The Bel-Air Starship

http://nyti.ms/1RPFTA8

And Gigi Hadid and her father Mohamed are media superstars.

Not surprising in a nation where image is key, money trumps everything and the government needs to be drowned in the bathtub.

Is this like FDR, the public was unaware he couldn't walk, has America been hampered and hamstrung forever and we just did not know about it, or have things changed dramatically?

Or to put it another way, do all those non-traveling, xenophobic yahoos worried about immigrants taking their jobs realize that the foreign billionaires who can buy entry are sucking up our property and we truly live in an international economy and we can't stick our heads in the sand any longer?

I don't expect you to read the above "New York Times" article, but if you skim it you'll get the gist. It focuses on shell companies but the essence is the government just can't stop illegal construction. That's the world we live in, the wealthy believe the rules don't apply to them, and since they're revered by the underclass, which is anybody from the eviscerated middle class on down, they get away with their shenanigans.

Meanwhile, the press follows the Trump non-story to sell advertising and we can't even get transparency in the music business, because, as they say...it's not about the money, it's about the money. And even though you can't take it with you, a certain segment of the population wants to acquire their fortune, whether legally or illegally, and not pay tax on it all under the rubric of helping the little guy out. Huh?

Dude, I don't recognize my country. And that includes Manhattan and now Los Angeles, where the ultra-rich are hollowing out entire neighborhoods, making it so those who create the soul of our nation are driven out. Artists living in Manhattan? They can't even afford Brooklyn! As for downtown Los Angeles...that land is for the rich, who have oodles of money.

You rail against the Kardashians who are famous for nothing. What you don't understand is in a country where the buck is everything, he who focuses on money first wins the game. Artists aren't about challenging the status quo, just bitching that they cannot get a piece of the pie. The power of the pen trumps everything in our world, but the artists have laid their sabers down, all in pursuit of sponsorships, constructing hokum with a team of experienced players feeding the corporate greed of the record companies who want to take no risk as they continue to line their coffers. The only ones speaking truth are the aged, who came up in a different time, like Neil Young and David Crosby, the young just pursue the flash and the cash, and the populace is too ignorant to know what's going on. Fight free streaming? How about creating something so insightful that people clamor for it and it changes the fabric of this great country of ours! Seems like the only ones who will stand up for
what's right are those in Silicon Valley, who not only agitate for an unhindered internet, but for gay rights and parental leave, Apple is standing up for the little guy, making it so your iPhone bread crumbs cannot be traced, but you want the government to sacrifice your privacy in the pursuit of a safety it cannot engender. So while you want the government to keep you safe, you refuse to let it improve the quality of your life and protect you from the business people who hamstring your future, never mind your present.

We are the last line of defense. The artists.

Because we are the ones who reach the people.

Credit the "New York Times" for researching and printing this story. Instead of cutting all reporting to protect margins the "Times" has continued to spend bucks to hold evildoers accountable. Something your local news outlet is no longer capable of doing. Your TV station will send a truck to a shooting, but it won't uncover wrongdoing in the corporate suite and Fox News IS the corporate suite!

While the Edge levels hillsides in Malibu for personal gain, scarring the land in a fashion that will long outlive him, and his band avoids taxes as Bono does his best to save the world, the younger generation doesn't even have a social conscience.

You should watch that Vice special on AIDS, Bono did some good there, he deserves credit, but he's over fifty and just a finger in the dike and like I said he and his compatriots are not lily-white but what bugs me most is we lionize the ignorant and refuse to hold them accountable. All art is political, never forget that.

So as you wind down your year and relax in the warmth of your fake fire know that the rich are not pausing, they're continuing to creep in, because rust never sleeps.

What are you gonna do about it?


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