News Burst: April 05, 2017 (Patreon)

Hey Fam,

Another late-ish post today. I’ve been editing tomorrow’s unwieldy video, giving it a bit more love than I had originally intended. It’ll go up at 9a PT tomorrow morning, as will all videos moving forward.

Otherwise, there’s not much else to say. If you support at the $10+/month and $50+/month tiers, I’ll be reaching out with messages directed at those tiers to let you know what’s going on with the monthly Q&A and the monthly postcards, respectively. So keep an eye out for those blasts in a day or two.

I hope you’re all doing very well. Be sure to give me feedback on tomorrow’s different-style video! Take care, -Colin

Trump vs. Xi: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-05/xi-s-mission-in-mar-a-lago-pacify-trump-ahead-of-party-congress | https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-mar-lago-place-break-ice-chinas-xi-194612014.html

My Take: First off, you’ll notice I put two links for this one. It’s not only a huge story, of course, but it gives you a little bit of perspective. The Bloomberg piece is more down-to-business, while the Yahoo! piece talks more about why the meeting is taking place at Mar-a-lago instead of the White House, and how the Chinese originally had some trepidation about that before settling on the plan.

In anycase, this meeting is huge. The meeting with Abe and Trump was huge in February, but this is obviously far bigger. China is the only other country in the world that can really “handle” the United States in any significant way -- economically, culturally, militarily, and the like -- and it will be interesting to see how Trump dances the delicate dance that’s necessary to keep the peace with them. China, as the Bloomberg piece notes in particular, is especially wary of any sort of trade war with the United States, and so you might see a gentler and more subdued China than you otherwise would, especially because the Communist Party in China must sense some amount of weakness and ignorance in Trump.

In anycase, we’ll have much more to say about this on Friday, once the two men’s brief, 24-hour visit is over. For now, it’s all speculation. But it’s speculation worth having. This could be a fruitful and worthwhile visit, or a complete disaster, or, really, anything in between. Stand by.

Syria’s Deadly Chemical Attack: https://www.apnews.com/2e5ec80c07e84893852a01164ba9cec8/Death-toll-from-Syria-chemical-attack-rises-to-75

My Take: This is absolutely disgusting. What else can be said? I found Nikki Haley’s comments at the UN on the attack heartening, but as the UN is a toothless old artifact that needs to be eradicated, her words will ring hollow. They always do in the vaunted and venerable United Nations, which accomplishes precisely nothing on a daily basis.

The situation in Syria is a complete disaster, and it’s really sad that there’s not much more we could do as a matter of practical geopolitics. Conventional wisdom is correct, here: The American public, and the societies of many major western nations, do not have the stomach for what would be necessary to win this war. We don’t want to commit lives and treasure to this fight, and I don’t really blame that point of view. In fact, I hold it, myself.

But Syria remains a power play for Russia, a way to continue to exert its influence in the Middle East beyond its meddling in places like Iran. It’s a transparent ploy, and our hands are tied. Similar to the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea, Russia is calling everyone’s bluff. No one did anything about Crimea because Russia could easily shut Western Europe’s heating oil supply off; likewise, no one will do anything here, because it would require a proxy war that could quickly spiral out of control.

Steve Bannon Off the National Security Council: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/327403-trump-removes-bannon-from-national-security-council-report

My Take: Let’s be frank in saying that it was strange that Mr. Bannon was on the council to begin with. That said, I think this is more of a vanity issue for Trump than anything else. Bannon has made a name for himself the last six months in the public sphere, and while he has more adversaries than friends, he’s also sucked up a lot of the oxygen surrounding the Trump administration. That Time cover of him was nothing short of surreal.

Of course, this would never be admitted publicly, but I think everyone with a clear mind knows the factors that were a play here. And his removal isn’t the only restructure on the council, as The Hill notes. There’s not too much else to say here, other than that the moving and shaking of the Trump administration continues unabated.

Half of Americans Living Paycheck to Paycheck: http://nypost.com/2017/04/05/half-of-us-working-families-are-living-paycheck-to-paycheck/

My Take: This isn’t exactly news -- you see stuff like this cross the wires every so often -- but it’s still sad. There’s a lot of interesting data in this story, particularly that one in every five Americans have no savings whatsoever, and that one in three Americans have less than $500 set aside, which is basically akin to having no savings at all.

The story takes aim at endemic, primarily consumer debt, and I think that’s a big reason why things have gone to shit for so many. Of course, how and why we got to that point is a matter of some contention; I’m of the mind that the government has played a massive role in putting its citizens in debt, and has largely been able to shirk any responsibility. We saw them do just that in 2008, when, instead of taking responsibility for the substantial role they played in the financial crisis, merely pointed at “The 1%” and “Big Banks” and blamed them, as the boogieman, instead.

The reality is that the American government is culprit #1 in the student loan crisis, and a major culprit of the mortgage crisis. If the government was responsible, it’d raise interest rates tremendously, stop the flow of loose credit that people simply cannot afford, and stress personal responsibility over Keeping Up with the Joneses. But I digress.

Awesome Debate YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCenxjWEkb0Sv67vejOgZ3Tg?&ab_channel=IntelligenceSquaredDebates

My Take: I wanted to briefly close with this. Some of you may have already heard of this channel -- it’s also a podcast -- but in case you haven’t, I highly recommend you check it out. It revolves around debates. Longform, ~90 minute debates, often represented by two people on each side.

There are all sorts of topics, and I found some of them rather riveting, listening to them as I’ve worked over the last day or so. I figured this audience would love it, so give it a go, if you feel up to it! I recently subscribed, and you may find you want to, too!