Beltway Insider: Biden/Uvalde, Police Mishandling, Gun Control, Monkey Pox, COVID/Vaccine Totals, Ray Liotta

Details: Category: Beltway Insider; Published on Sunday, 29 May 2022 10:10; Written by Janet Walker

President Biden travels to Uvalde, Texas in what has become an all-too-common occurrence for elected leaders who, like those left behind, are trying to make sense of the horrific tragedy and provide a moment of genuine compassion.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending May 29, 2022 decreased by 1.1% to 40.6% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness increased by 1.6% to 54.2% 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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Uvalde Mass Shooting

Tuesday, May 24, 2022, a typical end of the school year day for most students across America, turned into a nightmare of horrific magnitude, filled with echoes of horror from shore to shore, as once again, an American school has been turned into a battlefield.

Uvalde, Texas, a small southwest community of about 15,000 people, had a belief about themselves, that they could be anything. Hometown to Academy Award winning actor Matthew McConaughy, children at Robb Elementary school understood they could achieve whatever they desired.

By noon on Tuesday, 19 children and 2 educators would be dead, killed in the worst school shooting in over a decade, and the third worst behind Virginia Tech, where 32 were killed and Sandy Hook, where 21 students and five educators were gun downed in their classrooms.

The scene is eerily similar, a disgruntled outcast, unable to cope with the pressures of an evolving society and the inner turmoil of emotions raging within, begins by targeting the one person who is struggling to understand how their once vibrant and loving child evolved into something uncontrollable.

This is where the paths diverge.

Robb Elementary School shooter, Salvador Ramos, 18, begin his murderous rampage at 11:00am, on May 24, 2022, by shooting his grandmother. She was able to reach her neighbor who called 9-1-1 for assistance.

Shocking Mishandling

Over the course of four days, the details of the shocking mishandling of the police responses have been dissected in the media, through first person accounts of survivors from inside the classrooms and other irrefutable evidence.

"The investigation of the massacre is ongoing, but much is already known about the nearly two hours that passed between when authorities say Salvador Ramos shot his grandmother and when police radio traffic indicated that the 18-year-old gunman was dead and the siege was over," reported the Associated Press.

The initial press conferences held by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, explained all the details, praising the authorities for their speedy response to neutralize the shooter. If it hadn't been for the courage of the surviving children to tell their story, it is quite possible the incompetence and startling failure of the police response would never have been known.

As it is, no less than five 9-1-1 calls were placed from inside classroom 112, where Ramos had killed the teacher and the majority of the students, begging for police assistance as 19 heavily armed officers in tactical gear waited outside the door, for the key.

"At 12:03 p.m., a girl called 911 for a little over a minute and whispered that she was in Room 112, according to Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven C. McCraw. She called back at 12:10 p.m. reporting multiple people dead, he said, and again a few minutes later, to say there were still a number of students alive. "Please send the police now," the girl begged the dispatcher at 12:43 p.m., 40 minutes after her first call," The Washington Post reported.

Texas is a no-knock warrant state. Police have the authority to break down the front door of a private residence with a warrant but were unable to open the door of a classroom filled with murdered and dying children without a key.

Texas Mass Shooting: 14 Children, 1 Educator Dead, 14 Others Injured

Police Ineptitude

As soon as the report of an active shooter situation alarm sounded, Uvalde was overrun with assistance from Border Patrol, Texas Rangers, local, state, and federal law enforcement.

Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who assumed control of the unfolding situation, made the determination that the situation had evolved from active shooter to barricaded suspect and told tactical team sin the hallway of the school to stand down.

Despite 9-1-1 calls from survivors, some of whom smeared blood over their bodies so the shooter would think they were dead, Arredondo chose to direct the countless law enforcement officers on site to stand down. And he was quick to provide false evidence to exonerate himself after the fact.

Arredondo, who is joining the town's City Council, has requested police protection and remains barricaded in his home. "Pete Arredondo is a coward. He didn't do his job. He failed the children," said neighbor Lydia Torres, 56," The New York Post reported.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven C. McCraw has continued to detail the ineptitude of the onsite decisions, which while provide a complete picture of the horrific tragedy also highlights inexcusable gross dereliction of duty by the onsite commander.

"From the benefit of hindsight where I'm sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision. It was a wrong decision. Period. There was no excuse for that," McCraw said. "There were plenty of officers to do what needed to be done, with one exception, is that the incident commander inside believed he needed more equipment and more officers to do a tactical breach at that time," NBCnews.com reported.

Mental Health Debate

The mental health debate, included in gun control debate, has also come into the spotlight as an aftermath of the Robb Elementary Mass Shooting. Traditionally, the debate has centered on background checks and if the person clears the check and meets the state's requirements, they can purchase a gun, of any kind.

"I spent my career as a senator and as Vice President working to pass commonsense gun laws. We can’t and won’t prevent every tragedy. But we know they work and have a positive impact. When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled," President Biden said during his address to the nation.

The possibility of altering the Second Amendment, an argument that often grows stronger, after each shooting, has seemed to always fall flat. The newest mental health challenge to the Second Amendment is raising the age of consent, the federal age to purchase a gun to 25.

The history of school mass shootings also reveal that the shooters are all younger than age 25, the year neuroscientists have determined the pre-frontal cortex is fully developed and therefore mature to manage free-choice decision making.

"The most important function of the prefrontal cortex is the executive function. Among a variety of executive functions in which the prefrontal cortex participates, decision-making is one of the most important. Since decision-making under free-choice conditions represents the very first stage for any kind of decision-making process, it is important that we understand its neural mechanism," Frontiers in Neuroscience reported.

The five purposes of the pre-frontal cortex are focusing one's attention, predicting the consequences of one's actions, anticipating events in the environment, impulse control, managing emotional reactions and planning for the future.

Intrapersonal Communication Thread

The actions of the Robb Elementary Shooter seemed to be led by an intrapersonal communicative thread that exposes a clear internal debate which was screaming "stop me," exhibiting his inability to make free-choice decision.

The signaling began with the injury of his grandmother, who immediately called 9-1-1. He crashes his vehicle, another internal signal, firing at the good Samaritans who came running to help him after the crash, additional calls to 9-1-1 regarding the crash, and finally 12 minutes exchanging gun fire from the parking lot.

It was clear his intrapersonal communication was short-circuiting and at this point he was looking or suicide by cop. He deliberately exhibited threatening behavior outside the school, in a town that was seven square miles in radius, the red flags and alarms should have ended this tragedy before it began.

Looking back at the history of school shootings, the evidence presents a clear pattern of men, under the age of 25, the age the pre-frontal cortex is deemed fully developed.

Raising the minimum gun purchase age to 25, doesn't infringe on any person's right to bear arms, it provides a safety mechanism, like gun manufactures place on weapons, to all who purchase guns and more importantly protection to those who do not exercise their Second Amendment right.

See Something, Say Something

The phrase "See something, Say Something" has long been recognized as a public service request by police to the public which implies if you see something unusual or out of place, for safety's sake, say something. Better, as all would say, to err on the side of caution.

This phrase has evolved over the years and especially over this past week, the notion of inhabitants of a social media chat room recognizing the possibility of a school shooting and letting it pass or further validating the idea is a behavior that must end. Any person that refuses to alert authorities, which may result in no effort, should face penalty under the law.

Broadcasting the intent to commit any crime, rape, mass shootings, murder, should be understood to be clear intent and those within hearing distance, on social media, at home, work, school, anywhere should be held accountable and prosecuted for aiding and abetting after the fact.

Medical Science: Is Monkeypox Replacing COVID-19

Monkey Pox

Cases of Monkeypox, a DNA virus that mutates very slowly, have now been reported across four states, California, Utah, New York and most recently in Colorado. in the United States.

"The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Public Health Laboratory has confirmed a second presumptive monkeypox case and is awaiting CDC confirmation," it wrote. "The person who acquired the virus was a close contact of a person known to public health as a presumptive case of monkeypox and is cooperating with state and local public health epidemiologists who are investigating and notifying people who may have been exposed," Foxnews.com reported.

More than 200 cases worldwide in 20 countries, all of which are outside of the traditional nations Monkeypox is usually detected, have been recorded. Monkeypox can be transmitted through both intimate sexual contact and causal contact. Monkey pox is also a known virus, in endemic stage in Africa, which has been weaponized in the past. The United States has placed an order for more than $100mm vaccines.

Vaccine Totals

Bloomberg.com has built a vaccine tracker which can be seen here. "In the US, 587 million doses have been given so far. During the last week, shots were administered at an average rate of 74,560 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 29, 2022, coronavirus cases globally increased by 3,451,967 new confirmed cases, bringing the total of confirmed cases worldwide to 528,623,025 people with a total worldwide death toll of 6,285,171 deaths, and a 7-day death rate increase of 10,309. (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 28, 2022, the total confirmed cases rose to 83,922,004 people with new confirmed cases increasing by 752,323 with a 7-day average of 107,474 cases per day. The coronavirus has claimed 1,003,159 total deaths, adding 2,633 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.

World News: Macron and The Legislative Elections

Ray Liotta, Dead at 67

Ray Liotta, known for his star-making role as mobster turned informant Henry Hill in Goodfellows, died in his sleep, while on location in the Dominican Republic. He was 67.

Liotta has graced the screen since his role as Ray Sinclair, in the Jonathan Demme directed Something Wild, opposite Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels. He immortalized real-life baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams, opposite Kevin Costner, which led to his star-making leading man role opposite Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Paul Sorvino in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellows.

In a recent People Magazine interview, Liotta said, "It's weird how this business works, because I've definitely had a career that's up and down. For some reason, I've been busier this year than I have in all the years that I've been doing this. And I still feel I'm not there yet. I just think there's a lot more."

People Magazine reported that no foul play is suspected and his fiancée Jacy Nittolo, was with him at the time of his death. Liotta is survived by his fiancée Jacy Nittolo, and daughter, actress Karsen Liotta.

No further information is available.

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