late this afternoon, we’ve learned that Trump exploded when he heard that Alina Habba got herself a $50 million “lawyer / consulting” role — from a pardon-seeking Venezuelan billionaire.

So Trump is demanding that she make a large “donation” to his forthcoming library construction fund. Yes, folks — this is a straight up stupid as all get out… crime syndicate. Damnation — in every way, the antithesis of the present Pope. [For his part, Hinderaker feels that being Pope makes him the head of a foreign state, and notwithstanding the Fourteenth Amendment’s express guarantees, a US Citizen Pope should not be “allowed” to vote in US elections. Poppycock — and bigoted, at that. What an insufferable… putz John is.]

नमस्ते

No More Lawless “Kidnappings” In Or Around Houses Of Worship: That’s The Well-Settled Federal Law, Since At Least 2001.

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This federal ruling technically applies in DC — but it should be beyond contestation that we don’t grab people from the pews, at Sunday Mass.

Damn — but here we are — Tangerine 2.0 and John Hinderaker, as well — both think churches are not hardened defensive targets, so they’re sending ICE in to grab people, without any regard for human decency.

These men are monsters. Here’s the Illinois version of the argument (now pending):

…On October 20, 2026, after briefing was complete and this Court concluded argument on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 44), the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an opinion reversing a district court order that denied a motion to preliminarily enjoin defendants’ sensitive locations enforcement policy. Mennonite Church USA v. United States Dep’t of Homeland Sec., No. 25-5209, 2026 WL 3132807, at *1 (D.C. Cir. Oct. 20, 2026). The D.C. Circuit rejected the district court’s conclusion that plaintiffs lacked standing to seek to enjoin the policy. . . .

The appellate court held that “Plaintiffs need not show that a stay of the Rescission Memo will restore the status quo ante; they need only show that such equitable relief will cure ‘at least some of’ their asserted injury.” Id. at *8 (quoting Diamond Alt. Energy, LLC v. EPA, 606 U.S. 100, 114 (2025)).

The court further concluded that “a reversion to the Mayorkas Memo… likely would alleviate at least some of plaintiffs’ asserted injury… by discouraging at least some immigration-enforcement activities at or near their members’ houses of worship.” Id. at *9 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

Accordingly, the plaintiffs established redressability and had standing to seek to enjoin defendants’ sensitive locations policy….

We the people need to wake up — to the atrocities being committed in our names, and with our federal tax dollars.

Vote these village idiots out.

Onward.

नमस्ते

Hey Hinderaker: Um… “Okay, Boomer!”

~ condor ~ 2 Comments

Overnight, stupid John Hinderaker would tell us that it is solely liberals’ fault that young people can’t afford to buy homes in the United States or in the United Kingdom.

That’s hilarious. And it’s stupid.

He says that it is liberal taxation policies that drive homes to be unaffordable both in the US and the UK. Let’s put to the side that taxes are significantly higher in the UK than in the US.

And let us observe that the astonishing inflation in the price of an average home in the United States has benefited boomers almost exclusively. Meanwhile, employers no longer pay a living wage to the average younger worker. Thus younger workers cannot afford to buy the very high priced real estate that boomers trade among one another.

Once you’re in the game, you can keep playing, but without a 20% down payment which now typically runs more than $150,000, young people are locked out of this game.

Of course, both liberals and Conservative boomers own homes in the United States. So they are all participants in the game.

But John regularly tells us (mostly without competent empirical evidence) that Republicans own more businesses and create more jobs than their liberal counterparts.

If that is so, then per force, it is the fault of the GOP business leaders that these Republicans do not pay living wages to their workers. Said another way, they create “businesses” (long form scams, actually) that trap young people in dead end jobs, where they can never really get ahead.

The “profits” of these supposed businesses are thus made at the expense of longer-term survival for young people — at a societal level. Prior generations of business owners made sure that they paid their workers enough to be able to afford a basic, decent standard of living — and the American dream of owning a home after several years of hard work, and saving for a modest home.

Not so — these rapacious Republican / MAGA adherents.

[I am intentionally ignoring John’s comments about the UK housing markets, because they are driven by different factors and are thus not relevant in a United States political policy discussion.]

Here endeth the lesson.

[U] Poof! ~$6.3 Billion In Value Goes “AWOL”. More Insanely Stupid Crypto-Hacks!

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Here on Friday morning, regular Bitcoin trading has taken quite a hit as well, dropping to $76,600 and change.

Updated: Ex-Binance CEO “CZ “ asks Elon Musk to remember that Binance affiliates have put well over $1 billion of invested capital into both Twitter and SpaceX. This in turn is a threat to dump on Musk’s biggest holdings — and tank his ‘34 Act traded stocks. The threat comes after Musk has been trolling CZ and Binance, on yesterday’s $6.3 billion in theft losses. End, updated portion.

This would seem to be the largest single hack in the history of crypto. And while CZ is claiming that everyone will get their money back… He no longer runs Binance and in fact was convicted of frauds (pardoned by Tangerine 2.0 — after vast campaign contributions!), related to Binance ops… I’m not sure he’s a very reliable witness. Here’s the latest, on it all — what a train-wreck of a sector:

…Online sleuths are tracking the draining of a Binance wallet into a new externally owned account.

The new account now has more than $6.3 $5.7 billion of various cryptos, according to Arkahm, including nearly $1.5 of bitcoin and $900 million of ether. The wallet also has roughly $1.4 billion in USDT and USDC combined.

“Our teams are aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating,” said Binance on X.

“User funds are safe,” said Binance founder CZ. “It does look like a hack on Binance … I don’t manage Binance anymore, but as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered.”

The CEOs of stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle both said they were tracking the hack. Tether’s Paolo Ardoino said his firm had frozen over $1.57 billion worth of USDT, while Circle’s Jeremy Allaire said his firm froze over $800 million in USDC.

Lending protocol Aave may take a hit as well. The exploiter borrowed 20,000 of wrapped ETH (roughly $44 million) through the lending protocol, using stolen USDT as collateral….

What a goofy [non-financially astute] market place this whole crypto-sector has metastasized into.

Y I K E S.

“Fools — and their money…” right?!

नमस्ते

Merck Soundly Beat Estimates — In Q3 2026 GAAP Results. Cool.

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The juggernaut continues. And the stock is up almost five percent this morning on the NYSE.

Hard to imagine this team ever missing their mark, quarter to quarter. Here’s the latest, from CNBC:

…Merck raked in $18.09 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 5% from the same period a year earlier.

Beyond Keytruda, Merck’s newer products also showed strong growth.

Winrevair, which is used to treat a rare, deadly lung condition, generated $694 million in sales for the quarter, up 93% from the same period a year earlier. Analysts were expecting sales of $645 million.

Meanwhile, the Gardasil vaccine, which prevents cancers from HPV, a very common sexually transmitted infection, drew about $2 billion in sales due to higher demand in the U.S….

Excellent news. Onward.

नमस्ते

In Nigeria, The Lassa Fever Outbreak Is Wildly Ahead Of Where It Was Even Just A Year Ago, On Annual Case Counts — And Fatality Rates…

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Discouraging to be certain, with over 268 dead in 2026 alone. And again, largely attributable to Trump’s gutting of USAID public health initiatives.

This excellent reporting comes to us courtesy of Robert Harriman at OutbreakNewsToday.substack.com:

…Eighty-eight percent (88%) of all confirmed Lassa fever cases were reported from 5 states (Ondo, Bauchi, Taraba, Edo and Benue) while twelve percent (12%) were reported from 19 states with confirmed Lassa fever cases. Of the 88% confirmed cases, Ondo reported 36%, Bauchi 23%, Taraba 12%, Edo 11% and Benue 6%.

54 cases were reported in healthcare workers.

Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic illness caused by the Lassa virus, an arenavirus endemic to parts of West Africa (including Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea).

The virus is spread through close human contact, and is carried by the Mastomys natalensis (multimammate rat), which sheds the virus in its urine and droppings….

Onward, with only three days left, until our gentle haunted house will have a “one night only” run, for all the elementary school kids in the neighborhood… smile.

Come to think of it, I should probably have some mylar-printed, electron microscope-shot photos, sitting on a laboratory table (alongside the similar mylar “shrunken head” photos of my grand-nieces), floating in bell jars full of brackish / greenish water — of these lassa, ebola, hanta- and mpox viruses — I guess.

Spooky, too. A bio-science teaching moment of sorts, that. Heh. Too much? I honestly dunno….

नमस्ते

James O’Keefe: Serial Felon, Now Championed By Hinderaker.

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Apparently, John thinks that it’s not a felony if you break a felony voting statue, and then claim that you were doing it to show how easy it is to commit voting felonies.

James O’Keefe and anyone like him is not a private attorney general, is not the US Attorney, and is not even in charge of any election fraud public service organization.

In fact, he’s been caught eavesdropping, lawlessly in the past, and recording private conversations without consent — falsifying donation records, and generally holding orgies with charitable 501(c)(3) funds raised.

So all in all — not the most reputable witness. And of course, if you don’t like the law, as duly enacted by statute in Minnesota, the way to address it is to lobby your legislators to change it. Or if you think it’s unlawful/unconstitutional, bring a lawsuit in federal or state court and make that allegation.

The law highly disfavors vigilante actions — and that’s exactly what O’Keefe is — and is what Hinderaker here cheers / advocates.

Yep — here we have J. Hinderaker, today in Minneapolis supporting him — because the local authorities (elected as Democrats) are prosecuting him for election felonies.

Shocking. Not.

He walked into a polling place and falsely vouched for other fake potential voters in Minneapolis. Minnesotans have determined by statute that this is allowed – one legitimate voter, vouching for another legitimate voter.

But defrauding a polling place and its workers — by lying and forgeries… is never lawful.

O’Keefe well knew that. Yet he chose to violate the law anyway.

Yep, that’s a felony — and there is no defense to it.

Charming, that, old Johnny.

Out.

USDC Judge Cummings In Chicago Orders DHS To “Find” A Pair Of Brothers It Deported, To Outside The US, And If They Wish, “Return Them And Set Them Free” Here In Chicago…

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It is clear that DHS, and / or ICE procured these two men’s deportations by fraud. [They are likely two brothers.]

Thus, while I will not show their names — if you know of them — let them know they are free to return to Chicago (to their families here — on the federal dime), and ICE cannot re-arrest them. They are free to travel the USA now. Here’s the latest order this morning — in part (I will keep an archive of the PDF, on/in my web-server, anonymized — but not release it here, as these fine person’s names should be kept strictly private):

…With respect to M.T.-P. (AXXX) and V.T.-P. (AXYX), who were previously removed from the United States, defendants shall continue to work to secure their return to the United States. As stated on the record, when these two individuals are returned to the United States, defendants are ordered to facilitate their immediate release on their own recognizance and without bond or conditions of release as specified in Section IV(E)(2) of the Decree, (Dckt. #155-1 at 9)….

For any of the additional above individuals that remain detained, defendants are ordered to facilitate their immediate release on their own recognizance and without bond or conditions of release as specified in Section IV(E)(2) of the Decree, (Dckt. #155-1 at 9), by no later than 12:00 p.m. CT on October 30, 2026. With respect to those individuals who have already been released, but on bond and with conditions, defendants must take action to refund any bonds and remove all conditions on or before 10:00 a.m. CT on October 30, 2026. Defendants shall file a certification by 5:00 p.m. CT on November 3, 2026, that all individuals have been released on their own recognizance and without bond or conditions of release as required by Section IV(E)(2) of the Consent Decree. This certification shall include a certification regarding J.A.-Q. (AYYY)….

What a gaggle of lawless, malign idiots Trump has working for him at ICE and DHS here in the Chi. Dammit — it is just costing all US taxpayers… billions of extra dollars, too.

नमस्ते

Mpox Update: Now 18 in 2026 in Pakistan — With One Fatality.

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It seems some appreciable Mpox viral outbreak will be… endemic — at least in several select locales across the globe — always, henceforth.

It will be a constant background drum-beat — and it did not have to be this way. [Ref.: USAID slashings.]

News.AZ has the latest tallies, here:

…Four new cases of mpox have been reported in Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bringing the total number of infections in the province to 18, the provincial health department said on Tuesday.

Peshawar, the provincial capital, has reported the highest number of cases, with five infections, while one death from the disease has been recorded so far, the department said, Xinhua reported.

[Members of high risk communities — primarily sex workers and men who have sex with other men — should consider getting a prophylactic vaccine, available in country from Bavarian Nordic.]

Symptoms of mpox include fever, headache, body aches and skin rashes or blisters….

If untreated, the virus can lead to long-term debilitating conditions, or even be fatal, in people with compromised immune systems. Onward.

नमस्ते