Beltway Insider: Biden/Inflation, ICE, COVID/Vaccine, Pfizer/Merck, Damian Williams, NBA/Varsity Blues

Details: Category: Beltway Insider; Published on Sunday, 10 October 2021 15:09; Written by Janet Walker

President Biden took advantage of the Bureau of Labor Statistics announcement this week to reiterate the strides his administration is making toward a post-Covid economic recovery even while inflation is squeezing consumers already feeling the financial pinch.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending October 10, 2021, decreased by 1.6% to 44.0% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness decreased by .1% percentage points to 48.9%, Marking the first time in the Biden presidency that his disapproval rating has been higher than his approval rating. A slight 3% of the population polled have no opinion. Ratings are calculated weekly.

Beltway Insider: Biden/UN, France, Canada, COVID/Vaccine Totals, Border Agents Fight Insurgency

Inflation Derails Economic Recovery

President Biden heralded the recent jobs report feathering his cap with the unexpected gains as consumers, employers and employees move into a post-pandemic Covid management phase, and unemployment rates have fallen to below five percent.

"So, in the past three months, we've seen a drop of 1.3 million long-term unemployed. That's the largest three-month fall in long-term unemployment since we started keeping records in 1948," President Biden said in a press conference.

Inflation Hits 30 Year High

With that, economists are announcing consumers are seeing a 30-year high in inflation rates as supply chain delays are hitting consumers hard. Don't expect relief anytime soon, either. The supply chain disruptions have had little effect on consumers since first announced in August, however, as the holidays are approaching the pinch of empty store shelves will become a squeeze as parents seek to purchase holiday toys.

"Supply chain concerns are growing beyond electronics and chips into most other commodities. Lead times are extending, shipping lanes are slowing, and we will not see an end to this in 2021," said one respondent in the electrical equipment, appliances and components industry," CNBC reported.

Commodities Prices Increase

Commodities, which in common speak translates to things that are consumed, will continue to increase for some time. It is expected that the tally from the trip to the local supermarket will exponentially increase over the next six to eight weeks and hit consumer extremely hard near the holidays.

"For example, the cost of meat in the grocery store, which we know is of concern to the American people, we believe that the lack of competition is a huge issue here, that the conglomeration of big companies in some industries is a huge factor," said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

Even as the White House, on counsel of 15 of the brightest economists available, believe the inflations rates are transitory and should return to "normal" with the next eight to ten months, the crystal ball projections may only prove true for fuel or other transportation costs.

Commodities, the total cost of food spending which effects the majority of Americans, will not see a return to normal sometime in the next year, pennies on the dollar, as opposed to the spike Americans are currently experiencing.

World News: French President Macron Freezes Out Algeria

Homeland Security Redefines Deportation Guidelines

The fallout from recent images of Border Control agents intimidating or corralling Haitian immigrants have continued to result in restructuring of the boundaries and authority the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have in deporting illegal immigrants.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Department of Homeland Secretary Secretary, explained "Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers should not attempt to arrest and deport farmworkers, the elderly and others who were vulnerable to deportation under the Trump administration, which allowed agents to arrest anyone in the United States illegally. He also said agents should avoid detaining immigrants who land on their radar because they spoke out against "unscrupulous" landlords or employers, or at public demonstrations. The new rules take effect Nov. 29," reported The Washington Post.

Throughout the pandemic, Department of Homeland has issued letters to more than 80,000 immigrants who were part of the critical infrastructure that maintain the supply chain keeping store shelves filled with produce and deemed as essential workers. With more than 389,000 undocumented farm workers ensuring the supply chain, which is clearly experiencing a breakdown, the farm workers need the extended protections presented by the Biden Administration.

Secretary Mayorkas is revising new guidelines which will all ICE officers some flexibility in the determination of arresting illegal immigrants. The Biden Administration has indicated those who will receive no flexibility will be those who present an immediate safety risk.

"Under the new set of guidelines, which will become effective in 60 days, ICE officers would have the latitude to decide which immigrants pose a public-safety threat, rather than follow strict categories the administration put in place earlier this year making only immigrants who have committed aggravated felonies—a term used in immigration law that captures some of the most severe crimes, including murder, rape and human trafficking—eligible for arrest or deportation," reported The Wall Street Journal.

Immigration law allows for a total of 140,000 Green Cards, which is considered official identification and allows those whom it is issued to live and work in the United States without fear of penalty. The Biden Immigration plan has called for an increase of Green Cards by 49,000 or 35%.

With the fiscal year beginning in October, the federal government reallocated annually the total amount of Green Cards any unused are no longer available. Essentially if the government does not issue the annual allocation by end of its fiscal year the remaining, or leftovers, will be discarded.

As immigration issues tend to focus on the southern border and the influx of illegal and undocumented coming across from Latin America, many are also arriving from India and the Asian Pacific area working for tech industry. The deep pocketed companies are worried their workers will be unable to secure a Green Card due, in part, to the long delays in processing.

"Companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple had urged federal officials to act before those green cards expire. Google said in September that only 13% of its candidate applications filed since last October have been approved, Axios reported. And last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking the agency to address the matter," reported The Miami Herald.

Vaccine Totals

Bloomberg.com has built a vaccine tracker which can be seen here. "In the U.S., 402 million doses have been given so far. In the last week, an average of 1 million doses per day were administered," Bloomberg.com reported.

Coronavirus Totals

While the infection rates of the coronavirus have continued to decline around the world. A new strain, a mutation, has created global concern for leaders around the world are determining the best direction for the protection of the population. The importance of maintaining personal protective practices is imperative to controlling the spread.

For the two-week period ending October 10, 2021, coronavirus cases globally increased by 5,976,036 new confirmed cases, bringing the total of confirmed cases worldwide to 237,486,930 people with a total worldwide death toll of 4,743,953 deaths, a two-week death rate increase of 102,411. (Data from The New York Times).

COVID US Totals

Infections rates in the United States are also on the rise. For the two-week ending October 10, 2021, the total confirmed cases rose to 44,306,983 people with new confirmed cases increasing by 1,435,627 with a 14-day average of 102,544 cases per day. The coronavirus has claimed 713,325 total deaths, adding 25,449 more deaths to the total of lives lost due to the coronavirus. (Data from The New York Times).

Pfizer Seeks FDA Authorization for Pediatric Vaccine

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer petitioned the FDA this week for limited use authorization to begin administering the Coronavirus vaccine to pre-teen children ages five to 11. It would be the first vaccine specifically geared toward this age group.

"An estimated 28 million children in the United States would be eligible for the shots if regulators give the green light — a process expected to take several weeks. The coronavirus vaccine would be the first available in this country for children younger than 12 years old," reported The Washington Post.

Merck Mark-up Keeps Covid Drug Out of Reach

Merck, another pharmaceutical giant, has again attempted to enter the coronavirus vaccine race by introducing a vaccine in pill form, developed in conjunction with the National institute of Health, according to The Intercept.

Costing as little as $18 to manufacture "the five-day course of molnupiravir, the new medicine being hailed as a "huge advance" in the treatment of Covid-19, costs $17.74 to produce, according to a report issued last week by drug pricing experts at the Harvard School of Public Health and King's College Hospital in London. Merck is charging the U.S. government $712 for the same amount of medicine, or 40 times the price, reported The Intercept.

The expectation is that Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, who bought the drug from Emory university and then sold it to Merck, will make billions on its use. The expectation, even if they are squeezed out of the North American market, is that the pill form, even at the price gouging inflation rate of 40percent will capitalize on the need in Covid hot spots around the world.

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 narcissist above the law belief.

Justice Watch: And They Got Away With It (Part 4)

Damian Williams, First Black Prosecutor, Sworn in as U.S. Attorney

Damian Williams was confirmed recently by the New York State Senate, as the United States Attorney for the Southern District, becoming the first African American to lead the agency since it's inception more than two hundred years ago.

Those who have led the Southern District in the past, with its complex and often most notorious criminal prosecutions from terrorism to corruption of those who believe they are above the law by the nature of their profession, have often left the office to serve as senators, judges, and elected political officials.

But those individuals were predominately white, the status quo of what would be expected, a linage of entitlement, and for those who know Mr. Williams, he is not the status quo.

"Beyond his extraordinary qualifications, Damian is the right person at this time in history to be the U.S. attorney for Manhattan," said Theodore V. Wells Jr., a Black partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss and one of the nation's most prominent litigators. "It's important for both Blacks and whites to see a person of African-American descent — especially in this time where there's so much social unrest — in that top job," reported The New Yok Times.

Working as a federal prosecutor since 2018, investigating Wall Street fraud, Williams cut his teeth on an elite unit within the Southern District that investigates the vast ecosystem of potential fraud within the finance industry.

Williams has also know tragedy as his sister passed away suddenly and his father, a physician in Georgia, was convicted on Medicaid fraud. He was able to get past those issues and erase the tarnish that often sticks to family members after revelations of criminality, or other stigma, surface within the family unit.

Medical Science: COVID-19 – Heading into the Holidays is it Safe to Fly

Convictions in Varsity Blues Admissions Scandal

Two of the 60 individuals charged in the Operation Varsity Blues College Admissions scandal, which netted a who's who of wealthy parents seeking to buy their children admissions to the most elite colleges and universities, have been convicted of fraud.

Thirty-three of the original 60 charged have pled guilty and have had faced prison sentences from ten days to ten months and also heavy fines. The trial of Gamal Abdelaziz, a former casino executive, and John Wilson, a former Staples Inc. executive, was decided by jury after about ten hours of deliberation.

"Abdelaziz, of Las Vegas, was charged with paying $300,000 to get his daughter into the University of Southern California as a basketball recruit even though she didn't even make it onto her high school's varsity team. Wilson, who heads a Massachusetts private equity firm, was accused of paying $220,000 to have his son designated as a USC water polo recruit and an additional $1 million to buy his twin daughters' ways into Harvard and Stanford," reported NPR.

Former NBA Greats Charged in Insurance Fraud

The New York Southern District unsealed an indictment this week charging 18 former N.B.A. players, and on player's wife, with insurance fraud scheme for medical and dental procedures they never received that totaled nearly $4 million dollars.

"The defendant's playbook involved fraud and deception," Audrey Strauss, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a news conference on Thursday announcing the charges. "Their alleged scheme has been disrupted and they will have to answer for their flagrant violations of law," reported The New York Times.

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