Colin's Last Stand, Episode 32: Chaos and Ineptitude in the Trump Administration

Thanks Colin! I'll definitely start there and work my way through the different periods and theaters then. Keep that great content coming!

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Colin smiled on me!!!! lol

Lou & Rei Loper

Thank you. I'm glad to be back! It's true, man. Time is our most precious commodity, and we're running out of it as shit really devolves everywhere in the world.

Colin Moriarty

The new Chief of Staff must take the reins!

Colin Moriarty

It's absurd.

Colin Moriarty

Thank you.

Colin Moriarty

Thanks!

Colin Moriarty

I remain unworried about Trump doing anything actually catastrophic, but I've been wrong about so much with him, as so many people have been. Who the hell knows.

Colin Moriarty

Thanks!

Colin Moriarty

Thank you!

Colin Moriarty

Thank you! Glad you're digging the setup. World War II is a very vast subject. It honestly depends on which theater you want to focus on, which group, which time period, et cetera. The bigger an event is, the worse off you're going to be reading a general history of it. I find the European theater way more interesting than the Pacific theater (though there are plenty of people that disagree). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich might be a great place to start.

Colin Moriarty

It's incredible. I didn't even finish editing that video until early the morning it was published, and it was still out of date two hours after it went live. -_-

Colin Moriarty

Thank you. I saw! It's insanity.

Colin Moriarty

Tell me about it.

Colin Moriarty

While I'm surprised you're giving me these thoughts on this video, of all videos, I respect your perspective, and thank you for taking the time to type all of that up.

Colin Moriarty

I hope you're wrong, but who knows? Maybe you'll end up being right.

Colin Moriarty

There have been hands-off presidents and silent presidents, but never presidents this utterly bonkers.

Colin Moriarty

Thank you so much!

Colin Moriarty

Well, sometimes that approach makes sense. Plenty of episodes of CLS do just that. But Trump is an anomaly, so history doesn't really mean much when it comes to him, unfortunately.

Colin Moriarty

Great thoughts. Thanks for sharing 'em.

Colin Moriarty

Glad to have you back in the saddle. My biggest fear with Trump has always been that he would make America look like a joke. Like we are collectively the stereotype the word sees us as (big, dumb, naive Americans). The result of the Trump presidency at best is going to be stagnation which to your point is going to be incredibly costly. In the worst case it will create a power vacuum that allows for not only our biggest rivals and competitors to chip away at our military and economic power, but I suspect that many countries well out of their weight class will pile on as we will no longer be the revered nation we have been in recent history. The true loss will be the semblance of stability the world has benefited from for so long. I have never really been clear on why so many people were not able to see that Trump would run the White House like he ran his company. He surrounds himself with yes men that are just there to learn enough to start their own venture or be his puppet and fall guy. That is why his administration is a churn and burn organization. Politics requires you be able to work with other people with differing ideas. Trump is a marketer. Marketing is all about selling a singular vision. Marketing is not about incorporating or accepting other ideas.

Brian Fuller

LOL, yep. The Mooch is gone. RIP

This is pretty insane, and to wake up this morning, and read that the Mooch is gone too?! What a wild situation, hopefully it settles the heck down some time soon.

Lou & Rei Loper

And now the Mooch is gone too! I remember reading not too long ago he hasn't even filled like 400 open positions he can appoint people to...

John Quinn

Nice work!

Katerina

Oh, and welcome back :)

Drew Packard

Colin- At this point, how concerned are you about Trump's control over nuclear weaponry? Given how inept this administration has shown themselves to be, I'm afraid some hostile nation (looking at North Korea) might try to pull something on us, and in the aftermath Trump sends a nuke their way. If he crosses that line... I hate to make a doomsday prediction, but that could spiral out of control very quickly.

Drew Packard

Great

Illuminati Games

Welcome back Colin! <3

Austin Tex Perez

Hi Colin - loved the episode, great job. Also liking the camera angle and the sounds quality is fantastic. So, i watched Dunkirk this weekend, and it was amazing, now i have an itch to learn more about WW2. What books do you recommend to start digging deeper? Thanks a lot!

Should've waited a bit and you could've added another name to the list. I would say I am far more liberal than you in many aspects, but enjoy your perspective of things Colin and think there is a valuable middle ground to be found. Furthermore, I think McCain was right, in our fanaticism we have let our political leaning to resemble sports teams, where they can do no wrong no matter what. This is wrong, is we subject our politicians to a higher standard, no matter what party, we will get better politicians. If we communicate, on the contrary, that whatever they do goes, because I will always vote them, we get this. We get a joke on the republican side, and a frightfully weak candidate for the democrats. While I do not support the argument that both were equally bad, I must admit that there were many reasons for not voting any of them. Until class, honor, dignity and responsibility return to the political class the mess will continue. And please ban him from twitter, as an European I need american leadership, not a free pass to China to fill in the hole.

LiquidEnder

Great video, camera, lighting and mic all the best they've ever been. And just 2 hours and 42 minutes after your video went live Scaramucci (I'd try to spell it right but... what's the point he's gone) is fired. Would love some deep dives into historical parallels to what's currently happening.... if there even are any. Why would ANYONE want to work for him at this point?

Christopher Lee

Trump is only part of the problem. The GOP's lack of consensus and preparedness around healthcare policy is a joke. Why was there no pre-consented replacement plan from the GOP ready for Trump on day one? I'll tell you why - the GOP never imagined they would get to this point - and if they did they assumed they would repeal the ACA and be done with it (hubris!). This is a total failure of GOP Congressional and party leadership (Reince, McConnell, Ryan, McCarthy). Did they really think the replacement plan was going to come from the White House? Or that Trump was going to call every hold out and each Dem and demonstrate his so-called negotiating skills?

Kush

The Mooch (Scaramucci) is out! That didn't take long at all.

Kush

I'm disappointed in your views here, Colin. You are usually so thoughtful and insightful that, even when I disagree, I can understand and respect your perspective. I don't understand your perspective on Trump. In the video, you say that Trump is a good guy who can't keep his mouth shut and impulses under control. You said he's not sexist or discriminatory. You talked about his sound policy prescriptions. All of these ideas as deeply, deeply flawed. Trump's policy prescriptions are horrendous. His "drain the swamp" slogan has shown itself to be openly oxymoronic. Almost all of his appointments have been laughably inept at executing their duties. Look at the head of the EPA looking to roll back regulations back to what we had when children couldn't breathe the air in the city you live in without getting asthma. The head of the FCC is looking to let ISP's further trample our individual freedoms and open marketplaces, something you should be vehemently against. The head of the Department of Education wants to replace public education with a private system that was shown to fail kids miserably in Michigan. She also wasn't even aware of her responsibility to protect people against predatory for-profit colleges (like Trump University...more on that in a sec) when she was being confirmed. The head of the Department of Energy does not hold a PhD in Nuclear Physics like is customary for the office. In fact, he didn't even know what the Department of Energy did before he got the job. He's a creationist and fundamentalist Christian who lives his life in a way that eschews the very principles of scientific inquiry. The Secretary of State has an office that is STILL missing many key diplomats in key areas. This cabinet is deeply, deeply lacking and it doesn't even seem to cross your radar when you speak about the administration. Trump's immigration ban and many of his policies play to people's base fears. He doesn't seem to want to actually address real problems in a rational way. His tax proposals have also been reviewed by experts and deemed even more outlandish than Bernie Sanders as far as increasing debt. Unlike Sanders, Trump seems to welcome increasing the wealth inequality as a spit in the face to the people who voted for him. You said Trump is not sexist or discriminatory. Let's move past the fact that he bragged about groping women at Miss America pageants. Let's move past how he makes fun of disabled people for being disabled. He just announced that transgendered people aren't tolerated in our military. There is no way to interpret this other than blatant discrimination. These people are trying to serve their community and become their best selves in the military, only to get told that their service doesn't count. Let's also discuss that Trump picked Pence, of all people, as VP and had the gall to say that he was pro LGBTQ. Take a look at Pence's views and record and tell me with a straight face the administration is pro LGBTQ. Finally, what basis could there possibly be to claim Trump is a good person? I admired your defense of Trump supporters during the election. It got me to change the way I looked at people and reach to further understand their circumstances and why they would choose to support Trump. I believe I understand better now what his supporters were looking for. But can we admit now, after 6 months, that they got conned? Trump has cost taxpayers more in 6 months than Obama's entire term. He never declared a blind trust and is thus subject to conflicts of interest all around the world. He has still not released his taxes, even though he promised to do so (in fact, he lied about the reasons he didn't produce them, and now even his lie has expired and he still has not produced them). He personally enriched himself during the campaign by charging for the use of his own jets. He continues to personally enrich himself by charging rent to the Secret Service who have to live in NY to protect Melania. There are suspected "pay for play" political moves already in Chile and China involving his son. He has shown himself to be vindictive, small-minded, and downright mean-spirited through his tweets and words. He said on national TV that he thinks we should target the families of terrorists--their wives and children. This is a war crime. He also publicly advocated the US withdraw from the Geneva Convention. There are several confirmed cases of Trump refusing to pay for services rendered by contractors and threatening them with his legal staff. He has several failed businesses, some of which were outright predatory (Trump University) or just poorly run. His charity has been shown to be mostly a sham. I could actually go on and on even more than I have. The point is that there is no interpretation where Trump is a good person. To compare his character with Carter's makes me respect your opinion less, which is a really difficult thing for me to admit. I respect your analysis that Carter wasn't a very good president, and agree on most accounts, but when you say Trump in the same sentence as Carter when it comes to humanitarian efforts, it's just hard to take you seriously. I have listened to you and admired you for years. I often disagree with you, but I like hearing you explain your perspectives competently and eloquently. On Trump, however, your words have been tepid and mild. You speak of him as if he's a decent guy who's getting vilified by the media and having a hard time leading. It's much worse than that. It's not hyperbole to say that he has authoritarian tendencies and you, of all people, should be speaking out against him and putting him in check when he even gets close to stepping on civil liberties. Your audience needs you to get serious on this topic, and call out what needs to be called out. That's what you usually do, but I feel like you may have a blind spot here. Maybe it's because you feel bad for the way the media seems to be out to get him like people were out to get you. I'm not sure, but I'm still here to support you and I look forward to seeing how your thoughts evolve here.

Chuck Larrieu

You say we don't have time to waste or we are going to be in a lot of trouble. Many days I feel that unless we get in that trouble nothing will change. We are WAY too divided. Every incentive, from the political system to the media, is to seemingly get and keep us divided. From the right, and the chaos of this president, to the seemingly confused left that seems to think sexism and racism is the worst its ever been (and more), I just don't know how we come together without something serious enough happening that we have to put aside our petty differences and help each other. I hope, HOPE, this is just pessimistic and poor judgement on my part (less for myself and more for my very young son).

CTE

That didn't happen overnight though. The two parties have become more and more divided over several midterms and presidential elections. They polarize because that's what has been getting votes.

Josh Squires

Is there a comparison in history to the level of ineptitude we're seeing from this administration? Like what happens if the president is basically toothless for the majority of their term?

Josh Squires

Can we blame this 2 party system? We were given a choice between two piles of poo.

Joey Finelli

Great episode. also side note I think you have perfected the studio with this camera angle and mic. Great job.

Spencer Yeldell

Have not watched yet and am hoping that when you post about current events, you show what has happened in history when similar events have occurred. English Generals lying and exaggerating leading to thousands dead in WW1, or, political purges dragging countries away from civil discourse as in Greece

While I could probably agree that Trump is not a bad person... I don't think he's a good person either. I know people in my family supported him during his campaign because they thought he was going to go into Washington and run this country like a business. Like you said, the way he goes about his business is that of a child. What happened to running this place like a business. When you run a business, you have to listen to your staff, you have to listen to your "customers," and it doesn't seem like he's listening to anyone. Anyone who wants him to fail is asking for the country to fail, I wholeheartedly agree with that. And honestly I don't think the GOP is doing a good job either. They're so focused on ousting Obamacare the country seems to be at a standstill in terms of getting anything else done. While I don't think Obamacare was good, I think they should have started with something else. Something the whole country can get on board with, and then move to something like fixing healthcare when both sides have actually worked together on something and built a working relationship. Great video, well said. Welcome back. Keep on learning my dude.

Owen