This Is Black Letter Federal Free Speech Law (Ex-Military Edition)…

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Yep. Senators have free speech rights — not abridged by long prior — and distinguished — service in the armed forces. Full stop. [Just ask Byron “Whizzer” White. Ooops — sorry. You can’t. He’s long dead, and gone from the Supremes.]

The able USDC Judge Leon (sitting on appeal) is clearly… correct:

…U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said on Tuesday “that he knows of no U.S. Supreme Court precedent to justify the Pentagon’s censuring of a sitting U.S. senator who joined a videotaped plea for troops to resist unlawful orders from the Trump administration,” according to the Associated Press.

Leon is considering Sen. Mark Kelly’s claim “that Pentagon officials violated his First Amendment free speech rights.”

During Tuesday’s hearing, a government attorney “argued that Congress decided that retired military service members are subject to the same Uniform Code of Military Justice that applies to active-duty troops,” while Kelly’s lawyers said that “they aren’t aware of any ruling to support the notion that military retirees have ‘diminished speech rights….’”

Veterans, perhaps more than any regular citizen — should enjoy the right to seek redress of grievances, against future administrations, after serving with distinction.

Now you chumps at Powerline [Hinderaker], and Ringside know. Suck it.

As NPR Indicates, The Abrego Matter Is NOT A “One-Off” — It Is Increasingly An “S.O.P.” — By Miller, Noemites & Tangerine… Damn.

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The precedents being set — by Mr. Abrego Garcia’s cases — will be very useful, in the future, for us pro bono lawyers — to be certain.

That said — it is deplorable that TrumpWorld continues (and accelerates) its pattern lawlessness. Here’s the latest, from National Public Radio, reporting:

…”We really thought this was going to be one of a kind,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia’s lawyers. “If anything, it was just the tip of the spear. There have been countless illegal deportation cases since then. If anything, the problem is getting worse and not better….”

Sandoval-Moshenberg said he alone has a dozen other plaintiffs like Abrego Garcia. It’s impossible to quantify how many such mistaken deportations are happening — as only a small subset of immigrants have lawyers to argue for their return. But judges have stepped in with other cases.

For example, last April — the same month a Maryland judge told the government to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. — another judge in the state asked for the return of Daniel Lozano-Camargo, a 20-year-old Venezuelan man, identified in court documents as “Cristian”….

And in July, a New York appeals panel ordered immigration officials to return Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, a 31-year-old Salvadoran.

All three were held at a notorious prison in El Salvador that has since been described by detainees as unsanitary and violent. Judges said that these removals violated court orders….

This is what Kristi Noem and Tangerine 2.0 are doing… in your name. Damn.

नमस्ते

So The Rumbling Continues — On The Islands In The Nearby Indian Ocean, Off To The East Of The African Continent…

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This, as my graphic suggests… is exactly how an epidemic gets out of hand. It starts as an outbreak… but life (as ever) finds a way… to cross borders, and sail waters.

Then, eventually, without proactive highly effective vaccinations / interventions… whole chains of islands are… afflicted. Here’s the latest, from ReliefWeb, quoting UNICEF:

…The Government of the Union of the Comoros declared an mpox outbreak on 23 January 2026, with seven confirmed cases reported to date, including two locally transmitted cases. No deaths have been reported, with four patients recovered and three currently under care in designated treatment facilities.

Cross-border transmission risk remains high, linked to population movements with Madagascar and Mayotte, where mpox cases have also been reported.

National response activated, including enhanced surveillance at points of entry, contact tracing, and local PCR diagnostic capacity.

UNICEF is supporting the Government-led response, focusing on risk communication and community engagement, community-based surveillance and strengthening infection prevention and control across health facilities. . . .

These epidemics — all preventable — will be the enduring legacy of Trump’s wrong-headed cuts to USAID. Damn.

नमस्ते

Bill Glahn Is Unaware That Over ~5/8ths Of All Detainees Are Likely To Be Released On Habeas. Dumb Yutz.

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Tonight, whiny young Bill is crowing about how many ICE claims to have “grabbed off the streets” in and around Minneapolis. The claim is nearly 4,000 people.

I doubt the real figure is that high — as this is a “Noem-eyes only” number — and so likely inflated, for her agit-prop purposes.

Even so, we can count the number of habeas petitions, as it is undisputed that almost all these people (likely fewer than 3,000) were grabbed without any judicial warrant — and no probable cause.

So — there are are now well over 1,800 covered by either a (i) putative class action, or (ii) individual habeas petitions. It is my experienced opinion that most of these will ultimately… succeed. The kidnapped people will be set free.

All of this was just a goddamn dumb show — strictly for Tangerine campaign videos. No actual lasting effect.

So Bill — do sit your John Brown hindparts down, and let the adults handle this. Your Constitution is at work. Thank the goddesses.

[And… A Tangential Confidential Note To Hinderaker: we wish you “good luck” in using “in-the-tank” for GOP polling — to convince your hard core MAGAts to keep doubling down on the wipe-out immigration cruelty, through the mid-terms. Blue Tsunami, inbound.

O U T.

The GOP Just Found Out That Gerrymandering For Partisan Advantage Will LOSE Them Seats… Hilarious!

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Look — in a perfect world… none of this would take place. People would vote in groups naturally formed by communities… of very long standing. [This is no perfect world, any longer.]

And so, in the time of Tangerine 2.0, where Texas and Florida and other red states try to (and in a few cases, have succeeded in) diluting low-income, and brown and Black and Democratic voting blocs, this will become an ongoing jousting match.

But it is “jousting” the GOP is destined to lose, on a nationwide basis — where it matters most — in national elections for the House and Senate (and obviously, 1600 Penn.).

That is so, because there are simply far more lower income, brown and Black and Democratic men and women voters nationwide than there are rich, whyte land-owning GOP voters [millions upon millions of them — regardless of papers v. no papers].

So, if MAGA/Texas is able to pick up one seat, for the GOP, by torturing its electoral maps (as Justice Alito himself opined in December 2025), California may effortlessly pick up. . . FIVE, for the Democratic Party. There are so many more Democrats in California, Illinois, Colorado, New York, and Wisconsin — to draw from. Stupid GOP. Here’s the latest order, and below it — a bit from Amy Howe at SCOTUSBlog, this afternoon:

…WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2026 | ORDER IN PENDING CASE
25-A-839 | TANGIPA, DAVID, ET AL. V. NEWSOM, GOV. OF CA, ET AL.

The application for writ of injunction pending appeal presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court is denied….

[Amy Howe:] The [GOP] challengers came to the Supreme Court on Jan. 20, asking the justices to step in. They argued that the state’s goal all along had been “offsetting a perceived racial gerrymander in Texas.” Moreover, they added, the lower court should have given more weight to the testimony by the private consultant, Paul Mitchell, who drew the new map – and who “boasted publicly and on social media,” they said, that the new map “would maintain, if not expand, Latino voting power in California.” They asked the court to act by Feb. 9, when the window for congressional candidates to file paperwork declaring their candidacies opens in California.

The state countered that the lower court considered statements by the private consultant and state legislators, but it had nonetheless concluded that the new map was not racially motivated. More broadly, it contended, the [GOP] challengers were “asking the Court to treat California’s map differently from how it treated Texas’s map, thereby allowing a Republican-led State to engage in partisan gerrymandering while forbidding a Democratic-led State from responding in kind….”

Ah… Thank you, Justice Alito — “what’s good for the goose — is good for the gander, too“. Lovely — and being decades in Chicago, we well know you cannot afford to bring a knife — to a gun fight. That’s the Chicago way.

I don’t love it — but I do respect it. Play hard ball — and break some noses.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker: Malignant And Feckless Old Fogie. Has No Clue About… Fort Sumter.

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Hinderaker… goes all cuew-kooie tonight.

What an overwrought — idiotic — and intentionally-misleading recitation that is, by him.

In other words, it’s… just a Tuesday night. Par for the course — for the doddering old coot John “the trump-licker” Hinderaker has devolved into.

About every two or three years now, he warns us that Democrats want a civil war, and that they want to play the part of the slave owners in it.

Pretty much the opposite of that… is a fact. It is the billionaires and Trump cronies, including John, who want to control all property… Demonize all people who are brown or black and leave them in a position where they have to do whatever the rich whyte people tell them in order to avoid starving to death.

That is both Trump‘s, and John’s endgame. Both of them have recited it repeatedly since 2016.

Sorry kids — I’m not buying it. You guys are losers.

We the people have the “right to petition our government for the regress of our grievances”. That is all that’s going on here.

So keep your shirt on, sister.

Out.

My Guess? It Will Be Much Later Than Just End Of March 2026…

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As more hard news trickles out, from yesterday’s tanking efforts — it sure looks a lot like the same issue that plagued earlier — albeit uncrewed, count-downs.

With the prospect of a crew above the tail service mast umbilical — the fix will have to be 100% tripple vetted, and tested and retested. I’m thinking June at the earliest — or maybe July 4 weekend? [We all know that Tangerine will want something for the 250th.] Here’s the NASA Artemis blog update:

…The Artemis II wet dress rehearsal countdown was terminated at the T-5:15 minute mark due to a liquid hydrogen leak at the interface of the tail service mast umbilical, which had experienced high concentrations of liquid hydrogen earlier in the countdown, as well.

The launch control team is working to ensure the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket is in a safe configuration and begin draining its tanks….

Onward — safety as ever… first.

नमस्ते

Tangent: Well — This Is… SILLY. One Cannot Sue People NOT Involved In a Federal Suit Via A “Counterclaim.”

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The able USDC Judge in Brooklyn already ruled that the various members of the Wu- collective — ones Mr. Shkreli has tried to mire in this — his thefts — are utterly… unavailing. That is the law of the case.

He was denied the right to add them as “necessary parties” last month. They are not necessary — in fact, they are complete strangers to the USDC order of forfeiture, under which PleasrDAO paid for, and took — all that Martin ever had — in any form, as to the Shaolin materials.

But in Quixotic fashion overnight, Martin Shkreli has filed what he calls a counterclaim — but he actually purports to sue new parties. In sum, various members of the Wu-. [That, to belabor the obvious, he cannot do, under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In order to do it, he must file and serve an entirely new suit — directly against the Wu- members. That he WILL NOT do. Thus, this is just a[nother] smoke screen.]

He alleges the Wu- members had no right to sell “his” interests… in this work.

That is preposterous, on its face.

He lost everything he ever had, here — upon his conviction. When he could not pay the then ~$10 million he owed (now ballooned by other judgments to over ~$69 million), the court ordered all his right title and interest in the Shaolin [the sole copy of the Wu- work], also, a Picasso and an original “Enigma machine”, among other things, sold. And… they were all sold off, by the US Marshals years ago.

After that, Martin tried to sell bootleg copies — and held “listening parties” and claimed he had stashed bootlegs, in safes around the world — all while he was in prison in rural Pennsylvania.

He is flirting with going back up the river, here.

What an idiot.

Merck Posts Another Excellent Year — As Expected; Stock Rises On NYSE…

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This company is very well-run. And it is hitting on all cylinders — even down to refusing to overpay for Revolution Medicines, last quarter. It walked away when the bidding went beyond the rational… [reportedly above $35 billion].

So — do your own diligence, but it is hard to see how a retiree seeking a fat dividend, and holding for a ten year plus horizon… could ever get hurt, by owning this name. [An increasingly aging US population (with health insurance) clearly works in its favor.] In any event, here’s the latest — of the local color, from CEO Davis, yesterday:

…Armed with what CEO Robert Davis called the “broadest and widest pipeline we’ve had in years,” Merck is preparing for its post-Keytruda future with what it foresees as a host of major sales opportunities over the next decade.

Thanks in part to its recent acquisitions of Verona Pharma and Cidara Therapeutics, the company sees new growth drivers delivering potential annual revenue of more than $70 billion by the “mid-2030s,” Merck said in its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings presentation (PDF).

To put the $70 billion number into context, Davis pointed to the figure as being more than double the $35 billion Keytruda is expected to pick up during its peak sales year in 2028. The oncology superstar is slated for a loss of exclusivity (LOE) in 2028, and a growing pipeline of Keytruda biosimilars is already lining up to take a shot at the drug’s massive market….

Now you know — but that’s it, for the power alley, I’m afraid, for today. Grin.

नमस्ते

Meanwhile, In Maryland, Abrego Garcia Remains Free — Due To Noemite Lies. So It Goes…

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While we await the February 26 hearing in Nashville, Mr. Hecker is winning, in keeping Abrego free in Maryland — despite Noemite efforts to re-write a 2019 order that Trump 1.0 clearly botched.

And Noem’s team is lying about almost every aspect of its prior detention of Mr. Abrego Garcia. Here’s the latest:

…In any event, no matter when the removal period began, detention under § 1231(a) remains impermissible. The Government may detain Abrego Garcia under § 1231(a) only to timely effectuate lawful removal. But as this Court found in granting habeas relief, the Government’s conduct — including serially designating countries it knew “never agreed to take” Abrego Garcia and making “misrepresentation[s]” to the Court that Liberia was the only viable removal country — “reflect[s] that whatever purpose was behind his detention, it was not for the ‘basic purpose’ of timely third-country removal.” ECF No. 110 at 28–29 (citing Zadvydas, 533 U.S. at 697).

Nothing has changed on that front. The Government identifies no new evidence that re-detention would now serve any legitimate purpose. To the contrary, its submission confirms that it still refuses to remove Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica, the country he designated and the only one to which removal would presently comply with the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and due process. And the Government has neither identified any other viable removal destination, nor taken the steps constitutionally required before removal to any other country could occur. What has prevented Abrego Garcia’s removal is not this Court’s injunction, but the Government’s failure to pursue removal “consistently with the INA and due process.” ECF No. 110 at 12 n.10.

The Court should therefore maintain its injunction until the Government demonstrates that re-detention and removal of Abrego Garcia would comply with the INA and due process….

Onward, resolutely — with a NASA press conference at Noon Central time, on Artemis II likely launch delays.

नमस्ते