Before butter and alcohol, a couple of news items: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he won't block the Republican funding bill , incurring the wrath of other Democratic leaders.  Trump's spending bill subsequently passed today .  Major storm with potential for baseball-size hail and tornadoes are expected today for Missouri and Illinois, also the South to Wisconsin. Mark Carney was sworn in as  Canada's new prime minister .   He will call for a general election in the coming weeks, but this will not affect his leadership, as the governing Liberal Party will still remain in control. Canada's political system is like the UK.  A constitutional monarchy recognizing the Queen/King as the head of state, with the Prime Minister as head of government.   They have a Parliament.  Their Senate has 105 seats appointed by someone called the Governor General, who represents King Charles.  The House of Commons has 338 members elected b...

How screwed up the House of Representatives must be.  They tried, and   could not even impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.   Why did they even try?  Well, Donald Trump told them to do so. Speaker Mike Johnson doesn't want aid for Ukraine.  So he also yesterday tried to sneak though only aid for Israel.  That vote, too, failed to pass.  He said he would next week still attempt to impeach Mayorkas.  In the Senate, thanks to Donald Trump, it looks like the immigration part is holding back their aid package.   Senate President Chuck Schumer  now plans to bring to a vote only the Israel/Ukraine/Taiwan financial portion. I have long been fascinated with the  neutrino .   Why? It is the smallest particle, with the electron as #2.  Neither has yet been actually measured for mass size. Elementary particles  form matter and radiation. There are two kinds of particles, Fermion and Boson.  Remem...

Nancy Pelosi   and her entourage are today in Singapore.    Read her Singapore statement .  She met with Singapore President Halimah Yacob. However, the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong since 2004 has really been running the country, who also met Pelosi.   But will she visit Taiwan?  Apparently yes, but only as a one night stopover.  She will also stop by Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.   Most of these countries rank near the top in new cases/million population.  While reportage on weekends are spotty, here is how they ranked of major countries in terms of new cases yesterday/million population: #1       Japan  1695 #2       S. Korea  1433 #3      Australia  1160 #4      New Zealand  891 #5       Taiwan  881 #6       Singapore  859 #8      Italy  625 #12    France...