Beltway Insider: Trump Cuts CIA Access; Manafort Judge Threatened; PA Pedophile Priests; Aretha Franklin

President Trump in what is considered highly unusual has revoked the security clearance for former Central Intelligence Director John Brennan, in what is being called political repercussion for openly criticizing the president and his inabilities to serve.

According to Gallup, President Trump job approval, over the past week, decreased by one percentage point to 39% 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 56%.

Trump Retaliates Against Former CIA/FBI Directors 

President Trump, taking a move from Russian President Vladimir Putin's handle the criticism playbook, has moved against those who have publicly criticized him across all mediums, in print, television on the Sunday Talk Show circuit as on who is morally unfit to hold the office of the Presidency.

The CIA, dating back to J. Edgar Hoover, has held the office of the Presidency in the highest regard, as a preeminent position of which honor, dignity, a character without moral abnormalities should be the rule, without exception, and those who ascend to the office and fail to possess a basic moral compass should be held from entering into the position.

In stating the reasoning behind the revocation of Mr. Brennan's security clearance, which is considered unusual as former heads of the Intelligence are often allowed to maintain status simply as hotspots or active global situations may temper under one leader and flare up under another which allows former CIA Directors to consult with current contemporaries.


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"Mr. Brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations — wild outbursts on the Internet and television — about this administration.  Mr. Brennan's lying and recent conduct, characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary, is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation's most closely held secrets, and facilities [facilitates] the very aim of our adversaries, which is to sow division and chaos," President Trump said via a statement read by White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

President Trump seem to take to heart the issue of Brennan "wild outburst on internet and television" which would present a conflicting voice for the President known extensive use of the social media platform Media which provides any person in the world the opportunity to quote the president on any of his tangents.

"At this point in my administration, any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risks posed by his erratic conduct and behavior.  Second, that conduct and behavior has tested and far exceeded the limits of any professional courtesy that may have been due to him," President Trump said via a statement read by White House Press Secretary Sanders.

Russian President Putin has taken the same steps to clear away his opposition, with the exception of course, that Putin has been slowly killing off his critics, a step President Trump has not included in his recent attempts to close ranks around the CIA and any available information which may be provided or leaked to those former high ranking and credible sources that consider him a morally abhorrent and therefore unfit to serve especially as the midterms are approaching and the American public has the opportunity to stop the Trump government by regaining control of both houses.

Further, President Trump said, "Such access is particularly inappropriate when former officials have transitioned into highly partisan positions and seek to use real or perceived access to sensitive information to validate their political attacks.  Any access granted to our nation's secrets should be in furtherance of national, not personal, interests.  For this reason, I've also begun to review the more general question of the access to classified information by government officials. I am evaluating action with respect to the following individuals: James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr."

With the recent revelations from James Comey, former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, detailed in his recent book, "A Higher Loyalty" which included conversations with the president on the possibility of tapes which depicted him engaged in sexually situations involving urinating Russian Prostitutes the personal attack clearing comes as a retaliatory move.

Steven Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the President, has been quoted in multiple medias indicating "President may have committed a federal crime" by revoking the Security clearance of former FBI Director James Comey.

Manafort Judge Threatened

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis, III, presiding judge in the trial of former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort has indicated to the press he has received death threats over this trial and has sought and received 24 hour protection from US Federal Marshalls.

The jury in the 18 count tax evasion and bank fraud case will reconvene Monday after spending the weekend home. The jury, whose identities remain sealed, deliberated two days before the weekend break.

"On Thursday, Ellis read aloud another note detailing four questions from the jury, which covered foreign financial accounts, shelf companies, the definition of reasonable doubt and other evidence in the case," Fox News Reported.

In order to convict the jurors must be unanimous voting conviction by all twelve on each count.

Shocking Report Exposes 75 Years of Abuse by Pedophile Priests 

The Catholic Church was rocked again by a pedophile priest scandal as Pennsylvania's Attorney General, Josh Shapiro announced that credible and independent allegations of sexual abuse of nearly 1000 children were brought against more than 300 Priests associated with the Pennsylvania diocese dating back nearly 75 years.

"In a scathing, 887-page report, a grand jury said more than 300 "predator priests" have been credibly accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 child victims," CNN reported.

Three victims, two men Robert Corby, 83, and Shaun Dougherty, 48, and one female, Carolyn Fortney, 37, provided some insight into the hell they lived through and the struggles they continue to face down each and every day.

Mr. Corby explained he believed he was targeted because he was fatherless and the priest knew no one would believe him because in 1947 the idea of accusing a man of the cloth, a priest, was unspeakable.

The two additional victims who came forward talk of the struggles of intimacies in adult relationships and the horrors of the memories of those repeated attacks. The grand jury study showed a deliberate effort on the Dioecies to conceal the criminal actions, it also concluded the cover up was lengthy, methodical, purposeful and premeditated, and indicated Priests essentially left a breadcrumb trail for successors marking victims and potential victims with gold crosses.

Pope Francis, who has modernizes somewhat the Catholic Faith, bringing principals of Christ into his style of service, worship and edicts. The words spoken were new and more far reaching in scope than those offered during the massive 2002 scandal.


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The Vatican responded Thursday to the report of hundreds of Pennsylvania priests abusing children, saying in a statement: "There are two words that can express the feelings faced with these horrible crimes: shame and sorrow. The abuses described in the report are criminal and morally reprehensible," the statement read. "Those acts were betrayals of trust that robbed survivors of their dignity and their faith," reported Fox News.

The statute of limitations on some of the more than 1000 cases may have run out, meaning not one victim, even if repressed memories are only now bringing these crimes to the surface, will see justice. Some victims remember every incident and for others the terror, panic, repulsion, fear and trauma are too much for the mind to grasp and the memories become repressed or some simply skip over it without internalizing the crimes.

Some will endure crippling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder while the abuser doesn't even remember their name. Abusers are like that they strip you of your life hoping you'll commit suicide and the accusing voice will be silenced.

They put the squeeze on the victim every day attempting, like a Boa Constrictor to squeeze your life away and when you don't die, they lurk in every shadow, in every city, every town, the victim is never off the radar, the abuser for fear of finally being caught will hunt them down to the ends of the earth to silence the truth.

Statute of Limitation laws in sexual assault, and all crimes involving sexual abuse of minors and adult rape, must be changed in all states.

"The Grand Jury investigation revealed many other horror stories, including: A case in which one priest fondled and masturbated a young teenage boy "under the pretext of showing the victim how to check for cancer. An HIV-positive priest who abused children for years before going to prison. A priest who allegedly abused several boys but was still given a recommendation to work at Disney World," CNN Reports.

The foundation the Church (Catholic, Christian, Synagogue, Mosque, Temple) was built upon will continued to be overturned until every victim is believed and every person who allowed the crimes against children to occur is brought to justice and/or exposed.

Aretha Franklin, The Queen of Soul, Dead at 76

Aretha Louise Franklin, the undisputed Queen of Soul, passed away this week in her Detroit home of complications from pancreatic cancer. She was 76.

Ms. Franklin, who redefined the music industry with her sultry rhythm and blues, and soulful sounds, was born March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee to Clarence and Barbara Franklin. By the age of ten, Ms. Franklin was singing in the New Bethal Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan where her father ministered.

Her life was so well documented there is little left unknown. She embarked on a mainstream music career outside the church although she frequently added a "Hallelujah" or sang "Amazing Grace" and no one seemed to mind that the Queen of Soul was taking them to church.

Rising to the top as a black women Ms. Franklin had a few run in's with racism even as those days were supposedly over. During one heated night in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, working on "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" with what was then known as The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Rick Hall, the owner of FAME Studios and Ms. Franklin's then husband, Ted White, after a long day where the sound was just not coming, had a whiskey fueled argument that lasted late into the morning.

The song exploded and became one of the first of a lifetime of Number 1 hits for the Queen of Soul, and the argument was so deeply abusive that she left and signed immediately with Rick Hall rival Jerry Wexler taking half the Rhythm Section with her.

The Queen would be followed. And followed she was by hit after hit from "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" to "Chain of Fools," "I say a little prayer for you," "Rock Steady." Tunes that fifty years later are so memorable that turning up the sound and singing along is as natural as it was when first released.

The music industry was changing and Aretha remained at the cusp. Through her career she "recorded 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries and 20 number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in the chart's history. She won 18 Grammy Awards, including the first eight awards given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance from 1968 through to 1975, and is one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide," Wikipedia states.

In 2015 Aretha Franklin preformed "Natural Women" paying tribute to Kennedy Center Honoree Carole King, who along with Gerry Goffin wrote the song, brought then President Obama to tears and the audiences to their feet. It was a magical moment in history.

"American history wells up when Aretha sings," President Obama explained in response to her performance of "A Natural Woman" at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. "Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R&B, rock and roll—the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope," as said to The New Yorker's David Remnick "Soul Survivor: The Revival and Hidden Treasure of Aretha Franklin", April 4, 2016.


Aretha Franklin Reportedly in Hospice Care


Ms. Franklin's last concert was in November 7, 2017 for the Elton John 25th Anniversary Gala for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

The Last Days

When the news broke on Monday that Aretha was deteriorating, the world paused and waited. She had these spells before, as she had not been well for some time. She had been working on a studio album, to the last days, she was doing what she loved, using the gift that was given to her, and not taking it for granted.

On Tuesday, it seemed that her sojourn on earth was ending and as others have said she was comfortable with what lie ahead, her new journey. Ms. Franklin passed on Thursday, August 16, 2018.

Ms. Franklin will lie in repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit from August 29 to August 31, 2018 when it has been announced a private funeral has been planned.

A biopic starring Jennifer Hudson as Ms. Franklin has been announced as has an all-star tribute concert slated for November 14, 2018 at Madison Square Garden.

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

Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Wikipedia.com

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