Beltway Insider: Biden/Ukraine War, Putin Bullies Allies, COVID/Vaccine Totals, U.S. Gun Violence

President Biden signed an additional $800 million in Ukraine military aid this week and immediately received a Russian communique demanding a stop to military assistance, a move interpreted as a positive sign the dual tactics are working.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending April 17, 2022 decreased by 0.2% to 41.6% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness decreased by 0.3% to 52.2% 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/SCOTUS, Ukraine Bucha Massacre, Jan 6 Committee COVID/Vaccine Totals, Tiger Woods, Will Smith


Ukraine Russian War Intensifies

Russian Forces have continued to besiege the port city of Mariupol trapping more than 100,000 civilians who are in desperate need of assistance. City officials have used social media to send shocking updates of Russian Forces acting more like the Islamic State terrorist as they murder and target innocent civilians.

The dual war strategy of President Biden, of military aid and extensive and exhaustive sanctions appear to be gaining traction as Russian President Vladimir Putin, through his ministers, forwarded a formal note to Washington demanding the United States stop any additional assistance to the Ukraine military.

President Biden along with the G7 group of nations, which are comprised of the United States and the world's most advanced economies including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, and the European Union have continued to squeeze the Kremlin with crippling sanctions.

New sanctions which were announced earlier this month include two financial institutions, Sberbank Russia largest, and Alfa Bank.

"The official said the sweeping package "will impose significant costs on Russia and send it further down the road of economic, financial, and technological isolation." The new sanctions package will ban all new investment in Russia, increase sanctions on financial institutions and state-owned enterprises in Russia, and sanction Russian government officials and their family members," reported CNN.

Biden Pledges Additional Aid, Russia Warns U.S. Inches Closer to Ultimatum

President Biden signed an additional $800 mm military aid package to the Ukraine this week and immediately received a warning from the Russians to stop arming the Ukraine. The recent military aid package included additional helicopters, armored Humvee vehicles, armored personnel carriers.

The "formal diplomatic note to the United States warning that U.S. and NATO shipments of the "most sensitive" weapons systems to Ukraine were "adding fuel" to the conflict there and could bring "unpredictable consequences," reported The Washington Post.

Second Russian Battleship Sunk

The Moskova, a long-range cruise missile launch vessel, stationed in The Black Sea was damaged this week by Ukrainian forces. It is the second Russian battleship sank by the Ukraine military.

"The Moskva had the capacity to carry 16 long-range cruise missiles, and its removal reduces Russia's firepower in the Black Sea," reported NPR.org.

According to the Department of Defense the Moskova, a vessel with more than 500 sailors on board, had suffered a catastrophic fire, and remained crippled and burning days after the incident. The Russian Navy sent ships to the area. Many of the sailors were rescued by other ships. Russian Navy also has Navel ports in the area. The Black Sea borders Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia, Romania and Bulgaria and the Russian Navy has maintained military bases and exercises in the region.

Civilian Casualties Mount

Mass slaughters of Ukraine civilians are showing up in every area that Russian Forces besieged. Reports from Mariupol indicate that Russian Troops are taking private citizens as Prisoners of War and transporting them to camps in remote regions.

"The Mariupol city council said on social media that Russia had forcibly deported several thousand local residents to camps within Russia and redirected them to remote cities," reported The Wall Street Journal.

Over 1200 bodies were found in the villages surrounding Kyiv, the Ukraine capital. In the city of Bucha, bodies were found on the streets, and more than 400 were found murdered and dumped in a mass grave.

UK Prime Minister Visits Ukraine

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Ukraine and spoke with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as they decided on how best to answer the requests by the Ukraine government for additional military support.

After the Prime Minister left the UK, he promised £100m million in military aid along with 120 armored vehicles.

"Britain's Ministry of Defense said the retreating Russian troops had left behind evidence of the "disproportionate targeting of non-combatants" as they pulled back from the area around Kyiv. In an intelligence assessment released on Saturday evening, it said this included "the presence of mass graves, the fatal use of hostages as human shields, and mining of civilian infrastructure," reported Yahoo!News.com.


World News: Russia and Post-War Options


Finland and Sweden Debate Join NATO

With a bully's threat from Russian President Vladimir Putin to move nuclear weapons into the Baltic Region, northern land locked border nations, Finland and Sweden are considering requesting admission in NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

"Finland and neighboring Sweden are officially nonaligned militarily, but Russia's aggression has led to a dramatic shift in public sentiment," reported The Washington Post.

The two nations which have long been removed from the organization and outside of Putin's usual escalations are now both reconsidering their status as Putin becomes increasingly unpredictable and determined to continue the escalation of troops.

Putin Bullies Eastern European Nations

Putin began another verbal escalation after the announcement that nations along the northern border of Russia, Finland, and Sweden, were considering joining the North Atlantic treaty Organization, which like Poland to the East will bring in a larger military presence in which Russian Forces will be forced to factoring into any military strategic equation.

"Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said Thursday that NATO expansion would lead Moscow to strengthen air, land and naval forces to "balance" military capability in the region," reported The Washington Post.

The attempts by Russian to employ scare tactics through the possibility of adding additional strongholds to balance the military capability in the region essentially stretches the Russian Forces capabilities and creates even more challenges in the attempts to conquer Ukraine, either in part or in total.

Putin recent advancement and apparently inability of his forces to take key strategic locations show an poor military planning. Wanting the total prize instead of taking the nation incrementally, which could have allowed the Russian leader to successfully gain the port city of Mariupol with minimum opposition or clearly less bloodshed on both sides.

Vaccine Totals

Bloomberg.com has built a vaccine tracker which can be seen here. "In the U.S., 568 million doses have been given so far. During the last week, shots were administered at an average rate of 115,258 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 April 17, 2022, coronavirus cases globally increased by 6,038,080 new confirmed cases, bringing the total of confirmed cases worldwide to 504,079,983 people with a total worldwide death toll of 6,195,747 deaths, and a 7-day death rate increase of 21,115. (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 April 17, 2022, the total confirmed cases rose to 80,524,337 people with new confirmed cases increasing by 286,784 with a 7-day average of 40,969 cases per day. The coronavirus has claimed 987,211 total deaths, adding 3,503 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 narcissist above the law belief. The best obtainable version of the truth.


Justice Watch: And They Got Away With It (Part 4)


Gun Violence Escalates Week Before Easter

Gun violence erupted in the month of April with 26 shootings over the first 2.5 weeks leaving 28 dead and 137 injured at the scene. These totals don't tell the backstory of the families, loved ones, and significant post-traumatic stress and other emotional injures sustained by the wider circle of victims.

As shootings increased across American, the Justice Department reworked the definition of mass shooting, to be defined as four or more victims injured or killed excluding the subject, suspect, perpetrator in one location. This clearly lowers the crime statistic for occurrences of mass shootings.

The definition of Mass Murder was also reworked and now is defined as four or more deceased victims excluding the subject, suspect, perpetrator in one location. Clearly, as defined by the Justice department, mass shootings are not as bad as the media would want the population to believe.

The first major shooting of April came in Sacramento, California where in under one minute, 74 shots were exchanged, two rival gangs rolled up on each other at a large gathering. When the smoke cleared six were dead and 12 injured.

Brooklyn Subway Shooting

Over the past week the usually unflappable New Yorkers were shaken by a lone gunman riding a Manhattan bound subway and at the Sunset Park Station, at 4th and 36th Street, donned a gasmask, detonated two smoke canister bombs, and began shooting. But by the grace of God, there were no fatalities. Fortunately for the riders, the shooter, Frank R. James, 62, was either an extremely poor shot, or for a myriad of possibilities no one was killed, ten were shot and another 19 injured. The shooter was later appended after a massive manhunt.


Brooklyn Subway Terror: 28 Injured and Shot, Undetonated Devices Found


Pennsylvania, South Carolina Report Same Day Mass Shootings

Two Shootings in South Carolina occurred on Saturday, April 16, 2022. A Mall shooting left ten injured and three suspects were detained on site. A shooting at the Hollywood Wax Museum in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina which left one injured isn't recorded as a mass shooting as only a single injury occurred, leaving one to wonder how many other shootings occur everyday that miss the threshold defined by the justice department.

An overnight shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ushered in Easter Sunday. A House party with more than 200 teens in attendance, ended in gunfire leaving two dead and nine injured after more than 50 rounds were fired in the house. Once the shooting began party guests jumped out of the second story window or trampled each other trying to escape.

The statistics present a more sobering message on gun violence in the United States. To date, 12, 506 deaths have been attributed to gun violence. Of that more than half, 7,062 were suicide and 5,444 are murder, homicide. The total number of injuries for 2022: 10,050.

If these numbers stay consistent using the year-to-date totals from https://www.gunviolencearchive.org number as a guide one can expect 37,518 total number of gun related death in 2022 and 31,000 total number of injuries which will be consistent with numbers from the past four years.

Pope Calls for End to Bloodshed in Easter Message

Pope Francis delivered the Easter Mass message early speaking to the many who are hiding behind closed and locked doors, fearful of the world, the outside, traumatized by violence, gun violence, wars, debilitating memories, by fears of the unknown, the tools of Satan to derail and free the believers from their graves.

"May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged. In this terrible night of suffering and death, may a new dawn of hope soon appear! Let there be a decision for peace. May there be an end to the flexing of muscles while people are suffering. Please, please, let us not get used to war! Let us all commit ourselves to imploring peace, from our balconies and in our streets! Peace. May the leaders of nations hear people's plea for peace," reported CatholicNewsagency.com.

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

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