Beltway Insider: Trump Stumps; GOP Exposed; Iran Sanctions; Yemen; WH Press Locked Out; Wildfires Rage

President Donald Trump has proven his single focused goal as president is to dismantle every piece of legislature enacted by former President Barack Obama and the Iranian Nuclear Deal is next on the chopping block.

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 increased by one percentage point to 55%.

Special Elections Show GOP Weakness

President Trump has continued his effort to keep the both houses controlled by the GOP with rallies in swing states and utilizing twitter and other social media platforms to voice his opinion and endorsements.

In what appears to be a repeat of major elections over the past decade, the results in Ohio's 12th Congressional District is still to close to call with both candidates hovering near the 50% mark.

President Trump stump in the Buckeye state for Republican Troy Balderson. The last ditch effort may have pushed Balderson over the edge, with 101,772 or 50.1% of the votes as the race is yet to be called and Danny O'Connor, the democratic challenger has garnered 100,208 or 49.3% of the vote.


Beltway Insider: Trump Begins 2020 Stump; Korean War Vets; Bali; Osama bin Laden; Ebola; Turkey; Wildfires; WH Cuts Access


As of Sunday, August 12, 3,435 votes had yet to be counted.

In other races, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer won the nomination for Governor of Michigan. Women in Georgia, Texas, South Dakota are also on the ballot for Governor come November.

NY Rep Chris Collins Indicted; Suspends Reelection Campaign

New York State Repetitive Chris Collins is fighting off more than the possibility of a loss at the polls in November, his recent indictment for insider trading has the incumbent congressman suspending his reelection campaign to stop "pro-impeachment" democrats from filling his seat with a sympathetic democrat willing to impeach the three term Upstate New York representative.

Obama Iran Deal Implodes

During the final year of former President Obama's leadership his administration worked tirelessly on securing a deal with Iranian President Rouhani that would benefit the Iranian people and halt any potential of Nuclear Warfare.

Known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or (JCPOA), the team led by former Secretary of State John Kerry, over the course of two years negotiated with his Iranian counterparts on stabilizing the region with a denuclearize package that released assets in exchange for incrementally increasing dismantling of particular elements of the Iranian Nuclear weapon arsenal.

It was during this time that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the United States and addressed both house stressing the duplicity of the Iranian government and urging lawmakers to pass on the deal. He also promised to find the evidence that will prove the intent of Rouhani was to deceive the United States and keep nuclear weaponry in off site or out of country locations to continue the building of its nuclear program.

      

Former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz presented a fact sheet so the American people and more importantly Congress and those elected to act on behalf of the constituents they represent, would have a clear understanding of what was on the bargaining table.

 

Obviously, as both sides have appraised the deal as victorious it is hard to understand which side is in presenting a truthful summary of the intricacies of the nuclear deal which limits Iran's Nuclear program forever, not a set time frame, but until the two governments cease to exist.

 

The main concern of the American people and American allies becomes the potential for the Iranians to maintain, either in principal, through deception or simply through covert alliances, the elements necessary to complete a nuclear bomb.

 

"First of all, we say that there are four pathways to a bomb in Iran.  One is a plutonium pathway through a research reactor, a heavy water reactor.  I'll come back to these.  Second, there are two pathways to a uranium bomb; that involves the facilities at Natanz and at Fordow.  And the fourth pathway is covert activities. 

 

So let me just walk through those four and what we have nailed down in the understanding for the final agreement," said Moniz.

 

Compartmentalizing each of these elements seems to be the easiest to reduce to the lowest and easiest synopsis. If signed the following elements will be active.

 

The Iranians will be permitted to keep one heavy water nuclear reactor. It must be redesigned to reduce Plutonium output. It cannot create weapons grade plutonium and any plutonium created must be shipped out of the country for the life of the rector.

 

In order to produce a nuclear bomb utilizing the uranium route three specific elements are necessary. The deal limits each of them separately over time so there will never be a moment when all three elements are present in the necessary totals.

 

No research and development is permitted during the first ten years.

Covert activities, are the only possible pathway for the Iranians to create a nuclear weapon.

 

The sanctions are swift, permanent and effective if it is determined the deal has been breached or if Iran refuses to allow any part of the nuclear program to be monitored.

The single most important issue is keeping the potential for nuclear weapons out of the hands of the Iranians. This is a beginning. The Beltway Insider, March 2015

Iran Nuclear Bomb Test

Following President Trumps decision to dismantle the Iranian deal and impose crippling sanctions on Iran, which he believes will drive the Iranians to the table for a better deal, they retaliated and test fired a ballistic missile.

"The top American commander for U.S. forces in the Middle East told reporters Iran's recent naval activity was meant to "send a message" to the United States. "I think it's pretty clear to us that they were trying to use that exercise to send a message to us that as we approach this period of the sanctions, they had some capabilities," Gen. Joseph Votel said at the Pentagon Wednesday," FOX News reported.

Iran Sanctions

President Trump has mandated the following sectorial sanctions be immediately reimposed.

"The purchase or acquisition of United States bank notes by the Government of Iran. Iran's trade in gold and other precious metals. Graphite, aluminum, steel, coal, and software used in industrial processes. Transactions related to the Iranian rial. Activities relating to Iran's issuance of sovereign debt. Iran's automotive sector. The remaining sanctions will be reimposed on November 5. Iran's port operators and energy, shipping, and shipbuilding sectors. Iran's petroleum-related transactions. Transactions by foreign financial institutions with the Central Bank of Iran. The Administration will also relist hundreds of individuals, entities, vessels, and aircraft that were previously included on sanctions lists," the White House released.

Yemen Civil War Saudi Bomb School Bus; 29 Children Dead

Yemen and Syria, two of the last nations still engaged in civil wars which began during the historic pro-democracy demonstration in 2010 – 2011, which resulted in seventeen Arab nations in the Middle East, North Africa and the Araba Peninsula changing governments.

Yemen, considered the poorest of all Middle Eastern nations remains bowed under the heavily armed and well financed Saudi military by the war with the Saudi's who remain backed by the United States Government.

The past week in an horrific instant a bus was struck by a Saudi bomb and killed 41. Twenty-nine of those killed where children. The warring factions have said they never intentionally strike schools, children, hospitals and innocent parties unfortunately the face of war belongs to the most vulnerable, the voiceless, the absence of children.

Unless Yemen is given relief soon the possibility a second Syria, a long lingering war with citizens fleeing in mass to safe zones outside the war torn nation, hiding from bomb raids, tyrannical leaders bringing an iron fist down upon its own citizens and those resonating images: the faces of children, dead from bombings, from drownings, from chemical warfare.

The devastation in a nation ravaged by poverty, war and run over by the warring faction led by the Saudi and the Islamic State bring serious global attention on the United States for continuing to back the Saudi government.

"Meanwhile the new UN special envoy to Yemen, former British diplomat Martin Griffiths, is planning to invite the warring parties to Geneva in September to discuss a framework for negotiations. The war in Yemen will get more complicated the longer it goes on. There will be more international interest and polarisation in terms of the parties, it will fragment further, it will be more difficult to resolve - even more than it is now," the BBC reports.

California Wild Fires Season

The 2018 California Wildfire season has proven to be formidable. With high temperatures holding on for longer periods of time, dry vegetation, a climate that is considered by experts to be closer to a sub-tropical Mediterranean, the perfect conditions existed for an uncontrollable and catastrophic wildfire. All that was missing was a single spark, an ember and Northern California was poised to become a combustible nightmare.

A passing big rig blew a tire and for the few seconds the rim struck the pavement a shower of sparks, something that happens on roadways every day, sent a shower of sparks into the wind and in an instant a fire was ignited. 1600 acres caught the first day near Redding, California. The high winds, toppling trees sent the spark, those same few sparks 35, 40, 50, 70 miles north igniting a mountainside.

Tripling and quadrupling in acres over the following days the Carr Fire would become one of the most sever and damaging fires in the states history. Now, nearly contained at 55%, ten souls lost, including two children and a grandmother, firefighters, more than 1000 structures, homes incinerated and 186,416 acres had burned.

"The Carr Fire in Northern California's Shasta County has claimed eight lives and destroyed 1,077 structures as it roared through the Redding, California. The 186,416-acre blaze was 55 percent contained Saturday. Southern California's Holy Fire has consumed 21,473 acres and 12 structures in Orange and Riverside counties. It was 29 percent contained Saturday as evacuations for many affected communities were lifted. The most widespread of what Cal Fire officials are calling a summer "siege" of blazes is Northern California's Mendocino Complex Fire, the largest wildfire recorded in state history at 325,226 acres. It was 67% contained Saturday," NBC News reported.

White House Press Locked Out

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee-Sanders did not hold a press briefing for the White House Press Corps for the week of August 5, 2018 through August 12, 2018.

Her failure to inform the media has become a standard for the beleaguered press secretary who spends the majority of the allotted time defending the actions of her less than competent employer. Her insights and opinions on behalf of the President are none the less needed and valued by even those harangued reporters assigned to cover the White House.

With major global events and secession in Iran, Russia and Turkey, not to mention the US backed civil war in Yemen, the contribution of Ms. Sanders would be appreciated.

Charlottesville/BlacKkKlansman

Director Spike Lee, who has built a career exploiting the modern black experience be it guns in Chicago, race relations in New York, color delineation within the African race or taking on the current rise of fascism and the vocal presence of the Aryan race brotherhood Klu Klux Klan, in the recently released BlacKkKlansman, Lee has become a  respected black film maker who has not left his core philosophies to spoof the Negro or paint the experience any shade other than truthful.


BlacKkKlansman Review – A Powerful Scathing Indictment Worthy of Oscar Gold


With BlacKkKlansman, Lee takes on the system of a recently integrated Colorado Police Department, the continued black hate crimes, rhetoric from those who pledge loyalty to justice and the local chapter of the KKK.

Racism, unfortunately doesn't die a hopeful death in BlacKkKlansman, even as the white robed bad guys are caught, and potential disaster prevented. Evil and hatred, unfortunately, always find a way of surviving

With this weekend the first year anniversary of Charlottesville, least any forget a peaceful counter-demonstration of Power to the People to remind all those who stand with hate that a greater force will rise against it.

On that day one year ago, Heather Heyer, a white pro-freedom, anti-hate, counter protestor fighting against racial inequities, was peacefully making her way with the crowd chanting words meant to disarm hatred when a Neo-Nazi rammed into the crowd, reversed and rammed them again, reversing and pulling many with him.

Heather was killed for her belief in equality. Nineteen others were injured. Today, on the first year anniversary she is remembered and those who stood ready to destroy outnumbered those who gathered to denounce equality and champion hate. Unite the Right 2 was denied permits.

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

Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Wikipedia.com

Haute Tease