Thursday has been Covid day since the pandemic, and has transitioned into medical/health/nutrition day. Today, back to Covid-19 because I just took the latest booster shot.  But first, a few news topics: Texas authorities have blamed power lines for igniting their largest wildfire .  Bad news for  Hawaiian Electric Company . President Joe Biden gives his  State of the Union  message tonight before a joint session of Congress tonight at 9PM ET. Great opportunity for his first major campaign speech, and he will cover all his victories and campaign issues. Senator Katie Britt, Republican from Alabama, will deliver the Republican response.  She is a MAGA-Trumper. Jill Biden has invited 20 guests, including the prime minister of Sweden (see following story). Some history: George Washington gave the first SoU in 1790. Thomas Jefferson discontinued this need in 1801. But Woodrow Wilson in 1913 re-established this practice, and the SoU has since then been presented yearly, but sometimes not or

Just a matter of time before Russia subjugates Ukraine.  Better than Vladimir Putin getting desperate and initiating nuclear warfare.  As President Joe Biden's State of the Union address underscored, though, is that the Free World is united against what Putin is doing.  Russia will run Ukraine for many years to come, but will nevertheless suffer for a longer time as a universal pariah. Biden didn't quite go that far, but what he said about this pandemic is sufficient to interpret that it is over and we should return to a new normal.  It has been two full years, the worst experienced by anyone alive.  The previous, the Spanish Flu, a century ago, might have killed a lot more people, 50 million versus 6 million for COVID-19, but did swiftly disappear without a vaccine.  The other worst of its kind was almost two millennia ago, The  Black Death  of 1346-1353, bubonic plague, caused by a flea, said to have killed off 30%-50% the population of Europe.  Then again, a  recent study su