Beltway Insider: Biden/Immigration, GOP/McCarthy, Russian Hackers, Idaho Murders, COVID/Vaccine Totals, Cartel, Royals

Details: Category: Beltway Insider; Published on Sunday, 08 January 2023 05:43; Written by Janet Walker

President Biden, who is scheduled to visit the southern border for the first time since he took office, is faced with harsh realities of the immigration crisis and plans to expand the Trump Era policies expulsion policies.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending January 8, 2023 increased by 0.2% to 43.5% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness decreased by 0.3% at 51.% 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/2023, Peace Talks, Putin Critic, George Santos, Idaho Murders, COVID/Vaccine Totals, Notable Deaths

Biden and His Border Policy

Unrestrained access to the southern border, and the continued flood of immigrants, is as taxing on American citizens, natural and naturalized, as it is on the system. For the immigrant who has been processed through the system, built a new life from the bottom up, the unrelenting tide of immigrants threaten his livelihood. For the natural citizen the uncontrolled flow of illegals into the southern border states, causes a resentment among the middle class who are losing their opportunities.

"U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded nearly 2.4 million arrests along the Mexico border during the 2022 fiscal year, an all-time high. Since Biden took office, an increasing number of migrants have been arriving from a growing number of nations around the world, straining U.S. capacity and border communities," The Washington Post reported.

Every governor of the southern border states, including California Governor Gavin Newsome, has increased their methods of highlighting the growing immigration crisis. While some use the situation to create a political statement, others are attempting to navigate the immigration crisis through pollical means.

The Southern Border immigration crisis has been a political minefield since the 1980s and the Regan Era, for each progressive president, the situation has been momentarily handled and handed off to the next leader. Unfortunately, America is at a tipping point and the pain is being felt along the southern border states.

Biden's proposed expansion legal entry options which include up to "30,000 additional migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti will be allowed to enter the United States on "parole" each month if they have financial sponsors here and pass background checks," reported The Washington Post doesn't go far enough as it doesn't mandate that these migrants live in less populated states within the interior.

Without doubt New York, California, Florida, Texas, will be required to absorb the burdens associated with this expansion program, while maintaining the current commitments to all citizens, the newly arrived legal immigrant and the illegals who find access into the United States and get lost.

He also plans to expel up to 30,000 illegal immigrants, under the Trump Era Title 42, who attempt to enter the United States or Panama.

GOP Makes History for All the Wrong Reasons

This week was one for the GOP record books, in fact not since before the Civil War, 1859 in fact, has the majority party in the House of Representative failed to elect a Speaker of the House in the first vote. Over the past week, the republican party revealed themselves to the American people, as an unconnected, extremist party torn between failed party politics, Trumpism, and whittling the business of government into an unrecognizable game of chance trinket. As McCarthy navigated the party waters, he began to make deals, concessions, so much so that by the end, all he could hold onto was the gavel, and a limp victory. During each vote the democrats remained unified with all 212 voting for Representative Hakeem Jefferies.

California Rep Kevin McCarthy Elected Speaker of the House

Bakersfield, California, Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected as Speaker of the House governing over the 118^th Congress, early Saturday morning before adjourning the session for the weekend. In the end, the vote remained close with Representative Hakeem Jefferies, D-NY securing 212 votes, and McCarthy winning 216.

President Biden congratulated the newly elected Speaker of the House and stated, "It's imperative that we continue that economic progress, not set it back. It is imperative that we protect Social Security and Medicare, not slash them. It is imperative that we defend our national security, not defund it. These are some of the choices before us."

The duties of the Speaker of the House include presidential succession. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is now the second in line, after Vice-President Kamala Harris to lead the nation if a catastrophic event would render both, the president and vice-president, incapable of handling their duties.

More than likely, that day will never arrive, and McCarthy's day to day duties will be to oversee House Committee Assignments and collaborate with the House Rules Committee to structure House Debate, and oversee everything from accounting to procurement, which was key to his victory as he had to promise to keep spending at 2022 levels.

"Congratulations to Speaker McCarthy and the Republican House majority. Senate Republicans look forward to working together to check and balance Washington Democrats, bring oversight to this reckless Administration, fight the far left's radical policies, and defend America," McConnell wrote in a tweet," The New York Post reported.

World News: Beijing, from East to West

Russian Hackers Target U.S. Nuke Labs

Reuters reported this week three prominent National Laboratories, Brookhaven, Argonne, and Lawrence Livermore were targeted by a Russian hacking group known as Cold River.

"Between August and September, as President Vladimir Putin indicated Russia would be willing to use nuclear weapons to defend its territory, Cold River targeted the Brookhaven (BNL), Argonne (ANL) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL), according to internet records that showed the hackers creating fake login pages for each institution and emailing nuclear scientists in a bid to make them reveal their passwords," Reuters reported.

Cold River has been on European governments Intelligence radars since 2016 after a failed attempt to hack into the British Foreign Office and since has escalated its attempts to disrupt the global cyber system through a myriad of hacking styles.

Vaccine Totals

As of January 8, 2023, in the United States, 942,343,115 vaccines have been distributed, with a 7-day increase of 3,216,110 and 665,076,272 have been administered with a 7-day increase weekly increase of 1,253,697 doses. More than 90% of the population have received the two-dose vaccine. (Date from the CDC). As of January 8, 2023, 13,073,712,554, vaccines doses have been administered worldwide.

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 week ending January 8, 2023, the total of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide reached 651,918,402 people, with a 7-day increase of 3,945,491 with a total worldwide death toll of 6,656,601 deaths, and a 7-day death rate increase of 13,769. (Data from The World Health Organization).

COVID U.S. Totals

Infections rates in the United States are also on the rise. For the 7-day period ending January 8, 2023, the total confirmed cases rose to 101,094,670 people with new confirmed cases increasing by 472,614 with a 7-day average of 67,516 cases per day. The coronavirus has claimed 1,091,184 total deaths, adding 2,703 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.

Extradition of El Chapo's Son Halted

An attempt to extradite the son of former Ovidio Guzman, son of former Sinaloa Carter leader El Chapo Guzman, was halted by a Mexican judge after more than 29 men were killed in a gun battle during the arrest.

"At least 19 suspected gang members and 10 military personnel died during violent clashes in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa, after authorities arrested Guzmán, along with 21 others. No civilian deaths or injuries were reported," CNN reported.

The State Department alleges that the Guzman brothers run more than 11 methamphetamine labs and are traffickers of fentanyl into the United States.

Idaho College Murders: Police Arrest Suspect

Idaho College Murders: Suspect Extradited

Moscow, Idaho police unsealed the evidence, this week, which led to the arrest of Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, a Ph.D. Criminal Justice student at neighboring Washington State University, in the gruesome and brutal quadruple homicide of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.

A witness, DNA, and digital forensics are the most damaging pieces of evidence released by the Moscow Idaho police this week as they unsealed their filing.

In the world of digital forensics, a person's cell phone becomes a human GPS locator. The police revealed the suspect, during the morning of the murders, November 13, 2022, had turned his phone off. It was however powered on immediately before and after this block of time, and on the night of the murders he was in the area at least six separate times.

A vehicle matching his was picked up on surveillance video which coincided with investigators timeline. Once the suspect pool had been narrowed and the DNA evidence. Most damaging was his return to the scene of the crime at around 9:15 the morning of November 13, 2022. He was also located in the area on many instances over the last six months.

Also revealed this week, one of the two surviving roommates, identified as D.M., opened her bedroom door three times, each time hearing piecemeal conversations. Allegedly she heard Kaylee Goncalves, whisper "there's someone here" and the roommate, D.M. also reported hearing a man tell Xania Kernodle, who had received a door dash delivery at 4:00am, and was awake when she encountered her killer, "it's o.k., I'm going to help you."

With these statements come unanswered questions, such as why the roommate identified as D.M. didn't call the police earlier, as she has stated she opened her door on three separate occasions, which indicates she was clearly alarmed and awake, and "frozen in shock" and yet did not call the police for help, or text her roommates to alert them of an intruder. And also, why she waited until nearly 12:00pm the next day to check on the same roommates that she allegedly heard whisper, "there's someone here."

After detectives processed the scene they recovered a knife sheath, allegedly dropped by the Kohberger next to the bed of one of the victim's and were able to secure a DNA sample from the snap.

They narrowed the pool of suspects and from all accounts worked with field agents in Pennsylvania who "recovered trash from the home of Mr. Kohberger's family and shipped it to Idaho. Investigators said they worked to match a DNA profile found in the trash to a DNA sample collected from the knife sheath found at the crime scene. The analysis, the police said, suggested a strong likelihood that the elder Mr. Kohberger was the father of whoever left DNA on the knife sheath," The New York Times reported.

The also narrowed the timeline to 17minutes of terror for the four murdered students. Previous reports that they victims were killed in their sleep has now been retracted as investigators revealed that Kernodle received a door dash food delivery at 4:00am and had been on the social media platform TikTok at 4:12am. At 4:17am a security camera, less than 50feet from Kernodle's bedroom picked up sounds that investigators believe are consistent with a murder.

Medical Science: COVID-19 - Do You Have Enough Life Insurance

Royal Airs Dirty Laundry

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, has continued his campaign to reveal every skeleton in the Windsor Family closets that has been banging on the doors to get out with the release of his tell-all "Spare." While the pages of the tome are filled with explosive (yawn) details of sibling arguments and escalations, and of course, the question of his paternity also scorches the print tabloids for the day, this too has little titillating effect as the majority of the people are not blind and if you believe the Netflix series The Crown, not outside of possibility.

Of course, pressing the paternity issue could end badly all around as it will tarnish the reputation of the late Princess Diana, mother of both William and Harry, bring scorn on the seated King for not being the husband he should have been, irreparable injury to the late Princesses grandchildren, destroy families, not to mention the rippling effect among the population of the Commonwealth nations.

The British people have little sympathy for the spare who broke ranks and left them for his new life and wife and if the winding road of life ever returns him to British shores the road back could be challenging.

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