Covid Vax and More Gun Death and Update

We got Covid shots today.  We were thinking about waiting until Novovax became available, but the rollout is really chaotic.  No one knows anything.  Based on our concern that RFK Jr might just ban all vaccines, we decided to go ahead and get the Pfizer.  My arm is a little sore at the injection site, but it's minor.  Makes me wonder if I still have an active immune system.  Flu is up next, but I want to wait a bit so we have immunity remaining until flu season is over.

My Lenovo laptop, which I bought in December 2021 became unusable while we were in Tucson the winter of 2023/2024.  It was a hinge failure.  See the screen frame on the right which is detached from rest of it. Then it started losing internet.  I bought a new Lenovo in Tucson February 1, 2024.  As of this writing, it's still working. See how the frame has detached from the body of the laptop?  That meant the laptop could not be closed, even if it did keep working, which it didn't.

 

 

Jim's did the same thing a couple of days ago.  His Lenovo is also from 2021.  We took it down to Pruitt PC and he did a Frankenstein fix on it.  He cut off a little bit of the lap top, and then screwed the back to the front with tiny bolts.  Here is a photo.  It's an ok fix, we can live with it.

 I asked Pruitt what he would buy.  His opinion is that all PCs made for the home market are crap.   Hinge failures, which is what Jim and I experienced, are frequent.  Equipment made for business is more durable.  He buys laptops for his use and to resell from backmarket.com.  They're refurbished, and come at a significant discount.  We may start buying from him, because we are spending way too much money keeping these Lenovos alive.  So there you go.

So, last night Putin sent 19 drones into Poland.  This is from Jurgen Nauditt on twitter.

Dutch F-35 fighter jets shot down russian drones over Poland with $2.8 million missiles, media reports say. The cost of a Gerber drone is around $10,000. The fighter jets used $2.8 million AIM-9X missiles to destroy it. The difference between the cost of the target and the method of destruction is 280 times higher. 
And: NATO has a worse success rate in shooting down russian drones than Ukraine, the BBC reports. While Ukraine shot down 93% of 415 drones today and regularly achieves similar figures, the Poles, with the support of allies from other countries, destroyed only four of 19 russian drones. That's hardly an impressive result for Poland, especially considering how much more equipment they had at their disposal compared to Ukraine, the BBC summarizes.

I think it's very unlikely 47 will do anything about this.  Poland has activated Article 4 of NATO.  They can't let this stand.  Putin wants the Baltics. The Europeans need to step up and make/buy weapons.  The head of the EU today said they're taking the $6B in frozen Russian assets and loaning the money to Ukraine.  So, that's good.

 

Charlie Kirk was murdered today, shot in the carotid artery.  He was the Executive Director of Turning Point USA, a far right wing group whose mission was bringing young men into the republican party.  An Evangelical Christian, he believed that trans people have no right to live, that the second amendment is sacred, and the Seven Mountain Movement which calls on Christians to gain influence, or “take dominion,” over seven key areas of culture: religion, family, education, government, media, business and the arts.

Politics in the US have reached an unbelievable state of hate.  Three months ago, a gunman posing as a police officer in Minnesota murdered Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and shot Democratic Senator John Hoffman and his wife. Do you think one republican anywhere had anything nice to say about Ms Hortman? Nope.  The husband of the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Paul Pelosi, was struck in the head with a hammer by a man who wanted to kill his wife.  Any sympathy for him?  Nope, Charlie Kirk said that MAGATs should post money for the assailant's bail.  The republicans thought it was funny.  They posted Halloween memes about the attack.  The level of hate emanating from the republican party is just vile.  Also occurring today, a high school shooting in Colorado has left two students and the student shooter in critical condition.  Charlie Kirk said that a few deaths from guns was a small price to pay for the protection of the second amendment and our God given rights to own guns.  Ok, then.  It's a given that shooting people is bad, but so is the rhetoric as of late.

I am not saying he deserved it, no one does.  But I am saying that the republicans need to stop agitating and raising the political temperature. People are crazy enough as it is.

That's it, that's all I have to say about things. 

9/11/25 Update.  I have suffered mightily today from the Covid Vax.  This was the worst so far.  Low grade fever, felt like death, with a big red splotch at the injection site. After doing some yard work this morning and deteriorating some, I spend the afternoon in my recliner.  Now it's about 7 pm and I'm feeling much better.  Please make a note of this for next time.