 So, if you're wondering why we haven't been hearing very much from Howard Schultz, who is floating the idea of running as a centrist independent, turns out he didn't actually take the hint that we all don't want anything to do with him. Turns out he stopped campaigning because of a medical issue, and he just announced that he's suspending his campaign for now. So, as Amanda Turkle of HuffPost writes, Starbucks billionaire Howard Schultz told campaign staff that he is making significant cuts to his team as he suspends his political plans for the summer. Schultz came into the office Wednesday for the first time in months and met with the staff according to a person in the room. He announced that he was letting everyone go except for those in senior leadership positions, adding he would not make a decision about running for president until after Labor Day. Shortly thereafter, Schultz sent an email to supporters saying that medical reasons had taken him out of commission for months, and he still needed time to recover. While I was in Arizona, I unfortunately experienced acute back pain that required me to cut my travels short. He wrote, over the following two months, I underwent three separate 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. Schultz told his staff Wednesday that he was closely watching former Vice President Joe Biden, the frontrunner on the Democratic side, who is more moderate and centrist than many of the other candidates. Schultz said that if Biden does not appear to be the nominee, he would think about jumping into the presidential race after Super Tuesday. He is realigning a team for the next phase of his exploration, a Schultz aide said in response to a request for comment. So it seems like this medical issue has effectively forced him to suspend his campaign for now. And look, I don't wish harm on him, but with that being said, I really hope that he takes this time to really reflect on how privileged he is because he said that he had three back surgeries and I'm assuming that that cost a lot. Now I want him to put himself in the position of a normal American. Even if you're an American and you don't have insurance, you would not be able to get the back surgeries needed to stop you from suffering. Howard Schultz is perfectly okay with that because not only does he not support Medicare for all, but he is vigorously opposed to it. And on top of that, as Ken Klippenstein points out, imagine being able to just take the summer off because your back hurts. Half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. So they wouldn't even have the option of taking the summer off to recover. And even if you had a spouse that was working or you had some savings and you could potentially take that time to have unpaid leave with your job, you'd have to go through an approval process. You may potentially lose your job depending on the situation. Howard Schultz doesn't realize how privileged he is as a billionaire. And that's fine, right? You can be ignorant to that, but understand that if you're not fighting for us to have even just a fraction of the luxury that you have, the comfort that you have to have the surgeries that you need or take the time off that you need, then you've got to understand that you have no business representing the American people and you absolutely should not jump back in because he doesn't realize how privileged he sounds. Wouldn't it be nice? They just take three months off if you needed it due to a medical issue. I mean, so many people end up losing their jobs if this happens. Like my dad experienced back pain and he had his own business. Guess what happened? He lost everything. He didn't have the luxury to take time off. He lost his business. My family was living off of food banks. And this isn't just something that applies to my family. This is happening all over the country right now, but Howard Schultz, he's more concerned about his own ass. I already have the ability and the luxury and the privilege to just take three months off and get all the surgeries and medical procedures that I need. But for you, you don't deserve that. And I'm jumping in the race to make sure that we don't get a candidate who's going to give you a fraction of the privilege that I feel. I'm going to make sure I jump in to preserve the status quo and spoil the election so Trump continues to be president and I get to keep my tax cuts. How insufferably smug and privileged this prick is. You are a billionaire, Howard Schultz. You have no idea what normal Americans go through. How much does a banana cost? Could he even literally tell you how much a banana costs? I mean it's one banana, Michael. What could it cost? $10? The fact that we have billionaires, the fact that 26 of the richest people have as much wealth as half of humanity, that's a problem. Every single billionaire is a policy failure. The mere existence of billionaires, which is someone with a massive wealth that they will never ever be able to spend in 10 lifetimes, let alone one. If that person can accumulate that much wealth, that is a system that has failed the people. That shows you how disgusting capitalism is. Capitalism is a virus and it can't exist simultaneously with a healthy democracy. Because if you start getting that much wealth in a capitalist system, you end up subsequently accumulating power as a direct result of all that wealth. And then you end up subverting democracy in order to get what you want implemented. I mean, this isn't me saying that, this isn't speculation. This is backed up by studies. A Princeton University study published in 2014 just confirmed that average citizen's interests aren't being carried out when you look at policy outcomes. It's only the elite and business class. So Howard Schultz has no business running and I had to talk about this because I'm never going to miss an opportunity to dunk on Howard Schultz because not only is he a greedy oligarch, but he's also just a dipshit. Like I really believe that he's not very bright and I'm not trying to go out of my way to lob this ad hominem attack at him. I genuinely believe he has a low IQ and if you don't believe me, watch the scene in Town Hall. I did a segment about that and he really reveals that he knows nothing about politics. Maybe he knows about Starbucks and coffee and business, but when it comes to politics, when it comes to crafting public policy, which you need to be well versed in if you want to be president, you need to at least have a basic understanding of that. He knows nothing. And we already tested what would happen if we get a dipshit billionaire who doesn't know anything about policy into office. We have that right now. Not going too well, is it? Not going too well. And before all of the MAGA chuds comment saying, but Mike, the economy, right, presidents don't have much control over the economy. They can steer it to an extent, but economic recovery is what we're seeing around the world. It's a global trend currently. But go deeper than just what you hear in the headlines about the stock markets. Normal Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck. They can't afford a $500 emergency. That is not a sign of a healthy economy. That's a sign that capitalism is eating itself and killing our system and the planet as well. So Howard Schultz has no business being in politics. Stay the fuck out, stick the coffee, stay in your lane. We don't want you, Howard. Go away.