Beltway Insider: Obama/Syrian Policy Failure; Gun Violence; Election 2016; Bill Cosby

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President Barack Obama has returned to Washington from his Holiday and is eager and energized to begin his last year in office moving ahead with the Gun Violence issue he has indicated the intent to announce Executive Order action.

According to Gallup, President Obama's job approval, over the past week, increased two percentage points to 48% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President decreased one percentage point to 49%.

Gun Violence and Obama's Town Hall

Detailed in last week's Beltway Insider, President Obama in his two terms have put the very sticky issue of Gun Control on a medium boil. The American people are fed up, enraged that every aspect of life, our freedoms have been grossly infringed upon by lunatics running around with assault weapons and modified magazine clips holding enough ammunition to kill a small army.

Ready to address the issue Obama and CNN Correspondent Anderson Cooper will host an open town hall on Gun Control and the possibility of executive action.

Also Obama Post Presidency Legacy; 2015 Top Misses; Election 2016; Farkhunda Malikzada

Obama's Syrian Failure

No critique of the President Foreign Policy failures would be complete without mentioning the gross mishandling of Syria and the Syrian policy failure that resulted in the mass exodus of millions of Syrian refugees.

President Obama has long voiced his opinion of Basher al-Assad, which until lately has remained, solidly and adamantly opposed to the dictatorial leader staying in power. Over the course of the Obama administration the policy has shifted from providing first response needs to the Syrian civilians caught up in the middle of the Syrian Civil War, to arming the freedom fighters to providing billions of dollars in Aid to five neighboring countries as those nations are absorbing the responsibility of care of the displaced population.

Obama has continued to voice his strong belief that removing Assad and replacing him with an interim democratic government would stabilize the region. The president was able, at one time, to gather the support of the world when it was revealed that Assad used chemical weapons on a group of citizens near Damascus.

With the entire world, the United Nations and the G7 supporting him, the President was still unable to follow through on his policy. The objectives presented by the Obama administration have not been met.

After the inability of remove Assad, after this violation of the Geneva Convention, the window of opportunity closed. The civil war, however, escalated.

Soon the people of Syria could take no more and the surrounding nations were unable to hold any additional refugees.

Syria's Mass Exodus and Europe Immigration Strain

Many who criticize Obama's Syrian Policy also lay blame for the mass European exodus. Without the failure of the Obama Syrian policy and the failure to remove Assad the millions of Syrians fleeing the conditions would not have.

With Russian Vladimir Putin supporting, funding and arming Assad and the Syrian military the opportunity to shift the government now brings in negotiations with Putin, who is still expelled from the G7 and facing sectorial sanctions for the occupation of Crimea, Ukraine.  

As ISIS takes up residence in the Northern Syrian countryside, even Assad is unsure how to approach the newest addition to his country, and is increasingly dependent on Putin to utilize his military support of the destruction of ISIS Syrians are still fleeing the war torn country, risking their lives and hoping for a better future.

Those who don't make it from the toddlers' dead face down on the shore to the bloated bodies of drowned men and women washing up on the beaches in Turkey are clearly a 2015 failure and a direct result of Obama's failed foreign policy.

Election 2016 – Iowa and New Hampshire

After pausing ever so slightly over the holidays, balancing the fine line of appropriate, the 2016 presidential candidates are refreshed and ready to charge ahead as the Iowa Caucuses, a mere 30 days away and the New Hampshire Primaries, 37 days away, are set.

The outcome, while not as precarious for the Democratic Party as presumptive Democratic Presidential Candidate, former Secretary of State and New York State Senator, Hillary Clinton, is campaigning as if her life depends on each and every vote.

Her challenger Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) is gaining in strength and popularity although it remains to be seen if as the underdog he can upset the well-funded and well-oiled Clinton Machine.  

The Republican Party

For the Republicans, on the other hand, each and every vote does matter. The volume of candidates divides the party allowing Donald J. Trump, the Real Estate developer and Reality Show boss, to emerge as the GOP's number one candidate.

Career politicians, of which the majority of the Republicans candidate are have not stepped aside from traditional party tactics, bickering, party squabbling and trash talking which is the sticking point with many voters who are tired of politics as usual.

The tried and true, the Republican candidate of yesteryear, Ronald Regan stalwarts are seeing a departure from the career politician in favor of the leader. Without an emerging politician who is also a leader, and someone who will not get pulled into the muck and mire of campaign trail mudslinging the people will continue to vote for Donald Trump

The Republicans square off for the first of the primaries in 30 days.  Trump is spending nearly 2M in his campaign efforts in Iowa running heavy television advertisements and easily out spending his rivals. His political campaign doesn't depend on the win. For the other GOP hopefuls, however, they are in a do or die squeeze.

Political Messaging

At this point the messaging is getting tighter and more directed toward Domestic Security, which has moved dramatically ahead to become the Number One issue among voters. The Economy which has remained a constant Top Five issue has moved to the Number Two spot. People want jobs that produce wages that allow for a nest egg to be rebuilt.

The American workers are looking for the candidate that can assist them in rebuilding retirement packages, or pay off the student loans, and finding and keeping jobs domestically that bring wages up to levels where the investment in education actually pays off.

Wages that build the nest egg, not simply have them fall for the single most damaging lie of the Obama administration that you can move from poverty to poverty. Moving from below the poverty line to barely able to make ends meet is not an accomplishment.

Donald Trump may not be able to accomplish a comprehensive jobs package that keeps all areas of the American workforce from the executive to the unskilled laborer employed, with wages that build a nest egg and stops the two to three paychecks from homelessness/devastation syndrome  and he sells that and presents it with authority. He makes people believe he can.

The second message that is playing out in force is the terror card. Messaging indicating Hillary and Obama started ISIS or Trump's rhetoric being integrated in Terror messaging used for recruitment the tactics are Hollywood-esque and the purpose is the same throw enough garbage on the tracks to derail he campaign.

Bill Cosby Arrested for 2004 Rape

William Henry "Bill" Cosby, 78, after more than 55 accusations and increased media pressure, has been arrested and arraigned on a decade old rape charge stemming from an alleged sexual assault in Pennsylvania.

Cosby, who has repeatedly denied all accusations, had recently been forced to give deposition in a civil suit filed by Andrea Constand, the only female of more than 55 victims, known and unknown, in civilian life or the entertainment industry, who has been able to find a prosecutor willing to take on the establishment of Cosby.

Even as the accuser has been forced to publically identify herself in order to have the judicial system take her seriously, it is the policy of this publication not to identify the victims of sexual assaults. That policy does not change with this case.

Over the past six month multiple media agencies have repeatedly covered the accusations against Cosby, with stunning similarities and staggering numbers the public persona of American educator dedicated to the furthering of education has deteriorated to sordid regurgitations of unbelievable actions.

Cosby has been quite vocal over the unbelievable accusations the likes of which he has never "seen anything like it before." He often states he has been in this industry over fifty years and has never seen anything like this frenzy.

His interpretation for those willing to decipher his language is simple: Celebrity status is usually able to withstand the onslaught of accusation. Lobbing a myriad of possible motivations for such despicable allegations celebrity status often blinds even well-meaning prosecutors.

In this case it has not. Either the sheer volume of allegations, a sign of the changing times, the dissolve of the walled, impenetrable, city between celebrity and the law, recent successful prosecutions, or finally and simply a domino brought on by the skill of a single attorney to extract enough information, through deposition to tip the scales.

The case against Cosby, who has been called America's comedienne, in the public eye may be solid, and long overdue, and in the eyes of the law, while the evidence is strong enough to bring charges and arrest the entertainer legal pundits are quick to caution judicially Cosby's case may still be difficult to prove.

The judicial system often favors the perpetrator, either intentionally or not, simply by allowing time to pass. In this case, the decade old evidence, even in our modern forensic world, which suddenly seems like preparation for failure as one can hear the prosecutor explaining post trial, forensic science failed us at this juncture.  

At least we won't have to hear "if it doesn't fit you must acquit" ringing in our ears for decades after. Of course prosecutors are different here, allegation different, the victim is alive to testify as are 55 others, who may, simply to show odds of occurrence and gross similarities, all testify.  The media frenzy will be similar to the O.J. Simpson trial.

Cosby's team has been quick, as is expected to smear the women, all of them are facing defamations of some sort lobbied from the funnyman's defense team. An unimpeachable reputation, the life of a nun, which none of the women are claiming, nor the polar opposite has ever been the question. Career or celebrity sexual encounters are the loudest motivations coming from the Cosby camp.

The women, are slammed because they have reported "waking" and either finding themselves in various stages of undress and seeing Cosby in a robe, apparently unashamed of his actions. His belief seems to lie in the fact that if a "no" cannot be obtained from the alleged victim than she is giving consent.

The law however, is clear, if a person cannot give consent for any reason, and some states have layered definition of action, it is rape. No means "no", the inability for the victim to voice a "no" also means "no."

The parade of women who have come forward have indicated they had no recollection of the action. That does not negate the crime. As Cosby parades himself around they are supposed to have an altered sense of memory. His actions are intended to be the beginning of the long term public relations campaign that negates what the women know is rape.

Twenty five or even twenty years ago, the allegations would withstand the celebrity machine, especially as most projects Cosby undertook generated huge revenues and success for the network associated with the entertainer. NBC it has been alleged created a fortress free from prosecution and included the destructive campaign waged against victims of high profile crimes who seek justice.

The squeeze, which dries up most avenues for the victims in hopes of causing suicide, has been part and parcel of the defamation campaign launched by Cosby's team, and those formerly directly affected by the show's success.

In this case no matter who it assisted Cosby at NBC, if it is proven that individuals in the television division knew of his actions it will be Brandon Tartikoff that is held responsible as he is dead and cannot defend himself, produce documents that discredit any accusation of otherwise refute any allegations lobbied by Cosby or his team of attorneys.

Victim X and the Hit Machine

This publication and publisher, Janet Walker, advocates for all victims of sexual assault and petitions for those who craft law to remove the hurdles that impede prosecution, to stop the intentional coddling of the criminal, to remove statutes and to make the legal system work for instead of against victims who seek justice.

Victim X remains at the center of a pursuit of justice in Hudson County, NJ. She has continued to move forward knowing justice comes at a price and victims of high profile assaults are never given justice easily.

Fighting against a system that cares more for the comfort level of the criminal, especially the prominent assailant which, as in Cosby's case, creates a whole new scenario of defamations and slanders and the possibility of financial gain for silencing the victim.

Even as the most recent attempt to uncover the corrupt judicial system and gain exposure and move the judicial wheel even slowly, through the reality show, Justice Watch, was dead ended as the show was allegedly stolen, renamed Cold Justice, and sold to Dick Wolf and the Magical Elves Production team. That theft effectively terminated Ms. Walker's and Victim X's opportunity to begin the arduous process, again.

Make no mistake Victim X will see justice.  

 

For more information on President Barack Obama: www.whitehouse.gov

Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Wikipedia.com,

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