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News Burst: August 30, 2017 (Patreon)
Content
I hope you’re all doing exceptionally well today. As for me? Well, I’ve been keeping busy, of course. Much to do in CLS Land, as always. Quick reminder: Make sure to vote in the Topic Election for August if you haven't already. The poll will end about 24 hours after this News Burst posts, and every vote counts!
In addition, I have some exciting news to share, if you didn’t catch my Tweet this morning. I’ve gotten a look at the upcoming CLS merch -- which will be available in a couple of weeks -- and it looks awesome. I’m super stoked about it. There will be a couple of t-shirts, a poster, some stickers, and maybe more.
The reason merch has taken so long is simple: I wanted to make sure it was done right, and that required finding the right partner. There is so much half-assed, garbage merch being sold online by YouTube channels and MCNs and the rest, and I didn’t want to contribute to the status quo. So, I found myself an amazing partner, which will be revealed soon as the official seller of all things CLS merch. I have a suspicion many of you will be pleased when you see who it is; even if you’re not familiar with the entity, you’re gonna be floored with what this company does. (You’ve actually already seen, if you watch CLS… you just might not know it yet.)
So, keep an eye out for all of that happening soon.
Okay, let’s get into the news! (It’s worth noting that #1 and #2 are switched, and aren’t ordered in importance, so as to present their collective story coherently.)
5.) Tax Reform!
One of my favorite topics! As you know, we spoke about this (I believe) a News Burst or two ago, but there are new happenings, and so it’s obviously worth talking about again. As the link above indicates, the push is now officially on for tax reform, something that I think -- in spirit -- has broad support across the divide. It’s just a matter of how it’s executed. Most folks can find complete agreement in the fact that the tax code is far too big, far too bloated, far too complicated, and laden with far too many loopholes and all the rest. The only thing the tax code is good for is making paying your taxes obnoxious and nebulous, and keeping some people at Intuit and the IRS employed. If you remove that from the equation, the move becomes fairly obvious: Simplify the hell out of the thing. And, if you wanna do it my way, you’d flatten the income tax (or better yet, even, get rid of it completely). Since that’s not going to happen any time soon, the solution, as it’s described, is as such:
There is no plan. Gotcha, didn’t I? See, this is the problem at hand. Good ideas -- or, at least, positive, solid initiatives -- get buried under inaction, laziness, and an unwillingness to act when necessary, when called upon. Tax reform is one of the most major Republican talking points. It has been for literally decades. How is it that, after all of this, the GOP has nothing to show for it? How does the GOP president, eight months or so into office, have no concrete plan to offer? This level of unpreparedness really doesn’t bode well for future initiatives, and it’s becoming clear, now, that Trump -- and Congress -- aren’t speaking, aren’t working together, and don’t seem to even share many common goals. How can you govern in a situation like that? You can’t. Anyone can walk up to a podium and say, "you know, I'd like to cut taxes." The how is, of course, where the actual substance is.
It’s imperative that, for the American people, Congress and the President put something forward other than “we want to lower corporate taxes” and “we want to lower taxes for the middle class.” Platitudes don’t equal a tax plan. Americans are paying an enormous amount of money on taxes as it is -- more than they spend on essentials like food and clothing, combined (link below) -- and something should be done to ease their burden. At least we know Trump is focused on cutting corporate taxes in particular (link below), which is a great first step. But we need numbers. We need to know how this is all going to work. And we needed this information not yesterday, but like 10 years ago. Hurry up. Something that can benefit everyone shouldn't be stalled forever.
Related Story | Americans Taxed to the Hilt: https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/bls-average-family-tax-bill-increased-411-4-years
Related Story | Trump’s Populist Tax “Plan”: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/30/trump-tax-reform-plan-242179
4.) Antifa and Berkeley
What happened at Berkeley, California this past weekend was, yet again, a senseless show of force, violence, and disorganization. For those that missed it, some people wanted to speak about free speech at the university, so thousands of people took to the streets to silence them. Why? No one really knows. Unlike Charlottesville, which was obviously driven by racism and bigotry, there didn’t seem to be all that much of an unsavory element activated at Berkeley, at least not in any appreciable numbers. Much like what happened in Boston, people just turned out to turn out, to be heard, and to do their thing, with no real goal in sight. That’s totally fine. But when things turn ugly, as they did yet again in Berkeley just days ago, it’s time that we wrap our minds around the fact that, yes, the far left really is becoming violent, and yes, it’s time to condemn them for their clear acts of aggression.
For starters -- as the primary Washington Post story above indicates -- it was nice to see mainstream news outlets, including NPR, the New York Times, and others -- finally, FINALLY call out the violence erupting on the far left. Largely unprovoked, totally over the line, and completely not within the spirit of American democracy and discourse, this violence has no place in society, which is what I dedicated Monday’s video to, in case you didn’t see (link below). But there’s more to be said about this, because now Berkeley is questioning whether anyone of the conservative slant should be coming to speak there at all (link below), as people ranging from Milo Yiannopoulos to Ben Shapiro have appearances planned there in the coming weeks. Undoubtedly, their mere appearance will make Antifa (and related parties) go into a frenzy, and so, we should expect further violence in the days ahead.
And that’s truly unfortunate, because I’ve been heartened to see some productive signs in the wake of this past weekend. As a small example, Arch Liberal Nancy Pelosi -- who represents neighboring San Francisco in the House -- finally called out Antifa’s violence (link below). And even Berkeley’s mayor, a man named Jesse Arreguin, called out Antifa, and went so far as to say they should be classified as a gang, so that law enforcement can deal with them far more readily and easily. Berkeley is a liberal bastion, and that’s great. But the groupthink taking over there should be concerning to all Americans. And it’s certainly concerning to those in public office who realize that, no matter your political persuasion, this level of violence isn’t acceptable to a large swath of everyday Americans, including their own constituents, and that it needs to be called out. If it isn’t, they run the risk of losing elections. And we wouldn’t want that, now, would we?
Related Video | CLS on Political Violence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VhPDRHzPAw
Related Story | Should Conservatives Be Allowed at Berkeley?: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-berkeley-far-left-protests-milo-20170830-story.html
Related Story | Nancy Pelosi Calls Antifa Out: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/30/nancy-pelosi-condemns-antifa-violence-in-berkeley/
Related Story | Berkeley Calls Antifa a Gang: https://thefederalist.com/2017/08/30/watch-berkeley-mayor-call-out-antifa-protestors-classify-them-as-a-gang/
3.) North Korea Launches Missile Over Japan
On the international, geopolitical scene, North Korea was once again the top story of the week. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but we’re friends, so I feel like I can tell you this: Tomorrow’s episode is about North Korea. Specifically, it touches on one question: Why can’t we do anything about their behavior? That’s the only question it aims to answer, and I think it does so rather well. I’ll leave it up to you whether you agree. In the meantime, did you see the other episode of Colin’s Last Stand I did on North Korea? It’s one of the most popular episodes of the show to date, and I’m really proud of it (link below). The production value wasn’t quite “there” yet that early in CLS’ run, but I think the content could be informative to those who don’t pay much attention to the Korean peninsula.
Anyway! What happened this past week was that North Korea, in one of its most brazen moves in several years, launched a test missile over northern Japan. It's not the first time they've done this, but it's the first time in a few years. The missile flew into, through, and out of Japanese airspace, and then landed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The US and Japanese militaries opted not to shoot the missile down, not only because it’s unclear what it even was (you don’t want to accidentally shoot down what you think is a test missile to find out it’s, say, nuclear), but because doing so could start an international incident, even though in a normal, fair, and just world, launching a missile over a sovereign nation would actually cause the international incident. It’s just that we’re so used to North Korea’s belligerent and reckless behavior, that who could really act surprised? It’s never-ending with those people. (Yes, those people.)
So, where do we sit now? It seems like we’re exactly where we usually are, in an uncertain, uneven, but relatively safe place. At least for the time being. One major step, however, is that the US is on the verge of restricting travel to North Korea completely, beginning soon (link below). It’s a country I always wanted to go to, but I understand why the State Department is proceeding cautiously. If you want more information on where things stand now, you may also be interested in reading a brief analysis (link below) that seems to indicate that perhaps this is more a sign of the new status quo than anything else.
Related Video | CLS on North Korea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amErCVDjPDA
Related Story | State Department About to Ban Travel to North Korea: http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/american-travelers-north-korea-ban/index.html
Related Story | A Brief Analysis of the North Korean Situation: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/analysis-pyongyangs-view-of-the-north-korea-u-s-crisis/
2.) Hurricane Harvey Wreaks Havoc
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/us/hurricane-harvey-texas.html
As I mentioned above, I’m reversing these stories because presenting the other one before this one wouldn’t really make much sense. Context, and all of that. In anycase, I’m probably not telling you guys and gals anything that 100% of you don’t already know about, but a terrible hurricane -- Hurricane Harvey -- collided with East Texas, Louisiana, and elsewhere beginning this past weekend, causing terrible devastation. The brute force of the hurricane wasn’t the problem, although it was an exceptionally strong storm. Instead, the primary issue at hand was rain. Lots and lots and lots of rain, causing flooding that brings back images of Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 12 years ago (man, time sure does fly), as well as the more recent Hurricane Sandy, which, among other things, washed my family's beach house in New Jersey into the Atlantic Ocean (seriously).
So, here’s the deal: Hurricane Harvey has killed at least 38 people so far, and has seriously injured hundreds more (and that’s a conservative number). The deaths came from that rain, noted above. Hurricane Harvey was a bulking storm that was moving slowly. As in, barely moving at all. Sometimes moving 10 miles an hour. When a storm is as big as Harvey, and it’s moving as slowly, the math could only mean one thing: Mass flooding. And, as the meteorologists predicted, that’s exactly what happened. Three feet of rain or more fell in many parts of Texas. Think about that for a second. Three feet of rain. 36 inches. In some places, the number reached four feet or more. When you combine that level of rainfall -- which would take many places in the United States years to experience -- with the Gulf of Mexico, with rivers and tributaries and all the rest, it’s quite simply a recipe for disaster.
There’s not much else to say about Harvey. No related stories or anything like that. What else could possibly be said? The storm utterly obliterated a decent portion of the southern United States, displacing towns and cities full of people in the process. Mother Nature is an incredibly fickle, incredibly unpredictable, and incredibly impartial force. Seeing her wield this level of power, just like we do in other hurricanes, or in earthquakes, or tsunamis, or whatever else really is a stark, scary, and unfortunate reminder of how little power we as individuals hold, and how, ultimately, a sudden twist of fate can change everything. I’m wishing any CLS fans affected in any way by this storm the absolute best. Please stay safe, and keep your head up.
1.) Good Samaritans Show What America’s All About
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/us/volunteer-rescue-crews-hurricane-harvey-houston.html
I didn’t want to end the News Burst on such a dire, dour note. Instead, I kinda wanna try to find a positive in all of this, if I can. And I think the positive is easy enough to identify, if you could even truly call it that: The way Texans, Louisianans, and Americans, generally, reacted to such a terrible fate befalling such a large part of the United States. For as horrified as I was by what I was seeing, reading, and listening to, and by how saddened I was to hear about the increasing death toll, and the ridiculous amount of damage done to people’s homes, property, and possessions, I was uplifted by how people responded. It was -- and still is -- an incredible sight to behold, and I think really showed off the true nature of America, and the true nature of Americans. Many look at us as a callous and careless people. I sometimes feel like we look at ourselves that way, too. I think the response proved naysayers wrong.
Parts of coastal Texas and Louisiana have been turned into waterways. If not for signs of civilization -- street lights, lamp posts, and obviously buildings and cars -- a visitor would have thought that parts of Houston, Texas were always under feet of water. Obviously, that’s not the case, but what was so astounding was seeing professionals and amateurs alike take to the water in their boats and find people to rescue. We pay brave men and women to do this, and watching them work is nothing short of staggering. The bravery on display is next-level. But when you add civilians into the mix? People with no experience, no training, and quite a bit to lose? And they start conducting their own rogue rescue operations, opening their own rogue shelters, and taking it upon themselves, with no governmental or charity oversight, to distribute food and water? It’s enough to bring tears to one’s eyes.
Thanks to the power of the Internet broadly -- and social media in particular -- many of these amazing stories are going viral (link below), giving us insight into individual acts of selflessness and valor. You could spend hours on end going through it all. The storm caught some people out and about; others were stuck at home or at a place of business. Water was rapidly rising. For many of these people, they had nowhere to go. They have no money, no transportation, no one to rely upon. In some respect, the response has to be historic (link below). In the Age of Trump, where everything seems to divide us, it’s unfortunate that it takes something as terrible as this to bind us back together. Maybe we can all take a positive out of this negative, and move forward in some sort of shared humanity, so this entire moment in time has some sort of resonance beyond the awful.
Related Story | The Viral Nature of Hurricane Harvey: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/08/30/human-chains-among-viral-stories-inspiring-us-out-hurricane-harvey/615479001/
Related Story | The Historic Rescue Effort, Led by Civilians: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/28/546714612/-the-goal-is-rescue-harvey-s-historic-deluge-met-with-equally-massive-response