US-ECONOMY-STARBUCKS-enterprises

The Insane Left Wing Law That Is Causing Another Mass Exodus. What Happens Next?

Bernie Sanders

Democratic Socialism

Democrats

Howard Schultz

Leftists

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Starbucks

Washington State

Former <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/starbucks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Starbucks</a> CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/howard-schultz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Howard Schultz</a> asserted during a <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/senate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate</a> hearing Wednesday that American cities have worrisome <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/crime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crime</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/homelessness" target="_blank" rel="noopener">homelessness</a> problems which have impaired the company’s operations.
The coffeehouse company <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/america-has-become-unsafe-starbucks-ceo-rips-politicians-in-decaying-cities-after-closing-16-urban-stores" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> last summer that executives would close 16 stores in major metropolitan areas, such as Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., over rampant crime that threatened the safety of employees. An impassioned Schultz noted in a leaked <a href="https://twitter.com/thehoffather/status/1547308330929963008" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> that many of the shuttered stores were profitable and that officials at the “local, state, and federal level” were neglecting to address public safety concerns.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) asked the veteran executive in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVrfKnZn8N4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hearing</a> for the Senate Health Committee about whether he still believes that “the lawlessness in this country is out of control” and whether the Biden administration should restore “law and order.”
&#8220;We do, in fact, have a significant issue of safety in urban cities around America, and Starbucks has closed many, many stores that were profitable as a result of the fact that our own people do not feel safe working in the stores,&#8221; Schultz responded. &#8220;And we have a situation of homelessness, drugs, mental illness, and as a result of that, many of the societal issues that we&#8217;re facing today are difficult for Starbucks to address because we don&#8217;t have the power or the responsibility to address these things, as you&#8217;ve described.”
Marshall noted that “it is a sad day for this nation when the crime is so bad that you feel the need to close profitable shops because you cannot keep your employees safe at their place of work.”
The lawmaker added that “every single location” closed by Schultz was in a city managed by Democratic officials. The executive, who endorsed President Joe Biden in the 2020 election, has contributed extensively to Democratic lawmakers and the Democratic National Committee, according to an <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/01/howard-schultz-a-longtime-democratic-donor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> of federal election data from OpenSecrets. Schultz previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/outgoing-starbucks-chairman-howard-schultz-rips-emily-zanotti" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a>, on the other hand, that the Democratic Party has moved too “far to the left.”
Schultz said in the leaked video that “America has become unsafe” and predicted that there would be “many more” store closures as a result of public safety issues. “It has shocked me that one of the primary concerns that our retail partners have is their own personal safety,” Schultz said about conversations he has held with employees. “And then we heard the stories that go along with it about what happens in our bathrooms, the issue of mental illness, the issue of homelessness, and the issue of crime.”
Urban crime has indeed risen precipitously in the wake of the lockdown-induced recession: the number of murders rose 34% and motor vehicle thefts increased 59% between 2019 and 2022, while the number of robberies, nonresidential burglaries, and larcenies continued to increase between 2021 and 2022, according to <a href="https://counciloncj.org/pandemic-social-unrest-and-crime-in-u-s-cities-year-end-2022-update/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Council on Criminal Justice.
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The store closures came after Starbucks opened their restaurants and bathrooms to people who had not made purchases, a move which followed an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/two-black-men-arrested-philly-starbucks-break-james-barrett" target="_blank" rel="noopener">incident</a> involving two black men who were arrested for remaining in a Philadelphia store without buying any items, sparking nationwide outrage among activists and calls to boycott the coffee franchise.

Starbucks Holds Annual Shareholders Meeting

Former Starbucks CEO Sounds Alarm About High Crime And Homelessness In Cities

Former Starbucks CEO Sounds Alarm Over Worsening Urban Crime

Economy

Homelessness

Senate

U.S.

More than 100 current and former CEOs are urging Congress to approve another round of small business aid in the next coronavirus relief package or risk exponentially more harm to the economy.
Modifying and extending the small business lifeline Congress approves in the form of the <a href="https://dw-site-dev.dailywire.com/news/ny-small-business-on-alleged-ppp-pacing-issue-we-see-the-money-slipping-away-again">Paycheck Protection Program</a> (PPP) could stave off a potentially “catastrophic” wave of permanent small business closures that could hit as early as Labor Day. Already, many businesses have shut their doors for good after buckling under the strain of the coronavirus and government-mandated shutdowns.
“Small businesses are too critical to our country’s economic strength to let fail. From retailers and restaurants to consulting firms and manufacturers, small business owners are facing a future of potential financial ruin that will make the nation’s current economic downturn last years longer than it must,” the letter says, noting that small business composes 44% of the U.S. economy.
That pressure on Congress is being led by former Starbucks CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-howard-schultz-shreds-aoc-introduces-ryan-saavedra">Howard Schultz</a>, who considered but ultimately decided against making an independent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-starbucks-ceo-howard-schultz-considering-emily-zanotti">run at the presidency</a> in 2020.
The business executives suggest that lawmakers build on the system put in place to distribute PPP funding by reupping the program while providing additional aid for the hardest hit sectors of the economy.
The letter lists several priorities for a new relief package:
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Federally guaranteed loans, at favorable terms, that will enable small businesses to transform and sustain themselves through 2020 and well into 2021. …</li>
<li>Businesses should have flexibility in how loan funds are used.</li>
<li>The hardest-hit businesses should be eligible for at least partial loan forgiveness. Any forgiveness should be limited to small or mid-sized firms that have suffered significant revenue declines and are not publicly traded.</li>
<li>Relief needs to be delivered expeditiously. Building on the existing PPP infrastructure would be one way to quickly stand up a new loan program.</li>
<li>These funds must flow to all small businesses in need, particularly those run by people of color, who have traditionally had less access to capital. …</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
“We cannot stress enough the urgent need to act. Every day that passes without a comprehensive recovery program makes recovery more difficult. By Labor Day, we foresee a wave of permanent closures if the right steps are not take soon,” the letter continues. “Allowing small businesses to fail will turn temporary job losses into permanent ones. By year end, the domino effect of losing jobs – as well as the lost services and lost products that small businesses provide – could be catastrophic.”
Lawmakers in Congress with input from the White House are trying to craft a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-relief-how-the-republican-and-democratic-plans-compare-11595934002">fifth round</a> of coronavirus aid as boosted unemployment benefits are set to expire by the end of the week. Democrats want a bill that would balloon spending by an additional $3.5 trillion while creating a safety net for cities and states that have blown out their own budgets responding to the coronavirus as tax proceeds have dried up.
Republicans on Capitol Hill want a much more restrained yet still pricey $1 trillion in additional spending, reducing the federal boost to unemployment from $600/week to $200/week through September, then reducing it to 70% of a worker&#8217;s lost income when combined with state benefits.

Closing business

Dozens Of Top Business Leaders Warn Of Impending ‘Catastrophic’ Impact To Small Business

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

In late January, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schulz stirred up some headlines &#8212; and outrage &#8212; by announcing that he is considering running for president as a centrist independent, a move that sparked instant backlash from progressives who fear a Schultz run might end up getting Donald Trump re-elected. But since late April, Schultz and his talks of a presidential bid have gone largely quiet. 
This week, the former CEO broke his relative silence and issued a <a href="https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1138884905130233862">letter</a> to his supporters announcing that he was &#8220;reluctantly&#8221; compelled to take a &#8220;detour&#8221; from &#8220;considering running for president.&#8221;
The problem, he reveals, stems from a physical issue that began while he was in Arizona a couple of months ago, which has required multiple surgeries and a months-long recovery process. Though he points to his health struggles as the reason he is taking the &#8220;detour,&#8221; and specifies that he will only take the rest of the summer to &#8220;rest and rehabilitate,&#8221; his letter suggests that the 2020 pause might be permanent.
&#8220;In the months since I announced that I am considering running for president as a centrist independent, I have been traveling the country, talking with and listening to people in 15 states,&#8221; Schultz writes in the letter. &#8220;I&#8217;ve met with thousands of people, from family farmers in Kansas and veterans in Colorado to college students in Texas and small-business owners in Florida. So many have been exceedingly gracious and forthcoming about their lives &#8212; their problems as well as their achievements, their worries as well as their hopes. What I saw and heard provided a beautiful window into the soul of our country.&#8221;
He then pivots to his reluctant announcement. &#8220;While I was in Arizona, I unfortunately experience acute back pain that required me to cut my travels short,&#8221; he continues. &#8220;Over the following two months, I underwent three different back surgeries. Today, I am feeling much better, and my doctors foresee a full recovery so long as I rest and rehabilitate. I have decided to take the summer to do just that.&#8221;
&#8220;I take this detour from the road reluctantly,&#8221; he stresses. &#8220;My concern for our country&#8217;s future remains, as does the belief that our country deserves so much more from our elected officials. Civility. Honesty. Real problem solving. My belief in these ideals will never waver.&#8221;
&#8220;Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to meet with me, to support me, and to share your stories and ideas,&#8221; the letter concludes. &#8220;We truly are in this together, and I look forward to being back in touch after Labor Day.&#8221;
Schultz made a splash in late January when he came out guns blazing against both Donald Trump and the Democrats. In an interview with &#8220;60 Minutes,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42701/former-starbucks-ceo-howard-schultz-considering-emily-zanotti">announced</a> that he was thinking seriously about a presidential run as an independent to provide an &#8220;alternative&#8221; to both Trump and both the Democratic and Republican parties, which he slammed as getting embroiled in &#8220;revenge politics.&#8221;
&#8220;Not only the fact that this president is not qualified to be the president, but the fact that both parties are consistently not doing what&#8217;s necessary on behalf of the American people and are engaged, every single day, in revenge politics,&#8221; he said.
But Schultz was quickly met with strong blowback from the Left. In less than 24 hours, Schultz found himself facing hecklers decrying him as an &#8220;<a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/42774/watch-left-turns-starbucks-schultz-helping-re-james-barrett">egotistical billionaire a**hole</a>&#8221; who will &#8220;re-elect Trump.&#8221; Starbucks also began hearing troubling rumors about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43524/boycott-starbucks-over-schultz-run-heres-how-many-james-barrett">boycott efforts</a> should he choose to run.
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43524/boycott-starbucks-over-schultz-run-heres-how-many-james-barrett">&#8216;Boycott Starbucks&#8217; Over Schultz Run? Here&#8217;s How Many Starbucks Are In Democrat Districts.</a>

Schultz Breaks Silence: ‘Reluctantly’ Taking ‘Detour’ From Presidential Road

Dallas Mavericks owner and &#8220;Shark Tank&#8221; &#8220;investor&#8221; Mark Cuban doesn&#8217;t have much hope that any of the now 23 people contending for the Democratic presidential nomination have a real shot at taking down Donald Trump in 2020. The billionaire also doesn&#8217;t have a very high opinion of most of their proposals, which he slammed as nothing but &#8220;headline porn.&#8221;
In an interview with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/14/mark-cuban-leaves-open-possibility-of-running-for-president-as-an-independent.html">CNBC</a> Tuesday, Cuban, who presents himself as a kind of entrepreneurial foil to Trump, was asked if he would consider jumping into the 2020 race; the businessman offered a made-for-TV response.
&#8220;We&#8217;ll see what happens. It would take the perfect storm for me to do it,&#8221; Cuban told CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Halftime Report,&#8221; then added teasingly: &#8220;There&#8217;s some things that could open the door, but I&#8217;m not projecting or predicting it right now.&#8221;
If he were to run, he&#8217;d run as an Independent not a Democrat, as Starbucks&#8217; Howard Schultz has considered. The country is primed for a moderate candidate, said Cuban, saying he believes &#8220;there&#8217;s a real opportunity for somebody who is in the middle but has some charisma, has the ability to relate to both sides but is not a politician.&#8221;
It is &#8220;first and foremost&#8221; because he is not a politician that Trump won in 2016, Cuban suggested. And it&#8217;s Americans distrust of politicians &#8212; &#8220;the least trusted of every profession&#8221; &#8212; that&#8217;s the problem for the current crop of Democratic candidates.
Asked which Democratic candidate he believes could actually defeat Trump in 2020, Cuban answered &#8220;nobody right now&#8221; &#8212; even frontrunner former Vice President Joe Biden, whom Cuban said he likes and thinks is &#8220;smart&#8221; and could do a &#8220;decent job&#8221; as president.
The billionaire also took aim at most of the proposals of the current Democratic field, dismissing them as &#8220;headline porn&#8221; presented without any real belief that they&#8217;re actually &#8220;passable.&#8221; Their &#8220;trickle-down taxation&#8221; is &#8220;just as big a failure&#8221; as trickle-down economics, he said.
As for the other billionaire moderate who&#8217;s teasing an independent run: After making a lot of noise &#8212; and suffering a lot of blowback from the Left &#8212; Schultz has largely disappeared in recent weeks. One of the last big stories related to Schultz&#8217;s potential campaign came back in early April, when <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/starbucks-braces-for-backlash-if-howard-schultz-runs">Fox Business</a> reported that Starbucks executives have been &#8220;monitoring various activist groups tied to the Democratic Party,&#8221; fearing &#8220;protests and boycotts&#8221; if Schultz should run.
&#8220;Democratic activist groups have already put Starbucks on notice that if Schultz, a long-time liberal Democrat, does indeed run as an independent in 2020, the company could pay a stiff price with many consumers who believe his candidacy will siphon away voters from the Democratic nominee and help Trump win a second term,&#8221; Fox Business reported on April 12.
Earlier this year, Schultz came out guns blazing against the &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45922/starbucks-executives-prepare-schultz-2020-backlash-paul-bois">far-left</a>&#8221; turn of the Democratic Party, &#8220;who basically wants the government to take over health care which we cannot afford, the government to give free college to everybody, and the government to give everyone a job, which basically is 40 trillion dollars on the balance sheet of 21 and a half trillion dollars.&#8221; But after experiencing strong blowback from Democrats and leftist activists, Schultz has largely stepped out of the limelight.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43412/starbucks-schultz-points-out-some-big-problems-james-barrett">Starbucks&#8217; Schultz Points Out Some Big Problems With AOC&#8217;s &#8216;Green New Deal&#8217;</a>
Partial transcript via CNBC.

Mark Cuban Asked Which Democrat Could Beat Trump, Gives Brutal Answer

Democratic Party

Donald Trump

Mark Cuban

Well, that didn&#8217;t take long.
When Howard Schultz announced recently that he&#8217;s mulling an independent bid for the White House in 2020, liberals and their lapdogs in the media quickly decided that a run by the former CEO of Starbucks would be bad for them. They had a simple theory: Schultz would siphon off votes from a Democratic presidential nominee, letting President Trump win re-election in a cakewalk.
So, it seems, the time has now come to destroy the coffee billionaire.
The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/howard-schultz-says-he-grew-up-in-a-poor-rough-place-those-who-lived-there-called-it-the-country-club-of-projects/2019/03/13/4f26b800-39e9-11e9-a06c-3ec8ed509d15_story.html?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.74d84073a39d">Washington Post</a> set out to take Schultz down a peg with a story Wednesday headlined &#8220;Howard Schultz says he grew up in a poor, rough place. Those who lived there called it the &#8216;country club of projects.&#8217; &#8220;
<blockquote>
BROOKLYN &#8212; When Howard Schultz tells people why he should be president of the United States, the billionaire often tells a story of a poor kid who escaped from the chaos and cacophony of a Brooklyn housing project to become the architect of a global coffee behemoth.
The man who built the Starbucks empire and now calls himself a likely &#8220;centrist independent&#8221; candidate for president says his is &#8220;a rags-to-riches story&#8221; in which he started out on &#8220;literally the wrong side of the tracks&#8221; in &#8220;low-income&#8221; housing, where &#8220;we were all poor,&#8221; where &#8220;my best defense was a good offense&#8221; and where fights &#8220;didn&#8217;t typically escalate to deadly violence, but they were tough in their own way.&#8221;
But Schultz&#8217;s depiction of Bayview as a rough, low-income community is inconsistent with the city&#8217;s definition of the project, the requirements for tenants to get into the buildings, and the experience of others who lived there.
</blockquote>
The Post combed the countryside to find quotes like this: &#8220;&#8216;Bayview was for people who were moving up, part of the old tenement trail as people left the tough life in the old walk-ups of Brownsville and East New York to get to a place like Bayview,&#8217; said Jonathan Rieder, a sociologist at Barnard College who spent years studying Bayview&#8217;s neighborhood, the Canarsie section of Brooklyn. &#8216;Bayview was a heavily Jewish, solidly middle-income place. It was an oasis, a sanctuary.'&#8221;
And the paper had this ominous sentence: &#8220;Schultz declined to be interviewed for this report.&#8221;
But the Post did get comment from &#8220;a spokesman for his nascent campaign,&#8221; Tucker Warren, who said: &#8220;The rent at Bayview was less than $100 a month, and some months the Schultz family couldn&#8217;t pay the rent. Any insinuation that Howard didn&#8217;t grow up in an economically distressed environment is more of a comment on the state of our politics than it is about the economics of his family.&#8221;
In an interview Thursday with Hugh Hewitt, Schultz commented on the hit piece.
&#8220;Well, I&#8217;ve got to tell you, when I saw the headline of &#8216;country club of projects,&#8217; I knew they weren&#8217;t talking about the place that I grew up in. But you know, I told a very personal story of the dysfunction and the pressure that I was under living in that apartment, and what I experienced as a young boy. And in the book, I reveal stories I&#8217;ve never told before. But my parents could not make the $96 dollars a month rent,&#8221; Schultz said.
&#8220;And so you know, I look at that story, and it&#8217;s consistent, unfortunately, with other stories that have been written about me in the last few months since I decided to consider running for president as a centrist independent outside of the two party system. Any time that you are going to try and break the status quo and go against the grain, the forces of nature are against you. But I&#8217;m here standing tall because of my love of the country, my profound concern about where we are,&#8221; he said.
Schultz is indeed a serious threat. With Democratic hopefuls trying to outdo each other on who can be farthest left &#8212; the party&#8217;s candidates have all but embraced socialism, with free everything for everybody &#8212; Schultz wants to present an option to voters: A candidate in the middle. He&#8217;s being taken seriously; CNN has already devoted an hour-long &#8220;town hall&#8221; to him.
It&#8217;s not the first time someone&#8217;s claim to be from a hardscrabble New York borough has made headlines. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called herself a &#8220;girl from the Bronx,&#8221; but it turned out that she grew up mostly in wealthy Westchester County.
&#8220;Though Ocasio-Cortez, 28, was born in and currently lives in the Bronx, county land records show her late father Sergio Cortez-Roman bought a quaint three-bedroom in Yorktown Heights, New York in 1991, when she was about two,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5905247/Girl-Bronx-Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-actually-grew-wealthy-Westchester-County.html">Daily Mail</a> reported last June.
<blockquote>
It is an apparent contradiction with the candidate&#8217;s official biography, which states in part: &#8216;The state of Bronx public schools in the late 80s and early 90s sent her parents on a search for a solution. She ended up attending public school 40 minutes north in Yorktown, and much of her life was defined by the 40 minute commute between school and her family in the Bronx.&#8217;
</blockquote>

CHEAP SHOT: Washington Post Says Potential 2020 Spoiler Howard Schultz Grew Up In ‘Country Club Of Projects’

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who is considering running for president in 2020 as an independent, slammed far-left Democrats on Saturday at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference &amp; Festivals in Austin, Texas.
&#8220;For us to start moving towards a level of socialism is such an extreme position and something that is inconsistent with the values, the heritage, and the tradition of the country,&#8221; Schultz said. &#8220;And that is what Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and others are proposing to try and defeat Donald Trump with a far extreme proposal.&#8221;
&#8220;If Donald Trump runs against one of those types of candidates it&#8217;s my belief that Donald Trump will be reelected, that the vast majority of Americans are not going to embrace socialism,&#8221; Schultz continued. &#8220;Going back to the Green New Deal, in the Green New Deal there is a proposal that says that by 2030 every building in America is going to be transformed to clean energy. Now, that&#8217;s a well-intentioned idea but it&#8217;s never going to happen.&#8221;
&#8220;Let&#8217;s propose things that are true, that are honest, that are sincere, and that are realistic,&#8221; Schultz said in a clear shot at socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
WATCH:
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Howard Schultz blasts socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) over her Green New Deal: &#8220;It&#8217;s never going to happen&#8221;
&#8220;Let&#8217;s propose things that are true, that are honest, that are sincere, and that are realistic&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/i05NK0bagH">pic.twitter.com/i05NK0bagH</a>
&#8212; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1104517407291236353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Several minutes later, Schultz told the audience at the left-leaning event that the proposals that the Democratic Party is proposing are not free and they are not feasible.
&#8220;There&#8217;s nothing free in America,&#8221; Schultz said. &#8220;So these proposals about Medicare for all, and free college, and a government job for everybody, that is not free. So someone is going to have to pay for that and that means that taxes for everyone is going to have to go up or someone&#8217;s going to have to wave a magic wand and do something that doesn&#8217;t exist but that has to be paid for by somebody and the difficulty in trying to pay for any of that is we&#8217;re sitting with twenty-two trillion dollars of debt that has to be addressed.&#8221;
&#8220;So, it&#8217;s not realistic,&#8221; Schultz added.
WATCH:
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Howard Schultz introduces Democratic voters to reality:
&#8220;There is nothing free in America. These proposals about Medicare for All, free college, and a government job for everybody, that is not free&#8221;
&#8220;That means that taxes for everyone is going to have to go up&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/qTNVUQ7I78">pic.twitter.com/qTNVUQ7I78</a>
&#8212; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1104578111348170753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-25/group-sees-ocasio-cortez-s-green-new-deal-costing-93-trillion">reported</a> last month that Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s far-left plan would &#8220;tally between $51 trillion and $93 trillion over 10-years, concludes American Action Forum, which is run by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who directed the non-partisan CBO from 2003 to 2005.&#8221;
The massive price tag would cost over $650,000 per U.S. household and would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43912/economic-apocalypse-ocasio-cortezs-green-new-deal-ryan-saavedra">cover</a> &#8220;a low-carbon electricity grid, net zero emissions transportation system, guaranteed jobs, universal health care, guaranteed green housing, and food security.&#8221;
In its final analysis of the plan, American Action Forum wrote: &#8220;The Green New Deal is clearly very expensive. Its further expansion of the federal government&#8217;s role in some of the most basic decisions of daily life, however, would likely have a more lasting and damaging impact than its enormous price tag.&#8221;
The devastating report comes after Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said earlier in February that the greatest internal threat to U.S. national security was the national debt.
&#8220;I&#8217;m concerned that our increasing fractious political process, particularly with respect to federal spending, is threatening our ability to properly defend our nation both in the short term and especially in the long term,&#8221; Coats said. The failure to address our longterm fiscal situation has increased the national debt to over $20 trillion and growing. I would urge all of us to recognize the need to address this challenge and to take action as soon as possible before a fiscal crisis occurs that truly undermines our ability to ensure our national security.&#8221;

WATCH: Howard Schultz Shreds AOC, Introduces Democrats To Reality

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is running for president again, in case anyone is surprised. The man who calls himself an Independent or a Socialist, but who caucuses with the Democrats, is now unhappy with third-party candidates.
Sanders announced his presidential run Tuesday morning. He then appeared on &#8220;CBS This Morning&#8221; to discuss, <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/02/19/bernie_sanders_on_howard_schultz_we_have_a_corrupt_system_where_any_billionaire_can_throw_ads_on_tv_and_become_credible.html">according to Real Clear Politics</a>. Sanders was asked about former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz&#8217;s third-party bid, a question that clearly irritated the Vermont senator. He claimed the media was only covering Schultz because &#8220;he&#8217;s a billionaire.&#8221;
&#8220;There are a lot of people I know personally who work hard for a living and make 40 or 50,000 dollars a year who know a lot more about politics, than with all due respect does Mr. Schultz. But because we have a corrupt system, anybody who is a billionaire and can throw a lot of TV ads around on television suddenly becomes very, very credible,&#8221; Sanders aid.
As if Sanders knows what Schultz knows about politics.
&#8220;So, Mr. Schultz, what is he blackmailing the Democratic Party? If you don&#8217;t nominate Bernie Sanders, he&#8217;s not going to run? Well, I don&#8217;t think we should succumb to that kind of blackmail,&#8221; Sanders added.
Logan Dobson, who will soon be the managing director for Targeted Victory and a political reporter for the Huffington Post, had a very poignant question for Sanders after his response to the Schultz questions.
&#8220;idk Bernie, were you blackmailing the Democratic Party when you ran as a third-party independent in 1972, 1974, 1975, 1981, 1986, 1988&#8230; ?&#8221; Dobson tweeted.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
idk Bernie, were you blackmailing the Democratic Party when you ran as a third-party independent in 1972, 1974, 1975, 1981, 1986, 1988&#8230; ? <a href="https://t.co/eP1rCSotvg">https://t.co/eP1rCSotvg</a>
&#8212; Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) <a href="https://twitter.com/LoganDobson/status/1097831785055047683?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Indeed, Sanders has run as a third-party candidate for decades. He began his foray into elected politics by running as a member of the Liberty Union Party. He ran as a third-party candidate for U.S. senate and the Vermont governorship in 1972. He ran again as a Liberty Union candidate for the U.S. senate in 1974, and again for governor in 1976, <a href="http://media.cq.com/members/509?rc=1">according to Roll Call</a>. Sanders ran against the incumbent Democrat mayor of Burlington, VT, and won, serving as mayor for eight years. In 1986, he ran as an Independent candidate for Vermont governor. In 1988, he ran as an Independent for the U.S. House of Representatives. He won in 1990 and served in the House until 2007. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006.
He only started running for the Democrat nomination during his 2016 presidential bid and now for his 2020 bid because he has a better chance of getting the nomination (unless the Democrat National Committee rigs the primaries again for their preferred candidate) and winning the presidency than he would if he ran as a third-party candidate.
Perhaps Sanders only thinks third-party candidates are bad when they run for president (a press inquiry to the Sanders campaign did not receive an immediate response). There is definitely a fear on the Left that Schultz could undermine an attempt to overthrow Trump as a third-party candidate that could become another Ross Perot or Ralph Nader.
As a reminder, President Donald Trump ran as a third-party candidate in 2000 as a member of the Reform Party.

Bernie Sanders Slams Howard Schultz For Third Party Bid. There’s Just One Problem.

Socialism

Should coffee giant Starbucks really be worried about backlash over its former CEO Howard Schultz potentially ruining the Democrats&#8217; chances of taking down Donald Trump in 2020? A new report by Bloomberg notes that nearly 70% of Starbucks cafes are in Democrat-heavy districts &#8212; and the world&#8217;s most powerful coffee franchise is already feeling some of the negative economic effects of people simply talking about boycotting.
&#8220;It just so happens that those Democrats are most heavily concentrated in the urban areas and coastal states where Starbucks does the bulk of its business,&#8221; Bloomberg reports. &#8220;Almost 7 of 10 Starbucks stores are in the roughly 500 counties Democrat Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential election, a Bloomberg analysis of data from location intelligence firm Esri shows.&#8221;
Bloomberg provides a map of Starbucks&#8217; U.S. locations, showing significant concentrations of the cafes in blue districts:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Data analysis: Brewing Starbucks Protest Could Hit Coffee Giant in Blue America: <a href="https://t.co/BGgrRl7hRe">https://t.co/BGgrRl7hRe</a> w/ <a href="https://twitter.com/PattonLes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PattonLes</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/EmmaKinery?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EmmaKinery</a> <a href="https://t.co/FHNRRNIYs5">pic.twitter.com/FHNRRNIYs5</a>
&#8212; John McCormick (@McCormickJohn) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCormickJohn/status/1096400489632153601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Just the threat of such boycotts has investors getting nervous. Bloomberg notes that boycott talks have &#8220;triggered some investors to boost bets against the company in recent weeks.&#8221; In response, company execs are scrambling to separate themselves from the increasingly toxic Schultz, who has repeatedly taken aim at not only Donald Trump, but the leadership of the Democratic Party and its key presidential hopefuls. However, one big problem with Starbucks executives trying to distance themselves from Schultz, Bloomberg points out, is that he continues to be one of its top shareholders.
&#8220;There very well likely could be a risk,&#8221; Pacific Management Consulting Group&#8217;s John Gordon told Bloomberg. &#8220;These retailers, they need to stay out of politics because this country is divided on a wire, and Howard is so identified with Starbucks.&#8221;
While it may be a big &#8220;risk&#8221; for his former company, Schultz isn&#8217;t shying away from the controversy &#8212; even amid significant backlash from the Left. In fact, he&#8217;s deliberately picking fights with Democratic leaders and presidential candidates. Schultz even decided to takes some swipes at Democrat darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez this week, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43412/starbucks-schultz-points-out-some-big-problems-james-barrett">slamming</a> her impossible &#8220;Green New Deal.&#8221;
&#8220;I read that by 2030 they&#8217;re suggesting that every building in America becomes clean energy, conforms to clean energy, just to put that in perspective, because it&#8217;s not realistic, that would mean that between 2,000 and 3,000 buildings a day would have to be reconstructed to conform to what they&#8217;re saying,&#8221; said Schultz at one of his campaign-like events Tuesday. &#8220;So let&#8217;s be sensible about what we&#8217;re suggesting.&#8221;
The idea of racking up the kind of debt required for AOC&#8217;s initiatives, he said, is simply &#8220;immoral.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t understand how you&#8217;re going to give a job for everybody, how you&#8217;re going to give free college to everybody, how you&#8217;re going to create clean energy throughout the country in every building of the land,&#8221; said Schultz. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s immoral to suggest that we can tally up $20, $30, $40, $50 trillion of debt to solve a problem that could be solved in a different way.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43052/cue-dem-meltdown-look-what-happens-presidential-james-barrett">Cue Dem Meltdown: Look At What Happens To Presidential Polls When You Add Howard Schultz Into Mix</a>

‘Boycott Starbucks’ Over Schultz Run? Here’s How Many Starbucks Are In Democrat Districts.

On Wednesday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show,&#8221; host Michael Knowles highlights a growing divide in the Democrat Party between liberals and the growing far-left base as revealed in former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz&#8217;s recent comments on the Green New Deal and environmentalism. Schultz, Knowles argues, is not interested in running a &#8220;futile campaign,&#8221; but actually interested in winning &#8212; and the only chance he has is to split what remains of the reasonable Democrats away from the radical ones controlling the party. Transcript and video below.
President Trump is not the only person who&#8217;s upset with Democrats these days for obstruction or radicalism. Democrat Howard Schultz is also upset with the Democrats, and here is why. In a CNN Town Hall he&#8217;s asked this question: &#8220;As a lifelong Houstonian, I&#8217;ve seen the damages that hurricanes have caused to my city and I watched as Harvey continued, in a devastating way, that damage. So in the face of a warming climate that leads to more powerful storms, how much of a priority would climate change be to your administration and what are some plans you have to tackle that issue?&#8221;
Before we get to his answer, I would like to point this out. This is the trick that the left does all the time, he says &#8220;as a native Houstonian I have seen the damage that global warming has done to my community, I&#8217;ve seen what these storms that are caused by global warming, I&#8217;ve seen what they do. I&#8217;ve seen global warming up close because of specific weather events, global warming.&#8221; Is weather the climate or is weather not the climate? Because when Amy Klobuchar gets covered in snow and we mock her for saying global warming is happening, they say &#8220;weather is not climate.&#8221; And then when this kid gets up there and says there was a big storm that affected Houston therefore that is global warming, all of the left applauds and say, &#8220;Yes, that is. That specific weather event is the climate, but only that one because it confirms our biases, not the other specific weather events &#8212; that&#8217;s not climate. What, you&#8217;d have to be an idiot to think that those specific weather events are climate.&#8221;
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U5caPaM2hN8?start=1403" width="560"></iframe></div>
So anyway, Howard Schultz goes on to answer this question:
<blockquote>
Schultz: When I read the Green New Deal, and I try and understand what they&#8217;re suggesting, I don&#8217;t understand how you&#8217;re going to give a job for everybody, how you&#8217;re going to give free college to everybody, how you&#8217;re going to create clean energy throughout the country in every building of the land, and then tally this thing up with 32 trillion dollars on Medicare for all. That&#8217;s about 40 trillion dollars, plus we are sitting &#8212; ladies and gentlemen &#8212; with 22 trillion dollars of debt on the balance sheet of America. So once again, not that I&#8217;m a business person or I&#8217;m an economist, and maybe an economist would disagree with me, but I think it&#8217;s immoral to suggest that we can tally up 20, 30, 40, 50 trillion dollars of debt to solve a problem that could be solved in a different way.
</blockquote>
Now, of course, he&#8217;s right about this, the question is: Is this gonna help him in his strategy to run as an independent Democrat for president, or is this gonna hurt him? I think it helps him. His whole strategy is he has to split the Democrats, he&#8217;s got to split the reasonable Democrats away from the insane, radical intersectional leftists, and then he&#8217;s got to siphon some votes off of Donald Trump, and then he becomes president.
Now is this a likely strategy, is he likely to become president? No, but anything could happen. Look, never say never when it comes to Donald Trump as they say, so I suppose there&#8217;s a world in which it does happen. Plus events change everything, so if Donald Trump goes spiraling down for some reason, he actually has a pretty good chance of doing it. I don&#8217;t think that Howard Schultz is running an intentionally futile campaign, I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s running just to show the strength of possible third parties, I don&#8217;t think that at all. I think Howard Schultz is running to win, he knows that the odds are stacked against him, but he&#8217;s gonna put himself in a place where if something goes wrong he could theoretically become president. There is an appetite out there for less crazy Democrats, they&#8217;re genuinely is.
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KNOWLES: Howard Schultz’s Criticism Of AOC’s ‘Green New Deal’ Reveals His Strategy For Winning

Environmentalism

Michael Knowles

As The Daily Wire has chronicled, in his goal of presenting an &#8220;alternative&#8221; to the two parties &#8212; which he has condemned for allowing themselves to get caught up in &#8220;revenge politics&#8221; &#8212; former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has continued to find new ways to enrage the Left as well as, in true &#8220;centrist&#8221; fashion, annoy the Right. Along with calling for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43402/watch-howard-schultz-alienates-republicans-ryan-saavedra">&#8220;removing&#8221; semi-automatic weapons</a> on Tuesday, Schultz made the fatal error for the Left of describing himself as &#8220;color blind.&#8221; He also smacked Democrat darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s much-hyped/ridiculed &#8220;Green New Deal.&#8221;
Schultz&#8217;s unfavorable critique of the GND Tuesday, as reported by the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/howard-schultz-rips-the-green-new-deal-its-not-realistic">Washington Examiner</a>, came as a result of his attempt to do what he said Democrats continue to refuse to do: be &#8220;truthful&#8221; about their environmental initiatives.
&#8220;I read that by 2030 they&#8217;re suggesting that every building in America becomes clean energy, conforms to clean energy, just to put that in perspective, because it&#8217;s not realistic, that would mean that between 2,000 and 3,000 buildings a day would have to be reconstructed to conform to what they&#8217;re saying,&#8221; Schultz said, the Examiner reports. &#8220;So let&#8217;s be sensible about what we&#8217;re suggesting.&#8221;
As for the &#8220;employment guarantee&#8221; and free college goals of Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s &#8220;Green Dream&#8221; plan &#8212;as Dem leader Nancy Pelosi dismissively described it last week &#8212; Schultz said what many on the right have argued: it&#8217;s &#8220;immoral&#8221; to rack up the kind of debt that we&#8217;d inherently amass from such socialist initiatives.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t understand how you&#8217;re going to give a job for everybody, how you&#8217;re going to give free college to everybody, how you&#8217;re going to create clean energy throughout the country in every building of the land,&#8221; said Schultz. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s immoral to suggest that we can tally up $20, $30, $40, $50 trillion of debt to solve a problem that could be solved in a different way.&#8221;
Schultz has earned the ire of Democrats and their radical supporters for teasing an independent presidential run, which many believe would end up benefitting Donald Trump. Though he&#8217;s vowed not to run if it looks like that&#8217;ll be the case, Schultz so far has shown no signs of letting up on his criticisms of either Democrats or Republicans.
Ocasio-Cortez rolled out her Green New Deal last week and was quickly forced to pull a disastrous explainer and FAQ document from her GND page after it was met by strong pushback and derision from the Right and confusion and dismay from the Left. The since-deleted GND primer called for building enough high-speed railways that &#8220;air travel stops becoming necessary,&#8221; eliminating all use of fossil fuels in ten years, shutting down nuclear power, and rebuilding or retrofitting every building in America.
When both critics and fans began to call out the absurdities of the FAQ, Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s team pulled it and attempted to somehow blame the debacle on Republicans, falsely suggesting that people were responding to &#8220;doctored&#8221; versions of the document. As The Daily Wire&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43282/media-runs-interference-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-emily-zanotti">Emily Zanotti</a> reported, by the weekend, &#8220;Ocasio-Cortez and her advisers began running a full-scale operation to distract and deflect from criticism of the Green New Deal, suggesting first that conservatives had circulated a handful of &#8216;doctored&#8217; versions of her FAQ, and then, when that line of attack failed, that the posted FAQ, which suggested, among other things, a universal income even for those &#8216;unwilling&#8217; to work, was an irrelevant &#8216;early draft.'&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43312/watch-students-love-aocs-green-new-deal-till-they-james-barrett">WATCH: Students Love AOC&#8217;s Green New Deal, Till They Hear About Its Goals</a>

Starbucks’ Schultz Points Out Some Big Problems With AOC’s ‘Green New Deal’

Climate Change

Global Warming

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who is considering running for president in 2020 as an independent, managed to alienate most Republicans and Democrats during his CNN townhall on Tuesday night in the span of only a few minutes.
Schultz, a lifelong Democrat, enraged the Left while he was responding to a question that centered around an incident at a Philadelphia Starbucks last year when two black men were arrested on trespassing charges in what quickly became a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/29625/walsh-story-starbucks-entitlement-not-racism-matt-walsh">major national story</a>.
While speaking on the incident, Schultz said: &#8220;As somebody who grew up in a very diverse background as a young boy in the projects, I didn&#8217;t see color as a young boy and I honestly don&#8217;t see color now.&#8221;
WATCH:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Howard Schultz: &#8220;I didn&#8217;t see color as a young boy and I honestly don&#8217;t see color now&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/M1oRFlBO2m">https://t.co/M1oRFlBO2m</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SchultzTownHall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SchultzTownHall</a> <a href="https://t.co/4KMhnTTd3Q">pic.twitter.com/4KMhnTTd3Q</a>
&#8212; CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1095537242293047296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Schultz&#8217;s remarks immediately outraged the political Left, with many suggesting that his comments embodied racism. Here are just a few of the responses Schultz&#8217;s remarks elicited on Twitter:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/BgOUj">Susie</a>: &#8220;howard schultz is like if you created a candidate in a factory 20 years ago that was intended to be as inoffensive as possible to everyone so that it could win down the middle but just seems tone deaf, dull &amp; off-putting now.&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/mFyKB">Elad Nehorai</a>: &#8220;Oh boy. Good thing a major network didn&#8217;t give this guy free air time. That would have been embarrassing.&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/3AVtL">Scott Bixby</a>: &#8220;Curious if this approach was used when Starbucks closed 8,000 locations to address systemic racism.&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/APB2k">Sean Illing</a>: &#8220;That CNN gave this billionaire dilettante a prime time town hall tells you everything you need to know about, well, CNN&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/cxFH1">Amy Davis Roth</a>: &#8220;I&#8217;m so rich all I can see is the color of money. Humans just look like crinkled numbers to me now.&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/eVINL">Shannon Sharpe</a>: &#8220;He&#8217;s telling a BOLD FACE LIE unless he&#8217;s color blind. Seeing color isn&#8217;t the problem , reaction to and how you treat color is.&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/Ms8qG">Bari A. Williams</a>: &#8220;And what does being from the projects have to do with his statement on not seeing color, unless you only equate &#8216;projects,&#8217; and/or euphemisms for &#8216;ghetto,&#8217; with people of color?&#8221;</li>
</ul>
Moments later, Schultz managed to turn off those on the political Right when he revealed what he considered to be &#8220;centrist&#8221; views on gun control.
Schultz said he wanted to find a &#8220;sensible approach to removing&#8221; semi-automatic firearms from law-abiding citizens because he believes that semi-automatic firearms have &#8220;no place in common society.&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Howard Schultz says he wants to confiscate semi-automatic firearms from law-abiding Americans:
&#8220;What I believe is that there should be some sensible approach to removing&#8221; semi-automatic firearms.
Schultz says criminals shouldn&#8217;t be allowed to own guns&#8230;that&#8217;s already the law. <a href="https://t.co/1xxqOzdjYv">pic.twitter.com/1xxqOzdjYv</a>
&#8212; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1095540668586328064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Schultz&#8217;s comments turned off those on the political Right, although not to the same extent, as many on the political Right view Schultz as a Democrat and therefore are not surprised by his views. Below are a few of the responses from the Right to Schultz&#8217;s remarks:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/BXdUs">Cam Edwards</a>: &#8220;Yeah, that bit about finding a way to take the guns owned by millions of Americans was sandwiched between &#8216;I support the 2nd Amendment&#8217; and &#8216;I&#8217;m a centrist&#8217;. No you don&#8217;t and no you&#8217;re not.&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/RMOgP">Joe Bursley</a>: &#8220;And just like that, every moderate Republican considering voting for Schultz over Trump in 2020 (including myself, I&#8217;ll admit) switched back immediately.&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/Q9WcS">Dan Gainor</a>: &#8220;Good luck. He is welcome to take them one bullet at a time.&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/m9Bs4">Art Tavana</a>: &#8220;We need town halls that focus on #2A issues to make sure candidates like Shultz are more educated about firearms, gun laws, etc. Basic ignorance like could be avoided if you invite @DLoesch, who actually knows a thing or two about the subject.&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.is/htj4w">Stephen Burr</a>: &#8220;Welp, there goes the 2% chance that I would have voted for him if he had made it to the general election.&#8221;</li>
</ul>

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