Thursdays have shifted from Covid to anything of medical or lifestyle worthiness.  But to start, I count ten pandemic waves: The tenth one was tiny, and occurred this past summer.  Will there be an eleventh? There usually is a winter uptick in respiratory virus ailments, as is expected for some combination of the seasonal flu, Covid and RSV. 15 Craigside has schedule a day next week to administer the updated Covid vaccine.  Everyone should get this shot. Reduces symptoms, hospitalization rate and death. Latest data seem to indicated that  vaccinated people are less liable to get Long Covid . How terrible was this Covid Pandemic? Nearly 7 million people died, a mortality rate of just under 0.1% of the world population. The USA Covid mortality rate is 0.34%.  This is more than three times the world average.  However, the world count is known to be too low. During the 14th century, the bubonic plague, or Black Death, killed 25 million Europe, a  mortality rate of around 33% . The Spanish

Biggest news of the day?   The House of Representatives voted to oust Keven McCarthy as Speaker of the House, 216-210 .  Never happened before in our history.   So what's next? At the beginning of his speakership, McCarthy filed into the record (kept secret) a list of names in priority order to the House Clerk to act in the case of his vacancy.   The person highest on the list shall act as Speaker pro tempore.   The first task will presumably be to vote on a permanent speaker.  But not necessarily.  There is no legal time frame for anything. Could McCarthy run again? Sure. Probably won't win a normal vote, so could well work out a deal with Democrats. But he has said  enough , and won't run again. Could Democrat Hakeem Jeffries run? Sure. But he won't get that position. Could Matt Gaetz become the next speaker.  Nope. Why?  Republicans are not idiotic as Gaetz. The second big newsworthy item is that no one won the Powerball jackpot last night.  Thus, you have until...we

First, yes, the  Donald Trump/family New York fraud court case began today   with The Donald personally in attendance.   Trial will last into December and at worst will only cost him $250 million, which he'll contest.  No jail time for this infraction. Got this in my e-mail this morning: Good morning, Patrick! We are excited to share the historic news that California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. As EMILYs List founder Ellen Malcom said,   the governor has made an extraordinary choice .   Laphonza was the first Black woman and the first mother to lead EMILYs List. She will become the only Black woman serving in the U.S. Senate and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber.   And as a champion for labor rights and working people everywhere, we know that she will serve the people of California honorably. The California 2024 Senate election now becomes complicated, fo