This is what happens when CEOs have no investment in the company, never mind any firsthand knowledge or experience.
Dick Parsons blew out Warner Music for $2.6 billion, supposedly Jeff Bewkes was behind the divestment, and where is Bewkes now? OUT OF A JOB!
The music business gets no respect. If Bewkes knew his corporate history, he'd be aware that the Warner Music Group BUILT the Warner cable system. That's how ginormous the profits were. That's why Steve Ross compensated executives like Mo Ostin so handsomely, they were running cash cows!
And it only got better. The seventies rock boom was followed by the MTV era, wherein acts became worldwide superstars and then revenue was hoovered up with the sale of overpriced CDs.
But no, there's no future in music!
So Napster comes along and those who run the major labels are not tech-savvy, and since the business is run by the equivalent of Mafia families they believe they can hold back the future, never mind keep royalties opaque. So what do they do? SUE! First Napster, then their customers themselves! If the product they were releasing was not so desirable they'd have gone out of business.
And then Warner itself refused to license Spotify in America, delaying the launch of the service, allowing for YouTube to become the de facto streaming service, something the industry has regretted ever since, even though it forgets this history and blames the problem entirely on the Google company.
But today, YouTube has been superseded by paid streaming services.
And who do we have to thank for this? DANIEL EK!
Oh, the guy you hate because he's a billionaire today.
But he wasn't always.
Ek put in the hard work, jawboning executives, sleeping in the back of planes while he flew all over the world to convince them that he had the solution to privacy. AND HE DID! With his free tier. Funny that the business didn't immediately get this, because it's the dope paradigm, give 'em a taste and get 'em hooked and then charge them, and the music industry, at least its artists, run on dope, even to this day, can you say JUICE WRLD?
But executives can't control music. It's not like movies and TV, where the execs believe they're the big swinging dicks who have input, can change the art itself, if you want to call it "art." No, music is best when it's created hands-off. Which is how the majors lost control of new music production in the past decade. Creators posted their tunes on Soundcloud, majors just cherry-picked that with traction. Proving once again that the majors are inept. In a world where more people are making music and more genres are flourishing they only want to release Top Forty stuff, hip-hop and pop, ignoring the rest.
But they didn't used to.
Which is why they have these huge catalogs that will generate revenue forever, or at least until their copyrights expire, which never seems to happen. Physical had inherent limitations, you had to manufacture, ship and stores had to stock, and there was no way a retailer could carry all titles, even if they were in print, they just did not have enough room.
So streaming comes along and you can listen to everything.
The marginal artists propped up by the old system, sucking at the tit of the label, back when the goal was to just get a record deal, don't like this, because it turns out people just don't want to listen to their music that much. But those with streams...they're making bank, more than in the old days, and you can do it with one track! Yup, the album became superfluous, which is one of the reasons writers are crying, they used to get paid for all those filler tracks on a CD, but it turns out no one wants to listen to those online, so there's no bucks.
And, of course, the writers/publishers should get a bigger share of the streaming pie, but the labels are not coughing up any points. As for the streaming services themselves, ignorant oldsters consider them the devil, not knowing the lion's share of the revenue goes to rights holders. And streaming music does not scale, the more you take in, the more you have to pay out. So, if an artist is not getting paid, no one is listening to their tunes or they have a heinous deal with their label or both.
Meanwhile, streaming makes available all tunes everywhere. So, your career is not limited to where radio plays you. Word spreads online, where listeners can hear your tunes instantly.
But it gets even better. Once recorded music revenue went down, acts scrounged to get paid, and finally they raised the price of concert tickets to fair market value and got rich. Furthermore, there were more opportunities in branding, with sponsorship and privates and clothing and perfume lines.
And since the labels were greedy and the acts ignorant these companies took a share of said touring revenue and ancillaries, helping their bottom line.
So it's no surprise that Warner Music is burgeoning. It could stop creating new music and still be worth many more billions than Time Warner sold it for.
Meanwhile, music is the hottest artistic medium extant. It speaks to people's souls, they need to listen constantly, they can't do without it. And while the film business struggles to get people to leave home and go to the theatre, with streaming and smartphones you can take your music EVERYWHERE!
Sure, the music itself is not in its best space. But it will only get better. As terrestrial radio, with its endless commercials and dated material, becomes ever less important and the media focuses on more than the streaming hits. Hell, look at concert grosses, people want to see much more than the Spotify Top 50, and in a world where everything's digital, people are looking for real life experiences, which concerts and festivals deliver to a "t."
What did that old song say, "the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades"?
This ain't no dotcom company, this ain't no VC-funded fluke, music is forever. I can't tell you whether investing will be profitable because we don't know what the stock will be priced at, but one thing is for sure, Warner Music will never go down to zero.
So, once again, the music survives. All the naysayers were wrong. They said if music was free no one would make it, but the problem today is too many people are making music, the scene is chaotic. They said no one would pay for music, but Spotify has over a hundred million paying subscribers alone.
But music still gets no respect.
But music, unlike so many art forms and enterprises, is forever.
You've just got to believe.
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Friday 7 February 2020
Thursday 6 February 2020
Larry Mestel-This Week's Podcast
Founder and CEO of Primary Wave Music, Larry Mestel started out as a CPA and shortly thereafter was drafted by a client to Island Records, and after stints at Arista and Virgin he quit to start Primary Wave, a new wave publishing company with its own marketing department. Listen to hear how Larry and Primary Wave are breaking norms.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0fSlfFKaxfD5orbwFVn5H9
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/larry-mestel/id1316200737?i=1000464794190
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=67135287
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0fSlfFKaxfD5orbwFVn5H9
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/larry-mestel/id1316200737?i=1000464794190
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=67135287
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Ignorance Is Bliss
You don't analyze the past to see how the future will be disrupted.
The music business was the canary in the coal mine for digital disruption. First the industry didn't believe it, then it said it didn't make sense, then it tried to stop it and finally, after nearly a decade, it accepted it. And even though older customers have adopted the new technologies, many oldster artists have not, yearning for the days of yore, labeling streaming the devil, staying on the sidelines to their detriment.
This is what is happening in politics right now. So-called experts are looking at statistical models, they're looking at history to predict the future, and they're getting it wrong.
Disruption usually comes from the uninitiated, the ignorant, those who if they knew better wouldn't even begin.
And the late Clayton Christensen said the new product is always cheap and shoddy at first, but over time it improves and takes over the old.
Can you say Bernie Sanders?
In 2016 they said it was impossible. No one wanted a Democratic Socialist. Then the DNC tried to stop him, to their detriment, it hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign and turned off Sanders supporters. And now, four years later, these outsiders, the so-called "Bernie Bros," are organized and triumphing and the usual suspects just cannot believe it, they want to stop it, they believe Bloomberg is their hope, not knowing it isn't about Bernie himself, but his ideas.
Napster was sued out of business.
KaZaA burst on to the scene without a centralized database, which killed Napster legally.
After P2P sites we got digital lockers.
Sure, people wanted free music. But at least they wanted the music! Think about how many products you can't even give away, because there's no desire.
And this great desire for the music and easy and cheap distribution suddenly made acts famous, able to tour, where they could not before. Suddenly marketing was online instead of on radio and in print. An alternative system was being built that many in the industry still don't understand and accept as radio and print mean ever less. Just because radio has the largest market share, the greatest number of ears, that does not mean it will dominate forever. Look at network television, with its declining ratings, based on an advertising model. It's being creamed by pay cable and streaming. And Amazon has bundled streaming with shipping and new streaming companies are burgeoning, did you see the Disney+ numbers, and people are cutting the cord and...
As for Disney+'s numbers, the truth is people will pay if it's a fair offering. Disney+ is $6.99 a month, streaming music services like Spotify are $9.99.
And streaming music sites are ahead of visual streaming sites. You get ALL the product for your $9.99. There are so many candidates today because you can get the word out online. Hell, the Democrats blame their loss in 2016 on what happened online. The internet fractures society, creates deep niches, few dominate, but when it impacts everybody, one person can rise above, that's the essence of Trump.
And that's what the Democrats want to avoid with Bernie. They want someone famous in the old world not the new. They want someone who is talked about on TV shows and in the newspaper as opposed to those talked about online. They want candidates who take money from the usual suspects, i.e. corporations and billionaires, as opposed to the general public. They want CONTROL!
But they don't realize disruption comes with chaos. And you're never going back, best to ride the wave and see where it takes you as you try to make sense of it all.
And now even the disrupted are being disrupted. That's what's happening with Facebook and Twitter. Mark Zuckerberg denied there was a problem with false advertising on his site. He thought if he ignored it it would go away. But the public was up in arms. He thinks his sites are too big, he refuses to take meaningful action. Meanwhile, Twitter is trying but it's playing Whac-A-Mole. Is there a new site in the offing that eliminates this problem, these falsehoods?
The truth is we are no longer living in the pre-globalization era. Just like the public thought CDs were overpriced, with one good track amongst the dozen, people are pissed that the elites got rich while they did not. Kinda like the stock market...sure it's good, but how many people actually own stock?
And we no longer live in the pre-internet era. Now word can spread everywhere, even though today it's hard to gain eyeballs and information can be inaccurate.
And then there are bozos like the failing Shadow, which created the Iowa app.
Shadow was killed by market forces, it was resuscitated by an infusion by Acronym. And isn't it funny that Shadow was started by a Hillary Clinton staffer? This is no different from all the non-techies who took VC money to create apps and products that were nonstarters, or failures like Pets.com. Johnny-come-latelies always fail. Because they don't understand what disruption is about, they just want some of that money.
Kinda like Hollywood. Everybody with any cash is invested in tech products. Better to stay in your area of expertise, employ your own skills to triumph. Don't create an incubator, double-down on your assets, do what you do best, create new products, like Baby Yoda with Disney+.
The news media was reasonably accurate when other industries were disrupted. But now that it itself is being disrupted it keeps complaining and getting it wrong.
Newspapers must survive, just like the album. All news online is fake. You need pros to tell you what to think.
And then stories ignored by the big boys were broken online and blogs push the needle and what do the newspapers and TV keep doing? Featuring and promoting the power players of yore while they denigrate those of today and tomorrow if they acknowledge them at all.
"The New York Times" is marginalizing itself every day. With its anti-Bernie screeds and drivel like today's Thomas Edsall piece (https://nyti.ms/372KfPl), quoting all the old "experts" on what is happening, quoting old models that have nothing to do with today (kinda like the "Billboard" charts, trying to satiate the major labels it keeps adjusting its model into irrelevancy).
Bob Dylan had it right over fifty years ago. He said "don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters."
But that was back when music drove the culture and it was all about being the other and pushing the envelope while you poked the establishment.
Then again, the sixties were the last time the youth revolted.
The little girls understood.
But their parents did not.
And today those kids are the parents and they too have no clue.
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The music business was the canary in the coal mine for digital disruption. First the industry didn't believe it, then it said it didn't make sense, then it tried to stop it and finally, after nearly a decade, it accepted it. And even though older customers have adopted the new technologies, many oldster artists have not, yearning for the days of yore, labeling streaming the devil, staying on the sidelines to their detriment.
This is what is happening in politics right now. So-called experts are looking at statistical models, they're looking at history to predict the future, and they're getting it wrong.
Disruption usually comes from the uninitiated, the ignorant, those who if they knew better wouldn't even begin.
And the late Clayton Christensen said the new product is always cheap and shoddy at first, but over time it improves and takes over the old.
Can you say Bernie Sanders?
In 2016 they said it was impossible. No one wanted a Democratic Socialist. Then the DNC tried to stop him, to their detriment, it hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign and turned off Sanders supporters. And now, four years later, these outsiders, the so-called "Bernie Bros," are organized and triumphing and the usual suspects just cannot believe it, they want to stop it, they believe Bloomberg is their hope, not knowing it isn't about Bernie himself, but his ideas.
Napster was sued out of business.
KaZaA burst on to the scene without a centralized database, which killed Napster legally.
After P2P sites we got digital lockers.
Sure, people wanted free music. But at least they wanted the music! Think about how many products you can't even give away, because there's no desire.
And this great desire for the music and easy and cheap distribution suddenly made acts famous, able to tour, where they could not before. Suddenly marketing was online instead of on radio and in print. An alternative system was being built that many in the industry still don't understand and accept as radio and print mean ever less. Just because radio has the largest market share, the greatest number of ears, that does not mean it will dominate forever. Look at network television, with its declining ratings, based on an advertising model. It's being creamed by pay cable and streaming. And Amazon has bundled streaming with shipping and new streaming companies are burgeoning, did you see the Disney+ numbers, and people are cutting the cord and...
As for Disney+'s numbers, the truth is people will pay if it's a fair offering. Disney+ is $6.99 a month, streaming music services like Spotify are $9.99.
And streaming music sites are ahead of visual streaming sites. You get ALL the product for your $9.99. There are so many candidates today because you can get the word out online. Hell, the Democrats blame their loss in 2016 on what happened online. The internet fractures society, creates deep niches, few dominate, but when it impacts everybody, one person can rise above, that's the essence of Trump.
And that's what the Democrats want to avoid with Bernie. They want someone famous in the old world not the new. They want someone who is talked about on TV shows and in the newspaper as opposed to those talked about online. They want candidates who take money from the usual suspects, i.e. corporations and billionaires, as opposed to the general public. They want CONTROL!
But they don't realize disruption comes with chaos. And you're never going back, best to ride the wave and see where it takes you as you try to make sense of it all.
And now even the disrupted are being disrupted. That's what's happening with Facebook and Twitter. Mark Zuckerberg denied there was a problem with false advertising on his site. He thought if he ignored it it would go away. But the public was up in arms. He thinks his sites are too big, he refuses to take meaningful action. Meanwhile, Twitter is trying but it's playing Whac-A-Mole. Is there a new site in the offing that eliminates this problem, these falsehoods?
The truth is we are no longer living in the pre-globalization era. Just like the public thought CDs were overpriced, with one good track amongst the dozen, people are pissed that the elites got rich while they did not. Kinda like the stock market...sure it's good, but how many people actually own stock?
And we no longer live in the pre-internet era. Now word can spread everywhere, even though today it's hard to gain eyeballs and information can be inaccurate.
And then there are bozos like the failing Shadow, which created the Iowa app.
Shadow was killed by market forces, it was resuscitated by an infusion by Acronym. And isn't it funny that Shadow was started by a Hillary Clinton staffer? This is no different from all the non-techies who took VC money to create apps and products that were nonstarters, or failures like Pets.com. Johnny-come-latelies always fail. Because they don't understand what disruption is about, they just want some of that money.
Kinda like Hollywood. Everybody with any cash is invested in tech products. Better to stay in your area of expertise, employ your own skills to triumph. Don't create an incubator, double-down on your assets, do what you do best, create new products, like Baby Yoda with Disney+.
The news media was reasonably accurate when other industries were disrupted. But now that it itself is being disrupted it keeps complaining and getting it wrong.
Newspapers must survive, just like the album. All news online is fake. You need pros to tell you what to think.
And then stories ignored by the big boys were broken online and blogs push the needle and what do the newspapers and TV keep doing? Featuring and promoting the power players of yore while they denigrate those of today and tomorrow if they acknowledge them at all.
"The New York Times" is marginalizing itself every day. With its anti-Bernie screeds and drivel like today's Thomas Edsall piece (https://nyti.ms/372KfPl), quoting all the old "experts" on what is happening, quoting old models that have nothing to do with today (kinda like the "Billboard" charts, trying to satiate the major labels it keeps adjusting its model into irrelevancy).
Bob Dylan had it right over fifty years ago. He said "don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters."
But that was back when music drove the culture and it was all about being the other and pushing the envelope while you poked the establishment.
Then again, the sixties were the last time the youth revolted.
The little girls understood.
But their parents did not.
And today those kids are the parents and they too have no clue.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Wednesday 5 February 2020
Iowa
One thing's for sure, Biden's toast.
But how could this be? For months we've endured polls, talking heads, telling us he was the leader and the people's choice, the man with experience shooting right up the middle.
But it turns out that's not what people wanted at all.
So, the pollsters got it wrong. Oh, there was that "Des Moines Register" poll that was canceled that was supposedly more accurate, and I'm sure Nate Silver and the rest of the experts will weasel once again and tell us how they really got it right, but they didn't. Turns out it's not only government that is out of touch with the public, but the pollsters and the media too.
It all comes down to if you're winning. If the present environment is working for you, you want no change.
But it turns out the present environment isn't working for most of America.
Let's start with Trump. The same media outlets and pollsters failed to see the disharmony that led to the Donald's election, they convinced us, even him, that his campaign was a sideshow, a way for Trump to burnish his brand, to start a TV network, to get richer. Little did we expect that he would use the Presidency to get richer.
And on the other side you've got Bernie. According to Hillary Clinton, an evil hatemonger who refuses to play well with others. Meanwhile, Bernie almost deposed the anointed Hillary in 2016 and it appears he's gonna run to the roses this year. Turns out most of the populace is not happy with business as usual.
Let's talk about the Clintons. Sure, they were eviscerated by the right, but they also used their position to get rich, even Chelsea has gotten rich, she's even wealthier than Hunter Biden! But sucking up to Wall Street and the rest of the billionaires was de rigueur, because everybody else did it. You needed their money to win. But Bernie didn't take a dime from the usual suspects and this time around he's raised more money than anybody!
As for Mayor Pete... Where were the articles predicting this? The polls?
And then there's the question of why.
It appears that people want someone young and smart untainted by the usual b.s. Although if you look into Pete's CV it's not appealing, drinking at the trough of McKinsey and being unable to run his own damn city. As for being gay...no one cares about that anymore, if a black man can become President why not a gay man? As for those who couldn't accept Obama...it didn't keep him from winning.
Which brings us to the impeachment.
Turns out Trump is above the law. He can do whatever he wants and not have to answer for it. Furthermore, he doesn't have to provide any details. He's king, get over it.
As for the Iowa app debacle... If Trump loses in November, there's no way in hell the Republicans will accept it.
But if the Dems lose...
They'll just whimper. Can you say Al Gore?
Because you see the Democrats have no center. It's a big party under a big tent but a self-serving cabal runs it and they don't want any change. Now that Bernie Sanders is a distinct possibility the truth has finally come out, those in power, at the DNC, don't want any change, no different from the Grammys. You see a new guy is gonna come in, who gets to choose the head of the party and...a lot of people are gonna lose their influence, if not their jobs.
So, America doesn't appear that different from Afghanistan, some other tribal country.
Part of the public wants the trains to run on time, wants to rid the populace of scum and be entitled to keep all they've got and never go backward.
That's what's wrong with America, no one can lose. Hell, the Astros cheated but they're not losing their title. It's too big a step, like convicting Trump, we can't handle the anarchy. But the truth is we've undermined the rule of law, it's every person for themselves in America today. And if you don't realize this, you're part of the problem.
Like the people who say they can't feel the change under Trump. They're no different from Jews who refused to leave Germany. Everybody thinks they're protected until they're not, and the truth is contrary to their belief they've got no recourse.
So essentially no one is alive who remembers when America was a second-class nation. Everybody thinks the U.S. of A. is the greatest country in the world, it cannot be defeated.
As for Vietnam and Iraq, the belief is the agitators undermined us and if we just gave the armed forces and Dick Cheney and the other rulers carte blanche, we would have won again.
Only that doesn't take into account hearts and minds. The North Vietnamese were willing to sacrifice everything for the cause. And the truth is so many of the losers in today's society feel the same way. They're sick of billionaires, sick of kowtowing to the rich, they want some power.
Which is how Trump got elected. He represented change.
Hillary was damaged goods offering business as usual.
Just like Joe Biden.
But the insiders tell us we must nominate someone safe in order to win in November, we must sacrifice all our beliefs, all our interests, for a greater good...which would only benefit the entrenched. Which brings up the question why bother to vote at all?
A huge slice of the public never does. Many because they believe there will be no difference. And after living through twenty five years of tech innovation they know that change can happen overnight, if people choose to make it happen. They also know that techies run circles around D.C., elected officials don't understand tech, never mind regulate tech.
But all we hear from insiders is how dumb the populace is.
But that's because they don't understand it's not about issues so much as emotions.
Oh, the Republicans always focus on a divisive issue, but the Democrats...Hillary Clinton fake smiled, just like old Joe, and no one bought it, they didn't speak to your soul, they were controlled by those with the cash.
Globalization is here to stay. What's your answer to that?
Trump's is to promise impossibilities as he engages in trade wars. No, manufacturing is not coming back to America, and coal mining won't boom. Instead of providing false hope, why don't you give the disenfranchised a roadmap as well as a safety net as opposed to service jobs that don't put food on the table, never mind a roof over your head.
This is why Bernie is resonating, because it's crooked and you're screwed. Everybody knows this, it's just the winners don't want to admit they've bent the system to their satisfaction, they just tell others to pull up their bootstraps, it's easy, everyone can be a millionaire, even though you can't get into a good college because they've paid for slots, with either bribes or buildings, and have had their kids tutored and... It would be like trying to become a coder in a school without computers, it can't be done.
I'm not saying a whole hell of a lot new here, I'm just wondering when the powers-that-be are gonna wake up and admit what's going on.
Add up the numbers. Put Sanders and Warren together and...
It appears the public wants radical change.
But what does the media do? Concoct a phony war between them.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi steals Trump's thunder by ripping up his speech. He wouldn't shake her hand and she took revenge. And owns the news cycle.
Sometimes you've got to test the limits, sometimes you have to push the envelope, sometimes you have to throw decorum out the window, sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.
But all the left can do is respond to the talking points of the right, as opposed to leading.
Which is one reason Mayor Pete can't win. Do you think people are gonna buy his phony smile? He appears devious, and he's selling nothing other than himself. It's like he constructed his campaign on a computer. Let's see, where's the best slot, somewhere between Bernie and Biden, if you can believe in this guy, you probably went to Harvard and worked at McKinsey yourself.
Meanwhile, if you didn't go to an Ivy, good luck getting that gig at McKinsey. As for the funds, they load your employer up with debt, take their investment and profits out first and you're left holding the bag.
But you're supposed to laud them because they're rich.
The old America is dead. The internet proved that those telling us what was going on had no clue. Meanwhile, the rich on the left and right, the elites, rigged the game to their advantage, telling the less fortunate that it was just luck they lost out, that there was nothing they could do about it.
So, the public wants its revenge.
Any Democrat can beat Trump if the party just gets behind the nominee. Instead, the DNC keeps going on about who's electable.
You know who is electable?
THE ONE THAT WINS!
The Republicans circled the wagons today. I'd say history will judge them, but the truth is Trump may run the country off the rails first.
It's time for the Democrats to circle the wagons, to get back in touch with their natural constituency, the workers. Bloomberg may be able to get the nomination and win, but the truth is he's not promising solutions to the real problems of this country, he just wants to pilot the ship as opposed to fix the leak, never mind build a new ship.
Disenfranchise the public at your peril. Turns out voters don't want centrists, they want someone to believe in.
And this has got nothing to do with flawed apps and nothing to do with polls and everything to do with identity.
We're sick of compromise, we're sick of getting the short end of the stick, we're sick of seeing our country going down the drain as those in power blame us for it. Trump said it was the immigrants. He's always establishing scapegoats. The Democrats are the party of the future, they're the party of hope, they're the party of equality, if only those in power and the elites would get out of the way and let the voters get their shot. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?
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But how could this be? For months we've endured polls, talking heads, telling us he was the leader and the people's choice, the man with experience shooting right up the middle.
But it turns out that's not what people wanted at all.
So, the pollsters got it wrong. Oh, there was that "Des Moines Register" poll that was canceled that was supposedly more accurate, and I'm sure Nate Silver and the rest of the experts will weasel once again and tell us how they really got it right, but they didn't. Turns out it's not only government that is out of touch with the public, but the pollsters and the media too.
It all comes down to if you're winning. If the present environment is working for you, you want no change.
But it turns out the present environment isn't working for most of America.
Let's start with Trump. The same media outlets and pollsters failed to see the disharmony that led to the Donald's election, they convinced us, even him, that his campaign was a sideshow, a way for Trump to burnish his brand, to start a TV network, to get richer. Little did we expect that he would use the Presidency to get richer.
And on the other side you've got Bernie. According to Hillary Clinton, an evil hatemonger who refuses to play well with others. Meanwhile, Bernie almost deposed the anointed Hillary in 2016 and it appears he's gonna run to the roses this year. Turns out most of the populace is not happy with business as usual.
Let's talk about the Clintons. Sure, they were eviscerated by the right, but they also used their position to get rich, even Chelsea has gotten rich, she's even wealthier than Hunter Biden! But sucking up to Wall Street and the rest of the billionaires was de rigueur, because everybody else did it. You needed their money to win. But Bernie didn't take a dime from the usual suspects and this time around he's raised more money than anybody!
As for Mayor Pete... Where were the articles predicting this? The polls?
And then there's the question of why.
It appears that people want someone young and smart untainted by the usual b.s. Although if you look into Pete's CV it's not appealing, drinking at the trough of McKinsey and being unable to run his own damn city. As for being gay...no one cares about that anymore, if a black man can become President why not a gay man? As for those who couldn't accept Obama...it didn't keep him from winning.
Which brings us to the impeachment.
Turns out Trump is above the law. He can do whatever he wants and not have to answer for it. Furthermore, he doesn't have to provide any details. He's king, get over it.
As for the Iowa app debacle... If Trump loses in November, there's no way in hell the Republicans will accept it.
But if the Dems lose...
They'll just whimper. Can you say Al Gore?
Because you see the Democrats have no center. It's a big party under a big tent but a self-serving cabal runs it and they don't want any change. Now that Bernie Sanders is a distinct possibility the truth has finally come out, those in power, at the DNC, don't want any change, no different from the Grammys. You see a new guy is gonna come in, who gets to choose the head of the party and...a lot of people are gonna lose their influence, if not their jobs.
So, America doesn't appear that different from Afghanistan, some other tribal country.
Part of the public wants the trains to run on time, wants to rid the populace of scum and be entitled to keep all they've got and never go backward.
That's what's wrong with America, no one can lose. Hell, the Astros cheated but they're not losing their title. It's too big a step, like convicting Trump, we can't handle the anarchy. But the truth is we've undermined the rule of law, it's every person for themselves in America today. And if you don't realize this, you're part of the problem.
Like the people who say they can't feel the change under Trump. They're no different from Jews who refused to leave Germany. Everybody thinks they're protected until they're not, and the truth is contrary to their belief they've got no recourse.
So essentially no one is alive who remembers when America was a second-class nation. Everybody thinks the U.S. of A. is the greatest country in the world, it cannot be defeated.
As for Vietnam and Iraq, the belief is the agitators undermined us and if we just gave the armed forces and Dick Cheney and the other rulers carte blanche, we would have won again.
Only that doesn't take into account hearts and minds. The North Vietnamese were willing to sacrifice everything for the cause. And the truth is so many of the losers in today's society feel the same way. They're sick of billionaires, sick of kowtowing to the rich, they want some power.
Which is how Trump got elected. He represented change.
Hillary was damaged goods offering business as usual.
Just like Joe Biden.
But the insiders tell us we must nominate someone safe in order to win in November, we must sacrifice all our beliefs, all our interests, for a greater good...which would only benefit the entrenched. Which brings up the question why bother to vote at all?
A huge slice of the public never does. Many because they believe there will be no difference. And after living through twenty five years of tech innovation they know that change can happen overnight, if people choose to make it happen. They also know that techies run circles around D.C., elected officials don't understand tech, never mind regulate tech.
But all we hear from insiders is how dumb the populace is.
But that's because they don't understand it's not about issues so much as emotions.
Oh, the Republicans always focus on a divisive issue, but the Democrats...Hillary Clinton fake smiled, just like old Joe, and no one bought it, they didn't speak to your soul, they were controlled by those with the cash.
Globalization is here to stay. What's your answer to that?
Trump's is to promise impossibilities as he engages in trade wars. No, manufacturing is not coming back to America, and coal mining won't boom. Instead of providing false hope, why don't you give the disenfranchised a roadmap as well as a safety net as opposed to service jobs that don't put food on the table, never mind a roof over your head.
This is why Bernie is resonating, because it's crooked and you're screwed. Everybody knows this, it's just the winners don't want to admit they've bent the system to their satisfaction, they just tell others to pull up their bootstraps, it's easy, everyone can be a millionaire, even though you can't get into a good college because they've paid for slots, with either bribes or buildings, and have had their kids tutored and... It would be like trying to become a coder in a school without computers, it can't be done.
I'm not saying a whole hell of a lot new here, I'm just wondering when the powers-that-be are gonna wake up and admit what's going on.
Add up the numbers. Put Sanders and Warren together and...
It appears the public wants radical change.
But what does the media do? Concoct a phony war between them.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi steals Trump's thunder by ripping up his speech. He wouldn't shake her hand and she took revenge. And owns the news cycle.
Sometimes you've got to test the limits, sometimes you have to push the envelope, sometimes you have to throw decorum out the window, sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.
But all the left can do is respond to the talking points of the right, as opposed to leading.
Which is one reason Mayor Pete can't win. Do you think people are gonna buy his phony smile? He appears devious, and he's selling nothing other than himself. It's like he constructed his campaign on a computer. Let's see, where's the best slot, somewhere between Bernie and Biden, if you can believe in this guy, you probably went to Harvard and worked at McKinsey yourself.
Meanwhile, if you didn't go to an Ivy, good luck getting that gig at McKinsey. As for the funds, they load your employer up with debt, take their investment and profits out first and you're left holding the bag.
But you're supposed to laud them because they're rich.
The old America is dead. The internet proved that those telling us what was going on had no clue. Meanwhile, the rich on the left and right, the elites, rigged the game to their advantage, telling the less fortunate that it was just luck they lost out, that there was nothing they could do about it.
So, the public wants its revenge.
Any Democrat can beat Trump if the party just gets behind the nominee. Instead, the DNC keeps going on about who's electable.
You know who is electable?
THE ONE THAT WINS!
The Republicans circled the wagons today. I'd say history will judge them, but the truth is Trump may run the country off the rails first.
It's time for the Democrats to circle the wagons, to get back in touch with their natural constituency, the workers. Bloomberg may be able to get the nomination and win, but the truth is he's not promising solutions to the real problems of this country, he just wants to pilot the ship as opposed to fix the leak, never mind build a new ship.
Disenfranchise the public at your peril. Turns out voters don't want centrists, they want someone to believe in.
And this has got nothing to do with flawed apps and nothing to do with polls and everything to do with identity.
We're sick of compromise, we're sick of getting the short end of the stick, we're sick of seeing our country going down the drain as those in power blame us for it. Trump said it was the immigrants. He's always establishing scapegoats. The Democrats are the party of the future, they're the party of hope, they're the party of equality, if only those in power and the elites would get out of the way and let the voters get their shot. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?
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Monday 3 February 2020
More History Of The Beatles-SiriusXM This Week
From "Tell Me What You See" from the America-only "Beatles VI" to "Girl" from "Rubber Soul.
Tune in today, Tuesday February 4th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive
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Tune in today, Tuesday February 4th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive
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The Super Bowl
Rule number one...
You don't let the opening act upstage you.
We know J.Lo can't sing, but we always thought she was a fly dancer.
But Shakira trumped her on both counts, if I was J.Lo's manager, I'd be hiding.
The Super Bowl wasn't so super until Joe Namath and the Jets beat the Colts back in '69. What did the Eagles sing?
Namath was arrogant, the Colts were the establishment. Joe played by his own rules, with his moustache, Bachelors III and his fur coat, when that was still a thing. Joe was brash, and he lived up to the rep. Only true fans can remember the quarterback of the Colts. Or the QB of any winning team. But Joe was a star, he made history in one afternoon. No one was paying attention before, the American Football League was seen as a joke. And in one game, it was par, if not better.
The NFL ground it out with brutes, it was a team effort, you didn't stand out, or if you did you were humble.
Joe Namath was not humble.
Nor were the Beatles, Cream or the rest of the acts that followed the lads from Liverpool into our consciousness. Everybody picked up an instrument, they wanted some of what those on stage got.
Now people don't want their progeny to get anywhere near the gridiron. And after watching a couple of collisions yesterday, I can see why. Is it worth it to sacrifice decades of your life for one moment of glory? Parents teach you not to, they tell you life is long, but Roger Goodell and the rest of the jockocracy have punted their responsibility, as long as it makes money, the players are fungible.
But I did watch yesterday. My first game of the season. Sans commercials, would I? Sans Mahomes, definitely not.
That's another thing about the music of yore, it was never subsidiary, it always led. It was on a plane above and never compromised, which is why it became a religion. I mean can you believe in Post Malone after he stumbled in convenience store at the mercy of...who was it, Budweiser?
And if you were alive back then, you know there was a backlash against contact sports. It did not sustain. Nothing sustained after the Iranian hostage crisis and the election of Ronald Reagan.
The hostage crisis stoked nationalism. It was rah-rah, all of the time. You could not question authority, the military was good, everything the youth believed in was thrown overboard, especially when Reagan lowered taxes and legitimized greed. Once again, money changes everything.
So Mahomes delivered. He played by the rules until the Chiefs fell behind. Occasionally running the ball.
But that's not what we came to see. We wanted the Air Raid. And when the Chiefs were losing and went to the no huddle offense and Mahomes aired it out...it was a wonder to behold.
Excellence. It still amazes us. Grace under pressure. Reggie Miller wanted the ball with less than a minute left. Michael Jordan too. They delivered when we knew we could not.
So, subsequent to the Jets' triumph in 1969, the game was usually bad. The Super Bowl was all hype and no action. Until a few decades back, when suddenly the games got good.
By then we were all watching because of "1984," Steve Jobs's mini-movie that only aired once and changed the paradigm.
But few have the creativity of Jobs. He was willing to be serious on a day of frivolity, he wanted to make a point. A countercultural point, a Joe Namath, child of the sixties point...that the man can't be trusted, don't follow history like a lemming, think for yourself, chart a new course, dare to be different and better.
So now it's the game and the ads.
But unlike Apple, today's corporations, having spent so much money, rerun the ads ad infinitum, until the joke no longer plays and you wince.
And yesterday, even the new corporate titans were tone-deaf.
Google storing our data? How ignorant can they be, in an era where privacy is on everybody's lips! Promote better results, some of the "free" stuff you offer, don't tell us you're our buddy and we should trust you with our info....you know they're gonna cough it up.
Just like Facebook did with Cambridge Analytica. They didn't even realize the value of the data! And yesterday Facebook runs an ad about irrelevant groups. Who are they appealing to? Youngsters are all on Instagram and the oldsters who are not invested in Facebook never will be. How about a mea culpa? A promise to vet political ads? No, Facebook is like the Colts, it wants us to believe everything's copacetic, there are no kinks in their armor, they're godhead and will always triumph.
No.
Now the funny thing is today is just like the sixties. Starting with Bernie Sanders. The septuagenarian who is beloved by the youth. This is what the DNC does not understand, the youth are the future, and they don't believe the government is working for them. They don't want to go back to business as usual, they want to throw the long ball.
And the Trumpers?
Rednecks. Who laughed at hippies and...you didn't dare drive south of the Mason-Dixon line with your long hair and bell bottoms and... Didn't you see "Easy Rider"?
But for one day, the corporations of America, the institutions, they want us to believe that we're all one big homogeneous family under a big tent.
Huh?
There was no acknowledgement of the world we now live in. One of niches, special interests. The entertainment edifices and the rest of the media want us to believe it's still the same as the pre-internet era. One Top Ten. We all listen to the same records and watch the same TV shows when nothing could be further from the truth.
As for the endless movie and TV ads...they burnished the image of Netflix, which needs no spots, its subscribers know what it offers, and are addicted to it. Netflix promises to make a zillion shows with no commercials, trying to do its best. It's not all lowest common denominator, stuff that tries to appeal to everyone and really appeals to no one.
Kinda like J.Lo and Shakira.
Mariah Carey broke thirty years ago. Sure, Nirvana and Pearl Jam followed her right thereafter, but how many rock acts followed Kurt Cobain? I know, Coldplay! I thought rock was supposed to have balls.
So if you're a youngster, you don't even know what the rock ethos is. The other, refusing to sell out, reaching for the holy grail at every turn, knowing that if you're good enough and credible enough your flock will follow you anywhere.
You marched to the beat of your own drummer. The establishment came to you, not vice versa.
So, Shakira danced so quickly and provocatively that you almost could not believe your eyes. She definitely has the music in her, but how long did it take her to rehearse this routine?
As for J.Lo...why is she famous again?
Oh, that's right, the establishment record company pushed her, made her a success just before the internet killed that game and it became all hip-hop all the time.
As for Roc Nation's partnership with the NFL...it'd be like Peter Grant advising the MLB. Sure, it's great people of color can get ahead, but I can't get over the sacrifice of Kaepernick. It's positively Trumpian, the end justifies the means. And if you think it's good for your image, makes you money, keeps you top of mind, you can march right over the rest of the populace. And if Roc Nation is so powerful, why wasn't it a hip-hop Super Bowl? Especially when that's what the players are listening to. J. Lo and Shakira turned out to be safer than Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. Just the way the NFL wants it, no controversy.
But the amazing thing about disruption is the establishment doesn't see it coming. E-sports mean much more to the younger generation than the demolition derby on the field. But if you print an anti-football article you become an instant pariah. Same deal if you criticize Trump. So the NFL removes the edge and we're supposed to applaud them, congratulate them for bringing us together and leading? It's a veritable plantation. That's what the black-balling of Kaepernick is all about. The owners don't care about the players, and Clark Hunt was evidence for the eradication of inherited wealth. This soft white guy rules over this team? Ridiculous!
But that's today's America, we gloss over its faults, love it or leave it, it's the best. You abhor socialism when you feed on it, with Medicare and Social Security. Yup, that's another thing about Americans, they're ill-informed or uninformed but they're loudmouth brutes who are constantly pontificating while believing it's always somebody else's fault, like the Latinos, the immigrants, the...
Oh, I don't hate America. It would be easier for you if I did! I just want improvement, change. And one thing's for sure, the new America ain't gonna look like the old one, no way.
So, the halftime show hearkened back to the original, with Up With People. It was entertainment. It did not challenge us, it was not dangerous and had the nutritional value of candy, it was forgotten just after it was over.
So, once again, if you want to last, if you want to make a difference, you have to learn how to say no. Lil Nas X shortened his career last night, to the degree he has one, but I guess you've got to promote yourself when the Grammys deny you your due, i.e. Record of the Year.
Shakira proved that in a world where you think you're well known, you're not, until you play an event like this most people have no idea who you are.
Shakira delivered.
Maybe we need more unknowns during halftime.
Or maybe we should go back to marching bands, they're hipper than the acts performing anyway. That's right, modern marching bands make pictures, make statements, comment on humanity. Imagine if one formed a roach last night, and I'm not talking about the ones Muhammad Ali told you he despised, the ones crawling along your floor. Then again, maybe you crawl along the floor looking for said roach.
We live in challenging times. When it's hard to get a handle on what's happening. When it's hard to make sense of what's going on.
An alien would be flummoxed if he/she/it came down from orbit. Let's see, we laud a game that maims men while we advertise products you don't need and implore you to go to comic book movies.
America is fighting for its soul. Is it merely money, or is it about the ability to hold two opposing thoughts in your head at one time?
I thought about all this watching the spectacle yesterday.
But I must say, I enjoyed the game.
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You don't let the opening act upstage you.
We know J.Lo can't sing, but we always thought she was a fly dancer.
But Shakira trumped her on both counts, if I was J.Lo's manager, I'd be hiding.
The Super Bowl wasn't so super until Joe Namath and the Jets beat the Colts back in '69. What did the Eagles sing?
Namath was arrogant, the Colts were the establishment. Joe played by his own rules, with his moustache, Bachelors III and his fur coat, when that was still a thing. Joe was brash, and he lived up to the rep. Only true fans can remember the quarterback of the Colts. Or the QB of any winning team. But Joe was a star, he made history in one afternoon. No one was paying attention before, the American Football League was seen as a joke. And in one game, it was par, if not better.
The NFL ground it out with brutes, it was a team effort, you didn't stand out, or if you did you were humble.
Joe Namath was not humble.
Nor were the Beatles, Cream or the rest of the acts that followed the lads from Liverpool into our consciousness. Everybody picked up an instrument, they wanted some of what those on stage got.
Now people don't want their progeny to get anywhere near the gridiron. And after watching a couple of collisions yesterday, I can see why. Is it worth it to sacrifice decades of your life for one moment of glory? Parents teach you not to, they tell you life is long, but Roger Goodell and the rest of the jockocracy have punted their responsibility, as long as it makes money, the players are fungible.
But I did watch yesterday. My first game of the season. Sans commercials, would I? Sans Mahomes, definitely not.
That's another thing about the music of yore, it was never subsidiary, it always led. It was on a plane above and never compromised, which is why it became a religion. I mean can you believe in Post Malone after he stumbled in convenience store at the mercy of...who was it, Budweiser?
And if you were alive back then, you know there was a backlash against contact sports. It did not sustain. Nothing sustained after the Iranian hostage crisis and the election of Ronald Reagan.
The hostage crisis stoked nationalism. It was rah-rah, all of the time. You could not question authority, the military was good, everything the youth believed in was thrown overboard, especially when Reagan lowered taxes and legitimized greed. Once again, money changes everything.
So Mahomes delivered. He played by the rules until the Chiefs fell behind. Occasionally running the ball.
But that's not what we came to see. We wanted the Air Raid. And when the Chiefs were losing and went to the no huddle offense and Mahomes aired it out...it was a wonder to behold.
Excellence. It still amazes us. Grace under pressure. Reggie Miller wanted the ball with less than a minute left. Michael Jordan too. They delivered when we knew we could not.
So, subsequent to the Jets' triumph in 1969, the game was usually bad. The Super Bowl was all hype and no action. Until a few decades back, when suddenly the games got good.
By then we were all watching because of "1984," Steve Jobs's mini-movie that only aired once and changed the paradigm.
But few have the creativity of Jobs. He was willing to be serious on a day of frivolity, he wanted to make a point. A countercultural point, a Joe Namath, child of the sixties point...that the man can't be trusted, don't follow history like a lemming, think for yourself, chart a new course, dare to be different and better.
So now it's the game and the ads.
But unlike Apple, today's corporations, having spent so much money, rerun the ads ad infinitum, until the joke no longer plays and you wince.
And yesterday, even the new corporate titans were tone-deaf.
Google storing our data? How ignorant can they be, in an era where privacy is on everybody's lips! Promote better results, some of the "free" stuff you offer, don't tell us you're our buddy and we should trust you with our info....you know they're gonna cough it up.
Just like Facebook did with Cambridge Analytica. They didn't even realize the value of the data! And yesterday Facebook runs an ad about irrelevant groups. Who are they appealing to? Youngsters are all on Instagram and the oldsters who are not invested in Facebook never will be. How about a mea culpa? A promise to vet political ads? No, Facebook is like the Colts, it wants us to believe everything's copacetic, there are no kinks in their armor, they're godhead and will always triumph.
No.
Now the funny thing is today is just like the sixties. Starting with Bernie Sanders. The septuagenarian who is beloved by the youth. This is what the DNC does not understand, the youth are the future, and they don't believe the government is working for them. They don't want to go back to business as usual, they want to throw the long ball.
And the Trumpers?
Rednecks. Who laughed at hippies and...you didn't dare drive south of the Mason-Dixon line with your long hair and bell bottoms and... Didn't you see "Easy Rider"?
But for one day, the corporations of America, the institutions, they want us to believe that we're all one big homogeneous family under a big tent.
Huh?
There was no acknowledgement of the world we now live in. One of niches, special interests. The entertainment edifices and the rest of the media want us to believe it's still the same as the pre-internet era. One Top Ten. We all listen to the same records and watch the same TV shows when nothing could be further from the truth.
As for the endless movie and TV ads...they burnished the image of Netflix, which needs no spots, its subscribers know what it offers, and are addicted to it. Netflix promises to make a zillion shows with no commercials, trying to do its best. It's not all lowest common denominator, stuff that tries to appeal to everyone and really appeals to no one.
Kinda like J.Lo and Shakira.
Mariah Carey broke thirty years ago. Sure, Nirvana and Pearl Jam followed her right thereafter, but how many rock acts followed Kurt Cobain? I know, Coldplay! I thought rock was supposed to have balls.
So if you're a youngster, you don't even know what the rock ethos is. The other, refusing to sell out, reaching for the holy grail at every turn, knowing that if you're good enough and credible enough your flock will follow you anywhere.
You marched to the beat of your own drummer. The establishment came to you, not vice versa.
So, Shakira danced so quickly and provocatively that you almost could not believe your eyes. She definitely has the music in her, but how long did it take her to rehearse this routine?
As for J.Lo...why is she famous again?
Oh, that's right, the establishment record company pushed her, made her a success just before the internet killed that game and it became all hip-hop all the time.
As for Roc Nation's partnership with the NFL...it'd be like Peter Grant advising the MLB. Sure, it's great people of color can get ahead, but I can't get over the sacrifice of Kaepernick. It's positively Trumpian, the end justifies the means. And if you think it's good for your image, makes you money, keeps you top of mind, you can march right over the rest of the populace. And if Roc Nation is so powerful, why wasn't it a hip-hop Super Bowl? Especially when that's what the players are listening to. J. Lo and Shakira turned out to be safer than Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. Just the way the NFL wants it, no controversy.
But the amazing thing about disruption is the establishment doesn't see it coming. E-sports mean much more to the younger generation than the demolition derby on the field. But if you print an anti-football article you become an instant pariah. Same deal if you criticize Trump. So the NFL removes the edge and we're supposed to applaud them, congratulate them for bringing us together and leading? It's a veritable plantation. That's what the black-balling of Kaepernick is all about. The owners don't care about the players, and Clark Hunt was evidence for the eradication of inherited wealth. This soft white guy rules over this team? Ridiculous!
But that's today's America, we gloss over its faults, love it or leave it, it's the best. You abhor socialism when you feed on it, with Medicare and Social Security. Yup, that's another thing about Americans, they're ill-informed or uninformed but they're loudmouth brutes who are constantly pontificating while believing it's always somebody else's fault, like the Latinos, the immigrants, the...
Oh, I don't hate America. It would be easier for you if I did! I just want improvement, change. And one thing's for sure, the new America ain't gonna look like the old one, no way.
So, the halftime show hearkened back to the original, with Up With People. It was entertainment. It did not challenge us, it was not dangerous and had the nutritional value of candy, it was forgotten just after it was over.
So, once again, if you want to last, if you want to make a difference, you have to learn how to say no. Lil Nas X shortened his career last night, to the degree he has one, but I guess you've got to promote yourself when the Grammys deny you your due, i.e. Record of the Year.
Shakira proved that in a world where you think you're well known, you're not, until you play an event like this most people have no idea who you are.
Shakira delivered.
Maybe we need more unknowns during halftime.
Or maybe we should go back to marching bands, they're hipper than the acts performing anyway. That's right, modern marching bands make pictures, make statements, comment on humanity. Imagine if one formed a roach last night, and I'm not talking about the ones Muhammad Ali told you he despised, the ones crawling along your floor. Then again, maybe you crawl along the floor looking for said roach.
We live in challenging times. When it's hard to get a handle on what's happening. When it's hard to make sense of what's going on.
An alien would be flummoxed if he/she/it came down from orbit. Let's see, we laud a game that maims men while we advertise products you don't need and implore you to go to comic book movies.
America is fighting for its soul. Is it merely money, or is it about the ability to hold two opposing thoughts in your head at one time?
I thought about all this watching the spectacle yesterday.
But I must say, I enjoyed the game.
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