Beltway Insider: Biden Honors Armed Forces, Uvalde, Iran Transitions, Trump Trial, Memorial Day

Details: Category: Beltway Insider; Published on Sunday, 26 May 2024 10:33; Written by Janet Walker

President Biden, in honor of all those in the Armed Forces willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice for the idea of the United States of America, declared Memorial Day 2024, a day of prayer and national remembrance.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending May 26, 2024, decreased by 0.3% to 38.4% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness increased by 0.3% to 56.2% of those polled who disapprove of his effectiveness. A slight 3% of the population polled have no opinion. Ratings are calculated weekly.

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Uvalde – Two Years Later Even the Memory Ignites Shocks

It's been two years since the news of the Robb Elementary School shooting began to penetrate America's collective psyche. The initial account was staggering enough; 19 fourth grade students and two teachers dead two days before the end of the 2022 school year.

Hours earlier, the same students, now dead, were holding certificates of achievement, perfect attendance, academic honors, and with their parents proud of their journey were looking forward to a summer of fun in this small, Southwest, Texas town.

An hour later, most of these smiling, happy, children would be dead, victims of another mass casualty school shooting. Uvalde came fast on the heels of another mass casualty shooting, in Buffalo, and the one-two punch was traumatizing.

Dead Children, Lies, Cover-ups

Then the truth began to filter out. Lies, a series of 9-11 calls from a child, Miah Cerrillo, who covered herself in her classmate's blood to fool the shooter, pleaded for help, pleaded for the police to save her friends who were bleeding out, slowly dying, on the floor of their classroom. And no help came.

The days following the catastrophic tragedy, words could barely capture the depth of sorrow, a smothering blanket of suffocating distress that followed as the contradicting truth began to filter through the haze of impossibility; Uvalde School District Police Chief at the time, Pedro "Pete" Arredondo, who identified himself as the lead officer made the disastrous call to treat the school shooting as a hostage situation.

Protocol, and bureaucracy guided the day and deaths, as The National Incident Management System, which is the official government agency dictates the response protocol in mass emergency events, and essentially the first officer on the scene is the incident commander. It can be a moment of valor, bravery and courage, or spineless cowardice.

On that day, Arrendondo, against the advice of more senior officer, many from the U.S. Border Control agency, and accustomed to dealing with cartel fire power, arrived with heavy guns, and a local U.S. Marshall provided ballistic shields.

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Desperate parents were confronting hostile police officers, as news of the lockdown was sent across social media and entering the school against police orders to save their children.

Ms. Angeli Rose Gomez, whom police handcuffed as she attempted to enter the school to save her daughter,"described the scene as frantic. She said she saw a father tackled and thrown to the ground by police and a third pepper sprayed. Once freed from her cuffs, Ms. Gomez made her distance from the crowd, jumped the school fence, and ran inside to grab her two children. She sprinted out of the school with them," The Wall Street Journal reported.

Then came the lies, in the attempt to cover the blame of a debacle of unfathomable proportion. The survival of one child, and the 9-11 pleadings helped investigators and media piece together a timeline of death, of miscalculations, of shocking betrayal, and a mass casualty event beyond the capabilities of the incident commander.

A Flawed System Failed Miserably

Hindsight is 20-20, 732 days have passed since Uvalde became a national symbol of a gun law failure.

In the aftermath there were investigations, terminations, government intervention. Debating the second amendment and common-sense gun reform, which like the Robb Elementary incident management failure, will always became bogged down in protocol and bureaucracy.

Common-sense action, "enter a school with a gun and we will gun you down," in the aftermath, became the accepted policy. States began prosecuting parents, guardians, and others, holding them accountable for their children's actions.

This week, the parents of Uvalde survivors continued to seek justice and hold accountable every individual, company, and weapons manufacturer who aided, assisted, supported, encouraged, urged, incited, and groomed through mind-control tactics, the May 24, 2022, massacre.

"The lawyer who won a record-setting settlement for Sandy Hook families announced two lawsuits Friday on behalf of the relatives of Uvalde school shooting victims against the manufacturer of the AR-15-style weapon used in the attack, as well as the publisher of Call of Duty video games and the social media giant Meta," The Washington Post reported.

Nothing will ever change the events of May 24, 2022, no words will soothe the pain, no actions will heal the wounds. Even the lessons learned and a "Never Again," determination by school officials everywhere do nothing to reconcile the loss.

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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi – Hardliner Death Provides Hope for A Better Iran

Iran President Ebrahim Raisi and his Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, along with other government officials, who died in a helicopter crash in rugged terrain after attending a conference in Azerbaijan.

Images from the crash scene show the passenger capsule charred and in fragments, the tail portion of the craft separated, but in the same limited debris field, appeared intact and not destroyed by fire. The crash site was in a remote region, on the side of a mountain.

Raisi's Death A Victory for Women's Rights

The death of Iran President Ebrahim Raisi was not a loss for women's rights and advocates of equality throughout the world. The explosive hard landing was a deserved fate for the brutality and cruelty this hardline Islamic leader unleashed on women. His revival of the moral police, resulting in disappearances and murders of innocent women who dared challenge the third world restraints which demonized women and allowed open executions.

In 2023, Time Magazine reported, "Iran's so-called "morality police" is resuming patrols to enforce the country's strict hijab rules, after largely pausing its activities for 10 months following mass protests over the killing of 21-year-old Mahsa Amini last September while she was in police custody. Amini had been detained for allegedly wearing an "improper" hijab prior to her arrest.

Islamic Revolution

Iran history, which has not always brutalized women, was once a friend to the United States, and enjoyed western influence. This changed in September of 1979 when the Shah of Iran, a friend of the U.S. government fled the country, and many say looted the treasury absconding with millions of jewels and money. He was being treated for cancer in the United States.

His departure ushered in by an election of Ayatollah Khomeini who demanded that then President Jimmy Carter return the Shah for trial. When the U.S. refused the militant Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran taking 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage. The crisis began on November 4, 1979, and lasted for 444 days, ending with the hostages' release minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president in 1981. The United States has not engaged in any diplomatic effort with Iran since 1979 and has not reopened an embassy.

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The Moral Police

Under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, a hardliner observer of strict public moral codes and standards began to deconstruct the Iranian society.

Women were specifically targeted; this determination to subjugate all women was textbook abuse tactics, brutality, shame, public humiliation, public beatings, with no recourse. If a man suspected a woman of anything, the law permitted them to publicly beat and batter them, with no recourse.

This downward spiral of gender hatred, which could be considered killing the messenger and instead of male self-flagellation or self-control, beating, brutalizing, and murder of women is substitution for the inability of the male population to control their own thoughts and culminated with the 2022 murder of 21-year-old Mahsa Amini, which sparked widespread protests throughout the Middle East and European continent.

Once the news of President Ebrahim Raisi's crash reached Iran's Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber, 68, he became acting president, and will hold that title for the next fifty days as stated in the Iranian constitution. A special election will be held, and it is highly probable that Mokhber, who is well educated possessing two doctorate degrees, in international law and management, and two master's degrees, also in international law and management, will be elected president.

As he possesses an educated mind, the possibility exists that he could recognize the valuable contributions of the women in his country and disband the morality police and outlaw all forms of gender hatred, understanding a strong society is comprised of all its people and the oppression of one group is the oppression of all.

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Coronavirus Totals

According to the World Health Organization the death toll from Covid-19 has dramatically decreased, as has transmission of the virus. Even as confirmed new cases arise, fewer are dying from the newer variants. The CDC has recommended every person from age six months, including senior citizens, should receive at least one shot of an updated covid vaccine. Vaccines and boosters are still considered the most effective agents against contracting the Coronavirus.

For the 7-day period ending May 26, 2024, the total of confirmed coronavirus cases reported by The World Health Organization remained at 775,481,326 confirmed cases, increasing by 50,057 confirmed cases. The total worldwide death toll increased by 1,635 to 7,049,376 deaths. The United States has stopped providing Covid data to the World Health Organization. (Data updated May 12, 2024, from The World Health Organization).

COVID U.S. Totals

As hospitalizations and infection rates rapidly decline in the United States, masks and personal protection choices in dense settings are still effective in stopping the spread of any viral infection. Hospitals across the United States are no longer required to update the CDC on Covid-19 admissions, increases or deaths. For the 7-day period ending May 26, 2024, new Covid hospitalizations in the U.S. declined by 16.7%. The coronavirus has claimed 1,190,122 total U.S. deaths, no additional deaths were reported over the past 7 days. (Data posted May 18, 2024, from the CDC).

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Road to the White House – Trump's Hush Money Trial – Prosecution Rests

The prosecution in the hush money trail of former President Donald Trump rested this week, after presenting 20 witnesses and showing jurors more than 200 pieces of evidence.

"After 15 days of testimony from 20 witnesses, the Manhattan district attorney's office on Monday rested its case against former President Donald J. Trump. The case was capped by three days of grinding cross-examination of his former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who finally stepped off the stand on Monday afternoon, leaving jurors to weigh his truthfulness," reported The New York Times.

The defense begins its case this week and has promised to only call two witnesses. Former President Donald Trump will not be testifying. Testimony continues this week.

Memorial Day

President Biden said, "This Memorial Day, we honor the brave women and men who made the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation's freedom. We recommit to keeping our sacred obligation to their survivors, families, and caregivers. Together, we vow to honor their memories by carrying on their work to forge a more perfect Union."

It is Memorial Day in the United States, the traditional holiday that ushers in the summer season, celebrated with parades, backyard family barbeques, and a long weekend. Many don't know or remember Memorial Day is about honoring those who bravely sacrificed for the freedoms we enjoy.

Veterans, many of whom were subjected to conditions in deployment that resulted in life-long struggles post-deployment, will line up to march in parades, from big cities to small towns, and parents will bring their children to enjoy the marching bands, the clowns, and floats.

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They will see the veterans, some in wheelchairs, the frailty of life as a reminder to us all, some waving flags of regiments, some wearing obvious scars and trauma while others carrying their wounds beneath the surface.

Peggy Noonan, an Opinion Columnist for The Wall Street Journal, wrote "Teach Your Children to Love America," "Memorial Day meant a lot to those old veterans, but more was needed. Their generation was passing; they'd given everything to hold the nation together; they wanted the young to understand why."

So, on this Memorial Day, pass the torch, take a child to a parade, bore them with a story of history, find courageous characters, make history fun, decorate with traditional red, white, and blue, let them hang a flag, help them to understand the strength of America, and the freedoms we enjoy are not the freedoms the world enjoys.

America, with all its flaws, and we do like to point them out especially during the presidential election season when the rhetoric becomes nauseating, is still the destination of the imagination of every immigrant in the world.

Even I, with the daily bombardment of injustice, still believe in the ideals of America and believe that we, each member of society, are responsible for the next generation, and we, each member of society, shoulders the responsibilities to help to create a more perfect, equitable, union.

For more information on President Joe Biden www.whitehouse.gov.

Janet Walker is the publisher and founder of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, Online Writer's Association, and International Federation of Journalists.