Hinderaker Assumes (Falsely) That It Takes No New Cap Ex To Get More Oil From Venezuela.

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John would be… funny if he weren’t so naïve.

In truth, I suspect he knows all this, but refuses to admit it in his writings — as that would be seen as “disloyal” — to Tangerine 2.0.

Tonight, Hinderaker cheers the supposed deal to export more oil out of Venezuela — to the United States. Riiiiight.

But people who know more about oil than Hinderaker does (which amounts to knowing something / anything about oil) know that the Venezuelan oil requires greater capital investment in order to extract and be processed, as it is essentially a super heavy version of crude oil. [It is thick like peanut butter and very high in sulfur content. It requires much more refining — to become usable as a fuel, or even a lubricant.] This is — of course — as compared to the light sweet Brent crude that comes out of the Middle East.

This Chevron has long known and now is talking about making vast capital investments to bring Venezuelan oil to the United States. But either Chevron or the US government will have to make significant new capital investments in Venezuela (and at the US home refineries, too!) to achieve the fever dreams that Trump has laid out. Those investments could take 5 to 7 years to bear fruit.

So once again, Trump promises things he can’t deliver and expects other people or the US taxpayer to pay for it. But he clearly needs to say something about how irresponsibly he has managed our oil reserves… with the midterms looming.

And so tonight, John becomes a lame-brained cheerleader shaking his lil’ gold and orange pom-poms.

Pathetic — and disingenuous. The truth is out there, John, go find it.

Out.

Exhibit A, For How Inept Tangerine 2.0’s Lawyers Are — In The Post Office Rules Cases — On Appeal.

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Just as we saw with the DeJoy version, in Tangerine 1.0, these silly jamokes will lose. And lose decisively.

The scatter-shot appeals filings indicate they likely already know this. It is all… inevitable. Do read here, out of Boston, over the weekend:

…At 8:29 PM yesterday, Defendants filed a “Motion to Stay Pending Appeal,” Dkt. No. 228, concerning the Court’s grant in part of a temporary restraining order, see Dkt. No. 218. Defendant/Intervenors followed with their own stay motion at 10:34 PM last night.

Neither motion asks for a decision by a particular date or requests expedition of the typical 14-day briefing schedule under Local Rule 7.1(b)(2), nor have Defendants or Defendant-Intervenors conferred with Plaintiffs as to timing for an alternative briefing schedule. For the purposes of clarity, Plaintiffs intend to file their opposition to these stay motions by 11:00 PM on Monday, August 31, unless the Court requests a response on a different timeline….

Now you know… onward, into the warm Sunday night air — getting a rather large hard case black plastic bike transport contraption together, for the South of France, and such… smile.

नमस्ते

The Roman Space Telescope Is On Its Way To L2 — A Million Miles Off… Flawless Execution!

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This, folks, is how it is done. The best and brightest certainly showed their stuff — early this Sunday morning, down at the Cape.

Roman is powered up, in perfect radio communication with the Deep Space Network dishes, and headed out to the assigned LaGrange Point. Here’s NASA’s blog team on it all (but I’ve edited out the gratuitous commercials, for Musk’s Falcon Heavy lauch vehicle):

…Now on a three-month, million-mile journey to its final orbit, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon reveal the universe’s darkest secrets. The mission launched at 7:26 a.m. EDT Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Roman pairs a large field of view with crisp infrared vision to explore vast swaths of the sky and probe deeply into cosmic history. This flagship mission will help astronomers explore dark matter, dark energy, and worlds outside of our solar system, known as exoplanets. Its surveys will support a broad range of research extending far beyond the mission’s main science goals.

“Roman is exactly the kind of success story we want to see across NASA… delivered ahead of schedule and on budget, this mission reflects more than a decade of dedication from the NASA workforce and our industry partners. Now, Roman will give us a new atlas of the universe, push the boundaries of discovery, and demonstrate what is possible when America’s space program pairs bold ambition with disciplined execution….”

The ground control team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, began receiving telemetry data from Roman seven minutes after launch….

Throughout the rest of Roman’s three-month commissioning period, scientists will run the instruments through a series of calibrations and tests. NASA anticipates releasing Roman’s first images by early 2027.

Roman will send back 1.4 terabytes of data every day, the highest data rate of any NASA astrophysics mission, so far. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and citizen scientists will help sift through it and flag significant findings, which astronomers can then study.

“We’ve never been able to view the universe with eyes like Roman’s before,” said Julie McEnery, Roman’s senior project scientist at NASA Goddard. “There’s no telling what more we’ll know and have seen by this time next year….”

Onward — grinning widely. A “paler hidden figure” no more — thank you for your decades of tireless service Nancy Grace Roman — this is a very fitting legacy to remember your name by.

नमस्ते

As Trump Loses, Essentially Endlessly, On His Overreaches In The Trial Courts, We Chuckle.

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Tangerine 2.0 has, in the past week — filed immediate appeals in four federal trial level cases he has already lost.

I won’t link the appeals (they are uniformly idiotic) — but the cases he’s appealed, after lossses, are about:

➢ The US Post Office’s newly unconstitutional mail-in balloting rule (actually mostly a redux of a case he lost in Trump 1.0, through DeJoy).

➢ The remedies recently ordered, in Flores (an open class action immigrants’ rights case, since 1985!) to protect children [many separated from their parents, with some under age 10] in Camp Dilley, an ICE/DHS prison complex (also a case he previously lost, in Trump 1.0).

➢ Orders to keep paying construction workers (from Congressionally-ordered funds) in the Hudson Tunnel project in NY — and not try to rename the project as the Trump Tunnel.

➢ Orders requring the immediate release of detainees about whom ICE lied — and said there were judicial warrants issued, in Chicago and Minneapolis and LA.

Note: Not a single appeal, in over a year — on any of his losses, as to his commercial grafts/bribe-seeking. Fascinating.

He will ultimately lose, on all the four above — and many more. He professes zero understanding of our system of ordered liberty.

Out.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Disingenuously Has Claimed The Post Office Order/Proposed Rules Are A “Nothing Burger”.

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Forgive me for looking askance — at that, his preposterous… suggestion.

The Tangerine 2.0 lawyers took ANOTHER emergency measure appeals — to the Supremes — for a nothing burger?! Really, John?

Just this morning, they AGAIN took what looks to be a THIRD appeal… of a TEMPORARY TRO.

That certainly suggests the Trumpians regard it as a “life or death” measure.

John, you very well (still) know that TROs are almost never appealable. They are never “final” orders. But here we are — three notices of… federal appeals, from Team Tangerine.

So, why is the government taking these baseless appeals, in under 30 elapsed hours, no less — if this is a nuthin’ burger?

Do ‘splain that to me, Mr. Hinderaker. And please use small words, and short sentences. [If you can — but I suspect you cannot.]

In sum, make your [purported] position… make sense.

Oh. Right.

You… cannot. You. Are. An. Idiotic. LIAR.

Out.

Swift Space ‘Scope Now Predicted To Burn Up — In Earth’s Atmosphere — In One To Two Months’ Time…

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NASA tonight provided a new estimate, for the remaining time that Swift might be operable.

That comes in at one to two months more, at the outside. It was a very game effort, on a very tight time-frame, to try to lift the aging Swift space ‘scope — to a higher orbit, but in the end this mostly proves that… space is hard — and unforgiving. Guidance systems were not 4×4 on the Link craft, so it repeatedly displayed a tumbling motion. That won’t do, at all — for grappling operations in zero-G. Here is likely the last update — on the Katalyst Link craft itself, from NASA, then:

…NASA predictions had shown the shift to low-drag operations had extended Swift’s time above 185 miles (300 kilometers) until October. Below this point, operating the telescope becomes difficult, and the spacecraft’s rate of descent quickly increases.

With the resumption of science observations, the team anticipates Swift will reach that milestone sometime in the next one to two months….

Now you know — with only about eight days left, until Nice, France (and Florence and Rome — and maybe Paris, on the tail-end) for a month. Smile.

नमस्ते

The GOP Gov. In Wyoming Bristles At Trump/MAGA Primary Election Interference, In Cheyenne. This Is… Banana Republic Stuff.

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I am tempted to say… when you elect an inept mobster, this is the natural consequence. But GOP Gov. Gordon is right: this is both lawless — and Un-American.

Sure, Tangerine may have backed another primary candidate — but sending a DoJ goon squad in, to pester voters… is simply well beyond the pale. Here’s The New York Times‘ version of it all:

…Two election monitors from the Justice Department tried to interview voters and examine voting machines at polling places during Wyoming’s primaries last week, local officials said, drawing pushback from the state’s Republican governor.

The federal election monitors arrived at a polling site in Cheyenne, Wyoming’s capital and its largest city, without advance notice around 7 a.m. last Tuesday, said the Laramie County clerk, Debra Lee. They asked to interview voters and inspect the machines, but were denied, officials said.

“It was aggressive, unexpected, disruptive — certainly didn’t seem to show respect for the state,” Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming said in an interview on Thursday. “We’re going to get to the bottom of it as best we can.”

The Justice Department often monitors polling sites during elections. [Ed. Note: Based on three decades of my own in-person, in-polling-place experience — across both red and blue states and cities (at least five national election cycles) — almost always, the DoJ people sit silently, and try to be as unobtrusive as humanly possible. Not these jamokes, though last week — in Cheyenne.]

But the visits to Wyoming came amid President Trump’s ongoing fixation with finding evidence of fraud and vote tampering. Mr. Trump and his allies made fantastical claims that voting machines had switched votes for him to his opponent Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020, and he has tried and failed to find evidence of widespread fraud or vote tampering ever since….

What an entirely abberant time in America, indeed. We are led by… a straight-up felonious crook. Out.

नमस्ते

Meanwhile, Down In Del Rio, Texas… Collusive Trump Forces, And Gov. Abbott Forces Move USDC Judge Alia Moses To Seal Discovery, That Might Aid Maimed And Dead Victims Of The Razor Wire.

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This simply cannot stand.

Limited redactions, sure — but not entirely sealed discovery. The reason this suit hasn’t been (collusively) closed, thus far is because dozens of individual humans were maimed (on land, and in the water) — and in the case of the floating razor wire barriers, at least two people… perished, in the frigid Rio Grande waters of January 2022.

We, the people are entitled to know what Abbott did, either at Trump’s bidding, or on his own — as a lawless autocrat… that got these people killed and injured.

So, either the press, or the ACLU (or yours truly, if need be) will move the able USDC Judge not to hide this clear evidence of malevolence from “we, the people”. That is well settled black letter federal law. These are… our courts, not Abbott’s. And, NOT Trump’s. Here’s the poorly argued (and likely collusive) joint federal / Texas state motion to close it up:

…Pursuant to Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Rule CV-26 of the Local Rules of the Western District of Texas, the parties jointly move this Court for entry of the attached Stipulation and Proposed Order Regarding Discovery Procedures and Confidential Information to govern the use and disposition of information and documents produced in discovery in this action.

The parties anticipate that the discovery to be sought will include requests for information and documents of a confidential nature, including information protected by federal privacy laws, information that is law enforcement sensitive, and personally identifying information of non-parties to this action. The parties therefore stipulate and agree to entry of the attached Stipulation and Proposed Order Regarding Discovery Procedures and Confidential Information….

I’ll wait a tick, to see if this fails — if it does not, I will intercede. Onward.

नमस्ते

Once Again, ICE Agents Are Caught Lying Under Oath In Chicago’s Federal District Court… Detainee Set Free By Righteous USDC Judge Cummings, After Almost A Year.

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The ICE agents claimed (falsely, it turns out) that they had a warrant in open court, but never produced it. It very likely was all just a lie — encouraged by the now disgraced and departed Greg Bovino. [See at right, from Fall of last year.]

In any event, this married family man (here on papers, but detained) will be back home — with his family, by Labor Day. But he was lawlessly detained for over a year. These people are… deplorable. I will link the order, but not name the detained man here, for safety’s sake. Here’s that:

…It is also apparent that the I-200 referenced in CCP’s I-213 is not the I-200 that defendants produced. The I-213 states that officers ran a records check on CCP after they identified him at the ICE office on October 10; discovered that he had an order of removal; an I200 warrant was issued by SDDO (Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer) Waldschmidt on scene; and that CCP was arrested pursuant to this warrant and his order of removal. The I200, by contrast, is dated October 9, 2025; was signed by SDDO T. Janowski; and was served on CCP on October 9, 2025. Although the Court pointed out these issues concerning the I-200s during the August 18 hearing and sought an answer to the question of how CCP would have been served with an I-200 arrest warrant on October 9 when he was not arrested until October 10 (Dckt. #502 at 6-7), defense counsel’s supplemental response did not provide an answer. Nor did defendants produce the I-200 purportedly issued by SDDO Waldschmidt, and the Court finds that the failure to produce this warrant is evidence that it does not exist. Castanon Nava, 806 F.Supp.3d at 856 (citing cases).

Given the unreliability of the I-213 and the Court’s inference that the I-200 warrant purportedly issued by SDDO Waldschmidt does not exist, the Court finds that CCP was subjected to a warrantless arrest on October 10, 2025. The Court further finds that defendants lacked probable cause that CCP was a risk to flee before a warrant could be obtained given the abundant evidence known by ICE that he was not a flight risk. In particular, the I-213 reflects that CCP is married with a wife and child in the U.S; he is employed; he has no felony convictions; and that he voluntarily appeared at the ICE office for his check-in appointment.

For these reasons, the Court finds that plaintiffs have proven by a preponderance of the evidence that ICE officers subjected CCP to a warrantless arrest without probable cause that he posed a risk of escape before a warrant could be obtained.

Accordingly, CCP is entitled to relief under the Consent Decree, and he shall be released without bond and without conditions no later than the close of business on Friday, August 28, 2026. Defendants shall certify their compliance with the terms of this Order by Tuesday, September 1, 2026….

Now you know — onward, resolutely. We must lawfully resist (in the courts) lawless thuggery and tyranny, from MAGA arms of federal enforcers. Period.

नमस्ते

The Mediation Efforts, In A Multi-Billion Dollar Name Spat Suit — Merck v. Merck — Continue… Even As A Federal Lanham Act Trial Date Nears.

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This is — by now — old hat: the spat dates back to the end of WWI. And this suit is over a decade old.

There are or were dozens of similar suits dotting the globe. Hopefully, a global mediated settlement will be reached:

…Re: Merck & Co., Inc., et al. v. Merck KGaA, Civil Action No. 16-266 (ES/MAH)

Dear Judge Hammer:

This firm, along with Sidley Austin LLP, represents Plaintiffs Merck & Co., Inc. and Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. in the above-referenced matter. We write on behalf of all parties to follow up on our joint letter regarding a mediation date pursuant to the Court’s March 9, 2026 Order (ECF Nos. 322, 326).

We have a mediation scheduled with Judge Hochberg on September 16-18, 2026. As appropriate, an additional mediation day may occur on October 27, 2026.

We thank the Court for its consideration.

Respectfully submitted….

So it goes — it would certainly make sense for both sides to settle rather than run multi-billion dollar exposures, on their respective trademarks / intellectual property. But I’ve been saying that for over a decade. Maybe they are finally really listening, as trial nears. Onward, smiling.

नमस्ते