IS THIS THE FIRST REAL STEP THE USA TAKES TO COMBAT GLOBAL WARMING?

Nancy Pelosi and her entourage are today in Singapore. Read her Singapore statement. She met with Singapore President Halimah Yacob.

However, the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong since 2004 has really been running the country, who also met Pelosi. But will she visit Taiwan? Apparently yes, but only as a one night stopover. She will also stop by Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.

Most of these countries rank near the top in new cases/million population. While reportage on weekends are spotty, here is how they ranked of major countries in terms of new cases yesterday/million population:

#1 Japan 1695
#2 S. Korea 1433
#3 Australia 1160
#4 New Zealand 891
#5 Taiwan 881
#6 Singapore 859
#8 Italy 625
#12 France 481

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 negotiated by Senators Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer is a pale version of the bullish $3+ trillion original package, and $2+ trillion Democrat wish-list legislation, that nevertheless might well be the the first real step the USA takes to combat global climate warming. The details:

Total Revenue to be raised = $739 billion

5% Corporate Minimum Tax $313 billion
Prescription Drug Pricing Reform $288 billion
IRS Tax Enforcement $124 billion
Carried Interest Loophole $ 14 billion

Total investments = $433 billion

Energy Security/Climate Change $433 billion
Affordable Care Extension $ 64 billion

TOTAL DEFICIT REDUCTION = $300+ billion

Want to read the full legislation? It is 725 pages long. Supposedly Senator Kyrsten Sinema is carefully reading it. That's what staff do. Will she become the next Joe Manchin?

For the first time in a long time Manchin will today meet with Sinema.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who has been in that position for a decade, will still need to rule if this bill can pass through reconciliation. She could delete the legality of certain budget items.
Note that she serves at the pleasure of Chuck Schumer.
If Sinema agrees, then will Senator Dick Durbin be able to vote because of COVID?

Will House Democrat moderates bend enough.
The current plan is to pass the senate by August 5, when it goes on recess.
There is too much promise for this legislation to now be scuttled.

If all goes well, let's face it, a total of $433 billion is not quite the $50 trillion it will take to end global climate warming. This Senate bill is worth less than 1% of what is needed.

According to Forbes, funds are needed for renewable energy ($14 trillion), electric vehicles ($11 trillion), biofuels ($27 trillion), hydrogen ($20 trillion) and carbon capture/storage ($2.5 trillion). Note: 1 trillion dollars = 1000 billion dollars.

UK professor Bill McGuire published a new book, Hothouse Earth. He says: we’ve passed the point of no return and must now brace ourselves for climate breakdown. If we act now it could be merely “grim.”

I actually met with him in his campus office when I was writing SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth. He is a bit into hyperbole, as he was on mega tsunamis.

The usual sites are suffering this year, like Pacific Northwest, Europe and China. Yes, China. They are breaking records, something, for some reason, that escape media hype. Shanghai hit 106F, the highest since 1873. All-time highs: Tunisia 131F, Iran 129F, Death Valley 134.

Finally the full blooming of my Blood Lily on Day 13.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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