Beltway Insider: Biden/Bi-Partisan Gun Deal, Ukraine, US Economy COVID/Vaccine Totals, Uvalde

President Joe Biden continued his push for effective and common-sense gun control, which doesn't hijack the Second Amendment for violence, and directed the nation of voters to turn this into an election issue, to petition for change.

 

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending June 12, 2022 decreased by 0.6% to 40.2% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness decreased by 0.4% to 53.6% 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/Gun Control, Uvalde, COVID/Vaccine Totals, Shocking Inflation, Hinckley Released


Senate Reaches Bi-Partisan Gun Blueprint

A bi-partisan group of ten republicans and ten democrats announced they have reached a tentative framework deal that introduces new soft gun legislative paired with sweeping mental health and school safety enhancements that could result in the most comprehensive change in gun law since the 1994 ban on assault weapons.

"Families are scared, and it is our duty to come together and get something done that will help restore their sense of safety and security in their communities," the statement read in part. "Most importantly, our plan saves lives while also protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans," The Washington Post reported.

Even with the possibility of real change, with only ten Republican Senators on board in support, it may simply be another display of legislative ineptitude, as at least two dozen sitting Republican senators have received financial contributions by The National Rifle Association.

"According to data compiled by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in 2019, about two dozen sitting Republican senators have received contributions from the NRA. Of those senators, 16 have received more than $1 million," Newsweek reported.

Gun Bill Lacks Tough Enforcements

However, if the proposed legislation happens to advance to the floor for a vote, it is possible Republican senators can introduce a filibuster, which simply means that they talk, continuously, to delay a vote, which can be completed by one senator or multiple senators and are usually introduced as blocking methods.

There is no provision in the framework legislation that raises the legal age, from 18 to 21, to purchase rifles. To counter this issue, the framework includes waiting periods and juvenile background checks.

While the framework, is hopeful it is speculative, as the tired arguments posturing for pro-gun laws, including interpretation of the Second Amendment, which many believe the framers, those who at the birth of the nation wrote the Constitution of the United States and amendments, which include the Right to Bear Arms, and 246 years later, the modified weapons that shred students in half, and burst a pumpkin with a single bullet is within the context of self-protection.

Obviously absent is the scientific evidence without partiality on the development of the pre-frontal cortex, which is not fully developed until age 25 and, of course, the issue of machismo, strong and aggressive male pride, which cannot be addressed but certainly should be redefined.

"Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who has led Democrats' efforts on gun legislation since the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., said during an anti-gun-violence rally Friday that he was determined to break congressional stasis on gun legislation, but not at any cost: "I'm not interested in doing something unless that's something is going to save lives, unless that something's going to be impactful and meaningful," reported The Washington Post.

The future of the Bi-Partisan gun bill, which lacks many of the tough restrictions called for by the Biden Administration, may eventually head to the president's desk, where it is possible the bill will be vetoed and sent back to congress to be revamped to include harsher restrictions.


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Ukraine War Upends Global Wheat Market

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has continued to provide updates of Ukraine war, explaining that a "long drawn-out war, may cause the west to lose interest."

Food scarcity is another issue arising from the continued Ukraine war. Ukraine is one of the world's largest wheat producers and exporters to MENA (Middle East and Northern Africa) nations and the majority of this year's crops, which provide food to 578 million people in this region has been destroyed or blocked from leaving the Ports of Ukraine by the Russian blockade.

Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Admiral James Stavridis explained in a recent interview, "We are edging into serious global food security issues and that's not just a humanitarian concern. That can lead to civil unrest, waves of refugees, particularly in North Africa and the Middle East are very pragmatic reasons for us to avoid that. As well as the obvious and overarching one of avoiding humans starving to death," reported Yahoo!Finance.com.

A lingering drawn-out war will cost more than innocent lives, destruction of infrastructure, homes, and lands. It will have reverberating ramifications across the world stage specifically the European Union nations and Middle East and North Africa nations, which could be devasting in those regions already suffering from droughts, food shortages, and imposed starvation.

Ukraine-Russian War Ripples Through U.S. Economy

With U.S. inflation reaching a 40-year high, gasoline prices for the first time ever seeing a national average of $5.00 a gallon, and grocery prices jumping astronomically, consumers will respond by spending less, which places the pandemic starved business and hospitality and leisure industries in a catch-22.

"U.S. trade with Russia and Ukraine is minimal, but the war will fuel already high inflation and slow growth in consumer spending. Even before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, commodity prices were surging globally owing to four factors: supply-chain disruptions; adverse weather events; new waves of the coronavirus pandemic; and recovering global demand," The Economist reported.

Vaccine Totals

Bloomberg.com has built a vaccine tracker which can be seen here. "In the U.S., 590 million doses have been given so far. During the last week, shots were administered at an average rate of 89,636 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 June 12, 2022, coronavirus cases globally increased by 3,369,605 new confirmed cases, bringing the total of confirmed cases worldwide to 534,988,928 people with a total worldwide death toll of 6,305,521 deaths, and a 7-day death rate increase of 10,602. (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 June 12, 2022, the total confirmed cases rose to 85,426,267 people with new confirmed cases increasing by 764,435 with a 7-day average of 109,205 cases per day. The coronavirus has claimed 1,007,826 total deaths, adding 2.695 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.


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Uvalde Settles into a New Normal

Chaos. Disorder. Confusion. As the post-mortem examination of the May 24, 2022, mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, unfolds, most major media have begun to distance the public, and themselves from the catastrophic loss and injury, even as new details emerge daily that reveal the severe, and many would challenge, criminal dereliction of duty that contributed to the loss of life.

"After an initial burst of shooting from the gunman, no police officer went near the door again for more than 40 minutes, instead hanging back at a distance in the hallway," reported The New York Times.

With such an egregious display of law enforcement neglect followed by a clear attempt to conceal the facts to present a scenario that would deflect scrutiny and possibly, at least initially, satiate the media crush for the two-week story run, at which time documents could be doctored, accounts would be less clear, witnesses, as law enforcement is acutely aware, are likely to has multiple accounts of tragedies.

However, the Robb Elementary School mass shooting has become more than just another name in the extensive list of places representing a timeline of mass shootings in America. Possibly American's have tolerated enough, tolerated enough carnage, tolerated enough loss of lives, tolerated enough police ineptitude and political wrangling. For whatever the reason, the glare of the spotlight on this small town, forever marked by this single event, is not diminishing.

Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo, who assumed the role of incident commander on May 24, 2022, has become both the target of relentless criticism and the subject of two separate critical incident reviews initiated by the U.S. Justice Department and The Texas Legislature.

For the past two weeks, after his initial reports which officials then forwarded to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and released to the media, he has refused to answer questions. Arredondo recently participated in an interview with The Texas Tribune, excerpts appeared in the Uvalde Leader-News.

Further details are emerging, as Arredondo explains, though his attorney George E. Hyde, his account of those precious minutes after the shooting, when it was still possible to save more than a dozen of the 19 children who died and at least one of the two teachers, Eva Mireles, who died enroute to the hospital.

"According to the interview, which was conducted by telephone and included written answers and statements provided through Arredondo's lawyer George E. Hyde, the chief tried dozens of keys until one finally fit. It was at that point, one hour and 17 minutes after Salvador Ramos had entered the school, that a "stack" of three Border Patrol agents and two sheriff's deputies, Joaquin Ibarra from Uvalde County and Jose Luis Vasquez with Zavala County, opened the door and killed the shooter," reported the Uvalde Leader-News.


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According to all accounts Arredondo, as the first responding officer on the scene was designated the incident commander. Typically, this officer is relieved of the incident commander position when more senior officers or responders arrive on the scene. More than sixty officers, from various branches of law enforcement including elite border control agencies, which are federal officers, arrived within fifteen minutes of the first notification of a shooter at Robb Elementary School.

Officials have not information that clarifies why the incident commander left the command post, to enter the school and attempt to breech the classroom. Essentially, the incident commander is to manage the response of the critical incident. Arredondo left this position when he entered the school trying to find the key to open the door. There is no clear information on which officer assumed the role of incident commander while Arredondo was on the front lines, away from management of the scene.

Evidence shows that the "what if" scenario of the countless possible responses to breeching the classroom had been employed to stop swift action and the swell of officers who expeditiously arrived to assist have also been vocal.

"By that point, officers in and around the school had been growing increasingly impatient, and in some cases had been loudly voicing their concerns. "If there's kids in there, we need to go in there," one officer could be heard saying, according to the documents. Another responded, "Whoever is in charge will determine that," reported The New York Times.

Clearly there were other failures that contributed directly to the egregious loss of life. State of the art school security; an Amber Alert style active shooter messaging system which is underutilized as federal agencies don't want society to believe America has moved into a lawless or anarchist society; a throw switch in the administration offices that allow school leadership to immediately override the locking system, and more active shooter drills that emphasize escape instead of sit, wait and die scenarios.

As a single floor school, the precious seven minutes from notification, outside of an active shooter to entry, could have better utilized to escape. And to counter these arguments with "its best to wait for law enforcement to arrive." In unison, American's ask Is it?

For the families, it is doubtful the heartache will eventually end. The circle of injury, not simply the loss of a single life, families, siblings, generations will live with the deep loss. Even as they were only fourth graders, many of the students had clear and defined aspirations, and were on the path to fulfilling them. The next generation of elite discoveries, the game changers, could have been in that room. Now, the children are only spoken of in potential.

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

Sources: Various © Articles covered by Copyright protection.

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