Just As We Said They Would. . . The US FTC Sued Martin Shkreli -- Again. Along With Several State AGs, Joining. Hilarious -- They Will Win.

Most here will recall that we have closely followed the criminal travails of Martin Shkreli for over 12 years -- mostly at another property of ours -- and updated, from time to time here, as well. Today's developments will mean he is essentially completely broke -- again, at a minimum. [All his stock trades in the life sciences will be forfeited, without accounting for any potential offsetting losses.]

Moreover, as I directly and clearly predicted several times (see here), the FTC has had enough of his violating his lifetime pharma bans. They have sued him in front of USDC Judge Cote in Manhattan -- for contempt of court, overnight. Here's the 42 page memo of law -- supporting the short motion in full -- and a bit from CNBC (interspersed with snippets from the FTC memo of law):

. . .In addition to the FTC, the states that joined Tuesday’s court filing are New York, California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The filing asks the judge to order Shkreli’s sister, Leonora Izerne, and his “significant other, Chelsea Voss,” to preserve all evidence relating to potential violations of the injunction against Shkreli because both women “appear to have assisted or be assisting Shkreli in violating the Permanent Injunction. . . .”

“After a full trial, the court found that Martin Shkreli’s conduct drove up prescription drug costs for American patients and blocked the entry of lower-cost generics,“Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The motion alleges that, while livestreaming his trades in pharmaceutical industry stocks, Shkreli told his viewers “I’m showing you how to trade and invest in biotech.” The motion further alleges that, in another livestream, Shkreli confessed his “magic trick”: “It doesn’t matter what trades I make because I can always find a couple of biotech stocks to smoke.” As alleged in the motion, Shkreli used his livestreams to wage multiple public campaigns to short certain pharmaceutical company stocks based on his prediction that their key clinical trials would fail.

In their contempt filing, the FTC and its co-plaintiff states ask the court for an order to show cause why Shkreli should not be held in civil contempt for violating the lifetime ban imposed by the court and ultimately to issue civil sanctions to force Shkreli to comply with the terms of the court’s 2022 injunction.

In September 2024, Shkreli bragged to his viewers that “[t]he last time I shorted a stock, I made $20 million bucks, it was called Vital Therapies . . . . I made a similar amount of money in Celadon. I mean, you can look at my track record of public shorts. . . . It’s very good in biopharma only.” In September 2025, Shkreli declared himself “the GOAT of binary events. . . .”

“When judgment is entered by a court, whether it’s a settlement or an order following a trial, defendants must fulfill their obligations,” Guarnera said. “Today’s action should serve as notice that the FTC will not hesitate to enforce violations of court orders. . . .”

Finally, "because Shkreli’s sister, Leonora Izerne, and significant other, Chelsea Voss, appear to have assisted or be assisting Shkreli in violating the Permanent Injunction (by, for example, or funding Shkreli’s trading), we ask the Court to instruct Izerne and Voss as well as Shkreli to preserve all evidence relating to potential violations of the Permanent Injunction. . . ."

Welp. Yeh -- the guy simply is incapable of believing that the laws we all agree to live by. . . actually apply to him. They do -- and if he's not very careful now -- he's likely to be going back to jail.

नमस्ते

East Bay V: Statement Of Contested Issues, In USDC ND CA

Geez. What a messed up agency ICE is at the moment. The below details the federal violations, against the rights of the people -- primarily, to find out what the feds are doing in our name and with our tax dollars. Sheesh.

Here is all seven pages of that (as a pdf file) -- and a bit:

. . .Plaintiffs’ prayer for relief asks this Court to (1) declare that Defendant United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement has violated FOIA by failing to make a timely determination regarding Plaintiffs’ request for expedited processing, and by failing to grant Plaintiffs a waiver of all fees associated with its FOIA request; (2) declare that each Defendant has violated FOIA by failing to make a timely determination regarding Plaintiffs’ FOIA request and by failing to produce responsive documents; (3) order each Defendant to respond to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request by a date or dates certain and to search for and produce responsive records on an expedited basis; (4) order Defendant United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to grant Plaintiffs a waiver of all fees associated with their FOIA request; and (5) award Plaintiffs their reasonable costs and attorney fees. . . .

Now you know. Onward -- these jamokes are mostly crooks. . . .

नमस्ते

People Wrongly Detained Are Being Freed -- Right Now -- In Chicago! Motion To Enforce... Prevails Against ICE/DHS, Before USDC Judge Cummings.

This is gratifying -- and clearly the correct result.

I am posting a fair amount of the order in blue below, as it clearly explains that if ICE asks you no questions, and doesn't have a warrant with your name on it -- AND then arrests you. . . you will almost always be entitled to immediate release without any bond or bail -- as the agents have violated our Constitution in grabbing you:

. . .For the reasons stated in detail on the record as to each individual, and in consideration of the recent decision in Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin, No. 2:25-CV-05605-MEMF-SP, 2026 WL 2751388, at *19 n.18 (C.D.Cal. Sept. 2, 2026), where the court found as follows:

In their arrest narratives, Plaintiffs describe arrests where the arrestees did not attempt to flee, agents did not ask any questions to ascertain risk of escape, and agents did not appear to know the names of the arrestees prior to approaching them. Taken together, these observations support the conclusion that no likelihood of escape analysis took place: When an agent approaches someone without knowing who they are, the only way the agent could gather the requisite information for a likelihood of escape analysis is by learning more about the detainee. Where no questions -- or no questions beyond the arrestee’s immigration status -- were asked, no likelihood of escape analysis could have been conducted; this Court grants plaintiffs’ motion to enforce with respect to the following individuals: [Redacted]. . . .

For any of the above eight 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 10:00 a.m. CT on October 12, 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 12, 2026. Defendants shall file a certification by 5:00 p.m. CT on October 14, 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. . . .

Onward -- particularly excited for Halloween, this year. They are big enough to really enjoy it!

नमस्ते

NASA Will Detail Its Efforts To Assist Japan, In The Launch Of The JAXA MMX Mission -- To Study The Martian Moons...

UPDATE/EDITOR'S NOTE: This is also cross-posted elsewhere both because the Japanese will reach Mars (likely flawlessly) perhaps a full decade ahead of old Elon's SpaceX, and they will do real exo-planetary science without ever endangering a space crew -- in the punishing radiation outside our magnetosphere. Listen up, Elon -- no need for boots on Mars!

We will keep an eye on this launch date -- and offer a stream, if available, out of Tanegashima Space Center that day/night.

This is the way the best of science -- on all fronts -- advances, most friction-free: with goodwill, and open cooperation -- not reclusive, ultra competitve, zero sum games, pitting nation against nation -- and treating scientists as mere pawns.

So we certainly applaud JAXA and NASA, today. Here's the good news:

. . .Media are invited to join NASA for a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, Thursday, Oct. 15, to preview the agency’s contributions to JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission.

The mission is scheduled to launch from JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on Monday, Oct. 19 EDT (Tuesday, Oct. 20 JST). . . .

The MMX spacecraft will arrive at Mars in August 2027 to begin its survey of the Red Planet’s two moons, Phobos and Deimos. After surveying Phobos in detail, the spacecraft will collect a sample of the moon’s surface no earlier than December 2028 and deliver it to Earth in 2031. NASA’s contributions to the mission include the MEGANE gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, the spacecraft’s surface sampler mechanism, and communications and navigation support from the agency’s Deep Space Network, as well as funding United States scientists participating on the MMX science team.

The MEGANE instrument was developed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, developed the spacecraft’s pneumatic sampler mechanism. NASA’s contributions to the MMX mission were funded by the agency’s Discovery Program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for high-value, focused planetary science investigations. The Discovery Program is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. . . .

Now you know. Much fun ahead, as we build. . . a yard-sized haunted house for the grand-nieces, and their dozens of neighborhood / school-friends. To be certain, we will need every spare hour, over the next 18 days. [What on Earth have we taken on?!] Heh!

नमस्ते

Since August, Hong Kong Has Seen A New "Outbreak Cluster" Of Mpox Cases (21), Primarily In Higher Risk Communities...

It may well be that mpox lingers in most larger cities in the world now -- and never is fully arrested. It has become a common public health outbreak, repeatedly -- almost all over the globe. And that was entirely. . . avoidable. [See here -- all my rants about the gutting USAID funding, by Trump and Musk, MAGA and DOGE.]

Here's the latest, on all that -- from a Reuters overnight report:

. . .Hong Kong has recorded 21 cases of mpox since August, accounting for 70 per cent of this year’s total, prompting health authorities to urge people who engage in high-risk sexual contact to take protective measures and get vaccinated to reduce their risk of infection.

The latest case, involving a 29-year-old man, brought the total number recorded in Hong Kong this year to 30, comprising 23 local cases and seven imported ones, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Saturday. Twenty-one cases, or 70 per cent of the total, were recorded since August.

Epidemiological investigations showed that all 21 patients reported engaging in high-risk sexual behaviour during the incubation period, including having sex with male strangers or multiple partners, and having sex without a condom, the centre said. . . .

Separately, I should note that Moderna is now trading around $225/share, again, on the NASDAQ (challenging its COVID-era high pricing marks) -- we told you it was a steal at around $38 (well beyond simple mRNA vaccine stock), last year. Smile -- it was.

नमस्ते

Fundamentally-Unethical Hep B Vaccine “Study” Nonsense — From Trumper In Fed. “Patronage” Position. Damn.

This one is courtesy of our very well informed commenters, but I was off the grid for most of last week.

For me personally, it is astonishing that the federal government has been largely reduced to a 1940s machine politics in Chicago model, or 1990s politics in the deep south.

Patronage: People with scant objective qualifications (cough! Erica Schwartz; Mary Beth Høeg) to be in any federal position are being granted vast authority over health care delivery, pharma and vaccines policy in the United States. This is deplorable.

This is the proof -- here's the full story -- thanks again to Anon.!

. . .Two months after the Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, her office has moved to allocate new funds for a controversial clinical trial of the hepatitis B vaccine in Guinea-Bissau, which was previously suspended. Researchers revised the study protocol in January, amid an international uproar over medical ethics. While it is not clear how much Schwartz was involved in, or knew about, the budget requests from her office, her appointment to the directorship came amid questions about how independent she would be from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In late September, a staff member within the CDC director’s office instructed the agency’s budget office to set aside $1.6 million to help fund the trial, Rolling Stone has learned. The new funding is being pulled from money directed by Congress for CDC global health security programs, two sources with knowledge of the study plans say.

Amid an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and swirling questions around a possible lab accident in Eastern Siberia that may have resulted in the release of plague bacteria, there are any number of vital uses for such funding. . . .

[The] $1.6 million will be slated for a clinical trial in Guinea-Bissau seeking to examine whether the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, used safely for decades, has potential negative health effects such as skin ailments or neurodevelopmental disorders. The study would be led by Christine Stabell Benn and Peter Aaby, married researchers at the University of Southern Denmark long lionized by Secretary Kennedy for their controversial vaccine research. Presently, they are facing accusations of scientific misconduct, unrelated to the hepatitis B trial, that are under review by the Danish Committee on Research Misconduct. . . .

However, in a nation where one in five adults have hepatitis B, the study design could result in some of the newborn participants being infected but receiving no birth dose of the vaccine, clinical trial and infectious disease experts contend. The revised protocol from January includes limited measures for screening mothers for hepatitis B, by asking them if they are infected, and blood tests for 250 mothers and children to screen for infection. It was not immediately clear by press time whether the researchers had made further revisions to the protocol.

“It’s a wholly unethical trial, and it shouldn’t be allowed,” says Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It saddens me to think that our country would in any way participate in a trial where half of the children would be receiving substandard care and thousands will be doomed to develop cirrhosis or liver cancer. . . .”

Stabell Benn has vehemently defended the ethics of the clinical trial, asserting that no child would receive less than the standard of care in Guinea-Bissau, and no participant would be denied treatment they would otherwise receive. “The trial complies with current national policy in Guinea-Bissau and has been reviewed and approved by the competent national ethics committee,” she previously told Rolling Stone. The research project she and Aaby run in Guinea-Bissau, the Bandim Health Project, has responded to these concerns on its website.

Professors Stabell Benn and Aaby, and officials from the Health and Human Services Agency and CDC, did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Rolling Stone sent questions for this story to the University of Southern Denmark on October 6. In response, the dean of the faculty of health sciences, Jakob Grauslund, said in a lengthy statement that “as of today, October 7, 2026, I have given the researchers approval to proceed with the revised Hepatitis B study.” He says that he had communicated that decision to Stabell Benn today. The approval was based on an “independent ethical assessment” carried out by the university’s research ethics committee, Grauslund says.

He adds that because a foreign ethics review panel — in this case, one in Guinea-Bissau — had already approved the study, Danish law precluded its regional or national ethics committees from conducting a separate review. Consequently, he says the university approached both the World Health Organization’s Research Ethics Review Committee and the European Network of Research Ethics Committees to conduct an independent review, but both said they were unable to.

He notes that authorities in Guinea-Bissau had yet to give their final approval, and “the study cannot begin until the necessary national authorization has been obtained.”

Inside CDC, proponents of the clinical trial had been waiting on the outcome of the University of Southern Denmark’s ethics review in order to resurrect the study, Rolling Stone has learned from agency sources. . . .

Now it appears that, despite a global effort to stop the Guinea-Bissau trial, Kennedy’s allies within the CDC have made plans to restart it. “Some of these things don’t die,” says a government health official with knowledge of the plans. “They just go into hibernation. . . .”

Onward, resolutely -- damn RFK, Jr. and Trump, just the same. Out.

नमस्ते

So Far, No Additional Bundibugyo Cases Reported In Nairobi, Kenya. That Is Slightly Encouraging News -- But It Is Very Early, In That Outbreak.

Of course, we will cheer this -- but we all well-know that we need 42 days of "no new cases" before we will be certain.

And today, we are at day. . . FIVE. And the public health authorities are still searching for at least 57 "missing" contacts, in and around Nairobi, Kenya.

In any event, here's the latest, from Nairobi:

. . .In a statement on Sunday, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said no new case had been recorded beyond the single imported case involving a Kenyan who had travelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo through Uganda. The patient tested positive, was isolated on October 5 and died the following day.

“All 122 contacts of the case have been listed and verified. 108 (88.5 per cent) are in quarantine and being monitored daily, and none have developed any symptoms thus far. Tracing of the remaining contacts is ongoing, in collaboration with international partners where necessary, while surveillance remains active around the clock,” Mr Duale said.

According to the CS, 293 samples were tested from 289 alerts, with only the confirmed case testing positive. . . .

The CDC reported 8,750 confirmed cases of Ebola disease and 4,208 confirmed deaths as of October 6, 2026, in an outbreak caused by Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The agency said the outbreak is spreading substantially faster than previous Ebola outbreaks and is now the second-largest on record. . . .

Now you know. Now back here, on Sunday morning, in the City of Big Shoulders. Smile.

नमस्ते

[U] Exceedingly Tough News: Bundibugyo / Ebola Fatalities Have Lept The DRC Border; Man In Nairobi Has Died -- At Least 66 People Need To Be Monitored...

The fastest spreading Ebola outbreak in modern history just got significantly worse. It is now known to be present in the bustling capital of Kenya -- with a fatality, and potentially 70 or more people exposed to Bundibugyo. [You may recall that in June, Tangerine 2.0 tried (without success) to force Kenyan authorities to build a "leper colony" / tent city -- to quarantine / house any US Citizens in Africa suspected of Ebola exposure. What a feckless putz.]

Here's the latest -- from Minnesota's CIDRAP:

. . .Kenya said 10 people are in quarantine after a Kenyan man died in Nairobi on Monday from the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola currently circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Officials also said they are attempting to trace 57 other case contacts.

The man, who had lived in DRC for 11 years, arrived in Kenya over the weekend. He had been sick for one month before traveling to Nairobi via a flight from Uganda. Kenyan officials say they do not know why health screenings failed to detect the man in either the DRC, Uganda, or at the Nairobi airport. . . .

[Subsequent Update: It turns out that the] patient travelled by road to Kampala, Uganda, before flying to Nairobi, arriving on October 3. The patient was isolated in hospital and tested positive for the virus. Despite supportive treatment, the patient died on October 5, the WHO said. . . .

The most recent update from the DRC shows 8,665 confirmed and 4,178 deaths, with a case-fatality rate of 48.2%. . . .

Very discouraging, indeed. But onward, just the same. [I've momentarily broken radio silence, and posted this one, from about 9,000 feet, on the road -- it seemed a significant development. Smile.]

नमस्ते

[U: Hearing, Now in Nashville] Christa Pike is conscious and speaking now. That’s good news.

But none of it will ever excuse what Tennessee did to her.

It is very hard to imagine that she will ever fully regain higher cognitive functioning -- her brain was deprived of oxygen for far too long.

Here is the latest, per the NYT:

. . .[Wed.: The] defense team was told that Pike might be taken off life support to die. That changed Tuesday. She cannot move either arm, and she has not been able to eat because she can’t swallow, he said. “We don’t know the toll all of this will take” (one of her lawyers, Mr. Spicey) says. . . . Pike was aware of the state’s execution attempt and was angry, Spivey said: at the same time, he said, she was suffering cognitive confusion. . . .

Pike was “speaking, limitedly” as of Tuesday, when her lawyers announced that she had regained consciousness. Part of the challenge for Pike’s lawyers is that she has been very involved in her litigation and has not been able to engage in anything that has happened since her failed execution. . . .

[Tues.:] Ms. Pike continues to receive critical medical care at a Nashville hospital, the lawyers said. The prognosis remains unclear, they said, but they expected a long recovery.

“Christa is a survivor and will take recovery one day at a time,” the lawyers said.

Ms. Pike, 50, is believed to be the first person to have survived doses of a lethal injection drug. She has been hospitalized since late Wednesday evening, after it became clear to witnesses that she was still breathing after two doses of pentobarbital, the drug used in lethal injection.

She had been unconscious and on a ventilator in recent days as medical staff worked to rid her body of the drug. The lawyers pointedly noted that Ms. Pike, who they said had sustained burns and other injuries to her arm, remained handcuffed and shackled to her bed. . . .

Onward. Deplorable. But onward. [For my part, as of Tuesday, I've decided to open by running a slightly more positive graphic image (from Colorado's Kenosha Pass) with this -- since it is what I saw that afternoon.]

नमस्ते

Here’s To Hoping — For Boulder — And Beyond…

I'd put this at a fairly small chance that it will end up prevailing at the Supremes -- but here's to hoping!

. . .The justices are about to hear a lawsuit that could determine whether the oil industry faces billions of dollars in liability for damages caused by global warming. . . .

Nearly a decade ago, the outdoorsy, liberal enclave of Boulder, Colo., sued two oil companies over their role in climate change. Now, the Supreme Court will consider whether the groundbreaking lawsuit can ever go to trial.

Its decision will resonate far beyond the Rockies.

A win for Boulder would likely clear the way for dozens of similar lawsuits nationwide aiming to extract billions of dollars from the fossil fuel industry to fight global warming. But if the court kills Boulder’s case, that could doom the others, handing a major victory to oil companies. . . .

Yep -- now, onward to the high Rockies at 10,200 feet and snows?! Heh.

नमस्ते

Vaxcyte's OPUS-1 Clinical Trial Posts "Very Near Best Case" Scenarios -- For Its Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Candidate: Merck And Pfizer Beware!

Its stock was in the mid-$50s on Friday. This morning, it opened just over. . . $90.

The candidate is besting Merck and Pfizer on some viral strains, and at least matching them on all others. This is, indeed, a big deal. Here's the latest -- from BioSpace's reporting:

. . .Vaxcyte’s investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine has achieved “near best-case scenario” data in a late-stage trial, matching existing shots on certain vaccine strains and beating them on others. The results sent the biotech’s shares up by more than 50% as investors welcomed a readout that could inject Vaxcyte into an $8 billion market.

VAX-31 met Pfizer’s existing pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) Prevar 20 and Merck’s Capvaxive on all 28 serotypes that one or both vaccines address, according to a Monday release. Vaxcyte’s option was superior to both vaccines on three unique serotypes. The Phase 3 trial met the co-primary endpoints that assessed non-inferiority of VAX-31 versus the marketed vaccines.

“[It] will be very difficult to refute that VAX-31 is showing best-in-class PCV potential here in this $8Bn+ (and growing) market,” Mizuho wrote in a Monday morning note.

Leerink Partners dubbed the readout “highly impressive. . . .”

Now you know and this is excellent news for seniors most at risk from these viral vectors. Onward -- to catch a jet outta' Midway. Smile. . . keep it spinning in good karma whilst I am away.

नमस्ते

A Guy Who Presided Over At Least Five Botched "Humane" Executions -- Across Three States, And Over A Decade... Is Out Of Work. Good Riddance.

Certainly, this Frank Strada is rightfully out of a job -- but so too should be all Chief Executioners, nation-wide, regardless of the gruesome, depraved and turgid methodology selected, for killing our fellow citizens (or more than occasionally, for failing to do the job).

The whole exercise is well-beneath a civilized society -- regardless of whether some in our number still feel the need to bray at the full Moon, late into the nights. [The woman condemned in Tennessee this week remains in an agonizing fugue state, lingering between life and death -- having never regained consciousness. Severe brain damage is almost certain to have occurred.]

So here, once again (I've posted this dissent before, here), is what I regard as the best reasoning -- from a dissent Justice Harry Blackmun penned in Callins v. Collins, 114 S.Ct. 1127, 1128-38 (1994), now over 33 years ago:

". . .From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. For more than 20 years I have endeavored — indeed, I have struggled — along with a majority of this Court, to develop procedural and substantive rules that would lend more than the mere appearance of fairness to the death penalty endeavor. Rather than continue to coddle the Court’s delusion that the desired level of fairness has been achieved and the need for regulation eviscerated, I feel morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed. It is virtually self-evident to me now that no combination of procedural rules or substantive regulations ever can save the death penalty from its inherent constitutional deficiencies. The basic question — does the system accurately and consistently determine which defendants "deserve" to die? — cannot be answered in the affirmative. It is not simply that this Court has allowed vague aggravating circumstances to be employed, see, for example, Arave v. Creech, (1993), relevant mitigating evidence to be disregarded, see, for example, Johnson v. Texas, (1993), and vital judicial review to be blocked, see, for example, Coleman v. Thompson, (1991). The problem is that the inevitability of factual, legal, and moral error gives us a system that we know must wrongly kill some defendants, a system that fails to deliver the fair, consistent, and reliable sentences of death required by the Constitution.

It is the decision to sentence a defendant to death — not merely the decision to make a defendant eligible for death — that may not be arbitrary. While one might hope that providing the sentencer with as much relevant mitigating evidence as possible will lead to more rational and consistent sentences, experience has taught otherwise. It seems that the decision whether a human being should live or die is so inherently subjective — rife with all of life’s understandings, experiences, prejudices, and passion — that it inevitably defies the rationality and consistency required by the Constitution.

Perhaps one day this Court will develop procedural rules or verbal formulas that actually will provide consistency, fairness, and reliability in a capital-sentencing scheme. I am not optimistic that such a day will come. I am more optimistic, though, that this Court eventually will conclude that the effort to eliminate arbitrariness while preserving fairness "in the infliction of [death] is so plainly doomed to failure that it — and the death penalty — must be abandoned altogether." Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 442 (1980) (Marshall, J., concurring in the judgment). I may not live to see that day, but I have faith that eventually it will arrive. The path the Court has chosen lessens us all. I dissent. . . ."

Onward, in the morning, to catch a jet -- into the high Rockies, to spend another precious week with my now 92 year old Alzheimer's suffering mom. These gloriously fiery Fall Aspen colors are what she's spent her whole life working, and saving for -- and now she shall have it, whenever she's able. Smile -- life. . . not the cold, mum, raw maw of death, is the point. . . of life, afterall.

Largely off-grid for a week. नमस्ते

Hearing Date In Chicago On Sanctions -- In ICE Brutality/False Arrest Cases…

I'll be off grid in the High Rockies then, again -- but do tune in, to hear if/when the sanctions against Team Bovino will be entered.

Here's the latest, from Judge Cummings (by running text only order):

. . .MINUTE entry before the Honorable Jeffrey I. Cummings:

Telephonic motion hearing set for 10/9/26 at 1:00 p.m. on plaintiffs' 8/28/26 motion to enforce consent decree [505]. The call-in number for the hearing is (855) 244-8681 and the access code is 2311 121 8062.

Members of the public and media will be able to call in to listen to the hearing. Persons granted remote access to proceedings are reminded of the general prohibition against photographing, recording, and rebroadcasting of court proceedings. . . .

Onward, resolutely -- go Buffs, tonight -- [improbably] beat Texas Tech!

नमस्ते

Official DRC Ebola Death Toll Crossed 4,000 Today. Actual Totals Are More Like... 6,000. Disheartening.

Not surprising. Just discouraging. Last time (during Biden Admin.), the dying ended with four people in DRC. We are a thousand-fold worse, under Tangerine's gutting of international aid sources for public health. Dammit.

Here's the latest, even as that local political leader (slain for advocating safe Ebola burial practices -- in Butembo) was buried, just yesterday:

. . .Congo's Ebola outbreak has now recorded more than 4,000 deaths, authorities said as they struggle to contain the spread of the virus.

The latest figures were released by the health ministry on Thursday. They show that 4,018 people have died from among 8,300 confirmed cases in what has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history.

More than 2,000 patients have recovered from the disease, the Reuters news agency notes. . . .

Now you know -- and my Northwestern Wildcats are putting on a Friday night show in their sparkling new stadium here tonight -- up 24-7 at halftime on the formidable Penn State squad. Let's hope it lasts! Onward. [And the 'Cats did wallop my CU Buffs whilst I was on the French part of my vacay, in Nice. Heh.]

नमस्ते

I Am Cribbing Shamelessly From EW This Morning. Let's Take A Look At Who All Attended Tangerine 2.0's Tech Summit / Dinner... How Ironic!

Properly, EmptyWheel gets credit for the list -- hers is replete with expansive bios on each name -- and each coming here mostly as refugees (some without proper papers).

I will simply list them -- for irony's sake. Most are from what Trump calls "sh!thole countries". What an a$$. Here's the list -- fully 11 of the 19:

. . .Shyam Sankar

Chamath Palihapitiya

Satya Nadella

Lisa Su

Hock Tan

Jensen Huang

Elon Musk [South Africa -- worked unlawfully here, on an expired student visa]

Sundar Pichai

Sanjay Mehrota

Nikesh Arora. . . .

Now you know. Each one, a shitholer -- but now as captains of industry -- they are Tangerine's best billionaire buddies. This is no judgment of them -- I judge. . . him. He is a malign monster -- nothing more. A divisive opportunist.

नमस्ते

Gov. Bill Lee Won't Say He'll Commute To Life Without Parole. WTAH?!

What on Earth is wrong with him?

He personally had authorized torturing her for at least 28 hours, now. The acids under her skin are eating away her flesh and stopping neurological activity -- with everything they invade. She is dying, from the inside, now.

". . .Christa Pike was unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator in a Nashville hospital. . . a day after surviving a botched execution attempt, her lawyers said in a court filing.

Ms. Pike was critically ill, they wrote in a Friday filing in Davidson County Chancery Court, and both of her arms were swollen, burned and blistered when she arrived at the hospital. . . ."

And, it is unclear whether she is even remotely conscious any longer -- but she is breathing. She lives -- in a limbo between death and life -- undoubtedly in great pain. She's been poisoned in a vast dose.

And Bill Lee still won't rule out trying to execute her -- again.

This man had four chances to let justice work on Wednesday and into Thursday -- but he affirmatively authorized her death. This despite open habeas appeals still then underway.

He must be held to account for his state's barbarism -- the buck stops with him.

Out.

नमस्ते

Shut Yer' Feckless, Hypocritical Yap, TN Gov. Bill Lee. Damnation.

So -- yes, her victim remains dead -- and she was a certainly very bad person, with her 17 year old boyfriend, 30 years ago. But he got life without parole. She was sentenced to. . . die. And no, I cannot just let this. . . go.

Ms. Pike's fate though, in all likelihood is now far worse than death, outright. She's likely going to linger for months or years, in a limbo -- vaguely between life and death -- paralyzed from the neck down, a brain trapped in an essentially dead body.

If that is not "cruel punishment" (for someone who barely passes the IQ test, to be eligible for death -- who was so sentenced at the young age of 18 after years of horrific sexual abuse, as a child). . . I cannot imagine what is.

Here's the NYT update as of mid-morning -- East Coast time:

. . .Gov. Bill Lee paused capital punishment in Tennessee on Thursday and called for a review of the state’s policies on how it puts people to death. The announcement came hours after Christa Pike, a death row inmate, survived two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital in the state’s second botched execution this year.

Ms. Pike, 50, was hospitalized late Wednesday night when she remained conscious after the injections. It was not immediately clear Thursday morning what her condition was, or what had gone wrong.

“It is deeply disturbing to me” that the execution was botched Gov. Lee (R/MAGA) said. [Ed. Note: Of course, yesterday he personally chose not to give her a short reprieve -- to have her habeas claims adjudicated -- nor to consider her firing squad request. We do know she'd be dead now -- if he had listened, as she wanted.] Lee said the pause he imposed includes Ms. Pike’s case.

The pause will also delay an execution that had been scheduled for December for a man convicted of murdering a friend. This year, Mr. Lee issued a reprieve for another death-row inmate whose execution had been canceled after medical staff members failed to find a vein. . . .

We must do better than these stabs a backward-thinking, bluntly-cruel and divisive. . . politicking. Mr. Lee in particular -- and the five Justices who did not stop her execution -- despite her habeas claim not having been fully-exhausted. Alternatively, we should have let her have her dying wish -- to be an example of our barbarism -- by firing squad. Maybe then more people might. . . wake up. These are nightmare scenarios -- over and over, again.

नमस्ते

The Arc Of Justice -- Bends [Slowly] Toward... Progress: DC Federal "Freeze" Class Action In 25-cv-402 Global Health Council, Et Al., From Last Year...

We are pleased to report that the ending-of-funding lawlessness is being brought to a definitive heel.

Here's the latest in 25-cv-402, in DC before the able USDC Judge Amir H. Ali, in DC:

. . .[Tangerine 2.0] Defendants proposed that they be given the opportunity to provide information relevant to whether they complied with the relevant foreign aid appropriations laws through a series of status reports supported by sworn declarations on October 2, 7, and 20, 2026. Id. at 18, 20. Defendants represented there would be no prejudice to any party from this approach because binding authority allows the court to hold open the period of availability for the appropriated funds beyond September 30, 2026. Id. at 19–21. Defendants also represented that, because USAID and the State Department have initially obligated funds or will do so before the spending deadline, all the funds at issue will be available for re-obligation for four years under the terms of the appropriations laws. Id. at 10, 15–16; see Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. . . .

Based on the parties’ representations in the status reports and at the conference, the court adopts Defendants’ proposal to submit these additional status reports. The court also exercises its statutory and equitable authority to suspend otherwise applicable September 30, 2026, lapses of budget authority pending resolution of Plaintiffs’ claims in this case or further order of the court. See 31 U.S.C. § 1502(b) (“A provision of law requiring that the balance of an appropriation or fund be returned to the general fund of the Treasury at the end of a definite period does not affect the status of lawsuits or rights of action involving the right to an amount payable from the balance.”). As the D.C. Circuit has recognized, in section 1502(b), Congress “expressly authorized courts to suspend the lapse of budget authority while lawsuits play out.” Goodluck v. Biden, 104 F.4th 920, 928 (D.C. Cir. 2024); see also Rochester Pure Waters Dist. v. EPA, 960 F.2d 180, 184 (D.C. Cir. 1992) (explaining that “budget authority” generally refers to “authority granted by Congress to commit or expend funds”). . . . As Defendants acknowledged at the conference, binding circuit precedent also recognizes courts’ equitable authority to suspend the deadline. Draft Hr’g Tr. at 18–19. This court has already held this case fits neatly within that longstanding line of authority. . . .

Here, the court finds it appropriate and necessary to suspend the impact of lapses in budget authority related to this case to give the parties the opportunity to prepare a complete administrative record that will enable the court to rule on the pending motions based on the full picture of what actually happened. . . .

Defendants shall file status reports supported by sworn declarations on October 2, 2026; October 7, 2026; and October 20, 2026, providing the information described in the court’s September 22, 2026, minute order based on all information available to Defendants by the date of filing. . . .

Musk / DOGE / Trump loses -- again (in DC, on those "freeze" cases). Grin.

नमस्ते

Tangent: Mr. Mulleady Will Learn His Sentence In Miami Felony Court, On December 17, 2026...

We now have a final sentencing date -- in federal court in Miami:

. . .PAPERLESS ORDER SETTING SENTENCING HEARING AND PROCEDURES as to Kevin Patrick Mulleady

THIS CAUSE came before Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres upon Defendant's Change of Plea hearing held on September 25, 2026, a Report and Recommendation was submitted recommending that Defendant be adjudicated guilty of Repeatedly Making Harassing Communications, and having received no objections, the Court adopted the Report and Recommendation on October 1, 2026. Accordingly, it is hereby

ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the Sentencing Hearing is set in this matter for Thursday, December 17, 2026, at 02:30 P.M. in Courtroom 11-4 at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Courthouse before Judge Jacqueline Becerra. All pending motions are denied as moot.

U.S. Probation is directed to prepare a pre-sentence investigation report.

Defendant should be prepared to surrender at sentencing should the Court sentence defendant to a period of incarceration.

The parties are directed to the Court's Sentencing Procedures. . . .

Signed by Judge Jacqueline Becerra on 10/1/2026. . . .

Now you know. Onward -- what a stupidly feckless tool that guy is.

नमस्ते

Just A Squib: Crew 13 Launch Prep, Underway -- Per NASA YouTube Live TV...

Watch the window below -- around 11 am Eastern.

Onward -- to the International Space Station, the Infinite willing, later this morning [and yes, I need something positive, after last night's depravity in the Tennessee state prison death house]:

. . .NASA’s SpaceX Crew‑13 mission is scheduled to launch at 11:10 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 1, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission will carry NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov to the International Space Station. Live coverage begins at 9:20 a.m. EDT. . . .

नमस्ते