Beltway Insider: Obama, Guns and The America People, Charlie Hebdo; Election 2016, El Chapo Captured

President Obama moved ahead this week announcing his strategy during an emotional speech that turned from his usual objectivity to humanizing the victims remembering each of them, including the first graders of the Sandy Hook Massacre.

According to Gallup, President Obama's job approval, over the past week, decreased one percentage points to 47% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President remained constant at 49%.

Gun Violence and Obama's Town Hall

The President returned to the White House, after his winter holiday break in Hawaii, with a resolve that he would be moving forward with common sense Gun Reform. His determination to take a solid position within the time he has left as in the Oval Office was unusual and not expected.

Obama began the national debate separating the deranged and the indoctrinated as two separate categories needing two separate courses of action to address after San Bernardino mass jihadist/ISIS attack. After the holiday, he has backtracked somewhat, no longer can the delusional hide behind a clear mental illness allowing justice to be illusive.

The indoctrinated zealot and the mentally unbalanced will now be considered under a single category when moving on Gun Control issues.

The President has announced through and comprehensive reforms that already have become fodder for the Republican Candidates and others who are choosing to attack each aspect of the changes under the guise of constitutional freedom.

The Executive Actions

President Obama will reiterate to Congress and introduce to the America people during the State of The Union, the Executive Actions he will sign into law.

The actions combat accessibility, loopholes, and post purchase. The Gun Show loophole, which has always allowed adults to purchase guns without a background check will no longer have the freedom to sell to anyone.

Keeping guns out of the wrong hands through Background check is the first action in the president's initiative which he has titled Making Our Communities Safer.

"Today, the Administration is announcing the following executive actions to ensure that all gun dealers are licensed and run background checks, and to strengthen the background check system itself," President Obama said.

 

The following are elements of the Executive Actions introduced by the President:

 

1. Clarify that it doesn't matter where you conduct your business—from a store, at gun shows, or over the Internet:  If you're in the business of selling firearms, you must get a license and conduct background check. Require background checks for people trying to buy some of the most dangerous weapons and other items through a trust or corporation."

 

2. Ensure States are providing records to the background check system, and work cooperatively with jurisdictions to improve reporting.

 

3. Make the background check system more efficient and effective.

 

4. Ensure smart and effective enforcement of our gun laws. 

 

5. Ensure that dealers notify law enforcement about the theft or loss of their guns. 

 

6. Issue a memo directing every U.S. Attorney's Office to renew domestic violence outreach efforts.

 

7. Increase Mental Health Treatment and Reporting to the Background Check System.

 

8. Dedicate significant new resources to increase access to mental health care.  

 

9. Include information from the Social Security Administration in the background check system about beneficiaries who are prohibited from possessing a firearm.  

 

10. Remove unnecessary legal barriers preventing States from reporting relevant information to the background check system. 

 

11. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security to take two important steps to promote smart gun technology.

The Arguments

The loudest arguments are from those running for president. They lobby accusation of maligning the Constitution and with an active determination seeking ways to destroy the document our government and freedoms were founded.

As usual with hot bottom topics the most incendiary catchphrase is crafted and tossed out to the mass who are waiting to understand the position they should take.

The Constitution contains truths that we the people hold true and self-evident. Those being life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The second Amendment deals with the Right to Bear Arms. The framers, those men, who founded this new republic and saw the longevity of the union, drafted a document that moved ahead this tiny thirteen colony nation.

Outside of those thirteen colonies were very harsh conditions. Harshness of weather, the unknown, the unrestrained, those who saw opportunity through lawlessness and understanding the needs of the law abiding citizens and understanding life outside the thirteen colonies they drafted the Second Amendment which gave all the right to bear arms. The framers obviously had no idea the extent of modernization that would bring a simple Colt Rifle, of which they did understand the power, to an Automatic weapons able to fire 900 round in 60 seconds.

The facts remain the automatic weapon was not ever even near the framers mind when they drafted the Constitution. Should they be removed? Some will add only 1% of people die from Automatic weapons. The statistics may be true. Possibly only 1% of the population or those murdered by gun fire are murdered with automatic weapons.

Not once in this debate did any of those objecting to the president plan think the 1% could be a loved one. A senator's son or daughter, a relative, family member. The deaths are removed, not humanized or internalized by those holding office and those who wish to assume the leadership of this nation.

The State of the Union

President Obama will address the nation is what will be his last State of the Union address on January 12, 2016 at 9PM EST.

The nation and the world has changed dramatically over the last seven years. Ending the external conflicts, bringing our troops home only to see the rise of internal conflicts and an ideology of hate that moves through pockets of disenfranchisement and with an insidious skill is able to indoctrinate and convince the total authority belongs to a god who has sanctioned hate, evil and violence.

The rules have changed. Americans, nee the citizens of the world are more ready to stand against the threat then leave it to someone else. Witnessing mass murders in the homeland have acted as an agent of change. As Obama works to deliver the State of the Union, thinking back over the years the challenges America and the world faced were predominately economic. They could be fixed analytically.

Changes, meetings, creating a strategy and a concerned governing body brought those challenges under control. His term inherited a recession that had yet to reach its fullness, the greatest recession since the Great Depression. The world economies also collapsed.

Nest eggs aren't completely restored and may never be; manufacturing may be gone forever, employment that advances families, singles, professionals and laymen became the task. And they met the difficulties head on and economically times are turning around.

Our challenges now, in reflection are more difficult, more concerning, as they rest in skewed or misinterpreted religious doctrine.

Facing an enemy one can see allows for strategy; facing skewed religious interpretation, a cult thinking, mentally becomes nearly impossible to combat without the use of military power.

While it is not expected that President Obama will announce any additional military options to fight the Islamic State, it is expected that he will introduce ten Executive Actions that will combat the weaponry used by those who have become members of the ISIS cult.

Guests invited by the White House and the First Lady include the 9-11 operator responding to the emergency calls coming in from the bloody day in San Bernardino. The Police Chief will also attend to hear the President's Plan on Gun Reform.  

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

Charlie Hebdo At One

Memories from a not that distant January 2015 morning when armed Islamic State Fighters burst into the office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo opened fire killing ten staff members including outspoken editor in chief, Stephane Charbonnier, and injuring 11 others.

The men, two brothers, shouted the all too familiar "Allahu akbar," which is Arabic for God is Great as the sprayed the editorial board meeting with automatic weapons.

Two other, French Police Officers were also murdered by the two religious extremists. The viciousness of the crime stunned the world. Pictures released have shown the men pulling the trigger at point blank range killing the police who happened on the scene.

When the day was done nearly the entire Editorial board had been killed. The magazine no stranger to threats and violence continued to stand on the side of freedom maintaining its long tradition of taking aim at religions including Christianity, Catholicism, the Prophet Muhammad, and Allah.

Most considered Charbonnier's poor taste part of cultural freedom and the magazine had a small dedicated following. Eight journalists inside the offices were killed. Cartoonist George Wolinski and Bernard Maris were killed. Bernard Maris, a visiting economist was also murdered.

The brutalities of the Islamic State fighters were graphic, evil beyond comprehension with killing, cold blooded murdered and for the city of lights not over. The photos released showed a bloodbath massacre.

The world stood united on the days following the attacks. The world's leaders, forty world leaders, gathered in Paris, linked arm in arm, with more than four million citizens joining them declaring in one unified voice, "we will not fear." And Je Suis Charlie, which became the global rally cry for members of the global community to stand, united, for freedom.

It has been one year. Charlie Hebdo has continued to grow in readership and maintained true to its roots. It is still grates against the common man's sense of humor; lobbing slime pot shots at the world's religions showcasing contradictions in words, interpretation and actions.

Charlie Hebdo maintained its vision, hopes and hasn't cowered to terrorism. Those journalists who saw a fitting life as one where the ideologies didn't rule decisions, where freedom of speech included the right to satirically portray everyone from the Pope to Jesus to Allah.

No one could imagine on that cold January day that less than ten months later the resolve of the world to stand against ISIS and the rise of terrorism across Europe would once again rear its ugly, evil, head.

Joaquin El Chapo Guzman Caught; U.S. Applies for Extradition

Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, once one of the world's Most Wanted Men after escaping a Mexican prison, has been caught, recaptured and returned to the same prison he escaped from six months ago.

Details have also emerged the American actor Sean Penn, known for his firebrand performances and method style acting, met with El Chapo in the jungles of Mexico three months before Guzman was captured by Mexican authorities.

Guzman granted Penn the interview which was published in Rolling Stone Magazine. The one time leader of the Sinaloa Cartel shocked the world with his admissions in an upcoming interview the diminutive drug lord gave while on the run.

El Chapo, one of the most notorious, ruthless and vicious leaders who by his own admission ran a global network and boosted 'I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats," he told Penn.

The candid interview was brokered by a Mexican actress who supported Guzman. El Chapo is interested in developing a film about his life.

The United States has continued to seek extradition for the diminutive self-admitted Drug Kingpin in hopes of trying him in the various drug related indictments across various U.S. jurisdictions.

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

Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Wikipedia.com,

#JeSuisParis

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