News Burst: July 27, 2017 (Patreon)

I’m back! I hope you’re all doing great.

First of all, for those at the $5/month level, I hope you enjoyed access to Colin’s Last Stands first three Q&As. I figured they’d be useful companions to you as you mowed the lawn, or cooked dinner, or whatever. Consider them a modest thank you for your patience as I took my very first prolonged vacation following the founding of Colin’s Last Stand. It was really nice to get away, without even my laptop, so there’d be no excuse for me to do work! Seven days off provided a wonderful respite, and it was awesome to see family and friends. But now it’s time to get back to work.

I do want to let you know two things:

1.) You will be getting a second post tonight at the $5+/month level, that one with a movie recommendation. I promised you all more of those types of posts moving forward, and I genuinely hope it doesn’t become too spammy. Lemme know if it does. I’m always reading your feedback.

2.) Patreon arranged a call with me today to discuss what happened with Lauren Southern. I didn’t even reach out to them about it (though I was planning on doing so over the next few days), so I appreciate their proactivity. They only spoke to a small handful of creators, and I left the conversation with their CEO feeling good about the present and future. I’m going to write a longer letter to the wider CLS audience tomorrow about that conversation, and about the future (as well as about a few other things I wanna talk with y’all about), so keep an eye out for that.

Okay, that’s it. Let’s get into the news!

The West Wing Implodes: http://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/anthony-scaramucci-called-me-to-unload-about-white-house-leakers-reince-priebus-and-steve-bannon

My Take: As the link above shows -- which is just a tiny piece of the puzzle -- this entire fiasco has reached even higher levels of theater. Increased levels of absurdity. Untold volumes of fucking stupid. I’m starting to get tired of reading about this stuff, thinking about this stuff, and talking about this stuff, but here we are. Hey, at least he gives outlets like Colin’s Last Stand plenty of fodder. It's almost as if he can't help himself. Nonetheless, I’m unsure of where to even begin with this nonsense, other than to say that it’s hard to believe how an administration could lurch further and further into the abyss after being given near-daily chances to get out of dodge. I’ve never seen anything like it.

You’ve all probably read all that’s going even today with Anthony Scaramucci (who is somehow now in the West Wing), Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (who is apparently in a fucking blood feud with Scaramucci), Sean Spicer quitting because of Scaramucci’s hiring (though I think it’s undoubtedly a good thing to get out of dodge at this point), Steve Bannon’s relationship to the whole thing (more on him in a minute), and whatever else. You can read some of the Related Stories below to get a better idea if you’re out of the loop, but let me just pose this question in the meantime: Why does Trump think it’s a good idea to govern in chaos, hiring people that don’t get along, Tweeting things out every morning that cause controversy? What is the end game, exactly?

As I said on Twitter (and as I’ve remarked many times in the past), the real shame of all of this is twofold. First of all -- and perhaps most manifestly -- we are wasting time. Precious time. The budget is out of control, the debt is skyrocketing, the social programs are unsustainable, there are like five or six major military flashpoints brewing around the world, we have social unrest here at home and abroad… we don’t have time to waste. And secondly, Trump’s status as the outsider has already been ruined, and worse yet, it’s probably ruined any real chance of getting another outsider in the duopoly for a generation or more. Which is why we -- all of us -- need to start talking about third party options at the nearest possible moment.

(Related Story | Scaramucci-Priebus Feud Getting Worse: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/344090-scaramucci-priebus-feud-reaches-boiling-point)

(Related Story | Priebus Apparently Leaks Scaramucci’s Financial Disclosure, FBI May Be Involved: http://www.mediaite.com/online/scaramucci-reportedly-asking-fbi-to-investigate-reince-priebus-for-leaking/)

(Related Story | Scaramucci Vows War on Leakers: http://www.mediaite.com/online/scaramucci-calls-in-to-cnn-clarify-priebus-leak-tweet-fish-stinks-from-the-head-down/)

(Related Story | GOP Lawmakers in Open Revolt: https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/gop-lawmakers-openly-defy-president-as-frustration-mounts/2017/07/27/2ddb8a2e-72e7-11e7-8839-ec48ec4cae25_story.html)

(Related Story | The White House Turns Into A Reality Show: http://nypost.com/2017/07/27/the-white-house-has-become-the-craziest-reality-show-on-tv/)

Steve Bannon Wants to Raise Taxes on the Rich: https://theintercept.com/2017/07/26/steve-bannon-pushing-for-44-percent-marginal-tax-rate-on-the-very-rich/

My Take: The reason I think this story is interesting isn’t because Bannon is taking a populist approach to tax reform. He takes a populist approach with everything. Hell, I’ve even mentioned here in a previous News Burst that Bannon was keen on the idea of raising taxes on the rich, specifically. What makes this notable to me is that this is a serious thing worth considering. We should have a dialogue in this country on taxes, and how to best raise revenue and lower spending (at least, that’d be my approach). But here’s the thing: There’s no oxygen in the air for substance. Just like with health care reform, dysfunction will be a primary driver in dismantling what we should be doing as a country right now.

You’ll note that this is also the case with the transgender military ban that came out of left field yesterday (you can see the Related Story below for a link on that). Trump, in his infinite wisdom, thinks it’s smart to throw policy-laden Tweets into the wild without the ability to flesh those out in 140 characters, and without any ability for context to be included. If there’s a conversation to be had about this issue, let’s have it. Lay out all of the pertinent facts and opinions, and let’s assess those. Instead, we hear that the Pentagon doesn’t even have marching orders on the issue. Who leads like this?

Listen. I’m always going to call it like I see it. As someone who not only didn’t vote for Trump, but actually took significant action in defiance of him and the Republican party, I gave Trump a chance. I wanted him to succeed, and I still do. But how will he possibly carve a way forward now? If it wasn’t for the Democrats’ incredible ineptitude, the steady support of his third of America, and a general political apathy and exhaustion in this nation, Trump’s administration would be buried by now. You really have to think how he’s going to get anything done when he’s barely able to get his party to act on fundamental, red meat conservative issues. It’s embarrassing. And you can only blame the media so much before you need to start looking in the mirror.

(Related Story | Joint Chiefs Have No Idea What Trump Wants Them To Do: http://thehill.com/policy/defense/344107-joint-chiefs-chairman-no-change-in-transgender-policy-until-trump-sends)

Jeff Bezos Becomes World’s Richest Man: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-27/bezos-surpasses-gates-as-world-s-richest-ahead-of-amazon-results

My Take: For the past 20-some-odd years, “Bill Gates” had become synonymous with “gratuitously wealthy.” Everyone was compared to the brilliant (and very rich) Microsoft co-founder when it came to the accumulation of greenbacks. But, times change. The incredibly philanthropic and good-for-the-world Gates has been supplanted as the world’s richest man by none other than Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who, with the increase in Amazon’s stock following the hoped acquisition of Whole Foods, now holds the top spot in undisputed fashion.

Amazingly, Amazon is trading at well over a thousand dollars, and there’s a ton of talk that, with Amazon’s runaway, explosive growth trajectory, we could very well be staring at the world’s very first trillion dollar corporation. It’s impossible to even put into words how massive that is, how absolutely, incredibly gigantic a company has to be to pull in enough money to justify that moniker. Amazon is a company that’s becoming more diversified, more embedded in everyday life, and more powerful in the marketplace with each passing day. And there’s Bezos, with a fortune in excess of $90 billion, as he owns roughly 17% of Amazon. Could you imagine?

Now, the conversation will turn to the aforementioned increasing valuation of Amazon (should it successfully buy Whole Foods, which it’s likely to do), its inexorable march to $2,000 a share, and what future purchases it could make and breakthroughs it could stumble upon to dominate even more marketshare in more markets. I’m reading a lot about Theodore Roosevelt lately, and especially about his relation to monopolies and combinations. Something tells me we’re going to be having serious conversations about those two very issues -- totally revolving around Amazon -- in the coming couple of years.

(Related Story | Amazon’s Explosive Growth: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/27/amazon-is-on-its-way-to-becoming-a-2000-stock-says-leading-analyst.html)