Beltway Insider: Biden/DeSantis, Cannabis, Ukraine, Thailand, COVID/Vaccine Totals, Uvalde, Herschel Walker, Loretta Lynn, Nikki Finke

Details: Category: Beltway Insider; Published on Sunday, 09 October 2022 11:45; Written by Janet Walker

President Biden met this week with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as he toured hard hit southwest Florida, pleading a united, determined effort to aid and assist the people most impacted by Hurricane Ian's destructive rage.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending October 9, 2022 increased by 0.2% to 42.5% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness decreased by 0.1% to 52.0% 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/Hurricane Ian, Ukraine War, COVID/Vaccine Totals, School Shooting, TILL

Biden Announces Travel to Hard Hit Regions

President Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) toured storm ravaged southwest Florida, putting aside the divide of political and ideological differences, politely praising the other for the dedication to the citizens of Florida as they get down to the business of rebuilding.

President Biden said, addressing the dignitaries, press and Floridians, "We're one of the few nations in the world that — on a basis of the crisis we face, we're the only nation that comes out of it better than we went into it. And that's what we're going to do this time around: come out of it better. Because we're — this is the United States of America, and I emphasize "united."

Hurricane Ian, just shy of a category five, roared, and ripped its way across the state, cutting a swath of unprecedented damage, which early estimates point to well north of $50billion.

Presidential politics was not far from the spotlight as DeSantis has been touted as a possible GOP presidential candidate presented himself with the decorum worthy of the position. As the strongest GOP candidate, DeSantis took the moment and stayed clear of any combative rhetoric or mention of the immigrant antics which have also brought national media attention on the state, with its 29 electoral votes.

Sidestepping any issues other than immediate needs of millions of Floridians, many of whom have lost everything as their homes and businesses were completely destroyed, wiped off the foundation without any remnants remaining both Biden and DeSantis pledged to remain available and active through the clean-up, rebuild, and until each citizen is restored, building back better.

"I think he's done a good job," Biden told reporters when asked about the governor's handling of the deadly storm. "We have very different political philosophies, but we've worked hand in glove. … In dealing with this crisis, we've been in complete lockstep," reported The Washington Post.

Biden's Initiative Toward Decriminalization of Cannabis

President Biden announced this week a three-step approach to decriminalizing Marijuana and pardoning all minor federal offenses for simple offenses.

In a released statement, the President announced a pardon of all federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana. Secondly, the statement reads, the President is urging all Governors to do the same with regard to state offenses, and thirdly, the president is asking the Secretary of health and human Services and the attorney general to initiate the administrative process to review expeditiously how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.

The Presidential statement also included, "Federal law currently classifies marijuana in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the classification meant for the most dangerous substances. This is the same schedule as for heroin and LSD, and even higher than the classification of fentanyl and methamphetamine – the drugs that are driving our overdose epidemic."

Additionally, the President addresses trafficking, marketing and underage sales.

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Ukraine Offensive Move

Ukraine military forces executed a long overdue strategic move by bombing the Crimean Bridge, which spans the Kerch strait, opened in 2018 to much fanfare by Russian President Vladimir Putin, connects the Russia's Sochi region to the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed illegal in 2014.

"Russia's Investigative Committee, a top law enforcement body, said a truck explosion ignited fuel tankers as a freight train crossed the bridge. The cause of the truck blast was not immediately clear. After the explosion, thick plumes of smoke and flames could be seen from a distance, while concrete bridge spans hung into the water below," reported The Washington Post.

The Crimean bridge, with a price tag of $4billion, had both commuter rail and heavy-duty trucks, big rigs, and military equipment compacities. Symbolically, it is the first true offensive move by Ukraine forces.

Even as Ukraine has fought intensely in ground battles, retaking cities, destroying the expected dominance of the Russian Forces, and proven, as they have endured though the hardship, torture and murder of their citizens, that they will fight against the maniacal invasion of their territorial sovereignty, bombing the bridge should be replicated across every Russian access point, all Russian ships, tanks, strongholds, ammunition depots, crippling the Russian military and forcing a ceasefire.

Thailand Mass Shooting Leaves 34 Dead

A disgruntled and terminated former Thailand Police officer, stormed a daycare center, in northeast Thailand about 269 miles from Bangkok, and murdered 24 sleeping toddlers, and critically injuring 16 others.

"The attacker, a former police officer, was armed with a shotgun, a pistol, and a knife when he forced his way into the center around 12:30 p.m. local time and opened fire. The attacker also shot at least nine other people dead as he fled," reported Time Magazine.

A single survivor, a miracle child, who was sleeping in a corner, with a blanket over her head, escaped the gunman determined murderous rage.

Vaccine Totals

In the United States, 863,234,395 vaccines have been distributed and 624,198,981 have been administered with a weekly increase of 4,433,009 doses. More than 90% of the population have received the two-dose vaccine. (Date from the CDC).

Coronavirus Totals

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 one-week period ending October 9, 2022, the total of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide reached 617,597,680 people, with a seven day increase of 3,211,987 with a total worldwide death toll of 6,532,705 deaths, and a 7-day death rate increase of 10,105. (Data from The World Health Organization).

COVID U.S. Totals

Infections rates in the United States are also on the rise. For the seven-day period ending October 9, 2022, the total confirmed cases rose to 96,443,656 people with new confirmed cases increasing by 300,457 with a 7-day average of 42,922 cases per day. The coronavirus has claimed 1,056,702 total deaths, adding 2,913 more deaths over the 7-day period. (Data from the CDC).

Pentagon's Diary Gets Personal

Protecting for gain of function knowledge only aides those who initiated the constitutional violations. It does nothing to combat the homegrown terrorism or the narcissistic above the law belief. The best obtainable version of the truth.

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Uvalde School District Terminates Entire Police Force

The Uvalde, Texas, Consolidated School District announced this week they were terminating the entire police force hired to protect the district's eight school and more than 4000 students.

A recent hire, former Texas State Trooper Crimson Elizondo, was terminated after it was determined she was one of the responding officers on the May 24, 2022, massacre at Robb Elementary School and did nothing. Her body cam footage was released, and she was recorded explaining if her son had been inside the school she would not have been waiting outside.

"Officer Crimson Elizondo was hired despite being part of the law enforcement response that waited more than an hour to confront the gunman at the Uvalde school. Elizondo is one of those under internal investigation, according to Texas Department of Public Safety records," FOXnews.com reported.

The May 24, 2022, slaughter of 19 ten-year-old student and two educators, has continued to be scrutinized, and investigated as 376 heavily armed federal, state and local police officers arrived on scene and waited for more than 70 minutes before breeching the classroom.

What followed included attempts at controlling the narrative through false and misleading statements, misrepresentation of facts, and which fell apart quickly and failed to hold up after the Texas State House of Representatives along with national media began internal investigations into the gross failures in police protocol, leadership, and action. The consequences of the flagrant, blatant, and glaring catastrophe have reverberated over the last five months beginning with the termination of former Uvalde police chief Pete Arredondo.

Herschel Walker The GOP's House Master

Herschel Walker, the African American Republican Senate candidate is Georgia is proving race remains a volatile issue in America. While celebrated by the GOP party in the media as the new conservative, in the backrooms of the GOP's old white establishment, he is considered the House Negro, the man who rules over the other slaves and in the process ensures his own survival. Whether Walker is running to ensure the survival and fair representation of his fellow Georgian's or to become the GOP's man is still unclear.

Kanye West has again positioned himself in the line of controversary and included a White Lives Matter tag on a shirt and for this statement of inclusion he has been reduced to antithesis of the Black Lives Matter movement. And then there is the adage, from Rodney King, the African American beaten by four clearly racist LAPD police officers, in 1991, "can't we all just get along?"

I don't think we can; I want my rights, and every other group, race and ethnicity wants theirs as well. We all want to live in a society free from discrimination, one that guarantees the Constitutional freedoms for all, at least some of them anyway.

And as a Caucasian female, with a competitive education (yes, my alma mater has fallen from the top ten in U.S. News and World Reports annual Best of List, and now rests in the top 20) I often feel like every unqualified person is catapulted ahead due to societal temperature and optics.

With each unqualified hire Corporate American pats itself on the back and explains, "see we have African Americans, even dark-skinned," as hiring is often completed on a gradient scale, one of each, thank you as we are enlightened, (the color war civil war is only permitted to be discussed within the race, and not by outside meddlers). To circumvent litigation Corporate America adheres to the slogan "the darker the skin, the higher the salary" so to thwart any discrimination lawsuits based on race, as optics often play a lead role in litigations. If you can see it, you can believe it.

So back to Herschel Walker and his oddly Republican Senate run, the GOP, like Corporate American, pats itself on the back and says, "see we have African Americans as Party Leaders" and holds up the standard bearers as a shining example of progressiveness. And the optics say, "if you can see it, you can believe it."

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Loretta Lynn, Queen of Country Music, Dies

The Queen of country music, Loretta Lynn, who made a career of writing and singing of the dark places of country life, died this week. She was 90.

Most widely known outside of the genre for "Coal Miner's Daughter," which went on to earn critical and commercial success and become an academy award winning film, staring Sissy Spacek as Lynn.

"Lynn was the coal miner's daughter who kept her Kentucky drawl and remembered clearly what it was like growing up poor in Butcher Holler. She was a loyal wife but hardly a doormat. Drawing on the experiences of the turbulent 48-year marriage that she began in her teens, she sang about desire, cheating, heartache and righteous revenge," reported The New York Times.

Lynn was buried in her family cemetery beside her husband of 48 years and muse to many of her sons, Mooney Lynn. A public memorial is planned.

Veteran Entertainment Journalist, Nikki Finke, Dead at 68

Nikki Finke, founder of the entertainment digital publication Deadline, and a veteran entertainment journalist died in Boco Raton, Florida, after an extended illness. Deadline reported her death. No other information was provided.

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