Beltway Insider: Trump/Pardons, Russia, Weinstein, Coronavirus, Quaden Bayles, Election 2020

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President Trump, in his effort to appeal to pockets of conservative voters in the 2020 general election signed executive grants of clemency granting full pardons to several high-profile individuals representing San Francisco, New York City, Silicon Valley and Illinois.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, which tracked polls of likely or registered voters for the period ending February 23, 2020, increased by 0.8 percentage points to 44.1% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness decreased by 0.3 percentage points to 51.p%. A slight 3% of the population polled have no opinion. Ratings are calculated bi-monthly.

President Trump Issues Executive Grants of Clemency

"Today, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Grants of Clemency granting Full Pardons to the following individuals: Edward DeBartolo, Jr., Michael Milken, Ariel Friedler, Bernard Kerik, Paul Pogue, David Safavian, and Angela Stanton.  In addition, President Trump signed Executive Grants of Clemency granting commutations to Rod Blagojevich, Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz, and Judith Negron," White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said, in a distributed Press release which can be read here.


Beltway Insider: Trump/Stone, Tweets Disrupt JD, Avenatti, Coronavirus, Weinstein, Election 2020


Roger Stone Sentenced

Longtime Trump political ally and strategist Roger Stone was sentenced this week to 42 months in prison for his role in lying to congress and obstructing a congressional investigation. His legal team has moved to have the judge disqualified in order to avoid prison. He is due to be sentenced in June.

During a press conference Trump was asked specifically if he had been ruling out pardons for Stone, for your former campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, and for Michael Flynn.

"I'm not even thinking about that.  There's a process that people are going through.  These are unrelated situations where people have done a great job with very, very strong recommendations.  But we haven't thought about that yet.  I think Roger Stone has been treated unfairly.  I think General Flynn has been treated very unfairly.  I think a lot of people have been treated very unfairly.  I think the Mueller scam is just exactly what it's — what a lot of people are calling, because it was started illegally.  It was started by abuse.  It was phony.  It was a fake dossier," the president said.

Russia Proves Ease of Political Interference

After spending nearly three years investigation Russia's involvement in the 2016 election, and finally determining, there had been involvement, moving against those who had conspired with the Russian government to have the President elected, and now we find the Russians are once again attempting to

Is it possible that all of the charades and dismissals from the President as fake, witch hunts and hoaxes, "You had the impeachment hoax, you had the Mueller hoax, you had the "Russia, Russia, Russia" nonsense," President Trump said during a press conference. 

Has the president intentionally, or unintentionally, played into the hands of the Mr. Putin, who has come back around this week as U.S. Intelligence reports suggest that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has been working to get President Trump re-elected, and to help Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont secure the Democratic nomination.

"And if you are trying to sow chaos in an a vitriolic election, Mr. Putin can hardly hope for better than a face-off between an incumbent with a history of race-baiting who is shouting "America First" at rallies — while suggesting that the coming election is rigged — and a democratic socialist from Vermont advocating a drastic expansion of taxes and government programs like Medicare," The New York Times reported.


Op/Ed: Guardians of The Fourth Estate and Exposing The Bad Actor


For the majority of Americans Russia interest in America is primarily in its leadership, which candidate destroy the unity of America? That would be the most appealing candidate for Putin. What the Russian leaders refuses to see, or possibly can't is disunity in political leadership comes and goes, it is the nature of a two-party system, always a winning candidate and always a losing candidate.

Striking at the political system deeply divides our nations as historically it always has. Those who have aided, as well as those who have had association knowledge, any nation to violate the electoral system, should be held accountable under the law.

Loyalty to the United States should be the core of every citizen. Will all its ills, and there are many, every person could name five, and yet, it is the greatest nation in the world. Attack our political system and it splits us and creates a more determination, attacks us and it unites. No one expects Putin to attack the United States through traditional means; his plans are to slowly undermine the foundation. He'll control by the circumvent.

"Any figures that radicalize politics and do harm to center views and unity in the United States are good for Putin's Russia," said Victoria Nuland, who in a long diplomatic career had served both Republican and Democratic administrations and had her phone calls intercepted and broadcast by Russian intelligence services," The New York Times reported.

Weinstein Jury Deadlocked

The Manhattan jury tasked with determining the fate of disgraced Hollywood mogul, Harvey Weinstein ended the week deadlocked on the two most serious changed of the indictment while appearing to have reached a unanimous verdict on the others.

The final sent from the seven men and five women jury, explained to Judge James Burke that they were hopelessly deadlocked on the two most serious charges of predatory sexual assault.

"In general, a deadlocked jury results in a mistrial, such as in Bill Cosby's first sexual assault trial. The court may also choose to allow a partial verdict in which some counts are declared as a mistrial but verdicts on other counts are accepted. In Weinstein's trial on Friday, defense attorneys noted on the record that they were willing to accept a partial verdict. The government was not," CNN reported.


Op/Ed: Fake History and the Constitutional Value of a Black Person


Coronavirus Pandemic

Israel put total ban in place for visitors from highly infected Asian nations even as the Dr. Asher Salmon, director of international relations for the Israeli health ministry, said, "they the world is far from a global pandemic."

"A decision was quickly taken by Israel's Health Ministry to bar non-Israelis arriving from South Korea – but not quickly enough to prevent Saturday night's landing of a direct flight from Seoul. Twelve Israeli citizens were allowed to disembark before being placed in quarantine, but the remaining passengers were forced to once again take to the skies. All told, Israel is now barring entry to non-Israelis arriving from seven points of departure. Aside from South Korea, they are China, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, and Singapore," eturbonews reported.

Quaden Bayles Becomes the New Face of Bullying

Quaden Bayles, 9, an Aboriginal Australian, has become the new face of survival as a nation, and a world has embraced the youth who had been mercilessly bullied by classmates who drove him to an attempted suicide.

Born with achondroplasia dwarfism, a rare bon-growth disorder, Bayles took to social media expressing his intent to kill himself. His mother used the global platform to express her heartache over the cruelty and inhumanity of Quaden's classmates who taunted, mocked and ridiculed him every day.

Then Brad Williams, a Van Nuys based stand up comedian, who has the same challenges, heard of the story and singlehandedly introduced the world of Quaden and his heartache and the effects of bullying. Originally intending to raise enough funding to send Quaden and his family to Disneyland the world of diversity responded and the GoFundMe page became a symbol of hope.

"I've heard from men, women, all heights, all races, all parts of the LGBTQ+ community, all political affiliations," Williams updated his followers Wednesday. "Everyone is helping. What a truly wonderful thing." By Friday afternoon, the GoFundMe page had rocketed past $400,000 in donations. "The world has spoken, and the world has said in one loud voice that bullying will not be tolerated!" Williams said. "Thank you for your generosity and love!,"' The Washington Post reported.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents age 10 to 14. There are about 100 attempts of suicide to one successful suicide. Students that are bullied are around two to nine times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims.

Election 2020: Bernie Sanders Continues to Strengthen Position; Biden Surges

After a raucous Nevada Democratic debate, the second caucus in the four early decision states pulled a major victory for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who secured 46% of the vote, a landslide victory over former Vice-President Joe Biden, who came in second with 19.6% of the vote.


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After calculating glitches at the Iowa Caucus proved to be a rocky start for the Democratic hopefuls, threw the outcome into chaos, and momentarily questioned the relevancy of the caucus system, Nevada's caucus appeared to be more prepared for the process.

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who finished third, probably for the first time in his life, with 15.3% of the vote, did question the outcome according to The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, sending query letters claim in errors in tallying the Nevada results.

Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Amy Klobuchar finished fourth and fifth respectively with 10.1% and 4.8% of the vote, billionaire Hedge Fund Director Tom Steyer finished 6th securing 4.1% of the vote. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Billionaire Hedge fund director Tom Steyer

Biden Surges

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who suffered surprising defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire, surged in Nevada, securing a solid second place finish displacing the highly contentious Pete Buttigieg in the ongoing battle for the top two positions.

Even with his solid performance he will need to employ a mathematician's philosophy in order to determine his competitive advantage over the six viable candidates and the dividing the possible delegate pool by three at 80% of the votes leaving a 20% split.

Pete Buttigieg Attempts to Free Up the Voting Pool

Upstart former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg who focused his take down attacks during Wednesday's nights Nevada debate toward Senator Amy Klobuchar, in order to free up her voting pool, questioning her knowledge of the names of foreign leaders, southern border bills and other pieces of jeopardy information, hoping the Senator would stumble.

Unfortunately, she was only able to deliver one solid rebuttal instead of deflecting the direct attacks on her performance as a Senator, a position the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana (voting population 25,000) has never held.

As he continued to flex his memorization of talking points muscles, by this time the voting public is fully aware that if we need a fact, Mayor Pete is the man. He's an encyclopedia. It is also clear he needs to captivate the voting population with his encyclopedic knowledge as he has doesn't have the experience, to complement the facts.

Bloomberg's Weak Debate Performance; Release Three from NDAs

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg qualified for the Nevada debate not realizing he was stepping into shark infested waters with no cage. The gloves have been off with these candidates for some time, and Bloomberg, didn't appeared prepared for the tag team rope-a-dope- take him to the mat, fighting style of the candidates.

Senator Elizabeth Warren went deep into the Mayor closest and brought up the Non-Disclosure Agreements which usually accompany any type of employee-employer settlement. After Senator Warren pointed out the mayor had included non-disclosure agreements in the settlements, she asked him on stage, if he would release the women. He followed up the next day by releasing three women from their NDA and gave them permission to speak. He has spent more than $400million on his presidential advertising, marketing, and creating an awareness campaign.

"The former New York mayor, appearing in his first presidential debate, struggled from the start to address his past support for stop-and-frisk policing and longtime allegations of disrespectful behavior toward women. "I'd like to talk about who we're running against: a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians," Elizabeth Warren said. "And no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg," The New York Times reported.

South Carolina Debate

Billionaire Tom Steyer has qualified for the South Carolina Democratic debate, with one day before the DNC cut off, after surging to 18% in a CBS/YouGov poll. He joins Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

The debate will be hosted by CBS News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, in partnership with Twitter, on Tuesday in Charleston, S.C. It starts at 8 p.m. EST.

For more information on President Donald Trump www.whitehouse.gov.

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