Beltway Insider: Biden/Asian Trip, Ukraine, Putin Ill, COVID/Vaccine Totals, DHS Prepares for Violence

President Biden began a six-day Asian trip visiting both South Korea and Japan, with the focus on the creation of American jobs, the pandemic, and the Asian response in combatting the virus, and solidarity with the Ukraine.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending May 22, 2022 decreased by 0.7% to 41.5% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness increased by 0.2% to 52.6% 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 War, NATO, Buffalo, COVID/Vaccine Totals, NK Covid Spike, Choice March


Asian Trip

President Biden made his first trip to Japan and South Korea during his presidency, this week. The pandemic and other matters of state, including various outbreaks and lockdowns within the region.

While President's Biden's six-day alliance building trip did not begin in the best possible light, with two members of his advance team ordered to return to their duty station after an alleged drunken brawl, his meetings have served to strengthen unilateral commitments from both nations.

Both Samsung and Hyundai have committed to building factories in the United States, in Texas and Georgia, which will create good-paying jobs for each of those economies.

India and The Quad Partnership

President Biden will also be meeting with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who like China and other nations have tried to walk a fine line or remain neutral in all matters related to Ukraine.

Modi, whose nation represents one-fourth of the Quad nations, with Australia, Japan and the United States making up the remainder, has played both sides. He has called for a cease fire, and still agreed to import oil from Russia using the preferred rupee currency, which is outside the United States sanction circle.

"India doesn't move to one side or the other, they like to reinforce their independent great power status, and so I think that's the tougher part of the trip, maybe the toughest," said Barry Pavel, director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council. "Getting India to play more of a role in the coalition should be a top priority, and they just haven't wanted to play ball," NBCnews.com reported.

The Quad partnership has also been responsible for ensuring the widespread use of vaccines to combat the spread of the coronavirus and its continued mixture of variants.

China, North Korea, and Saber-Rattling in the Region

China, who has been a supporter and deemed a forever friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has also remained neutral on all matters related to the Ukraine. China, in a show of strength, began military drills in the South China Sea, which they lay claim to in its entirety. These types of exercise by the Chinese President Xi-Jinping are deemed saber-rattling to alert other nations in the region who maintains dominance.

North Korea, under the leadership of dictator Kim Jong Un, has finally announced his nation is suffering from the coronavirus, with astronomical daily infection rates. The need to address the coronavirus and introduce vaccines into North Korea is imperative and a priority to all nations, not only those in the region, but as an airborne virus North Korea's management of the outbreak has global ramifications.

Kim-Jon Un has, to the world's, dismay exhibited his fair share of saber rattling as he continues to test his nation's ICBMs, (intercontinental ballistic missiles), and vows to escalate the production of nuclear warheads.

Biden Signs Ukraine Aid Package While in Asia

President Biden continued to make his position clear on support of Ukraine and its territorial defense against the Russian invasion. During his Asian Trip the president signed into law an additional $40billion military aid package

"The new legislation will provide $20 billion in military assistance, ensuring a steady stream of advanced weapons that have been used to blunt Russia's advances. There's also $8 billion in general economic support, $5 billion to address global food shortages that could result from the collapse of Ukrainian agriculture and more than $1 billion to help refugees," reported U.S. News and World Report.


World News: Russia Continues Allied Aggression


Ukraine War – Mariupol Falls to Russian Forces

The Ukraine city of Mariupol has fallen to Russian Forces. After a brutal battle for control, with Ukrainian forces absorbing 88 days of shelling, bombing raids, and the horrors of war, the city has been evacuated of those who stayed and fought to the bitter end.

"The defense of Mariupol alone cost the Ukrainian forces a "very large number" of pilots, Zelensky said during a national telethon, according to Interfax. It is unclear how those losses may affect Ukraine's efforts to defend other territory, even as Western supplies flow into the country," The Washington Post reported.

As Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy initially suggested, Air Support will decrease the advancement of the Russian Forces, even as bombing raids decimated the cities, reducing them to rubble, with Russian Forces respond much like ISIS in destroying any remnant of the historical significance these regions once held.

Russian Forces have continued to strike at the heart of the nation, while refusing to adhere to rules of engagement. The continued killing of innocent civilians and non-combatants, is geared to destroy the heart and the spirit of those fighting for their homeland.

Russia's Second Strategy

As victory seems impossible in the continuing fight for complete surrender of the Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been rumored to be ill, has implemented a second strategy.

"Russia, said Mikk Marran, director general of the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service, "is losing in Ukraine militarily, politically, and morally. When we look at the battlefield, Russia's conventional capacity is already overstretched. The losses in Russian manpower and equipment are not sustainable at the same operations tempo that we have seen so far," The Washington Post reported.

Putin Rumored to be in Failing Health

Reports surfaced this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be dying of a rare blood cancer, while others say his failing health is due to Parkinson's Disease.

A recent video of a conversation between the Russian leader and Defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, to discuss the fate of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, shows him in an interview firmly grasping the edge of the table, as if to control the tremors usually associated with the progression of the neurological disease. Additionally, the video shows him attempting to control nervous twitching, and exhibiting general fidgeting in his extremities.

"Former UK politician Louise Mensch said the footage appeared to back earlier reports that "Vladimir Putin has Parkinson's disease." "Here you can see him gripping the table so that his shaking hand is not visible but he cannot stop his foot from tapping," she wrote," The New York Post reported.

While may would say, a consistent movement in a foot would be a "tell," it appeared to the experts who dissected the video that Putin would be stoic and beyond exhibiting frustration.

Finland and Sweden NATO Bid Hits Snag

Finland and Sweden's historic application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has apparently hit a snag as Turkey, the second largest army in NATO, has voiced concerns over past alliance indiscretions.

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had hosted at least two Peace Summits between Russian and Ukraine, in his country, has voiced concern over their support for groups allegedly responsible for Turkey's failed coup.

"Erdogan's objection to Sweden and Finland stems from Turkish grievances with Stockholm's — and to a lesser degree Helsinki's — perceived support of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, the leftist extremist group DHKP-C and followers of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen who Ankara claims was behind a failed military coup attempt in 2016," ABCNews.com reported.

The United States and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, each expect both nations to receive the unanimous support they need to receive admittance to the organization. NATO's thirty nation large organization remains dedicated to protecting each of its members, first through peaceful resolution and then, if necessary, through military support against any enemy who would violate the territorial sovereignty of its member nations.


Medical Science: COVID-19 - Can We Relax Yet


U.S. Covid Deaths Surpass 1M

COVID-19 has become an unwelcome member of global society. It's continual regeneration into new variants of equal, lesser, or greater strengths will reman in society even as we transition to the endemic stage of the pandemic and even while the American public does not have the "appetite" for another lockdown the future of the virus may very well have different plans.

Deaths in the United States have surpassed 1million, a grim reminder that the virus' is a killing machine, without thought or concern, for class, position, rank, color, age, gender, or sexual orientation. It is like Great White, a pure, singularly focused, killing machine.

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

Vaccine Totals

Bloomberg.com has built a vaccine tracker which can be seen here. "In the US, 584 million doses have been given so far. During the last week, shots were administered at an average rate of 116,099 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 22, 2022, coronavirus cases globally increased by 4,102,499 new confirmed cases, bringing the total of confirmed cases worldwide to 525,171,058 people with a total worldwide death toll of 6,274,862 deaths, and a 7-day death rate increase of 13,344. (Data from The New York Times).

COVID U.S. Totals

Infections rates in the United States are also on the rise. For the seven-day period ending May 22, 2022, the total confirmed cases rose to 83,169,681 people with new confirmed cases increasing by 769,760 with a 7-day average of 109,965 cases per day. The coronavirus has claimed 1,000,526 total deaths, adding 2,201 more deaths over the 7-day period. (Data from The New York Times).

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 narcissistic above the law belief. The best obtainable version of the truth. And the truth is so bizarre you can't even wrap your mind around it.4

Biden's Secret Service Ordered to Return to Washington

Two members of President Biden's Secret Service team have been ordered to return to Washington after a drunken altercation with a local taxi driver who then reported the incident to the local police. The pair had arrived as part of the advance team, and allegedly violated department policy and regulations by consuming alcohol ten hours before their shift is scheduled to begin.

"The Secret Service is aware of an off-duty incident involving two employees which may constitute potential policy violations," Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service said. "The individuals will be immediately returned back to their post of duty and placed on administrative leave. There was no impact to the upcoming trip," CNN reported.


World News: Can Macron's Victory Repair The Fractured Nation


Homeland Security Prepares for Widespread Violence

After the May 3, 2022, leak of an alleged opinion of the expected Supreme Court decision that will overturn the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade case, that guaranteed a women's right to chose to terminate a pregnancy though abortion, the Department of Homeland Security began to prepare for what is expected to be widespread violence, in major cities, protesting the court's decision.

"The unclassified May 13 memo by DHS' intelligence arm says threats that followed the leak of a draft opinion — targeting Supreme Court Justices, lawmakers and other public officials, as well as clergy and health care providers — "are likely to persist and may increase leading up to and following the issuing of the Court's official ruling," Axois reported.

Signs of troubled times have already appeared as an 8-foot-high fence has been erected around the Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC. Learning from the January 6, 2021, siege of the Capital Building, both the Capital Police, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies will not be caught off-guard should the opinion and the leaked draft result in the overturning of the highly volatile issue.

The original Roe vs. Wade decision was also leaked.

"There have indeed been leaks at the court before, albeit of a different scale. One of them actually was about the case at the heart of today's conversation: In 1973, the original Roe decision was leaked to the press before the court had formally announced it," NPR reported.

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

Sources: Various © Articles covered by Copyright protection.

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