(Weekend) News Burst: April 21, 2017 (Patreon)

Hey All,

I hope this Weekend News Burst finds you well!

I apologize for the later-than-preferred posting of this. In case you didn’t see or read about it (and frankly, why would you), we had a massive power outage in San Francisco today. So I didn’t even get power back until like two hours ago (give or take). The good news is that, without power, I got a ton more postcards written and shipped. So again, if you were at the $50+/month level back in March, keep an eye on your mailboxes!

One other note: A surprising amount of people were asking about Part II of the CalExit video. I was surprised simply because the response to that video was the weakest of the batch of videos I’ve posted so far (which saddened me, actually, since I thought it was a pretty cool topic). Anyway, that’s going live this Monday. I will edit it this weekend. It will be glorious.

Another note to keep in mind, now that I think of it: I’m going to be super busy the next couple of weeks packing and moving, so three of the next four episodes (including Monday’s) will be of the “scripted” variety. The two videos that’ll go live the first week in May are really cool. I’m stoked for y’all to see ‘em.

Anyway, have a fantastic weekend, and be well!

Trump to Tackle Taxes: http://thehill.com/homenews/news/329850-rnc-nets-record-415m-first-quarter

My Take: Hell yeah. This is all I really want out of the man, personally: Lower my god damn taxes. Lower all of our taxes. Put money back into our pockets, our wallets, our bank accounts, and our economies. It’s not even about the economic programming for me as much as it’s about what’s right. As my father has said to me recently, taxation in the United States has gotten to the point of being confiscatory. A wealthy person in California, between state and local taxes, can expect to pay a marginal, admittedly uncontested rate of about 50%. That’s fucking insane.

We don’t know what the details are of his tax plan yet, though Trump says that the coming tax cuts could potentially be the biggest in American history. My major concern is if these cuts will be across the board (they should be) and if they’ll come with major cuts in the budget (they should). I will be against any tax cut that raises the deficit and adds to the debt, period. We are all taxed way too much, but we can’t mortgage the future anymore, so if it comes to that, I’ll be against it.

However, if Trump could lower taxes for all brackets, cut spending, and lower the deficit, I think it’ll be a huge win for him and for all of us. We have a proud anti-taxation history in the United States -- we were literally founded in a violent revolution largely fought over taxation -- and we should stick to the script.

Marine Le Pen on the Rise in French Elections: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/21/marine-le-pen-gets-poll-boost-paris-attack-donald-trump-says/

My Take: I’ve said it privately a bunch, but I’m not sure I’ve said it publicly yet. So allow me to do so now: I think there’s a fairly good chance Marine Le Pen is winning the two-round French election that will be underway over the next few weeks. I think that for a couple of reasons right off the bat, in addition to some other reasons I’ll spell out shortly: Brexit and Donald Trump showed the world that biased liberal media’s wishful thinking doesn’t translate to “desired” electoral results, nor does the polling seem to ever reflect what’s actually going on in these localities. The polling was wrong in the UK in 2015, again during Brexit, and then again in the US during the primaries AND the general.

Of course, the other reason(s) I mentioned above have to do with what’s going on in France right now with terrorism. France -- and specifically Paris -- has surprisingly become Ground Zero from Radical Islamic Terrorism over the last couple of years, and it’s been really sad to watch what has happened there. The story I’ve linked to particularly deals with the most recent terror attack in France, as well as how it’ll likely affect the French election itself. Anyone who doesn’t think this greatly benefits Le Pen is crazy; this is in addition to the fact that there are absolutely going to be Shy Le Pen voters in France, just as there were Shy Brexit and Shy Trump voters in the UK and US, respectively.

I will be watching this election with great interest, as I’m sure we all will. Should Le Pen win, the European Union is as good as dead.

Trump Administration Continues Threat to Punish Sanctuary Cities: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/us/politics/sanctuary-city-justice-department.html?mtrref=www.drudgereport.com&gwh=58FFA0604FB41F0D907AD8C0D3B72447&gwt=pay

My Take: This is something that was promised to happen, and frankly, I think it’s a perfectly fine idea. I take great umbrage with sanctuary cities; it’s bizarre that we’d allow local jurisdictions to pretty much completely ignore federal law in which people’s lives can be at risk, and which could cause negative economic and societal consequences for those that are in those places legally. The only way big, Democratic cities will listen is to threaten their wallets, since these cities sure know how to spend money.

Now, as the New York Times points out, the money that the federal government gives in grants to these cities is fairly minor; New York City, as an example, gets something like $4 million a year from Justice Department grants, which is a drop in the bucket of their extensive budget. But this is a symbol, nonetheless, that localities can’t just nullify national laws on a whim, which is, I’ll remind you, one of the things Southern states were doing in the years leading up to the Civil War (not necessarily a historical parallel, mind you, but a mere historical note).

We need to get the immigration system in the United States under control, and I can tell you that, from an outsider’s perspective, Western Europe has an even bigger problem it needs to get under control. The free movement of peoples over sovereign nations’ borders isn’t a freedom anyone enjoys anywhere in the world, apart from treaties that express such. We have no such treaty in the United States, and the federal government has the right to not only control the flow of people into the country, but to tighten the screws on those who would buck the laws on behalf of all of us.

Republicans Are Raising a Ton of Money: http://thehill.com/homenews/news/329850-rnc-nets-record-415m-first-quarter

My Take: During the last News Burst earlier this week, I discussed how I saw some positive signs developing for Democrats as we slowly lurch towards the 2018 midterm elections. Specifically, I see energy developing, money being raised, and shifting numbers in the special elections in Kansas and Georgia that appear to indicate that Trump’s chronic unpopularity could present a significant down-ticket drag, even if the GOP has or will end up walking away with both of those seats.

This story from The Hill shows a different side of the story, as the Republican National Committee raised $41.5 million through the end of March of this year. That’s a record for a quarter following a presidential race, win or lose. The RNC’s press release speaks boldly not only about the 2018 midterms (midterms that’ll likely see the GOP’s House majority eroded, while it should make gains in the Senate), but about Trump’s presumed reelection campaign in 2020. We’re still so far away from all of this -- especially the latter -- but seeds are already being planted for the next salvo in the seemingly-never ending political war in Washington D.C.

Ann Coulter Vows to Speak After UC Berkeley Offers Her Deal: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ann-coulter-rejects-offer-uc-berkeley_us_58fa5e7ee4b06b9cb916bf73?o8&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

My Take: Good for you, Ann. UC Berkeley is becoming a completely cartoonish college campus (lots of C’s there), and, as a publicly-funded institution, they have no right whatsoever to bar her from speaking. She was invited to speak on April 27th, and she intends on showing up. She’s also threatened the UC system that she will sue them if she’s not allowed to speak that day.

To Berkeley’s credit, they have offered Coulter a space on May 2nd for her speech, but there’s a problem: There are no classes at UC Berkeley on May 2nd, and she not only has a contract to speak on April 27th, but she has constitutional rights to speak freely on public grounds. Which, again, UC Berkeley campus is.

Her lawyers -- as well as the Berkeley College Republicans -- are threatening to seek a federal injunction should the original terms of the contract not be upheld. So… expect a fucking melee at Berkeley on April 27th. I’m sure it’ll be super productive. God forbid she be allowed to speak and then leave freely (which would eat her up inside, mind you). Preemptively add Coulter to the list of conservative talkers who are gaining higher and higher profiles thanks to the regressive left.

Russian Fighters Are Buzzing American Airspace: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/21/politics/russian-bombers-tensions-trump/index.html

My Take: This is a fairly interesting story, although you read about these kinds of things happening every once in awhile. It’s also important to note that we do the same thing, and that the frontline of the US-led NATO alliance is on Russia’s doorstep. I’m no fan of Russia, but context is always king. Either way, this is the fourth time in four days Russian aircraft were spotted off of the coast of Alaska, an unusually aggressive posture for Russia to take with the US, knowing full well those planes will be spotted, identified, and watched.

The quote within the story from a CNN source -- that there is “no other way to interpret this other than as strategic messaging” -- is right on the money, which is why we really have nothing to worry about. Still, it’s been a couple of years since Russia poked and prodded us like this, and so it’s certainly worth asking the question why? We did scramble interceptors to counter these flights, after all. International incidents can arise from misunderstandings when big countries act belligerently for no real reason.