Beltway Insider: Trump’s Border Crisis; The Numbers; UNHRC; NYC Gay Vote; GE/Disney/Comcast

President Donald Trump is facing mounting public pressure over the escalating immigration crisis along the southern border of the United States as policies surrounding undocumented families, separation and border babies has again become problematic for a sitting president.

According to Gallup, President Trump job approval, over the past week, decreased by two percentage points to 40% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President decreased by four percentage points to 50%.

Border Crisis Explodes Again

President Trump is now experiencing an unprecedented border crisis, as each siting leader before him has also faced, and experienced the exponential increase in undocumented aliens crossing the borders, bringing families, children and babies in hopes of finding a better life.


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"In the last three months, we have seen illegal immigration on our southern border exceed 50,000 people each month.  Multiples over each month last year. Since this time last year, there has been a 325 percent increase in unaccompanied alien children and a 435 percent increase in family units entering the country illegally. Over the last 10 years, there has been a 1,700 percent increase in asylum claims, resulting in asylum backlog to date, on our country, of 600,000 cases," said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

Another horrifying statistic involves the desperation of families to smuggle their children into the United States. Most children are pawns by smugglers and child traffickers with an increase of 314% of adults showing up at the border are not family units. They are smugglers, MS-13 members, criminals, abusers, pimps.

Trump and former President Obama have faced during their tenures the rapid rise in attempts by undocumented aliens to enter the United States illegally. The Border Baby crisis, during President Obama's tenure was called by the media as the single most damaging issue and would most likely cause his demise.

President Trump has taken a somewhat hardline stance which, even in his recent decision to stop the separation of families detained at the border, he has come back with a determined belief that undocumented aliens should be denied all due Process Rights.

Should this course of action continue those detained at the border will be immediately returned to a US point of entry.

Reformation of Loopholes

The Department of Homeland Security has highlighted three loopholes that need to be reformed. It is not uncommon for criminals to be released on a technicality, a loophole in the law. The same is true for the immigration policy.

"We need to amend the 2008 Trafficking Victims Prevention Reauthorization Act, or TVPR. This law encourages families to put children in the hands of smugglers to bring them alone on this dangerous trek northward.  Second, we need to reform our asylum laws to end the systemic abuse and stop fraud.  Now, our asylum system fails to assist those who legitimately need it. Third, we need to amend the Flores Settlement Agreement and recent expansions which would allow for family detention during the removal process.  And Congress needs to fully fund our ability to hold families together through the immigration process," DHS Secretary Nielsen said.

Prosecute or Not

Are immigrants held accountable under United States law for their attempts to enter illegally? The law does call for prosecution and prohibits the practice of detaining families while they go through the prosecution and while they go through the immigration proceedings.

"if we close the loopholes, we can keep the families together, which is what they did in the last administration until a court ruled that we can no longer do that.  After 20 days, we have to release both unaccompanied children and accompanied children which means that we cannot detain families together.  The only option is to not enforce the law at all," DHS Nielsen said.

Trump Withdraws from United Nation Human Rights Council

President trump announced this week, he will remove the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Commission based on the recommendation of his Ambassador Nikki R. Haley.

After this shocking announcement the Trump administration put together a fact sheet to explain the decision and what his administration believes is necessary to reform the united Nations is it is to be an effective partner in confronting threats to sovereignty, security and prosperity.

Ending the Human Right Council Farce

President Trump and his administration believe they have taken a stand for human rights and withdrawn from the United Nations HRC after a year of "tireless commitment to reform the United Nations."

"The HRC has failed to live up to its purpose, serving as a shield for human rights violators and a megaphone for unfair bias against Israel. Countries with poor human rights records are routinely elected to the HRC, and use it to shield themselves from criticism. The HRC includes elected members such as Venezuela, Cuba, Burundi, China, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, countries that have continual human rights violations and abuses. The HRC has passed more resolutions condemning Israel than it has condemning Syria, Iran, and North Korea combined," the President said.

     

President Trump has remained diligent in its pursuit of HRC reform in New York and Geneva and is willing to work with the council to return it to the "defender of human rights it was intended to be."

Over the past year, this Administration has taken several steps to advance the cause of reform at the United Nations:

 

During last year's General Assembly, the United States co-hosted a reform event with British and Dutch Foreign Ministers attended by more than 40 countries; American senior diplomats have held well over 100 consultations with delegations in New York and Geneva.

 

The Trump Administration circulated a draft reform resolution at the United Nations; and even simple efficiency proposals aimed at dealing with the Council's budget crisis have failed to win sufficient support.

 

If meaningful reforms are undertaken that address our longstanding concerns with the HRC, the United States would welcome the opportunity to re-engage.

NYC Hetero Pol Recruits Gay Vote Through Grinder

David Kilmnick, President and Chief Executive of the New York LGBT Network expressed his outrage at Suraj Patel, challenger to incumbent Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney for creating a fake profile on dating apps, including Grindr, in an attempt to recruit supporters.

"On the day of NYC Pride, where hundreds of thousands will be brave and courageous coming out as their true authentic selves for being LGBT, Suraj Patel's actions are unethical and demonstrates he's out of touch with issues that LGBT people face every day. These dating apps are designed to be safe spaces for LGBT people to meet one another".

The LGBT Network, which operates its Queens LGBT Center in this Congressional District located in Long Island City, sees these actions that Patel has taken to be dangerous. Kilmnick said "The creation of fake profiles and to 'pretend' to be LGBT to reel people in, is nothing more than total dishonesty and makes light of the struggles and violence many LGBT people face in our country today. We already have enough cluelessness in Washington DC now; we do not need to add to that, we need to fight it".

GE, Disney, Comcast Make for a Tumultuous Week on Wall Street

General Electric, one of the original stock exchange members, was unceremoniously booted this week, replaced by Drugstore chain Walgreens after more than a 100 years of representation.

Granted for the consumer, the boot of GE has very little symbolic meaning, for Industry insiders it is the passing of a torch, almost as significant as the late 1800's move from agrarian to industrial age. General Electric was once synonymous with Home appliances,

The new age of the Stock Exchange has little to do with manufactured goods and more to do with FMCG Fast moving consumer goods, those items that pop off the shelf and into the consumers home with little time or thought.

Fox Endorses Disney's Bid after Comcast Attempt

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul and CEO and founder of News Corporation and creator of FOX Broadcasting has endorsed the billion dollar stock and cash counter offer made by Disney after an unsolicited bid from rival Comcast.

With many industry insiders believing the original offer of $53billion stock deal offered by Iger in December of 2017, was more than a gentleman's agreement between tow titans. The December offer, outside of regulatory approval seemed to be done. The recent AT&T and Time Warner merger approval seemed to signal a new trend in conglomerate mergers.


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Enter Comcast. Although unsolicited the all-cash offer of $65billion came one day after the federal judge approved the AT&T merger. A brief bidding war, which seemed more like a quick flash and faster fizzle, ended with Disney countering the Comcast offer with a cash and stock offer of $71billion or $38.00 per share.

"If a sweetened Comcast bid materializes, the Fox board will have to calculate not only the dollar value but the likelihood that the deal would pass government inspection. Both Disney and Comcast would face antitrust scrutiny, which is part of the merger calculus that Mr. Murdoch will have to make before choosing an eventual winner," according to Edmund Lee of the New York Times.

Analysts have been calling the merger "sealed" and describing the bad blood between the two mega entertainment companies.

There is also the question of Disney Chairman's off the cuff remarks of a 2020 Presidential bid, which some saw as simply frustration over the then election results. The possibility that Mr. Iger would run for president and risk an impossible to call ending seems unlikely.

The assets of 21st Century Fox are the cream of Murdoch's empire and would add substantial profits across the board and more importantly in the emerging straight to consumer segment as Disney had previously announced the end of its partnership with streaming giant Netflix.

As the deal between Murdoch and Disney who endorsed both the first bid and now the second adding the Comcast bid was "unsolicited" seems increasingly solid. What insiders are now speaking about are the delineation of duties as wild stories seem to fill every industry media.

Murdoch has packed his film studio assets including 20th Century Fox Studios, which includes Fox Searchlight, and 21st Century Fox, the FX and National Geographic television channels, regional and sports networks and two highly sought after international channels, European based SKY, a pay-tv channel, and Star India.

Merging the assets have sparked another concern, as executives of FOX are facing down the possibility of ouster after dedicated careers in service to FOX. The whisperings in December resulted in FOX film CEO Stacy Snider skipping Steven Spielberg's The POST premiere to "lift up her team."

As Disney has operated on silo structure with a unified message echoing throughout the likelihood that the silo business model will incorporate any new assets. The changes in Disney/Pixar Animation that was the second most scrutinized industry news ended with split duties.

Disney executives who expected to be next in line to take over the Chairman's seat have left and others who can't read the patterns seem to think that Iger will retire. The choice of Alan Horn, five years ago, as Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, after being pushed out by Warner Bros, a decision which has proven to be substantially successful essentially paves the way for Iger, should he desire to continue working at the Mouse House for another decade.

GOP Representative Kate Arrington Seriously Injured in Auto Accident

South Carolina GOP Representative Kate Arrington, who recently defeated Trump endorsed, and incumbent Mark Sanford, was seriously injured in an automobile accident that left one person dead.

Arrington, who often spoke of her rise, ascending from the midnight shift at the local Denney's to the Halls of the Pentagon. Her victory was referred to as a litmus test to the strength of Donald Trump's hold over the population, after his surprising victory.

The accident, which occurred Friday night, as Arrington was on her way to Hilton Head, South Carolina, when the car she was riding in was struck head on by a vehicle traveling in the wrong direction. The driver of Ms. Arrington's vehicle suffered serious injuries. The driver of the vehicle that struck them died immediately.

Although she is expected to survive, Ms. Arrington suffered serious injuries including a back fracture, broken ribs. She also had to have portions of her colon and small intestine removed. She is expected to have additional surgeries.

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

Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Wikipedia.com

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