Beltway Insider: Biden/Blinken in China, SCOTUS/Homeless, TikTok Ban, Campus Protests, Trump Trial

Details: Category: Beltway Insider; Published on Sunday, 28 April 2024 09:42; Written by Janet Walker

President Biden sent Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on behalf of the United States to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, as discussions centered in the People's Republic of China's effort to replenish Russia's military arsenal.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending April 28, 2024, increased by 0.01% to 39.1% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness increased by 0.01% 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.

Beltway Insider: Biden/U.S. Israel Military Operation, G7, Foreign Aid, Ukraine, UAW, Trump Trial

U.S., Chinese Relationship Strained

Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently returned from a three-day trip to the People's Republic of China, where intensive talks between his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, covered many economic topics, and centered primarily on China supplying arms to Russia, in its fight against the Ukraine.

Blinken address this issue further as the topic of China supplying Russia with military weaponry or dual use goods, was also addressed in the recent G7 summit, as China's direct support of Russia potentially poses a medium to long term threat against the European Continent.

"So, what I heard in my conversations last week at the G7 meetings, before that at NATO, was a shared concern about this. I had detailed conversations with a number of European leaders about their concerns, including President Macron of France, German counterparts, British, many others – Italian. And I think all of us are looking to China to take steps to curb this action, and we're also, as I said, looking at the actions that we're fully prepared to take if we don't see a change," Secretary of State Blinken said during a press conference.

China Seeks Global Domination

China has long been seen as a threat to U.S. National Security and is considered a long-term threat against the United States and the world at large as Chinese President Xi-Jinping continues his effort to elevate his country's global economy and increase his leveraging power.

The current concerns that China is partnering with Russian President Vladimir Putin to aid his effort to regain the territories lost after those countries, once held during communist Russia's rule under former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, broke away and declared their independence, including the Ukraine, during a widespread democratic wave that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

The alarm bells are ringing throughout the world with warning from the U.S. government officials, including former National Security Advisor John Ratcliff, current Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and current F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray, who simply explains our "After October 7 we went to a whole other level."

"If I could communicate one thing to the American people from this unique vantage point, it is that the People's Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II. The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically," Former National Security Advisor John Ratcliff wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Now, as China is posed to develop a more substantial relationship with Russia, and possibly Iran, a mutual hatred for the United States will become the glue that binds these nations in a single focus, although for both Putin and Xi-Jinping, it will only hold as long as it remains a win-win for each.

Putin's ultimate goal, before his death, is the reunification of these wayward nations who have declared independence. To achieve this end, Putin has enlisted President Xi-Jinping. The two nations border to the south and have the potential to unify or perform joint military exercises.

"These three regimes do not wish to live in a world where democracy, with all its values, is the primary, influential and legitimate form of political thought and practice. They do not want to remain in the role of political rogues. Such status is tiresome and potentially very dangerous for them. They want their despotism to be the norm rather than a deviation from modern human civilization," The Hill reported.

Hollywood Week: Weinstein NY Conviction Overturned, TikTok, Hollywood Con Queen Doc

TikTok Ban

China's ByteDance, Ltd., the owners of the wildly popular TikTok social media app, felt the sting of the U.S. government this week as President Biden signed into law, a bill that will force the Chinese based business to divest to an American business before 2025 or face a total use ban.

Iraqi TikTok Star Murdered

Ghufran Sawadi, who used the name Umm Farhed, an influential TikTok star who gained fame on the social media platform, was murdered outside her home by an unknown assassin in Baghdad, the nation's capital.

Sawadi filmed herself in form fitting clothing and exposing her skin, which is a violation of the antiquated double standards and societal restrictions these third world countries place upon females.

It is the second murder of an influential TikTok star in a nation, "Most recently, another popular Iraqi TikTok personality, Noor Alsaffar, known as Noor BM, was shot dead in Baghdad in September 2023, an Iraqi security source told CNN at the time," CNN reported.

College Pro-Palestine Protests

Across the nation students are protesting the U.S. policy on Palestine, in what many are calling Anti-Semitic or Pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Universities including the Columbia University, New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University in Boston, Indiana University in Bloomington, University of Pennsylvania, to the University of Southern California, students, fueled by the increasing death toll in the Israel-Palestine war, are demanding policy change and choosing the annual pageantry of graduation to fight the power.

""We have a responsibility to the entire MIT community — and it is not possible to safely sustain this level of effort," MIT President Sally Kornbluth said. "We are open to further discussion about the means of ending the encampment. But this particular form of expression needs to end soon," APnews.com reported.

Unfortunately, what began as peaceful protests, has turned into antagonist anti-Israel hate propaganda, resulting in disruptive conflict and no longer presents the unified anti-war protests, but resembles a rallying cry giving way to the potential targeted violence on American Campus.

Although Universities hope the need for National Guard troops will not be necessary, mob mentality and anti-Zionists messaging which fuels deep-seeded hatred within the diverse melting pot of America, may result in local law enforcement requesting assistance.

Peaceful protest is protected; hate fueled aggression and antagonism will not supported and will only fuel the belief that Palestine is a hate based people, bent on destruction.

World News: France Seeks to Weaponize Unemployment Benefits

Homeless Epidemic Reaches the Supreme Court

Homelessness, which simply by the word, suggests images of mentally ill, encampments, addicts, and the intentionally disenfranchised, the unintelligent, uneducated, who by poor choices and bad decisions have somehow ended up with this life of vagrancy. Of course, as with any story there is a mix of truth, fiction, personal and governmental responsibility to this epidemic.

This week, the United States Supreme Court took on the issue of Homelessness as Grants Pass, Oregon has passed a series of Anti-Camping laws, which prohibit the unhoused and homeless to pitch a tent in any of the state's parks, banned camping in the Supreme Court's conservative majority, which has moved to reshape the nation's judicial standing on many liberal policies and laws,

"The case will decide whether governments can enforce laws against people sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go. The decision, expected in late June, could be the most consequential ruling on the rights of the unhoused in decades, and either sanction or derail increasingly punitive efforts across the country that seek to deal with homelessness," reported The Washington Post.

The lower court decisions sided with the unhoused, which caused the city, who has no homeless shelter, to seek to overturn the decision and rule in favor of the city. That ruling is doubtful.

State governments are usually autonomous in their ability to run their states as the constituents see fit, through the elected process, which is how many states fought against this same conservative court's decision to abolish Roe v. Wade, to allow for Cannabis use, and other still laws which on the federal are illegal.

Homelessness is an epidemic in the United States, there are choices that each state can enact, including Grant's Pass, like a reintegration community which allows for the homeless to camp, with the caveat that they seek social services with the expected end of reintegrating into the housed community through social programs that find housing solutions, through any number of practical options, tube housing, small homes, Habitat for Humanity or other viable options.

As homeless advocates and opponents wait for the expected June decision, the epidemic of the disenfranchised homeless community only grows.

Coronavirus Totals

According to the World Health Organization the increase in cases resulting from the variant JN.1 have migrated in a similar pattern as the original Covid-19 virus. 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 April 28, 2024, the total of confirmed coronavirus cases reported by The World Health Organization remained at 775,335,916 confirmed cases, increasing by 42,286 confirmed cases. The total worldwide death toll increased by 932 to 7,045,569 deaths. The United States has stopped providing Covid data to the World Health Organization. (Data updated April 14, 2024, from The World Health Organization).

COVID U.S. Totals

As hospitalizations and infection rates decline in the United States, masks and personal protection choices in dense settings are still effective in stopping the spread. For the 7-day period ending April 28, 2024, new Covid hospitalizations in the U.S. increased by 5,812 to 6,929,940. The coronavirus has claimed 1,189,603 total U.S. deaths, adding 612 deaths, over the past 7 days. (Data updated April 20, 2024, posted April 26, 2024, from the CDC).

Road to the White House – Trump's Legal Troubles Continue

Trump Hush Money Trial Update

The sleazy side of former President Donald Trump is once again being paraded in front of the American people, as reporters detail the daily trail of droppings presented during the prosecution case that will convince, an allegedly unbiased jury, that then candidate Donald Trump did use his legal counsel to make hush money payment to porn stars so they would not divulge the intimacies of their actions with then Republican presidential, and supposedly Christian, candidate Trump.

"A former ally of Mr. Trump, David Pecker, the ex-publisher of The National Enquirer, later testified to buying and burying unflattering stories about Mr. Trump during his 2016 run for president, an arrangement he called "highly, highly confidential," reported The New York Times.

He also testified of working with former Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen, who has since been tried, convicted, and incarcerated for his actions and will testify, to "hatch a plan," to elevate the candidate through flattering stories, which most would consider a public relations campaign, and these stories would cover the abundant cash available that was paid to anyone wanting to sell damaging stories.

Trump, who has attended each day of the proceedings, has been known to close his eyes and nod off as if to say, the proceedings are as full of excrement as the sordid details being told.

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