Beltway Insider: Biden Campaigns, Spreading Middle East War, ISIS Returns, Election 2024: GOP Stump in Iowa, Epstein

Details: Category: Beltway Insider; Published on Sunday, 07 January 2024 12:27; Written by Janet Walker

President Biden used a campaign stop in Pennsylvania to remind voters of the horrific images broadcast from January 6, 2021, just three years ago, as democracy was nearly overthrown by Trump rioters, while the president did nothing.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending January 7, 2024 decreased by 0.4% to 38.3% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness decreased by 0.1% to 55.5% of those polled who disapprove of his effectiveness. A slight 3% of the population polled have no opinion. Ratings are calculated weekly.

Beltway Insider: Biden, Israel, Ukraine, Climate COP, Abortion, Giuliani, Rape: A Weapon of War

America, Democracy, and the 2024 Election

President Biden's Pennsylvania speech reminded voters of the January 6 insurrection as former President Donald Trump and his team watched the insurgence, knowing he could stop the thousands who had gathered to stop the peaceful transfer of power, with simply a word, and yet he refused.

The violence of that day not only interrupted the electoral certification of the Biden-Harris election, it resulted in the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who after being sprayed with bear repellant, and pummeled by the violent and angry mob suffered two strokes and died.

Former President Trump, who watched the unfolding riots from the protection of his office, could have stopped the mob, stopped them with simply a word, but he encouraged them by reenforcing a false belief that the election had been stolen, which contributed to the shocking display.

Now former president Trump is once again running to regain the presidency. Republican party leaders are encouraging the party to chose anyone but Trump. The residual Trump sludge has backed-up into Congress as the GOP continues to be an unsteady and divided group. The election of this divisive leader will only serve him, and not the people and more important the nation. His election would show the world the GOP is as inconsistent as the wind, and as damaging as an F5 tornado, a group of unqualified officials who, like Trump, will do anything, lie, cheat, steal, mock, ridicule, find the Achilles heels and drill down into the American psyche, hoping for a win.

Babbit Files Lawsuit

The family of Ashli Babbit, the pro-Trump rioter, and former U.S. Air Force veteran, who was shot and killed after she attempted to enter the U.S. Congress Chamber to steal the certification ballots or take hostages or worse as many were hunting former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and former Vice-President Mike Pence, has filed a $30million dollar wrongful death lawsuit and alleges that Lt. Michael Byrd used excessive force resulting in Babbit's death.

"Federal prosecutors have concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove Babbitt's civil rights were violated. Authorities have said it was reasonable for Byrd to believe he was firing in self-defense or in defense of members of Congress, their aides and others," The Washington Post reported.

World News: Biden, Netanyahu, and Conflict Drift

Spreading Middle East War

On October 7, 2023, the day Hamas attacked and murdered 1200 Israeli's, the following three months could not have been imagined. Retaliation that leveled the Gaza Strip, killed more than 20,000 Gazans, and caused the entire Middle East, in domino fashion, to poise themselves and use this volatile period as cause to choose sides.

"U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Sunday with Jordan's king and foreign minister and visited a World Food Program warehouse in Amman as he pressed ahead with an urgent Middle East diplomatic mission to prevent Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza from spreading," reported NPR.org.

Led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza has become a global issue as allies have attempted to depressurize the growing concern with regional partners in an effort to prevent an expanding war.

The recent killing of a senior Hamas leader in neighboring Lebanon, only furthers the concerns that Israel will refuse international assistance in hunting down senior Hamas leaders outside their borders and they seek to dismantle the terrorist organization.

Jordan's King Abdullah II, also a strategic and long-term ally of the United States, has voiced strong concern over Israel continuing bombardment of the Gaza region, warning of catastrophic repercussions. Other partners in the region have also demanded the United States work toward an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire."

The concern, of course, has become the readiness of the Israeli military. If it has taken three months to subdue its enemy, what has happened to the strength of its military?

"More than 85% of people in Gaza have been driven from their homes by Israeli bombardment and ground offensives. Most live in U.N. shelters crowded beyond their capacity, in tent camps that have been sprung up, or on the streets. The few functioning hospitals are overwhelmed with the wounded as well as patients amid outbreaks of disease, as sanitation systems have collapsed," reported NPR.org.

ISIS Returns with Signature Violence

Iran, who was suspected of funding the October 7, 2023, attack against Israel, is now confronting its own enemy from within as the Islamic State, ISIS, has returned with its signature violence, exploding a car bomb at the memorial of General Qassim Suleimani, who had been killed four years ago by a U.S. drone strike.

"The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Thursday for the bombing attack that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran, a day before, during a memorial procession for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, according to a post on the extremist group's official Telegram account," reported The New York Times.

The Islamic State, a branch of the Afghanistan ISIS, who observe Muslim Sunni views have a creed which calls for the death of all Muslim Shiite observers, which is the predominate religion of Iran.

World News: Journalism or Journalist of Circumstance

Covid Variant Alert

JN.1, the newest Covid variant, has been detected and is considered responsible for 44% of the cases reported in December 2023.

"JN.1, which emerged from the variant BA.2.86 and was first detected in the United States in September, accounted for 44 percent of Covid cases nationwide by mid-December, up from about 7 percent in late November, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," The New York Times reported.

While not considered as lethal as the original strain of Covid-19, the CDC warns that individuals in densely populated areas should considered utilizing similar personal protective gear mandates, such as surgical face masks when in high traffic areas, and reinstate the vigorous handwashing, and personal germ control, that was a lifestyle during the height of the pandemic, especially coupled with the traditional flu season.

Coronavirus Totals

The CDC has recommended every person from age six months, including senior citizens, should receive at least one shot of an updated covid vaccine.

Mandates have been altered or lifted in most urban areas with limited exceptions, and the population is encouraged to maintain personal protective practices. Masks are optional and tolerated. Vaccines and boosters are still considered the most effective agents against contracting the Coronavirus.

For the 21-day period ending January 7, 2024, the total of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide reached 773,138,818 confirmed cases, an increase over the past 21 days of 1,310,481 cases worldwide. The total worldwide death toll increased by 423,424 to 6,991,842 deaths. The United States has stopped providing Covid data to the World Health Organization. (Data updated December 31, 2023, from The World Health Organization).

COVID U.S. Totals

As hospitalizations and infection rates continue to rise in the United States, some jurisdictions are suggesting new mask mandates. For the 21-day period ending January 7, 2024, new Covid hospitalizations in the U.S. increased by 88,801 to 6,657,219. The coronavirus has claimed 1,165,118 total U.S. deaths, adding 5,254 deaths, over the 21 days. (Data updated December 30, 2023, posted January 5, 2024, from the CDC).

Iowa Caucuses – Road to the White House 2024

The Iowa Caucuses, scheduled for Monday, January 15, has long been considered an integral part of the presidential campaign even as the winning candidate doesn't receive any points toward the primary win.

"Iowa is all about momentum — the nebulous idea of who is rising and who is dead in the water, which can affect voters' choices in other states. In terms of actual numbers, Iowa doesn't matter much. It accounts for a tiny fraction of the delegates awarded nationwide. But its ability to set perceptions is so strong that candidates often drop out after doing poorly there," The New York Times reported.

A Hardcore Trump Stumps in Iowa

Heading into Iowa, 2024, former President Donald Trump, was strongly favored to win. However, his recent statements, considering the recent school shooting in Perry, Iowa, telling crowds "to get over it," may have derailed his momentum, slightly.

His escalating attacks on his former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, have been scathing and part of his discernible, modus operandi, pattern of operation, with the intent to control the narrative, through erosion of the name and reputation.

A win for Trump with 40% of the vote could reveal that his hardcore, unempathetic, man o' war style, a shift from the pixie dust, blind them with the illusion of nirvana, Trump of 2020, could become the momentum Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley need heading into New Hampshire.

It's doubtful that the remaining four candidates, including Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will drop out of the race before Super Tuesday scheduled for March 5, 2024, when the majority of primaries are held.

"The states conducting elections on 2024's Super Tuesday include Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, California, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia," USA Today.com reported.

World News: France’s National Rally Party Seeks to Restore its Image

Jeffrey Epstein Documents Released

Documents from depositions and legal proceedings related to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who died while in custody in New York City's Riker's Island while awaiting trial, have been released unearthing information that was once unavailable, including the names of many powerful, businessmen who were known to have been associated with Epstein.

The men, as the documents and all statements have clarified are not accused of committing crimes, they are however, listed as those who rode with Epstein in his private jet, or attended parties at his residences.

"The public is now seeing our pieces of that information trickling out, allowing the general public to understand what actually happened with the sex-trafficking operation," said Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre, whose 2015 defamation lawsuit against Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell yielded many of the documents in the case. "It shows how the operation worked, it shows who participated and what the individuals had to go through during those moments," NBCnews.com reported.

The documents, which detail the former financer's sex trafficking organization, were primarily gathered through deposition of Epstein's former associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving 20 years in a Florida prison for her role in Epstein's elaborate, layered, and complex criminal enterprise. Many described Epstein's sex trafficking ring as commonly known by multiple jurisdictions and as he continued to inoculate himself from prosecution by associating with the world's elite, authorities, at every instance, turned a blind eye to the billionaires' sexual predilections.

For more information on President Joe Biden w ww.whitehouse.gov.