Beltway Insider: Biden/Build Back, Ukraine/Russia, ISIS, COVID/Vaccine Totals, Breyer Retires, Olympics

President Biden's Build Back Better Bill received an unexpected boost when a bridge in Pittsburgh collapsed hours before his planned visit to pitch the merits of the infrastructure plan for the nearly 3500 crumbling bridges in Pennsylvania.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending January 30, 2022 decreased by 0.5% to 41.8% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness decreased by 0.7% to 53.1% 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/Ukraine, NATO, COVID Omicron/Vaccine Totals, UM Abuse, Cardi B, André Leon Talley


Biden's Infrastructure Bill Boosted by Bridge Collapse

President Biden visited the site where a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, public transportation double bus, was precariously slanting after the bridge it was crossing snapped in the middle, pulling the foundation from each side, and collapsed in a "V," injuring ten and sending four others to the hospital.

The president who had been scheduled to visit Pittsburgh to speak on the merits of the $1.2 Trillion dollar Build Back Better Bill, which has been stalled in Congress, used the collapse to highlight the need for legislators to move the bill forward to combat America's crippled infrastructure.

Russian Meets with European Leaders, U.S. Excluded

Leaders from Russia and Ukraine as well as France and Germany, met this week, in hopes to avert an all-out, full-scale war. By the end of the talks, the countries agreed to a maintain a ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine and, if Russia maintains its agreement, will meet again in two weeks in the hopes of preventing war.

"We fully support international efforts, including the Normandy Format, which is what you're referring to, to de-escalate the situation and negotiate a diplomatic resolution to the Russian-led conflict in Eastern Ukraine," said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

With Russia continuing to deny a possible Ukraine invasion, the evidence clearly points to the possibility of a massive land invasion with three points of entry against neighboring Ukraine as well as troops positioned in Belarus.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has continued to call for calm indicating that the increased tensions could destabilize his country.

"Russia has assembled more than 100,000 troops at Ukraine's borders, the officials said, publicly confirming for the first time what intelligence analysts have described for weeks. Those troops, Pentagon officials said, have the ability to move throughout Ukraine, far beyond an incursion into only the border regions," The New York Times reported.

Diplomatic leaders from the United States, Britain, France, Germany as well as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, have continued efforts to intervene on behalf of the beleaguered and ill-prepared nation.

Global leaders are indicating the Ukrainian President is missing the proverbial writing on the wall. As Russian President Vladimir Putin orders additional troops, artillery, medical supplies, and field hospitals, in which global strategists believe point to a willingness to escalate the border crisis rather than a military exercise.

The White House, however, has said Ukraine has been downplaying the threat in a way that could lead the country to be unprepared for a potential Russian attack.

"We understand the difficult position (Ukrainian) President (Volodymyr) Zelensky is in and the pressure he's under," a White House official said Saturday. "But at the same time he's downplaying the risk of invasion, he's asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons to defend against one. We think it's important to be open and candid about that threat,"' CNN reported.

Russia, Ukraine War or Rollover

While the world expects a mass casualty war if Russia invades Ukraine, Russia is expecting a rollover with the 2014 invasion of the Crimean Peninsula as an example.

Building a menacing wall surrounding the Ukraine, with all the props necessary to present the determination of a long drawn out, destabilizing and destructive war, the only hope the Ukraine has of averting a bloody, costly, battle remains support troops from NATO, the United States, Brits, Germany, and France forces and other allied nations, which translates to sending troops into war against Russia.

With the United States announcing this week a prepare to deploy order has been issued from 8500 U.S. troops, the remainder of the military presence would need to be European nations who will also be at risk if Russia is permitted to rollover the Ukraine with the strength western Europe has not seen since World War II.


World News: The Weight of Putin’s Promise


NATO Responds

"NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Western military alliance was watching closely as Russia, which already has tens of thousands of soldiers near Ukraine's border, moves troops and arms into Belarus for drills. He said NATO was ready to increase its troop presence in eastern Europe if Russia took further aggressive actions against Ukraine, and cautioned that a Russian attack could take many forms including a cyber-attack, attempted coup or sabotage," Reuters reported.

While the world's leading nations are poised for the possibility of multi-level confrontational assault by Russia, all nations are attempting peacekeeping efforts and remains committed to NATO's open-door policy.

Violating the territorial sovereignty of the Ukraine may bring additional sanctions upon Russia, and clearly the suspension of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and other economic sanctions will be targeted by NATO and European Allies including the suspension of Russian diplomats from embassies around the world.

"Western allies say they will target Russia's economy if it invades, and the latest comments signal a hardening of their stance on the lucrative pipeline. "I want to be very clear: if Russia invades Ukraine one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward," US state department spokesman Ned Price told NPR," reported the BBC.com.

While we don't know if the Russians are playing games on diplomacy the intention, is diplomacy with a level of seriousness and an intention in leaving that door open and pursuing that path should, should they be open to it.  Russia has conveyed they're reviewing the responses from both NATO and the United States and even that is a part of the diplomatic process.

ISIS Reemerges

The Islamic State has reemerged this week releasing a video of a beheading of an Iraqi Police officer, launching a missile attack on Syria, and releasing images of the Afghanistan people freezing in the harsh winter, starving in the six months since the United States left the region.

The situation is eerily similar to the statement former President Barack Obama made in 2016. "Finally, it should be clear by now -- and no one knows this better than our military leaders -- that even as we need to crush ISIL on the battlefield, their military defeat will not be enough.  So long as their twisted ideology persists and drives people to violence, then groups like ISIL will keep emerging and the international community will continue to be at risk in getting sucked into the kind of global whack-a-mole where we're always reacting to the latest threat or lone actor."

While the United States is no longer in Afghanistan it will remain "at war" with ISIS, ISIL, Deash, and any other terrorist group seeking to dismantle the cause of freedom and democracy. The uprising echo's of Obama's outline to the American people in which he stated the United States, along with a coalition of nations, would dismantle "degrade and ultimately destroy" this enemy.

Vaccine Totals

Bloomberg.com has built a vaccine tracker which can be seen here. "In the U.S., 538 million doses have been given so far. An average 552,503 doses per day were administered over the last week," Bloomberg.com reported.

Coronavirus Totals

After a brief season of declining infection rates, the Omicron variant has shocked the world sending major urban and metropolitan areas into a tailspin with sharp spikes in confirmed infection rates. The importance of maintaining personal protective practices is imperative to controlling the spread.

Unless 85% of the global population is vaccinated and regularly receiving booster shots the global population will never fully control the pandemic it will always control the population.

For the one-week period ending January 30, 2022 coronavirus cases globally increased by 23,428,326 new confirmed cases, bringing the total of confirmed cases worldwide to 372,581,937 people with a total worldwide death toll of 5,657,616 deaths, and a 7-day death rate increase of 66,748 (Data from The New York Times).

COVID US Totals

Infections rates in the United States are also on the rise. For the seven-day period ending January 30, 2022, the total confirmed cases rose to 74,211,771 people with new confirmed cases increasing by 3,743,733 with a 7-day average of 534,819 cases per day. The coronavirus has claimed 882,964 total deaths, adding 17,848 more deaths over the 7-day period. (Data from The New York Times).

Omicron Variant Morphs

Omicron, the highly contagious and fast-moving variant of the Delta virus, has split into a secondary variant with Denmark, India, and the U.K., among the forty nations reporting the BA.2, has been detected in-country. The World Health Organization (WHO) has not designated the Omicron variant a variant of interest. Omicron (the original) is the fifth variant of interest on the WHO list.

"The two variants arose around the same time and come from the same ancestor strain. They have many mutations in common but there are also around 20 mutations that are different between the two variants. The differences between this variant and BA.1 can be seen in the spike protein of the virus, Dr. [Theodora] Hatziioannou said," The Wall Street Journal reported.

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)


Justice Stephen Breyer Retires

Associate Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced this week he would be retiring from his position on the nation's highest court paving the way for President Biden's first supreme court pick of his presidency.

Justice Breyer hand delivered his retirement letter to the president in which he stated, "I have been aware of the great honor of participating as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and rule of law."

Biden Announces Black Female Will Replace

President Biden announced immediately following Justice Breyer's announcement that he is committed to his campaign promise of nominating an African America female to replace the retiring justice.

The highest court in the land has been active for 230 years, in that time a Black woman has never served on it. 

"On Thursday Biden promised a "rigorous" search for a nominee. "I will listen carefully to all the advice I'm given, and I will study the records and former cases carefully. I'll meet with the potential nominees," Biden said, setting a goal of an announcement by the end of February," NPR reported.

Of the names shortlisted, South Carolina U.S. District Court Judge Michelle J. Childs has emerged as a frontrunner.


Medical Science: COVID-19 - Is Your Mask Safe and Effective


Olympics, China, and COVID-19

China, the host nation for the XXIV (24th) Winter Olympic Games, which will be held beginning February 4, 2022, through February 20, 2022, will not be selling spectators seats for any of the sporting events. The decision to create a closed game is out of an abundance of caution due to the continued spread of Omicron, the third most known variant derived from the original coronavirus.

"The Winter Games, which begin on Feb. 4, will now unfold like those in Tokyo, which also barred most spectators before last year's Summer Games. The authorities in China, who had pressed ahead defiantly to fill the venues with spectators, have now had to bow to the grim realities of the pandemic," reported The New York Times.

China's strict and immediate isolation policies for any confirmed coronavirus cases as caused lockdowns in two districts in Western China.

While the Olympics are a celebration for the world's most elite athletes, China's record on human rights violations has nearly overshadowed the already impaired games and is not without controversy. Many nations, including the United States has indicated they will permit athletes to attend but will be boycotting the games and will not send ministers.

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

Sources: Various © Articles covered by Copyright protection.

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