From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):            DAY    USA    WORLD      Brazil      India      South Africa June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82 July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21      1225      6849         571        7...

Earlier this month I posted on  THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS FRACTURING .  Some of my articles draw a lot of attention, and this is one of them that did.  Last week I noticed that Rinaldo Brutoco of the World Business Academy wrote on  A Reason for Hope:  On Conscience and Integrity .  To quote his first paragraph: In the political swamp that has  ensnared our democratic republic a glimmer of something we haven’t seen  for almost six years is on the horizon: the emergence of a fissure in the Republican party, which has lately been in the grips of  Mr. Trump’s  remarkably single-handed control as it morphed into the Cult of Trump.  Finally, over 160 present and former leaders of the Republican party have said “Enough!”  Brutoco never went into detail on who the 160 were.  However, more and  more Republicans are shifting away from Donald Trump . Today is Wednesday, and I usually focus on a scientific/technological topic....

First some bad and good news about COVID-19.  The Omicron sub-variant B-A2 ( now known as the Stealth Omicron ) that showed signs of being  more contagious  than the Omicron variant B-A1, is indeed more infectious.  Maybe by a factor of 1.5.  But this virus is having some difficulty finding people to attack because only the unvaccinated are left...and if you haven't gotten your shots, stay away from anything that moves and get vaccinated as soon as you can.  The good news is that  one booster appears to be resistant to serious illness for a much longer period  than initially feared.  Plus, this  booster is effective against B-A2 . Well,  Russia did enter Ukraine , although it's not quite war yet because the troops only encroached into the Russian separatist region, which is pro-Putin.  Of course the U.S. and European Union condemned the move, but the worry now is what next, then what about Taiwan?   The Russia-China p...

The blatant takeover of Ukraine by Russia seems close to reality.  Will this lead to China doing the same to Taiwan?  Donald Trump opened the door to both and Joe Biden and the European Union seem powerless to say don't.  While the Scandinavian countries are united for freedom and democracy, many elective democracies, including the USA, show signs of fraying. The  Democracy Index  shows that we are a FLAWED Democracy. The 2021   Economist Intelligence Unit   Democracy Index   map   Full democracies    9.01–10    8.01–9 Flawed democracies    7.01–8    6.01–7 Hybrid regimes    5.01–6    4.01–5 Authoritarian regimes    3.01–4    2.01–3    0–2.00 The U.S. shows a score of 7.85 and ranks #26, with Norway #1 at 9.75.  Russia is #124 (3.24) and China #148 (2.21).  Afghanistan is #167 (0.32), Myanmar is #166 (1.02) and North Korea is #165 (1.08). The...