IT'S GETTING BETTER AND BETTER

For some of us, life is getting better and better. To begin, the Hamas released two American hostages from the Chicago area, Judith Raanan and her 17-year old daughter Natalie, said to be for humanitarian reasons. One reason was because the mother was in poor health. She looked well in the photo on the left.

Three strikes, and Rep. Jim Jordan is out as House speaker. He lost more votes again. Of course, this means life is getting better for people like me, not Republicans, who have been clueless for 17 days, and continue so. A next vote might occur next Tuesday. There is now a smorgasbord of potential applicants, who need to announce so before Monday. They are all floundering and angry at each other. Oh, they also were told to blame the Democrats for this sorry condition of their body, for all of them, plus only 8 House Republicans, caused this stalemate.

Yesterday, I reported that former legal advisor to Donald Trump, Sidney Powell, worked out a plea deal with Georgia officials, and will get no jail time for promising to, essentially, nail Trump. Here is Time magazine's view on What Sidney Powell Flipping Means for Trump. Even Greta Thunberg had to comment. Powell...Kraken...? Read this article.

With the earlier breaking of bail bondsman Scott Hall, Fani Willis is now 3 for 3 in flipping Trump chumps, for you can add Kenneth Kenneth Chesebro, the attorney who came up with Trump's scheme to create false electors in seven states. For someone so close and crucial to Trump, Chesebro also got no jail time, but a date to tell the truth whenever the State of Georgia or the U.S. Justice Department asks him to testify. This sudden decision came as trial jurors were in the process of being selected.

No doubt Willis has triggered a domino effect. There are now 16 indicted victims left, including Trump. Look for many more of his friends to desert him to save their own lives. Looks like 4 March 2024 is now the timing for the next trial.

But will attempts be made to accelerate the timetable? Then again, maybe Jack Smith has sufficient ammo for the powers that determine to now focus on Trump for his January 6 coup

I got the following in my e-mail yesterday. Something to do with far-right MAGA activists laying the groundwork for Trump's return to office: Project 2025.

They aim to defund the Department of Justice, dismantle the FBI, break up the Department of Homeland Security and eliminate the Departments of Education and Commerce, to name just a few of their larger targets. They want to give the president complete power over quasi-independent agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies that have been the bane of Trump’s political existence in the last few years.

I can say a lot more, but I'll let you read the details. They also ask for a $40 donation.

I'll close with Nobody, which I watched on Amazon Prime last night. Rated R. Nobody, especially me, heard of this film, for it was released in 2021, and got good Rotten Tomatoes reviews: 84 from reviewers and 94 from audiences.

In short, the movie starts so slowly I wanted to find something else, but just as I was about to, a hint, followed by some mild action. How can this nothing homebody played by Bob Odenkirk suddenly turn into a confident sleuth? Well, he once was an assassin, and so was his father (Christopher Lloyd, who is growing very old in a rest home) and a brother (RZA, half-brother who communicates by shortwave because he is in hiding). Of course, they come together at the end. The whole production reminded me of John Wick. In fact, what about in the future Odenkirk and Keanu Reeves combining their characters into one film?

Will there be a sequel? Yes, for the last scene of the film sets that all up. Certainly looking like Odenkirk is establishing himself as the new Liam Neeson, who is 71. For those who never heard of Odenkirk, he is the Saul you call, following from Breaking Bad. Both that and Better Call Saul scored in the high 90's from Rotten Tomatoes.

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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