AN OPTIMAL PLAN FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

New Hampshire primary voting will not end until 8PM ET.

Donald Trump should beat Nikki Haley by double-digits.
The next contest will be in Nevada, which is rather confusing, and I should stop here, but won't.

Democrats and Republicans couldn't agree on primary or caucus, and this is now a mess.
For those citizens choosing the primary system (which means to vote by showing up at a polling place), early voting begins on January 27 and runs through February 2. Here is the list of who is running. 20 individuals, including Biden and Haley, but no Trump.
This I'm not certain, but I think Democrats will only use the above system, while Republicans have the option to do one or both.
The matter of who is running does not matter, and candidates had the option of being in the primary or caucus, but only one.
And, get this, Republicans can either vote only, or also show up at a caucus, which will occur on Thursday, February 8 between 5PM and 7:30PM.
You with me so far?
It doesn't matter. While I don't know of a very current poll of Trump vs Haley, Trump will crush Haley. Why? Trump is in the caucus only and Haley is in the primary only. However, in Nevada, only the caucus results count. Thus, Trump will get all the votes for the national convention. Does this make any sense to you if you are a Haley supporter? As I say, Nevada is confusing.

About South Carolina on February 24, Axios indicated Trump at 64%, Haley 25% and DeSantis 8%, but most of the DeSantis support will go to Trump. And Haley is former governor of this state.
Then Michigan on February 27, a poll has Trump at close to 70% and Haley not even 20%.

Super Tuesday comes on March 5 when 15 or so states hold their primary/caucus.
The most useless Republican caucus will be held in Hawaii on March 12. Can you believe, maybe 20 years ago, I actually went to one of these. And I'm a Democrat.

If I ran the Republican Party, this would be my optimal plan:

Sometime soon after Haley gets beat by Trump in New Hampshire, a deal is made between the two camps.
Kiss and make up, with Trump selecting Haley as his vice-presidential candidate.

Trump's MAGA fans might not love this, but it should be okay if done right.
From the party viewpoint, if Trump does get derailed by the Supreme Court or his various criminal trials, and is deemed unworthy or unable to become the Republican nominee in mid-July, then the obvious choice to replace him would be Haley.
Biden will beat Trump on 5November2024. He has too much baggage.
Haley now usually prevails over Biden in polls. Age becomes a huge factor.

The Republican Party is in almost total disarray today, and losing Independents. They know that a Trump presidency could mean the end of Democracy. Yet, they march along to their demise. Nikki Haley could well be their savior if they work this right.

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 suspicio...

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...

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 a...

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