Bob Massi was a Fox News legend. A Las Vegas lawyer with rockstar hair, he was the second-ever legal analyst hired by Fox News, and was with the network from its 1996 launch through his death in 2019 — a remarkable 20+ year run.
He was only 67 when he passed away from cancer.
Before his “Property Man” show debuted, Massi flew me to Vegas to help him brainstorm strategy. (He slyly told me that was one of the advantages of living in Sin City: Nitwits like me are always happy to accept a free trip, ‘cause the town’s so much fun.) I offered him my feedback, but honestly?
Massi taught me far more than I ever taught him.
“Scott,” he told me (more than once), “my dad used to say, ‘You’ll never go broke making a small profit every day.’”
I often think about that, because it’s an important counterbalance to hubris, pride, and ego: the most tempting of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Generally speaking, it’s good advice. But, like everything in life, it has its limitations.
Especially when we scale up.
Because, when companies reach a certain size, they lose the ability to innovate. It happens all the time in the world of tech: Mega-corporations like Facebook or Google reach a certain size, and then they can only grow via acquiring smaller startups. So, they gobble up YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, Android, and FitBit.
None of ‘em were developed in-house.
Apple does the same, acquiring Siri (which still sucks), Beats, and MANY more startups than you realize: On average, Apple acquires a new company every two to three weeks!
Why can’t large companies innovate? After all, size has obvious (ahem) advantages: big, fat R&D budgets — and gobs of money to waste. So why can’t Google, Facebook, and Apple innovate on their own?
The answer is, your profit model can also be a curse. That’s the flip side of Massi’s advice. (Well, his dad’s advice.)
A large, multinational company is like an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Pacific: There’s so much heft, girth, and institutional momentum that it’s a poor vessel for experimentation. Aircraft carriers are so damn expensive — with established, proven protocols — that the commanding officer spends more time maintaining than innovating.
But a startup is freed from the status quo’s prison: It is nimble, fleet-footed, and can pivot on a dime. A startup can trash yesterday’s profit model and try something new whenever it wants.
Like Bob Dylan said, “When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.”
The same applies to politics!
Innovation never comes from within the party. Political parties are like big, gargantuan corporations: They already have a profit model. (Even if it’s a bad one.) Like an aircraft carrier at high sea, its institutional momentum will continue to carry the vessel on its preordained path.
You’ve gotta hijack the boat to change direction.
A man like Donald Trump couldn’t have come from within the GOP. No way, no how! You can’t get elected to Congress, bounce around the Senate for a few years, become a trusted member of the Republican hierarchy — and then turn around and run as an outsider.
That won’t give you a Donald Trump. Instead, that’s how you get another Mitch McConnell.
With this in mind, let’s take a good, hard look at our friends in the Democratic Party: They’re crying — pleading! — for a hero to save them. That’s a huge part of the Gavin Newsom current appeal: With his Trumpian tweets, he’s cosplaying as a MAGA revolutionary, ready to “fight fire with fire.”
But he’s not a revolutionary, nor is he an outsider. The opposite is true: He’s a pampered, privileged, blue-blooded insider. His father ran the (multibillion-dollar) Getty family trust. The Newsoms and the Pelosis are even related via marriage and attend family events. Gavin Newsom has been an elected politician in California for the last 21 years!
Best you can say is that he’s a homegrown sleazeball. As USA Today columnist Sara Pequeño wrote this week, “The California governor may come off like a sleazy politician, but at least he’s our sleazy politician…”
Not exactly high praise.
And it’s why Gavin Newsom won’t be the Democrats' version of Donald Trump: He’s the wrong man for the job. “Mean tweets” won’t mask his insider status. He’s not a revolutionary — he’s a lackey, a corporate cog.
I miss Bob Massi. He was a very sweet man.
PRedictions: I don’t see a peace deal in sight for Ukraine. There seems to be a fantasy in the West that we can win Ukrainian territory back at the negotiating table that was already lost on the battlefield.
That’s just not realistic.
Russia has paid an enormous price for this war, both in terms of blood and treasure, but also economically. It doesn’t make sense to expect ‘em to eat that cost without getting something substantial in return.
We’re not going back to the status quo. Ukrainian land is 100% lost for good… because that’s what happens in war.
(Which is why smaller countries must avoid antagonizing their much-larger neighbors.)
I’m not saying it’s right. War is evil; Putin is a dictator; blah-blah-blah. But unless Zelensky is willing to accept painful, permanent land loss (which he probably won’t) and Putin agrees to let Ukraine keep foreign troops from NATO nations on its soil (which he probably won’t), there’s no potential for peace. So, it’s all a waste of time.
Trump should focus his energies where there’s more meat on the bone.
PRojections: There was a remarkable story in the New York Times about the “death cycle” of the Democratic Party: Between dissent, drop-outs, and departures, the Democrats surrendered a 4.5 million voter swing(!) to the GOP between 2020 and 2024.
Worst of all for the Democrats, the bleeding hasn’t stopped: Since Trump returned to the White House, the Democrats have been losing 40,000 net voters each month!
Well, midterms are 15 months away. That’ll be another 600,000 net voters the Dems will lose. And with Election Day 2028 about 38 months away, that comes to… 1.52 million voters.
America is still undergoing a massive political realignment. Where we are in 2025 isn’t where we’ll be in Nov. of 2028. Politics is a game of trajectory — and right now, the Republican Party has all the momentum.
Getcha popcorn ready.
PRaise: Speaking of this political realignment, it’s largely a byproduct of one man: Donald Trump. He’s done the impossible: He’s running the U.S. government — as well as the GOP — with a “startup mentality.” Under his watch, the big, hulking government monolith was transformed into something sleek and nimble.
Suddenly, we could pivot. (Perhaps more than we should, but that’s another story.)
From tariffs to DOGE to foreign policy, the Trump administration has revolutionized how Americans think about government. We don’t realize it ‘cause we’re still living through it, but this is the Age of Innovation.
And innovation is tied to vision.
Don’t let anyone tell you that one man can’t make a difference. Right now, in the Oval Office, Trump is transforming the world.
And in the process, he’s inspiring a generation of Americans who’ll build on his successes. That’s how you build a long-lasting, permanent movement!
PRedators: When you mention Alex Jones, someone will invariably pipe up: “But he was right about Epstein!”
Was he though?
In a story that still lacks a smoking gun, there’s growing circumstantial evidence that Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t the 007 of pedophiles, or an international man of mystery; he was just a rich, evil pervert who preyed on young girls. The whole story of Epstein Island — a tropical pleasure-dome of hedonistic delights, with hidden cameras and secret microphones around every corner — seems to be more fantasy than substance.
The Biden administration couldn’t find anything else. The Trump administration couldn’t find anything else. (Most likely explanation: There’s nothing else there.)
Jeffrey Epstein was a rich predator who exploited children. Forget about Mossad, MI6, or any other foreign meddling: The facts are bad enough without any embellishments from bat-[poop] crazy “influencers.”
But lest you need a reminder on how crazy Alex Jones and his ilk are:
Is Benjamin Netanyahu The Antichrist?
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) June 17, 2025
Alex Jones & Nick Fuentes Discuss The Emerging Israeli Super Power Now Plunging The World Into A Nuclear Armageddon pic.twitter.com/s0off3yPBo
Why does this matter?
Because Alex Jones is from the same wing of the at-large MAGA movement as Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Candace Owens, and Steve Bannon. The only difference is, he’s just a little bit ahead of the curve.
All the other guys will get there eventually. (Hey, some are already nipping at his heels!)
Even though they began somewhere else entirely.
Let the buyer beware.
