THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

Today is Memorial Day, a national holiday to remember those who died in our wars, since the Revolutionary War, nearly 1.2 million military personnel. Nearly half from the Civil War. In comparison, those Covid-19 deaths passed 1.1 million in four years. This day is a good time for you to reflect on their ultimate sacrifice as we continue to fight for freedom and justice around the world. This not a happy day, but a meaningful one.

From Time magazine:

After the Civil war, was called Decoration Day to honor the graves of fallen Union soldiers at the end of May because of springtime blossoms.
The holiday only became official in 1968.
The day has shifted from solemnity to celebration, with American flags at half-mast and a moment of silence at 3PM.

Finally, the price of freedom is expensive. The USA spends more on defense than the next 9 countries, combined.

There will be ceremonies at military graveyards, parades, barbecues and the like.

But most enjoy this 3-day weekend for sporting events like the Indy 500, which had a rain delay, 87 lead changes and winner Josef Newgarden of Team Penske, also the victor last year.
Today, Major League Baseball, the NHL and NBA, plus French (tennis) Open, where Coco Gauff, now ranked #3, her lowest ever, will play T. Zindansek on NBC.
ESPN2 announced which NCAA baseball teams made the 64-team field. The University of Hawaii, after winning 18 of their final 20 games, did not make the cut.

Speaking of sports and deaths, the golf world lost 30-year old Grayson Murray, who this year won the Sony Open in Honolulu. He dropped out on Friday in the second round of the Charles Schwab Challenge, and later committed suicide. This was his best year. Made no obvious sense. But he had mental demons, and gained peace and freedom through death.

Professional sports are not particularly known for suicides.

SO WHAT ARE THE JOBS WITH HIGHEST SUICIDE RATES?

1. Medical Doctors
2. Dentists
3. Police Officers
4. Veterinarians
5. Financial Services
6. Real Estate Agents
7. Electricians
8. Lawyers
9. Farmers
10. Pharmacists

About the medical profession, my wife and I a long time ago were close friends of a Harvard doctor in Honolulu, who had a loving wife and two bubbly children. He was also an actor at local theaters with a great and happy personality. One day, he committed suicide for no apparent reason.

Thirteen years ago I wrote an article for The Huffington Post called Suicide Dreams. This was not long after my wife died, and blended a range of topics, including the song from M*A*S*H, Suicide is Painless, and a Japanese samurai film I had recently seen dealing with ritual suicide.

The global suicide rate in 2016 was 10.5 per 100,000 population, lower than the 11.5 in 2008.

Men, 16 deaths / 100,000, and women, 7/100,000.
Absolute highest, Greenland 96/100,000
Next, Lesotho 87.5/100,00.
#6 Micronesia 29
#8 South Africa 23.5
#11 Russia 21.6
#12 South Korea 21.2
#31 USA 14.5
#41 India 12.9
#49 Japan 12.2
#67 Canada 10.3
#101 Thailand 8.0
#150 Tonga 4.4
#174 Turkey 2.3

> 30
20–30
15–20
10–15
5–10
0–5
Data unavailable

The suicide rate for U.S. college athletes has doubled from 20 years ago, 7.6/100,000 to 15.3/100,000. From above, the U.S. rate is 14.5/100,000.

Donald Trump should be more selective about his time. Two speeches were embarrassing.

He addressed the Libertarian National Convention and got booed and jeered. Worse, he lost to Chase Oliver as their presidential nominee. Chase Oliver???
Last week went to the Bronx to rally support for his campaign. His spokesperson said 25,000 people attended. It was closer to 10,000 with a lot of empty space.

So on this solemn Memorial Day, appreciate the price of freedom and liberty. Dollars...and lives.

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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