O/T, But Not Really: It Is Hard To Know What To Say, This Friday...

I do feel compelled to say. . . something. Whew. There are five dead police officers in Dallas, this morning -- and seven more (two of them civilians), still struggling for their lives.

Yet -- and in no way to condone the snipers' actions in Dallas -- there has been an undeniably thunderous drum-beat of very recent live videoed encounters in which (mostly) black men, mostly un-armed, and mostly for what-were-originally-fairly-trivial alleged offenses, end up dead -- by police gunfire.

Each is an abomination. Each is a tragedy. Each life is valuable -- police officer, and citizen. But we need to accept that race is an unhealed wound, in America.

It will serve no useful purpose (and is illogical) to reflexively blame these murders in Dallas on our leaders who note these facts, about very disparate policing outcomes (but some nut-job right wing bloggers are doing just that). The Governor of Minnesota spoke the truth. Our 44^th President simply spoke the truth -- that all Americans should be troubled by these needlessly deadly police encounters.

And all Americans should condemn the killers of the Dallas police officers -- at least one video of a suspect the Dallas police forces sought (and is now dead) is shown "open carrying" a AR-15 semi-automatic rifle (apparently lawful in Dallas). Moreover, it cannot be a sane answer to read OUT of the Second Amendment, the words "well-regulated" which appear ahead of "militia". Yes, the NRA too must answer for Dallas.

Prior to actual gunfire (in the odiously wrong view of the NRA), the Dallas police on scene for the protest could not lawfully stop the would-be suspect/protester, even though he was strapped with an semi-automatic AR-15 sniper style rifle. Thanks to the NRA -- that is what it claims passes as a constitutional right (against law enforcement), now in Texas. Assault rifles being used to kill police, in the protester(s) hands, in the open -- unchallenged in Dallas, until actual shooting starts.

To be clear, the above is not to blame the Dallas police. They have to live with the laws the Texas legislature has passed. That is however, to blame the legislators "captured" by the NRA. The five officers' blood is on the legislators' hands.

And the bloodshed caused by police over-reaction in Louisiana and Minnesota, this week -- the equally senseless killing of black men -- is on the hands of those who chant to the crowds (and the police) that all brown people are to be suspects, first and foremost -- and I mean Donald Trump, here.

This is a profoundly sad and shameful moment in America -- but one that has been fairly easy to see coming. One largely fed by the wildly self-absorbed and thus irresponsible would-be "Muslim deporting", and "wall-building" politician the GOP plans to nominate for President. Shameful. [And all of this is not entirely off-topic, since the CDC has suggested treating gun violence like an infectious epidemic. That seems apt (if entirely too pale) -- flare ups in Louisiana and Minnesota inevitably lead to. . . even larger infections -- in Dallas.]

And now -- to provide at least one Merck related trivial update -- the appeal of the $200 million wipe out will have to wait, since post trial motions -- including the fee motion -- are not completed yet, per the federal Circuit, yesterday:

. . . .On consideration of the notice of appeal filed on July 5, 2016, a motion of the type enumerated in Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(4) has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California rendering the notice of appeal ineffective, it is ORDERED that the appeal be, and it hereby is, DEACTIVATED.

The appeal will be reactivated upon entry of the order disposing of the last such outstanding motion. . . .

FOR FOR THE COURT

July 7, 2016

Peter R. Marksteiner

Clerk of Court. . . .

In addition, AstraZeneca, and all other pre-bankruptcy R&D partners of BIND Therapeutics, were granted protection of their IP rights, in a Delaware bankruptcy court ruling entered yesterday. That's it, for the trivial.

Now, in an effort to bend the arc of the narrative toward the positive -- our family is expecting the next generation of sweet new baby-girl life, this very weekend. So, as they say -- "a baby is the Infinite's opinion that the Universe should. . . continue."

I agree. I agree. Amen, and Namaste. . . take good care of all you love, they are precious human lives -- young, and old, new and not so -- one and all. Whoosh.