Beltway Insider: Trumps Small Victory; Attacks Media; NYT Prints Trump Liars Guide; SCOTUS Calendar; G20; Grenfall Tower Sparks Backlash

President Donald Trump, who appears in the throes of a bi-polar episode, began the week claiming victory as parts of his Travel Ban was reinstated and ended with a Twitter rant as he attempted to discredit mainstream media organizations.

 

According to Gallup, President Trump's job approval, over the past week, decreased by one percentage point to 37% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President increased one percentage point to 58%. 

Trumps Small Victory

President Trump felt the thrill of victory this week as the Supreme Court reinstated parts of his Travel Ban which sent him from a point of momentary elation to full on attack of media who apparently had the audacity to investigate or question his loyalties, methodologies, or plans.

Seesawing between poles riding high as parts of his Travel Ban were reinstated and fell into the depths with his ongoing twitter media war attempting to discredit many of the nation's top organization as he embraced The National Enquirer that left many concerned he may not be mentally fit to serve.

President Prepares for G20

President Trump will attend the upcoming G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.

The president's team stressed he has a six-point agenda which he will set forth at the upcoming G20 as stated by General G.H. Mcallister and Gary Cohen during the Presidential Press conference moderated by Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary.

         

First of all, the primary objectives are three:  To promote American prosperity, to protect American interests, and to provide American leadership.  These three objectives tie together every engagement President Trump has with foreign leaders,

 

Additional objectives for the trip include, first, to strengthen American alliances.  

America First, as Gary and I have stressed in the past, does not mean America alone.  President Trump has demonstrated a commitment to American alliances because strong alliances further American security and American interests.  

 

Second is to reassert who we are. Third is to continue to forge a common understanding of threats.  We saw the President make great progress in Saudi Arabia on denying terrorists safe havens, cutting off their funding, and discrediting their perverted ideology.

 

The fourth is to develop a common approach to Russia.  As the President has made clear, he'd like the United States and the entire West to develop a more constructive relationship with Russia.  But he's also made clear that we will do what is necessary to confront Russia's destabilizing behavior.  

 

Fifth is to expand economic opportunity for Americans., the President's goal will be to make clear, even to our allies, that America cannot tolerate unfair trade and economic practices that disadvantage our workers and our industries.  

 

The sixth is energy.  We want to create robust, open and fair markets that drive economic growth and leave no countries hostage to energy-market manipulation.  

 

On climate, the President looks forward to discussing his decision to leave the Paris Agreement with the other G20 leaders.  He'll make clear that he has decided to leave the agreement because it was a bad deal for the United States, but that he is open to reengaging in the agreement or a new agreement if it makes sense for the American people. 

Attacks Media

President Trump has spent the weekend ranting on Twitter attacking mainstream media including the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, calling the organizations "fake news."

The media war the president is ramping up is the smoke screen to keep his demographic, beleaguered, vexed, careworn, heavy hearted, under siege by a combination of internal and external choices in his corner, the Trump philosophy, which borders on cult, pulls these people lulling them into a belief that relief is forthcoming soon. The mass stays with him on the off-chance forthcoming is today or tomorrow remembering how many times in their life they departed, left, or were forced out.

Should Trump be impeached his supporters will believe the charges are fabricated by the Jewish Intelligencia or East Coast liberal intellectuals or the political illuminati, a secret society of twelve of the most powerful who control everything and are the stories the real media, The National Enquirer, embraced by the President, cover.

Beltway Insider: Trump Reverses Cuba; HealthCare On Floor; Brits Bowed; Grenfell Towers; Simon Cowell

NYT Prints Trump Liars Guide

The New York Times reserved a full size single page, 29.5 x 23.5 inches, to bring to its readers, issue by issue, all the lies President Trump has told since taking office five months ago.

The Opinion piece was authored by David Leonhardt and Scott A. Thompson and included additional charts indicating where and what month the president lied and the frequency of each of the falsehoods; every day for the first 40 days; 20 in the first two months; on the day's he went without lying he was either golfing, on vacation, or absent from Twitter.

The day by day account posted with lie side by side of truth piece begins January 21st, 2017 and ends June 21, 2017.

David Leonhardt is a New York Times columnist. Stuart A. Thompson is the graphics director of the Opinion Section. They used multiple sources including Politifact, factcheck.org, The Washington Post Fact Checker; The Toronto Star. 

The Liars Guide can be found here

Travel Ban; Wedding Baker and Gerrymandering On SCOTUS Calendar  

The Supreme Court has announced it October Calendar giving religious freedom and liberty a forum as well as President Trump's Travel Ban, which parts became effective and the unusual Wisconsin Gerrymandering Case.

A partial victory for President Trump as he seeks to freeze dangerous emigrates from entering the United States arguing the increase of terrorism can be traced to a select group of nations where the predominate religion is Muslim.

His full ban was denied and subsequently all additional cases brought in district courts were up held by the lower courts. The cases narrowed into a single case, of which the Supreme Court agreed to hear with a partial decision allowing a narrowed and reworked partial ban to go into effect.

 

 "JUSTICE THOMAS, with whom JUSTICE ALITO and JUSTICE GORSUCH join, concurring in part and dissenting in part. I agree with the Court that the preliminary injunctions entered in these cases should be stayed, although I would stay them in full. The decision whether to stay the injunctions is committed to our discretion, ante, at 9–10, but our discretion must be "guided by sound legal principles."

Moreover, I fear that the Court's remedy will prove unworkable. Today's compromise will burden executive officials with the task of deciding—on peril of contempt— whether individuals from the six affected nations who wish to enter the United States have a sufficient connection to a person or entity in this country. See ante, at 11– 12. The compromise also will invite a flood of litigation until this case is finally resolved on the merits, as parties and courts struggle to determine what exactly constitutes a "bona fide relationship," who precisely has a "credible claim" to that relationship, and whether the claimed relationship was formed "simply to avoid §2(c)" of Executive Order No. 13780, ante, at 11, 12.  And litigation of the factual and legal issues that are likely to arise will presumably be directed to the two District Courts whose initial orders in these cases this Court has now— unanimously—found sufficiently questionable to be stayed as to the vast majority of the people potentially affected."

Wedding Baker Refuses To Create Cake for Gay Couple

The case of the Wedding Baker who embraced his religious freedoms and refused, citing religion, to perform his service, which was Wedding Cake creation, has been placed on the October calendar.

Colorado Law prohibits discrimination of same-sex couples and Charlie Craig and David Mullins had hoped to be married in Massachusetts and return to Colorado for a reception they had wanted Jack Philips of Masterpiece Cakeshop to create the reception cake. He refused their request and service based on his religious beliefs.

Craig and Mullins took the case to court and won and the decision was upheld un the lower courts. Philips agreed to take the case to the Supreme Court. He is the sole proprietor of the shop. The SCOTUS will decide on the constitutionality of a sole proprietor refusing service based on a clear indication of sexual orientation.

No mention if Masterpiece Cakeshop was the only business approached by the couple or any of the number of Wedding questions that will create the timeline to this intersection.

Wisconsin Gerrymandering Case

The Supreme Court will also hear the case of Wisconsin political officials who attempted to redraw political lines based on race and to best serve the elected assembly.

Gerrymandering, manipulates the boundaries of an electorate to best serve one party or the other.

"Registered Democratic voters in Wisconsin, who challenged the plan, claimed Republicans employed two gerrymandering techniques in drawing the new districts called "cracking" and "packing." Both diluted the votes of Democrats statewide, the voters say. Cracking occurs when a party's supporters are divided among multiple districts so that they fall short of a majority in each one. Packing takes place when one party's backers are concentrated in a few districts that they win by overwhelming margins," as reported in The Hill.com

Grenfell Tower, Symbol of Failure, Sparks Backlash

The North Kensington Grenfell Tower, the cement block apartment house consumed by London most deadly post World War II fire, remains standing, charred, a blackened cinder box, a continual reminder of that dreadful night and the horrifying fire.

The fire which has been the subject of intense media coverage around the world with every major newspaper in the United States and in London producing daily coverage and for those stateside readers in-depth Sunday coverage of this gripping disaster.

In the three weeks since and it has been determined nearly all buildings tested, up to 181 high rise buildings, in all 51 council areas, have failed. The cladding which is best described as a rain screen sitting inches from the main block shielding the building from extreme elements and providing some beautification to the outside grey cement structure.

With the ramification of Grenfell, the human toll has become an exercise in political revenge with losing Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn exploiting the dead for his political gain providing thousands with a verbal sedative, providing the hopeless, the hurting with empty words meant only to destabilize the newly formed government and the fragile population.

Politicians are circling the wagons hoping Grenfell will be the fuse that ignites another general election and a mass change in the UK political landscape. And it might. And even if it does, justice for the victims, survivors and the community is still as elusive as it is now.

Justice. Trying to wrap one's mind around the definition of Justice is the most challenging. Civil and criminal penalty, to the fullest extent the law allows, must be the accepted definition.

Taking the law into one's own hands, vengeance, turns the survivors into the criminal and the criminals into the victims which is exactly the scenario building developers are hoping.

Fantastic Views and Fire Concerns

Grenfell Tower, the block of flats priced just over $2100.00(£)/$2600.00 (US) were posh, fashionable, family oriented and with dynamic views. What it lacked, and the main fight of the resident board, were the buildings failure to modernized the antiquated fire alarm systems to include modern warning systems and a revised building policy of "stay in the flat."

Many of the survivors have told of robust meetings between the building management and residents, Grenfell Action Group, who were vocal on the need for Fire Equipment and new safety measures arguing as the management wanted to hire a concierge service while the residents were demanding fire equipment and upgraded systems. It appeared as if the two thought processes were not in sync on the issues of the building.

Survival stories, heartbreaking and miraculous, are emerging with families escaping, from the 21st floor as late as 3:00am, who waited as told by authorities until the flames burst through the walls of his home, he and his wife and two daughters escape, which is a miracle. His unborn son died from the toxic fumes inhaled during the escape.

Other stories, the last two survivors from the 22nd floor, two cousins, were stepping over piles of dead bodies, after waiting in a neighbor's home and telephoning her husband who was watching the fire on television. The two made it out. The family in the apartment, a mother and two children stayed and are listed as missing.

The death toll stands at 80. Community Groups believe this represents an acceptable number and not an actual number. Fire officials have indicated there is the possibility all the dead may not be found even as exhaustive efforts to sift through burnt out structure are continuing.

With officials working to identify the exact number of people who were in Grenfell Tower at the time of the fire, a moratorium from prosecution for residents who had illegally sublet their apartments and were not the occupant on record on that night, has been passed allowing residents to report any person who have not yet been identified as missing.

To donate to the London Community Foundation: https://artistsforgrenfell.com/

For more information on President Donald Trumpwww.whitehouse.gov

Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Wikipedia.com and Fake News Organizations: The New York Times; Washington Post and The Hill.

First of all, the primary objectives are three:  To promote American prosperity, to protect American interests, and to provide American leadership.  These three objectives tie together every engagement President Trump has with foreign leaders, Additional objectives for the trip include, first, to strengthen American alliances.  

America First, as Gary and I have stressed in the past, does not mean America alone.  President Trump has demonstrated a commitment to American alliances because strong alliances further American security and American interests.  

Second is to reassert who we are. Third is to continue to forge a common understanding of threats.  We saw the President make great progress in Saudi Arabia on denying terrorists safe havens, cutting off their funding, and discrediting their perverted ideology.

The fourth is to develop a common approach to Russia.  As the President has made clear, he'd like the United States and the entire West to develop a more constructive relationship with Russia.  But he's also made clear that we will do what is necessary to confront Russia's destabilizing behavior.  

Fifth is to expand economic opportunity for Americans., the President's goal will be to make clear, even to our allies, that America cannot tolerate unfair trade and economic practices that disadvantage our workers and our industries.  

The sixth is energy.  We want to create robust, open and fair markets that drive economic growth and leave no countries hostage to energy-market manipulation.  

On climate, the President looks forward to discussing his decision to leave the Paris Agreement with the other G20 leaders.  He'll make clear that he has decided to leave the agreement because it was a bad deal for the United States, but that he is open to reengaging in the agreement or a new agreement if it makes sense for the American people. 

Haute Tease