Beltway Insider: Biden’s 2024 Baggage, VP, Striking Workers, Romney, Pelosi, Libya Disaster

Details: Category: Beltway Insider; Published on Sunday, 17 September 2023 10:32; Written by Janet Walker

President Biden confronted another week of distressing political saber rattling news as the 2024 Presidential election inches closer with the improbable and shocking polls numbers that suggest a 2020 presidential rematch remains a real possibility.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending September 17, 2023 increased by 0.5% to 40.6% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness decreased by 1.0% to 54.7% 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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Biden's 2024 Baggage Gets Heavier

Every family has one: For Jimmy Carter it was his brother, Bill Clinton the same, for President Biden, it is his son, Hunter. The drug taking, free thinking, playboy, engaging in on camera antics better served for the at night network, and it seems every other week confronting an indictment. This week is the same.

For President Biden, Hunter Biden has become more heavy baggage for the beleaguered president. Seeing the issues with his son played out in the global media, Biden has a unique opportunity to present this as his family's cross to bear, another issue that families have, another manner in which he can relate to the common man, the blue collar, middle class that he champions. For many parents, who were hoping for the children to carry the next leg of the American dream, they instead saw them tripped up by poor choices and bad decisions, something the entire nation of Boomers can understand.

"Biden is accused of lying about his drug use when he bought a firearm in October 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction to crack cocaine, according to the indictment filed in federal court in Delaware by a special counsel overseeing the case. The indictment comes weeks after the collapse of a plea deal that would have averted a criminal trial and distracting headlines for President Joe Biden," reported APnews.com.

Granted Hunter Biden isn't the poster child for an imploding ideal; and he has benefitted from his father's dedication to America. For Biden, who has seen his share of family heartache, the pain is real as no good father, good leader, wants to see his children or those in his charge suffer.

Along with Hunter Biden turnstile legal issues, the President has real home front issues that could weigh heavily on the upcoming elections.

Hollywood Week: Hollywood Union Strike Continues, Cripples Economy, Toronto Film Festival

The United Autoworkers Strike, which is exposing shocking undervalued workers who are part of the middle-class Biden declares his dedication to at every opportunity.

"I'm striking because I want this to be my last and permanent job, a future," said Amanda Robbins, 38. "We work at Ford and can't even afford the cars we make." Robbins makes about $24 an hour after a little more than three years on the job. She and her husband, who works at General Motors, struggle to support their 3-year-old and have to pick up extra jobs, she said," reported The Washington Post.

President Biden continues to champion America's dwindling manufacturing industry, while working to bring manufacturing back to America and rebuilding these once industrial tentpoles, however when it becomes impossible for workers to purchase the cars they build, find suitable child-care so they can each work, and earn barely enough to afford the evaporating American dream, then management priorities need to be reevaluated.

United Parcel Services, which threatened to walk out and take their teamster drivers with them were able to negotiate a contract that adverted a nationwide shutdown.

Striking Hollywood Unions, SAG/AFTRA and the Writer's Guild of America, are entering into the longest strike in decades. Demanding transformative compensation, the strikes have cost the entertainment industry close to $5billion and caused a cascade of economic hardship across all industries dependent on services.

Americans are fed up. Fed up with management running roughshod over them, with bloated executive compensation packages when workers can't afford decent living conditions, when home prices are out of reach, when autoworkers can't afford the American made automobiles they help manufacture because they are overpriced, and each of these issues are adding more baggage to Biden's reelection campaign.

Kamala Harris and the Real 2024 Question

As the political divide continues to expand, the real question voters will be asking themselves com November 2024 is are they prepared to accept the very real possibility that Vice President Kamala Harris could become president?

It becomes more than simply is America finally prepared to have a woman as leader of the free world. Coupled with that, of course, are race and her blended racial family. The sensitivity of these issues may not be directed at the Vice-President but directed at a broader issue or diversity in general.

There is a growing "Black Market" push to withhold from white qualified employment candidates' high level-high paying positions in favor of lesser qualified black, brown or BIPOC candidates, the trickle-down effect of this becomes the surge of the "feelings" of a separate but equal doctrine established in the 1869 Plessey v. Ferguson Supreme Court Ruling, and trickles down further to the push back whenever possible including the presidential election.

The Vice-President, a former senator of California, the notions of "One California," which included a campaign of "Love is Love," and used as a platform for inclusion might not resonate throughout the majority of the nation, especially in GOP strongholds.

For many the VP position is the "company man" philosophy; represent the president when called upon, be the yes man, disagree only behind closed doors, and follow orders. So, providing a performance rating for the VP can be somewhat difficult, she has not distinguished herself as presidential material.

Which brings us back to the only questions voters will be asking come November 4, 2024: "Are we prepared to accept the very real possibility that President Biden could die in office and VP Kamala Harris could assume the duties and responsibilities of the Presidency, and chose a vice-president?

Is Age the Issue?

Granted they question swirled in 2020, as both the former President and President Biden are technically senior citizens, and although Biden was considered and remains in good health, medically there are age related issues including cognitive decline that should be considered.

Former President Ronald Reagan, the father of the modern Republican party was 77 when his second term ended. President Biden is reelected November 4, 2024, he will be the oldest president ever elected, at 82 years of age, and the oldest elected to a second term.

Is age the issue? Or are the preconceived and in some cases, medically proven issues of age-related decline, cognitive decline and physical decline the real issue?

As Biden prepares for the upcoming campaign, he will need to address issues of agism, age discrimination and rewrite the playbook for older Americans who are capable of doing more than door greeters at supermarket chains.

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Mitt Romney Bows Out, Nancy Pelosi Stays

Utah Senator and one-time Republican Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, announced this week he would not seek another six-year senatorial term and called on his fellow political statements to follow his lead to allow for a new generation of leaders to lead the nation.

"At the end of another term, I'd be in my mid-80s. Frankly, it's time for a new generation of leaders," Mr. Romney, 76, said in a video statement. "They're the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in," reported The New York Times.

Democratic Representative and former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, 83, has announced she will be seeking re-election to serve the people of San Francisco for another two years. She has served the area for the past 35 years.

"Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery," Pelosi said in a tweet. "Our country needs America to show the world that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for ALL. That is why I am running for reelection — and respectfully ask for your vote," APnews.com reported.

Putin, Kim Jong Un and the Expanding Ukraine War

The meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has signaled the possibility of an expanding European continent war.

Russia's continued ostracization and economic sanctions have forced the Putin to seek assistance from those willing partners. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has military supplies in abundance.

"Russia, nearing the 19-month point in its brutal war of attrition against Ukraine, arrived requiring more ammunition and military equipment for the battlefield, which Pyongyang keeps in abundance. North Korea came looking for food, fuel and cash, according to analysts, in addition to technological help for its missile and satellite programs and parts for its old Soviet-era military and civilian aircraft," reported The New York Times.

The Ukraine war has created strange bedfellows and is shuffling the nations of the European continent into readiness and military preparedness.

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Coronavirus Totals

The CDC has recommended every person from age six months, including senior citizens, should receive at least one shot of an updated covid vaccine.

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 September 17, 2023, the total of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide reached 770,563,467 confirmed cases, an increase over the past week of 126,140 cases worldwide. The total worldwide death toll increased by 316 to 6,957,216 deaths. The United States has stopped providing Covid data to the World Health Organization. (Data from The World Health Organization).

COVID U.S. Totals

As hospitalizations and infection rates continue to rise in the United States, some jurisdictions are suggesting new mask mandates. For the 7-day period ending September 17, 2023, the total hospitalizations resulting from new Covid hospitalizations in the U.S. increased by 18,987 to 6,308,630 which represents an 4.5% increase. The coronavirus has claimed 1,141,782 total U.S. deaths, an 10.5% increase, adding 1,504 deaths, over the past week. (Data from 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 homegrown terrorism.

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Libyan Disaster

The Libyan coastal city of Derna has called for international aid to assist in the recovery of more than 11,000 people who were killed with two earthen dams breeched which sent a wall of water rushing through the heavy populated city in the middle of the night leaving a muddy swath of debris.

Rainfall from what has been called a Mediterranean Hurricane, caused more than two years of rainfall to fall in 24 hours which created an unfathomable force on the dams. According to reports officials had been warned about the stability of the dams for years.

"As of Thursday, the Libyan Red Crescent said that 11,300 people have been killed, and a further 10,100 are reported missing. However, local officials suggested that the death toll could be much higher than announced. In comments to the Saudi-owned Al Arabia television station on Thursday, Derna Mayor Abdel-Moneim al-Ghaithi said the tally could climb to 20,000 given the number of neighborhoods that were washed out," reported APnews.com.

Officials are still digging through mud drifts more than 13 feet high, as the sheer power behind the water destroyed everything in its path, overturning vehicles, crushing cement pillars, twisting steel, washing away apartment buildings. The devastation is shocking.

The force behind floods incrementally increases. For each foot of water, 500lbs of lateral force are applied to inanimate objects, such as a car. Water flowing at 4 mph produces a force comparable to an EF2 tornado which generates wind speeds of 111mph – 135mph. The people of Derna didn't have a chance.

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