Beltway Insider: Biden/Ukraine War, DOD Summit, COVID/Vaccine Totals, Cig Ban, LA Riots, Naomi Judd

Details: Category: Beltway Insider; Published on Sunday, 01 May 2022 12:17; Written by Janet Walker

President Biden asked Congress this week to swiftly approve an additional $33billion dollar military and humanitarian aid package to address the long-term needs of assisting the Ukrainians in their fight for freedom and democracy against Russia's invasion.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending May 1, 2022 decreased by 0.6% to 41.7% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness increased by 0.7% to 52.3% 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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Ukraine Aid Package Increase

Along with the escalating ground war, between Ukraine forces and Russian forces, the war of words is escalating as Russia continues to claim the United States is inciting the ground war with rhetoric.

"The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen," Biden said in remarks from the Roosevelt Room at the White House. He added, "We either back Ukrainian people as they defend their country, or we stand by as the Russians continue their atrocities," The Washington Post reported.

The breakdown of the aid package includes both military assistance, and there is still some leeway in the current drawdown options, which is expected to be exhausted, the aid package includes an additional $5bn in additionally drawdown authority, which allows for the quick delivery of military assistance as the pool draws from the U.S. surplus.

All the aid requested will not go directly to Ukraine, but also to NATO to increase the security in region with monies appropriated for U.S. personnel and equipment, temporary duty, special pay, airlift, weapons systems sustainment and medical support.

Also included were monies earmarked to counter Russia's disinformation campaign, address Ukraine's food insecurity issues, medical supplies, trauma mental health services, and bolster sanction enforcement. U.S. farmers experiencing shortages due to the Ukraine war are also included in the Aid package.

Putin over the past week has agreed, in principle to allow the International Red Cross into Mariupol to assist the wounded an aid those looking to escape.

Russia Weaponizes Energy

Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded Poland and Bulgaria, who each receive nearly 45% of their energy needs from Russia, to pay in Rubles as his economy teeters on the brink of collapse, weaponizing energy in retaliation to nations who have joined in enforcing the Western sanctions packages.

"Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was responding to the countries' refusal to pay in rubles, which Moscow sorely needs in the wake of Western sanctions that have frozen Russian reserves. Other countries that do not fall in line should expect the same, the Kremlin warned," reported The Washington Post.

As the war rages in the Ukraine, and the 27-member E.U. bloc, NATO, and most nations on the European continent have agreed to enforce the Western Sanction package, unfortunately these same nations have maintained ties to the Kremlin and continued to purchase oil, one of Russian's key exports to the continent, which seems like a catch-22 situation.

Putin has now moved to weaponize its energy exports. Demanding payment in rubles is only the beginning. The E.U., for all its member nations, "spends an estimated $850 million a day on Russian energy imports. Before the war, Poland and Germany, Europe's de facto economic capital, imported the largest quantities of Russian oil for domestic purposes among E.U. countries, reported The Washington Post.

DOD Summit

The Department of Defense held an impromptu Military Summit at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, inviting 40 nations to attend to speak directly on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the need to weaken Russia's military. All nations invited attended which included Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as all NATO nations.

Additional nations represented where "Key Pacific partners: Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand Representatives from the Middle East: Israel, Qatar and Jordan; A quartet of African nations: Kenya, Liberia, Morocco and Tunisia; Three European nations whose future is in the balance: Sweden and Finland, which appear poised to move towards NATO membership within weeks," reported BreakingDefense.com.

The keynote presented was given by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mike Milly and focused on Russia's shift in strategy and an intelligence assessment of the coastal region of Donbas, which includes the port city of Mariupol, which has become the focus of the Russian Forces.

Kyiv Attacked During U.N. Visit

Moscow confirmed it carried out an airstrike on the Ukraine capital of Kyiv during the recent visit of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

"The defence ministry said in its daily briefing in Moscow on Friday that two "high-precision, long-range air-based weapons" had destroyed the production buildings of the Artyom missile and space enterprise in the Ukrainian capital on Thursday night," reported The Guardian.com.

The attack heightened the condemnation aimed at Russian from the United Nations and other globally governing bodies. The Ukraine war has raged for eight weeks.

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War Reporting and Media Irresponsibility

The Ukraine War, like any war, moves the shocking images to the front of the world collective consciousness, and like Vietnam and the Pulitzer prize winning photograph of a terrified 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phùc, naked, a victim of napalm is etched into history. At that time, images didn't move at dot.com speed and neither did the locations of refugees in hiding.

Global media and the current need of war reporting, to break the story first has given way to irresponsible reporting by all major media who without thought or concern report on specific locations where refugees are in hiding. A recent media report of more than 1200 Ukraine sheltering in a Mariupol theater resulted in the bombing of the theater.

Arguing that it would have happened anyway is simply rationalizing the irresponsibility in reporting. Providing up to the minute news reports of the horrific suffering of Ukrainian does not mean providing GPS coordinates to the enemy. Filing reports should not include exact locations, cities, and other clear indication of location.

It would also be remiss of the media to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin, or if we are going to be real, any of the Russian deep cover moles or spies still in the United States, are reading the same papers, and acting on it.

Show your sympathy for the Ukrainian people and do not report the exact location of shelters unless of course you are hoping to return for the post-mortem coverage. Body bags do create the iconic, and Pulitzer Prize winning, image.

U.S. Covid Deaths Near 1M

COVID-19 has become an unwelcome member of global society. It's continual regeneration into new variants of equal, lesser, or greater strength will reman in society even as we transition to the endemic stage of the pandemic. Deaths in the United States will reach 1million by June 1, 2022.

An unfortunate designation. However, remembering back to the initial stages of the pandemic, the numbers of 200million deaths, mass unmarked graves, overflowing hospitals, with mortality rates across America expected to mirror scenes from Stephen King's iconic horror-sci-fi series, The Stand, we galvanized, understood our enemy, tapped the best and brightest medical minds, and as our battle wasn't raged on a single front but silently everywhere, we united to determine our futures together.

As we enter the endemic stage, the fight will continue, variants will rise, some stronger other simply annoying, and we will survive.

Vaccine Totals

Bloomberg.com has built a vaccine tracker which can be seen here. "In the U.S., 574 million doses have been given so far. During the last week, shots were administered at an average rate of 84,139 doses a day," Bloomberg.com reported.

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 May 1, 2022, coronavirus cases globally increased by 4,193,351 new confirmed cases, bringing the total of confirmed cases worldwide to 513,261,896 people with a total worldwide death toll of 6,233,699 deaths, and a 7-day death rate increase of 18,173. (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 May 1, 2022, the total confirmed cases rose to 81,260,672 people with new confirmed cases increasing by 404,855 with a 7-day average of 57,840 cases per day. The coronavirus has claimed 992,010 total deaths, adding 2,332 more deaths over the 7-day period. (Data from The New York Times).

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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. The best obtainable version of the truth.

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FDA Bans Flavored Cigarettes

The Food and Drug Administration announced this week they would be proposing a ban on menthol flavored cigarettes stressing the flavored brands disproportionately target African American communities contributing to long-term smoking related health issues and higher mortality rates among African Americans.

This recent statement is not the first time the FDA has announced an effort to ban menthol related products, and the teen preferred cigarillos. One year ago, in 2021, the FDA announced a similar recommendation only to be met with solid resistance the tobacco industry.

"Opposition has also come from GOP and Democratic officials as well as civil rights groups and leaders, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Al Sharpton, who have said that banning menthol would risk police targeting Black Americans for selling illegal cigarettes," reported The Washington Post.

Even as this would be the most sweeping changes the imposed on the tobacco Industry, any ban is at least two years away, as the ruling will be reviewed, revised, and watered-down to appease big business including big pharma that also benefits from the sale and long-term use of hazardous products related to smoking issues.

LA Riots 1992

Thirty years have passed since the Rodney King verdict that set off a week of rioting in Los Angeles and left a permanent stain on the city of Angels. The images reinforce a belief that African Americans are disproportionately the aggressor of extreme violence. As the images are all that much of the population will recall, the action, the trigger is only given a moment to set the scene.

Of course, the action of police brutality, especially captured on film, and broadcast worldwide must be factored into the lens of historical judgement. However, the beating of Rodney King is not the first image that leads the news coverage of LA 92.

For others LA92 will fade into just another case and the new face of police injustice George Floyd will be the iconic image. The Black Lives Matter movement born from a determined people extremely tired of police ineptitude, unequal application of the law, murder, brutality, a generalized disregard for civil rights, racism, and the many other societal issues that infiltrate the American judicial and law enforcement psyche, took a stand. Even then with, real change on the horizon, within sight as most protestors, globally, remained peaceful, there were many reports of looting and using the unrest to further financial gain and criminal enterprise.

We, the people, have the right to peacefully assemble. It is the right and more the responsibility of the population to assemble and petition the government, locally, statewide, and federally, for change. However, the stain of death, looting, civil unrest, violence rarely benefits change.

In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. "World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus, we must begin anew."

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Naomi Judd Dies

Naomi Judd one-half the country and western singing duo "The Judds" died this week. She was 75. The cause of death is listed as mental illness, although it is unclear if Ms. Judd took her own life.

Her daughters, Ashley, who is recovering from a catastrophic injury which nearly caused her to lose her leg, and Wynona, Naomi's singing partner announced the loss via social media. They indicated they are in "unknown territory" while they process the loss.

Ms. Judd had been vocal, in the recent past, about her struggles with severe depression which left her unable to process daily life. Ms. Judd will still be inducted into the County Western Hall of Fame, in a ceremony Sunday, May 1, 2022.

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