Beltway Insider: Biden/Hurricane Helene, Milton Devastation, Election Issues, Israel, Ethel Kennedy

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Category: Beltway Insider

Published on Sunday, 13 October 2024 11:30

Written by Janet Walker

President Biden has declared 34 Florida counties, who suffered catastrophic damage as result of Hurricane Milton and the subsequent tornados, major disaster areas allowing for FEMA to begin to immediately assist individuals in those areas with aid.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com for the period ending October 13, 2024, decreased by 0.5% to 39.5% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness increased by 0.3% at 55.3% of those polled. A slight 3% of the population polled have no opinion. Ratings are calculated weekly.

Averaging the National Polls, with the Tuesday, November 5, 2024 election in 24 days, Vice-President Kamala Harris's popularity with prospective voters has decreased by 0.1% to 48.5% over the former president and convicted felon Donald Trump, whose popularity with prospective voters has increased by 0.1% to 46.0%. The political countdown site 270towin.com averages 10 national polls and places Vice-President Kamala Harris ahead with 49.3% an decrease of 0.3% and the former president Trump with 46.7%, an increase of 0.1%.

Beltway Insider: Biden/Jobs Report, Election/VP Debate, Israel, Hurricane Helene Devastation

Election 2024

The Lawsuits Begin and The Election Isn't Over

Republican congressmen in Pennsylvania, a swing state with 19 electoral votes up for grabs and where Vice-President Kamala Harris, currently holds a 0.07% lead over former President Donald Trump according to ABC News stat site, fivethirtyeight.com, seem to be reeling from an expected loss, and have already filed a lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of mail-in ballots, including those from military stationed outside the United States, and other ex-patriates leaving abroad.

"The suit adds to a long list of Republican-backed litigation around the country with just weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election, with much of it aimed at disqualifying mail-in votes or removing ineligible voters from rolls," The Washington Post reported.

Lawsuits are the favored weapon of choice by the Republicans to reinforce a belief that the election process is rigged by the democrats and only they are the legitimate winners. Targeting poll workers, having individuals within the inner circle denigrated the legitimacy of the count, was used repeatedly in the 2020 election and for former Trump Campaign Attorney and once a former federal prosecutor, Rudy Giuliani, the results of this tactic proved disastrous as he was held accountable for his defamation of the poll workers to the tune of $148 million in damages and has since had his name stricken from the New York State Bar, and his license to practice rescinded.

Currently, in the 2024 election, and Pennsylvania Republicans are now targeting a demographic of voters who were, at one time, aligned with the Republican party it reveals a shift in the registered party of the targeted pool of voters.

Double Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Create Election Disorder

Over two weeks, a series of weather-related disasters, including Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, and twenty tornados, that produced unprecedented damage decimated wide areas of North Carolina and Florida, one swing state and one state considered a stronghold for the republican party.

As extreme weather is considered force majeure, a superior force or an act of God, and with the election in just three weeks, the possibility has become very real that many voters will not make it to the polls in this election.

"The hurricanes also spawned a political squall, as Republicans led by former President Donald Trump accused the Biden administration of not doing enough to help storm victims, prompting fierce pushback from the president as Election Day approaches in three weeks," USAToday.com reported.

This effort by the Republicans confirms what many believe that the former president counted on these states electoral votes and understand any shift will potentially derail what he considers a sure victory. Therefore, attacking the current administration for their lack of response is using the tragedies that these citizens are confronting as political motivation to reinforce a belief that the democrats are hindering cleanup efforts and financial aid until after the election.

Florida

After Hurricane Helene Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order allowing the board of elections in the 13 most hard bit counties to make any changes, they deemed necessary.

That was pre-Hurricane Milton, a deadly Category 3 hurricane at landfall, that cut a 500-mile swath of destruction across 34 counties, from the west coast to the east coast, maintaining degrading hurricane status with slowly diminishing winds, that spawned 30 tornadoes, leaving unprecedented damage and destruction, dozens injured and more than 24 dead.

"Many areas in Florida are also recovering from the aftermath of a Milton-spurred torrent "supercharged" tornadoes, according to National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan. At least nine tornadoes plowed through St. Lucie County on Wednesday, including three in less than 25 minutes," CNN.com reported.

The destruction ranged from high wind damage, flooding, downed trees, no power, no infrastructure, homes and property damage, and then the tornado damage of implosions of facilities. It is shocking the damage suffered.

To rally voters to get out and vote, currently, is marred with a narcissistic self-serving interest.

World News: Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu is Locked into War

Israel and Middle East Conflict Drift

Israel, and its neighbors, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, and Palestine, have longed lived teetering on the brink of all out war, a war to end all wars. Forged by an ingrained generational hatred, passed on through each new generation during the remembrances of loss and victory, has grown stronger and more determined.

The roots of this religious conflict dates to the Old Testament, and the story of Issac the legitimate son, and Ishmael the Illegitimate son, and a belief that Issac stole the inheritance of God.

"Ishmael became the first Arab. Isaac became the first Jew. According to Arab tradition, Ishmael flourished in the desert, and went with Abraham to build the Kabah, the House of Allah in Mecca. (Quran 2:125). So, which of Abraham's seed should inherit Palestine? Primogeniture suggests that the firstborn should succeed. But Ishmael was illegitimate. The first legal son of Abraham was Isaac, who fathered the children of Israel," The Gainesville Times reported.

As neither side will admit the battle between Israel and its Arab neighbors, is the battle between heritage, land, and the legitimacy of heirs. Two brothers, one the son of promise and the other the son of effort. Now, 4000 years later, the battle rages on and the destruction becomes more intense, with every individual on both sides, becoming targets in an endless war.

Both Israel and Palestine have the belief they are held hostage by the other. As Palestine is separated into two lands, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and before October 7, 2023, Isreal had essentially created limited exit points, and permitted no reentry, for the Palestinians who wanted to travel to the West Bank without traveling through Jordan or Egypt.  

To Israel, with each new encroachment, or direction by global governing bodies like the United Nations, they are subject to loss, forced to give up more of their promised land. Throughout the years, they have complied to maintain relationships with allies.

However, the pressing of a two-state solution, that could possibly cut a swath through the middle of Israel is out of the question. Relinquishing any additional land, without compensation, is theft. And pressuring Israel, and current leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into allowing themselves to be stolen from is ludicrous and out of the question.

Terror Plans Target Israel

The October 7, 2023, breach of Israel's territorial sovereignty, was part of a bigger plan, and only one plan of the many that Israel's Arab neighbors have devised to annihilate whom they believe is their mortal enemy. Recent documents that have been confiscated as Israel has accessed Gaza and known strongholds and war planning rooms reveal conversations, images, and evidence of a more wide scale terror attack that Iran believed would wipe out the entirety to the Jewish state in two years.

Iran's envoy to the United Nations said, "We regard the Israeli regime as a mendacious criminal, anti-human entity and place no credence in their illusions," a spokesman for the mission said. "They have a long history of spreading falsehoods, fabricating already-counterfeit documents, and conducting deceptive psychological operations," The Washington Post reported.

The Biden Administration has recognized Israel's right to defend themselves against all enemies and their proxies, as any nation as the right to do. With a conflict that has roots this deep, the possibility of resolution or dissolution, a total erasing of the animosity appears to be impossible. As the Middle Conflict widens the possibility of drift and spill over into other nations becomes heightened.

World News: Israel, Lebanon, and the U.S. Election

Coronavirus Total

The CDC has recommended every person from age six months, including senior citizens should receive at least one shot of an updated COVID-19 vaccine, annually.  The death toll from Covid-19 has dramatically decreased, as has transmission of the virus. Even as confirmed new cases continue each week, fewer are dying from the newer variants.

For the seven days ending October 13, 2024, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases reported by The World Health Organization increased by 85,153 confirmed cases totaling 776,471644. The total worldwide death toll increased by 1,417 to 7,068,677 deaths. The United States has stopped providing Covid data to the World Health Organization. (Data updated September 29, 2024, from The World Health Organization).

Ethel Kennedy, Widow of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, Dies

Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, has died this week from complication suffered from a stroke. She was 96.

President Biden released a statement, "Ethel Kennedy was an American icon—a matriarch of optimism and moral courage, an emblem of resilience and service. Devoted to family and country, she had a spine of steel and a heart of gold that inspired millions of Americans, including me and Jill. We were blessed to call her a dear friend."

Kennedy, who was referred to as the "widow of Robert F. Kennedy," was also the mother of 11 children, whom she raised alone, with the domestic help. Discussing Mrs. Kennedy would be impossible without mentioning the assassination of her husband, a New York Senator, who had just won the California primary and secured the delegates needed to become the democratic president nominee. Exiting the jubilant ballroom, Kennedy was approached by an immigrant who fired three shots. Kennedy died later the next day.  

Ethel Kennedy saw her share of tragedy in this life, the likes of which would seem impossible to fathom. The beginning of her life with RFK was filled with joy, happiness, fun, and an idealism, the future, during the early days, was filled with a belief of possibility. She lost her parents in a plane crash, and her brother in a car crash. Of course, with a houseful of children, one could be envious of the bountiful and generous gifts many Irish-Catholic believed were from God.

As the climate in the 1960s shifted, the first of many tragedies struck with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which plunged the nation into a time of mourning, darkness, and a PTSD, and many credit Mrs. Kennedy, for pulling her husband out of the "blackness" that followed.

Beltway Insider: Biden/UN, Israel Escalates War/Bombs Lebanon, NYC Mayor Indicted, Hurricane Deaths, VP Debates

By 1968, the nation was reeling from an internal and external wars, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War. In April 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis. Two months later, RFK would be assassinated. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Kennedy, who was three months pregnant at the time of the assassination with her, daughter, Rory, who would be born in December 1968, devoted her time to raising her children, and keeping the legacy of her husband alive.

"Except for periodic visits to her husband's grave, Mrs. Kennedy kept her grief hidden. She sought to keep her husband's ideals alive by founding what is now called Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a nonprofit organization that promotes human rights projects around the world and awards annual prizes to journalists and authors," The Washington Post reported.

She remained dedicated to social change, justice, and equity, and continued to serve her country as an ambassador of change as a human rights advocate.

Mrs. Kennedy is survived by nine children, 34 grandchildren, and 24 great grandchildren.

Former President Donald J. Trump Found Guilty on All Counts

For more information on President Joe Biden: Whitehouse.gov.

Sources: Various © Articles covered by Copyright protection.

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and the International Federation of Journalists.