THIS IS NATIONAL BALONEY DAY

Seventeen days into the Hamas attack into Israel, one of the core goals was an insurance policy to protect them from wholesale retribution. Found was a Hamas abduction manual detailing instructions on how to take civilian hostages. That is page one to the left.

No releases today, but more should be coming if Israel continues to delay their military plan to enter the Gaza Strip to eliminate the Hamas. As long as this prospect remains, and there is no serious participation of the Hezbollah to the north, the next few weeks could well be driven by these hostage negotiations.

Donald Trump's reputation and effectiveness are as good as already lying in a coffin with daily events hammering more and more nails for his permanent doom. In a New Hampshire speech, he compared himself to Nelson Mandela. He just might be right and could well spend a good portion of his life in jail. The following developments certainly are condemning:

A third former lawyer to Trump, Jenna Ellis, pleaded guilty in the election subversion Georgia case.

She thus become the fourth of 19 co-defendants to do so.
She chose to testify against Trump for no jail time, a fine and some community service.
Watch a video from Georgia.
That is her with Rudy to her right and Sidney Powell in the back.
Said she aided Rudy Giuliani in this voter fraud effort.

Surely looks like Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis' strategy to charge such a large number is working, for there were too many of them for Trump to continue paying their lawyer fees and daily expenses.
You can expect more nails in the coffin when many more co-defendants choose to continue on with their personal lives than sacrifice for the leader of an coup attempt to destroy democracy in America.

A fourth former lawyer to Trump, Michael Cohen, testified in a New York trial that he lied for Trump because he was told to do so. Watch this MSNBC report. One comment that clip:

From Trump's lackey now David to his Goliath. Cohen's reported demeanor on the stand comes as no surprise as he has been waiting eagerly for this day for a long, long time. Trump made sure that Cohen lost everything, and Cohen is returning the favor.

About the Florida trial about Trump mishandling classified documents? That's on hold, probably because the Department of Justice treats this crime as not worthy of pursuit compared to the Georgia and DC indictments about 6January2021 and related criminal actions. However, watch this video from Australia detailing his sharing of secrets with Trump's friend in that country, and how that information made it back to enemies in the Middle East. After this information became public, Trump branded Anthony Pratt a red-hair weirdo.

I should mention that Tom Emmer just dropped out of the Speaker's race. He was called a RINO by Trump and said voting for him would be a tragic mistake. The Donald clearly wants the House to remain screwed up.

For those into pro basketball, the NBA season begins tonight with a TNT doubleheader. Want to know who made the roster on your team? Click on this. I have fantasy teams this year. My mild interest is in how Victor Wembanhama of the San Antonio Spurs competes. They host Dallas tomorrow night.

Otherwise in sports, I'm ignoring the rest of the Major League Baseball playoffs because my fantasy team picked the wrong players. The hot sports item, though, is Lionel Messi's pink jersey. I have one of his when he played for Barcelona, given to me by the Qatar government when I was there.

Finally, sad to report that Bobi, the world's oldest dog EVER, died at the age of 31 years and 165 days. Lived for 11,478 days in Conquiros, a small Portuguese village. Always roamed freely in a peaceful environment, wandering about with cats and eating human food soaked in water to remove sesonings.

About the above posting. Let me remind you that today is National Bologna Day. You can also spell it baloney. In America this is a type of sausage similar to the Italian mortadella. Finely ground pork or beef, smoked and cured. They taste different because of different spices. In the USA, can also be made from chicken, turkey venison and soy protein. Very dangerous product. How to observe this day. Get a bologna sandwich. Also, listen to My Bologna by Weird Al Yankovic.

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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