VICE PRESIDENTIAL RUNNING MATES AND THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES

Well, Judge Scott McAfee ruled today that Fani Willis can continue her role in the trials against Donald Trump and his cronies, but boyfriend Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor on this case, must go. Boy, it would be nice if Willis can now get former Georgia Governor, Roy Barnes, to serve in this role. He was the person first asked to do this. He looks old, but now in his mid-70's, remains convincing.

In any event, one more case against Donald Trump now sure to happen before the November 5 election. The status?

The New York Hush Money trial will be pushed back at least until May.

The Florida documents trial will also be somewhat delayed.
The DC January 6 trial for Trump's failed coup attempt is awaiting a Supreme Court decision. Hearings later next month with a decision probably before the Republican Nation Convention in July. I suspect this trial will begin in September when the Supreme Court says Trump is not immune.
The Georgia RICO trials will now proceed, again. Four have already been found guilty, and a few more subordinates to Trump will soon be hailed into court. What about Trump? With so many other trials, time and space will be problems. Perhaps August? Even the lesser trials will be damaging for Trump, for they will all be nationally televised, live.
Watch MSNBC at 10 PM EDT today for a special on Trump Indictments. Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissmann have a new book with this title.
The noose is tightening.

What drew me to the topic of the day was seeing that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his prime Veep running mates: Aaron Rodgers or Jesse Ventura. Kennedy is 70-years old and son of RFK.

Graduated in law from the University of Virginia.
A racist who is known most for his vaccine skepticism and promotion of various conspiracy theories.

His own family has distanced itself from him, calling him dangerous and Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same vision, values or judgement.
Attitudes mixed, but would probably hurt Biden more than Trump.
In a poll against Trump and Biden, he has up to 15% of the actual votes.
Could well participate in an presidential debates, if one is held.

Other third party candidates include:

Cornell West of his Justice for All Party party and Jill Stein of the Green Party. Both would hurt Biden.
The No Labels group is still searching for a ticket, having been turned down by Joe Manchin, who would have really hurt Biden.

The Libertarian Party will probably name 37-year old Chase Russell Oliver. Should draw more Republican than Democratic votes.
These individuals know they can't win because of the electoral college system. However, they have a variety of reasons why they are doing this. And they will be disruptive and are spoilers.

Ross Perot in 1993 helped Bill Clinton become president.
Ralph Nader in 2000 kept Al Gore out of the White House.
The presence of third party candidates could mean that the victor on November 5 might only get 40% of the votes, which would really help Donald Trump, for his supporters won't waver, while Biden's are soft.

No way will Nikki Haley be part of a third party team, but what she does will have an impact on the final results.
Will Liz Cheney mount an Independent campaign? She would seriously hurt Trump.

So from Haley, now Cheney becomes the one key individual difference maker about the presidential election. The Hill had some observations.

About veeps, Biden has Kamala Harris. Donald Trump has a truckload of potentials. Nikki Haley could make a crucial difference, but all signs are that it will not be her.

A few more Trump cartoons to take you into the weekend.

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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