"Voters See American Dream Slipping Out of Reach, WSJ/NORC Poll Shows
Fewer believe that anyone who works hard can get ahead"
Free link: https://tinyurl.com/3ttszj4y
_____________________________________
You are spot on with this post. One issue I think you should consider discussing closely related to income inequality is housing affordability and how this is a primary source of anger, particularly among younger generations. One reason the sub 30 demographic you mentioned does not feel positive about the economy is the inability to purchase their first house without some type of family assistance. If you come from a poor family, good luck trying to buy a house.
I am 41 with two kids (9 & 7), living in Orange County (Irvine), CA. My wife and I know multiple families who are well off economically ($500K+ combined household incomes) and are unable to afford a basic single family home in Irvine, being forced to rent. Of course OC is incredibly expensive compared to most housing markets, but this traditionally coastal problem is spreading beyond these markets and impacting historically affordable places like Texas.
The younger generation literally feels hopeless about the possibility of home ownership. Much of this is driven by severe underbuilding and overly burdensome zoning laws, which in places like California is attributed heavily to NIMBYism driven by traffic concerns, preserving neighborhood character, etc., but ultimately the underlying reason is to preserve the value of most people's largest asset. The selfish attitude of "I got mine", particularly with the 50+ crowd, is sickening. As you know, housing is the key pillar of most middle class families' wealth, so taking this away will only further exacerbate income inequality.
Thank you for all of your writing. I always look forward to reading your notes.
-Matt O'Connor
_____________________________________
Thanks for this, Bob.
I'm a strong progressive, but I also acknowledge that the Democratic Party has been complicit in 40+ years of hollowing out the middle class. Why is conservative news and Trump effective in rallying the less-well-off to their side? Because the Dems haven't been "the party of labor" or "the party of the middle class" since 1980. Yes, there will always be some single-issue voters who's minds can't be changed, but what the Dems need now is a youthful leader who's willing to call out the injustice, to move the party back to favoring "the little guy" over billionaires, and to champion and enact policies that correct for all the abuses that we've seen in favor of a finance-driven economy. When I look around at the Dem leadership, I don't see that person. Maybe it's Cory Booker?
Chris Rimpl
_____________________________________
I heard an interview six weeks or so ago featuring Naomi Klein talking about her new book. She said something that has stuck with me. "The far right conspiracy theorists don't always get the facts right. But they get the tone perfectly."
Which is what your letter was saying, no? The democrats are tone deaf. Same as the Liberal party up here in Canada. Shouldn't be this way, but here we are,
Have a nice day,
Cheers, Owen Dearing
_____________________________________
BDS and the Federalist Society- what a great comparison. It's time for Jews to start investing in pro-Israel faculty so that we too can win the long game. Department chairs care mainly about grants and funding and I assume most agencies or orgs that currently fund would never give money to someone with a pro-Israel research proposal since it goes against the current academic ethos.
Anyway as always I love your take on these issues and I am thankful for your newsletter!
Best,
Michael Cantor
_____________________________________
The Truman-Eisenhower economy was hijacked starting around the late-70's when Carter slashed Cap Gains. Then Reagan went all-in on supply-side tax and fiscal policies. As a result, the broad 60% middle-class, since the early 1980s, has lost HALF its wealth. By design -- by policies that have reduced net tax rates on ultra-high-income, while keeping middle-class tax rates progressively higher. This has caused a massive 40-year upward redistribution of wealth from the broad middle to the very top.
But why do our elected officials vote these neo-Liberal, supply side policies into law -- year after year -- if they are killing our broad middle-class and causing increasingly severe class-disequalibrium? Because quid pro quo. Politicians need money for campaigns. Who funds those campaigns? Over 90% of campaign funding comes from 0.1%-wealth sources, who demand only one thing in return. Ultra-low tax rates. And they get it. Of course. Larry Lessig found that DC politicians spend roughly 50% of their working hours on the phone to their 0.1% constituents.
Does the middle-class understand this? No. Of course not. They are told by the 90% media (0.1%-wealth owned, leftist and rightist) that our problems are (fill in blank). Immigrants. Baby Killers. Gays. Socialists. Fascists. The truth is never spoken. You will never hear an in-depth report on profound class-inequality vis-a-vis supply-side tax policies on the 90% news.
Alas, the core problem is campaign funding laws that allow disproportionate influence of minority interests (special interests, money as speech). Lawmakers are the only one's who can change these horrific campaign funding laws. But of course that would be political suicide. And, as we've seen, the Supreme Court, who take massive gifting from ultra-wealth interests, is not going to make the required changes.
And so, the USA continues to grow increasingly unequal, the middle-class continues to lose real wealth, incr(ease their real debt load, and decrease their real savings -- core metrics that have been worsening for 40 years. At this rate of growth in class-inequality, the USA will reach 1% / 90% inequality ratios last seen in pre-revolutionary France, circa 1785.
Fix campaign funding, or die. Simple as that. (see UK, NZ, and other nations for healthy campaign funding law).
John LaGrou
https://www.cbpp.org/research/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality
_____________________________________
And, of course, in the ATTENTION economy, where clicks and likes are the currency, Trump is slaying it..It matters little WHAT one is saying, as long as they are shouting louder than anyone else..
I smugly assumed that in the eigth years since the Donald's ascension, attrition would seal the deal for us..Millions of old voters would die..Millions of new voters would come into the fold..The GOP would be grand no more, just old..
But we lost the young men..While sleepy Joe is cavorting with world leaders, Trump is going to WWF matches.."He's one of US!" They feel seen.
Trump plays "Macho Man" at his rallies.."Machismo" is still a thing in Latin culture..
Today's kids are SO Jonesing for some BDE, that Trump, Putin, Musk, and Andrew Tate are seen as viable role models..They should look to Travis Kelce..Talk about BDE! ("Phizer Boy" acc.to Aaron Rodgers, who's literally limping on the sidelines.)
The "great replacement theory" doesn't seem conspiratorial to today's dudes..Guys can't even get hired for roles in action/superhero movies..And if you boycott these films, you're a MISOGYNIST..Of course, the ladies get a pass, for not supporting THEIR OWN gender..
James Spencer
_____________________________________
Here's the problem the Democrats are up against:
Core inflation is the change in the costs of goods and services but does not include those from the food and energy sectors. Food and energy prices are exempt from this calculation because their prices can be too volatile or fluctuate wildly.
Food and energy (gas) prices are not factored in to that "lowering" inflation rate the Democrats (and I'm registered Democrat) tout. In the real world, where most of us live, food and energy is where inflation is hitting hardest.
Jeff Eyrich
_____________________________________
Case in point
"BREAKING: America's largest egg producers and industry groups illegally rigged the market to drive up the price of eggs a jury has found.
"Their price-fixing schme includd exporting millions of eggs overseas t drive up U.S. prices around Thanksgiving and Easter."
https://x.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1727068498197901568?s=20
Rob Meder
P.S. Our corporate overloads raised the prices and never looked back. Worked so well raised em again. People kept buying. They put less in each package. People keep buying. Margins have never been better. The grocery world has shrunk to where a few massive multinationals own every shelf in the place. This is not 'inflation' - it's simple old school greed. The only thing that will reverse this is when people stopping buying. Companies are more than happy with how thing are right now. Nothing a politician can do about it.
_____________________________________
Democrats need a targeted message, not a change in leadership.
HRC didn't have one for Wis, Mi, Ohio, and PA and she lost.
The financial abyss between the haves and have nots has never been wider
and deeper. If they're not smart enough to craft a message then a change
in leadership is warranted.
John Keith Sr.
_____________________________________
Dear Bob, I'm a union lawyer representing workers at many industries all around the country, including the young workers organizing Starbucks. Your observations are valid. Wage earners, especially the youth, are facing serious economic challenges and they're damn angry about it. I don't blame the Democrats per se, rather the increasing and perhaps inevitable monopolization of the economy. Major industries are controlled by just a few corporations so many workers are employed directly by them, or indirectly down the line by their multiple contractors and suppliers. As a result, they essentially control the labor market, as well as the market for their goods and services. It's not surprise to us in the labor movement that workers have not had significant improvements in earnings in over 30 years.
We also know that Trump will do nothing but accelerate this trend, but try telling that to the folks who are struggling in this economy. Keep up the good work, Bob Giolito
Bob Giolito
_____________________________________
Once again, Bob, you're dead on! Nailed all the liberal dems I know, and that's most of the people I know, except for my youngest brother, who lives in MI, a Trumper who grudgingly has a half-black grandson, a gay daughter who's afraid to come out at age 40 ("there's no hate like Christian love," she says), and of course believes everything in the bible and NT (except that part in Revelations that says children born of adultery should be killed).
Yes, it's 2016 redux! Scary, cause this time they will make the trains run on time, right to the camps.
Schuyler, a devoted reader
Schuyler Bishop
_____________________________________
I understand your perspective here. It's definitely anxiety-producing. At the moment, I am glad to have moved to Warsaw from Nashville. It's certainly a hell of a lot cheaper, for a start. I've recently been dealing with my two US banks. Both websites stopped working for bill pay. It took four days and a total of hours on the phone to resolve ONE of them. It's been a week and the other has not changed or gotten back to me, as promised. Plus, to pay a bill online from either means they POST A CHECK to the recipient in 7-10 days! This is absolutely unheard of at my banks in Poland and the UK...for years. They don't even have checks here.
Take a step back from your rant to encompass a broader view, like Xi and Putin do. The US (and EU) have completely yielded dominance in wind, solar and battery tech to China this century, including the raw materials supply chain. A huge strategic error with serious security implications, both energy and otherwise. And a perhaps more damning illustration of the complacency and incompetence you so rightly point out. How/why was this allowed to happen? There must have been many smart people on the inside shouting the warnings. It was the "leaders" who sat by doing nothing. Add to this the botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Frighten stuff.
Robert Bond
_____________________________________
We have corporate profit induced inflation: July 2020 through July 2022, inflation rose by 14%, but corporate profits rose by 75%, 5 times as fast.
Example: the cost for chicken went up 20% in 2021 as Tyson Foods doubled their profits from the 1st quarter of 21 to the 1st quarter of 22
The news media reports every day about how groceries are impacting the middle class, but they never say that prices are inflated because of corporate greed. And nothing else.
We collected $4 and 1/2 trillion in taxes in 2022. That's 1/2 trillion less than 2021. As a % of our GDP, it's less than 17%. Which is down from our historical average of 19.5%, which by the way is already super low.
If you compare America to other nations:
lGermany has tax revenue as a % of GDP of 24%.
UK 27%.
Australia 30%.
Not only are we bad at collecting taxes, we're not even trying.
The one agency where we've decided to cut spending this year was the IRS, whose one job is to… collect taxes.
If we raised our tax revenue to 24% of GDP, which is very reasonable (where Germany is now), we would 100% solve the deficit.
We have an inability to control perception.
We as a country are doing so many things to pivot back to making the USA as a whole better for the future.
Inflation is corporate greed induced.
Taxes and the debt are a result of Reagan. And greed.
Turns out greed is totally NOT good
Garu Witt
The Pabst Theater Group | Milwaukee
_____________________________________
You're constant misrepresentation of Biden is the reason you get blowback. If Biden was 15-20 years younger, you and everyone else would be praising his record. Student loan forgiveness efforts, minimum wage gains, helping and supporting the Union efforts, massive amount of progressive judges appointed, the infrastructure package and the list goes on. On could easily make the argument that the inflation is more of a result of corporate greed and the lack of regulation allowed due to Republican efforts.
Having said that…The time is now for Biden to step aside and help find someone younger and if he makes it known, I would like to think someone on the Democratic side would step up. I think there is a way to recognize Biden for all his accomplishments and at the same time say that it's time to hand the baton off.
Duff Rice
_____________________________________
Heavy stuff, but so on point with how I've been feeling. And as a lifelong Democrat, I have no idea what my Democrat friends are thinking cause I'm too afraid to ask, cause I'm afraid to get cancelled if I say I'm completely frustrated and over Biden.
I saw one of those editorial comic newspaper photos on social media few years ago that stuck with me and I wished I'd saved. Where there was earth but right above it was a livable orb that said AMAZON. It was like a Jeff Bezos planet. And I felt like it hit home. Like all of these new age billionaires could easily build a liveable place in space right above earth and leave this planet for a healthy living space above earth. I pictured the Kardashians, the Beyonces, the Taylor Swifts..meanwhile we're all killing each other here while they cast absentee ballots for Democrats.
So what do we do? I had so much hope for Pete Buttigieg in the last election, but good grief there's been seemingly no progress on the infrastructure of travel or high speed rail and nothing but toxic disaster trains in this country. Who do we pick to be our next president? Nikki Haskell seems viable?
We need someone as whipsmart as a tech guru whose not out for world domination.
Don't get me started on the Gen Z who couldn't find Palestine on a map prior to 10/7 but now are their biggest champions.
You're older than me, but when I hear older folk saying we're screwed - I feel like we are genuinely screwed.
Thanks for being the only person saying what likely a lot of us feel.
-Suzannah Wilkins
_____________________________________
As part of the liberal elite, I'm feeling it. My husband started a small business right before the pandemic. We got hit with the shutdowns, inflation, supply chain issues, and crime. We took out an adjustable home loan to fund it and this has been super rough with the Fed raising rates. Lately we have been withdrawing retirement savings and maxing credit cards to keep it afloat. I wake up in the middle of the night worrying how to pay the bills.
Don't discount how Covid has f*cked with people. My husband has been battling long Covid for a year and a half, and I've been getting insomnia, strong anxiety, and fatigue since my last infection in the summer. I can't say if it's long Covid or just life. I expect there are a lot of others who have seen strange health symptoms develop in the past few years. How many of these are from Covid?
I work in tech, not a great job like at Google, but a decent job. Our company had layoffs. Salaries are stagnant. Laid off tech people with experience are having trouble getting interviews and if they can find a job their salary is down. And expenses are up.
A number of years ago, a friend of mine was murdered in an antisemitic attack in this country, which I never thought could happen here, until it did. It is frightening how antisemitism is on the rise. I am sympathetic to the Palestinians too, though, how would anyone like to grow up under Hamas?
Although I am not Jewish, I understand what it is like to be targeted, because I am trans. I can go to jail for using the restroom in Florida now, thank you Ron DeSantis.
Things just feel - bad - so I get why people vote for Trump. I hope abortion will save the Democrats in 2024. I miss the hope and change. We need a positive message to counter the fear and hate.
Thanks Bob!
_____________________________________
Karl Marx: to the proletariat "all you have to lose are the chains that bind you!"
PS. I lost my business and all my income due to COVID. Small businesses were shut down by the government through no fault of their own. If you were big enough, you had accountants to quickly apply and get you that ppp money. The little guys were left to fend for themselves. I played the game and lost.
Renee Emmett
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Friday 24 November 2023
Holiday Songs-SiriusXM This Week
Not Christmas, Hanukkah, etc.
Tune in Saturday November 25th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
Phone #: 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz
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Tune in Saturday November 25th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
Phone #: 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
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The Bee Sting
https://tinyurl.com/yur6kvdh
This is an amazing book. One of the ten best of the year according to "The Washington Post," shortlisted for the Booker Prize, but it isn't simple to read.
Because it's set in Ireland, with Irish words, and one character's passages are printed sans periods.
But "The Bee Sting" is not "Ulysses," it's far from incomprehensible. But you'll find yourself rereading occasional passages for understanding, and it's far from short, 736 pages, in fact.
Turned off yet?
I was. I'd reserved "The Bee Sting" on Libby because of positive reviews. But I hadn't read the legendary Paul Murray book, "Skippy Dies," and when confronted with such a formidable task, reading one book in the time I could read two, I was discouraged, but I plowed in, for a taste, just to prove that it wasn't my thing.
But it turned out it was. Not that I knew that instantly.
No, I knew the subject matter was interesting, I just didn't know whether the writing was. You see the book started off with the life of Cassandra, a teenager, in the modern era, at the time of the financial crash. And she's a good student, and... School friendships. That's nailed in this book. Not only with Cass, but her younger brother PJ. They're your best friends and then a summer passes and they're not. They're hanging with other people and dissing you, wanting nothing to do with you.
And there's so much pressure to conform.
Oh, there's an incredible passage in the book, how we're all anxious, we're uptight, think we're different, but in truth we are all different and we can relate on that level. Ah, let me just quote a bit:
"...and you can see that beneath our individual quirks and weirdnesses, we're the same. We are the same in being different, in feeling bad about being different. Or to put it another way, we are all different expressions of the same vulnerability and need. That's what binds us together."
You won't get that in the newspaper.
And maybe that's the point, in a world that's going to hell in a handbasket, "The Bee Sting" is a respite, a whole 'nother world, but concomitantly it's even more true than the news, most of the art we're exposed to. This is not in superhero movies, a great streaming series can touch upon this, but words are better. As for music? It used to own this sphere, but no longer.
There's so much good stuff in this book. Insights. But it's not laden with these, you stumble on them every once in a while, which is why they resonate so much, like:
"That's the past, isn't it. You think it's behind you, then one day you walk into a room and it's there waiting for you."
Ain't that the truth. When you've written them off, believing they're deep in your history, they reappear. Or you find yourself in the same situation after you think you've grown past it.
But let's be clear, this is not fiction written for an award so much as a story. Yes, some of this highbrow literature is so dense and moves so slowly that when you get to the non-conclusion you wonder if it's written for anybody to read, it's impenetrable.
But not "The Bee Sting."
It's the story of a family.
The daughter who wants to distance herself from her parents.
The little brother who knows more facts than the oldsters, but is still not taken seriously.
The wife, who is the best looking woman in four counties.
And the husband... The scion of the owner of a VW dealership.
And then the recession hits. Turns out money held the family together.
And the wife grew up without money, with an outhouse, not indoor plumbing.
And the husband... He had a brother...
And you're reading the book and stuff you thought you had nailed is suddenly up for grabs.
But what is life, how do you make your decisions. You think it's going to all work out, and then you wake up at some point and find out it's far from your dream. Were you weak, did you make bad choices, or is this the way it is for everybody?
And how important is sex, desire. Can it trump the practical, does it always rear its head.
And do you live the prescribed life, the one laid out for you from nearly birth, or can you jump the tracks.
And when you go away to college... You grow, you become someone different, this schism causes tension, not only in the family, but in yourself.
Every member of the family's story is delineated.
And everybody has advantages, and everybody is challenged.
And they're all residents in a small town, where everybody knows everybody else, is deep in their business.
"The Bee Sting" is Franzen, but with a lighter tone. The last Franzen, "Crossroads," is a leap forward, there's less of an air of heaviness. But nowhere while reading "The Bee Sting" do you get the sense that Paul Murray is shooting for awards season, rather he's rubbing his hands, thrilled, laughing at times, over his plot choices.
This is not "Demon Copperhead." "The Bee Sting" is not quite a chore, but it takes a while to become riveted, to want to cast off your regular life and get back to it.
You want to know what happens, but you also want to read what the people think. There's a great combination of the interior and exterior.
And one thing that is done so well... We all think we know what is happening, and oftentimes we're just plain wrong. This happens all the time with gossip. Conventional wisdom is one way, but it's missing the point completely. Who you think is the father of the baby is not.
Don't read the above as instruction to immediately read "The Bee Sting." I need to warn you, this is not a mystery, this is not romance, it does not cut like butter. This is for serious readers who know how to commit, who are willing to work through the challenges to get to the nougat.
You know who you are. And if you're one of these people, I must tell you, "The Bee Sting" is OUTSTANDING!
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This is an amazing book. One of the ten best of the year according to "The Washington Post," shortlisted for the Booker Prize, but it isn't simple to read.
Because it's set in Ireland, with Irish words, and one character's passages are printed sans periods.
But "The Bee Sting" is not "Ulysses," it's far from incomprehensible. But you'll find yourself rereading occasional passages for understanding, and it's far from short, 736 pages, in fact.
Turned off yet?
I was. I'd reserved "The Bee Sting" on Libby because of positive reviews. But I hadn't read the legendary Paul Murray book, "Skippy Dies," and when confronted with such a formidable task, reading one book in the time I could read two, I was discouraged, but I plowed in, for a taste, just to prove that it wasn't my thing.
But it turned out it was. Not that I knew that instantly.
No, I knew the subject matter was interesting, I just didn't know whether the writing was. You see the book started off with the life of Cassandra, a teenager, in the modern era, at the time of the financial crash. And she's a good student, and... School friendships. That's nailed in this book. Not only with Cass, but her younger brother PJ. They're your best friends and then a summer passes and they're not. They're hanging with other people and dissing you, wanting nothing to do with you.
And there's so much pressure to conform.
Oh, there's an incredible passage in the book, how we're all anxious, we're uptight, think we're different, but in truth we are all different and we can relate on that level. Ah, let me just quote a bit:
"...and you can see that beneath our individual quirks and weirdnesses, we're the same. We are the same in being different, in feeling bad about being different. Or to put it another way, we are all different expressions of the same vulnerability and need. That's what binds us together."
You won't get that in the newspaper.
And maybe that's the point, in a world that's going to hell in a handbasket, "The Bee Sting" is a respite, a whole 'nother world, but concomitantly it's even more true than the news, most of the art we're exposed to. This is not in superhero movies, a great streaming series can touch upon this, but words are better. As for music? It used to own this sphere, but no longer.
There's so much good stuff in this book. Insights. But it's not laden with these, you stumble on them every once in a while, which is why they resonate so much, like:
"That's the past, isn't it. You think it's behind you, then one day you walk into a room and it's there waiting for you."
Ain't that the truth. When you've written them off, believing they're deep in your history, they reappear. Or you find yourself in the same situation after you think you've grown past it.
But let's be clear, this is not fiction written for an award so much as a story. Yes, some of this highbrow literature is so dense and moves so slowly that when you get to the non-conclusion you wonder if it's written for anybody to read, it's impenetrable.
But not "The Bee Sting."
It's the story of a family.
The daughter who wants to distance herself from her parents.
The little brother who knows more facts than the oldsters, but is still not taken seriously.
The wife, who is the best looking woman in four counties.
And the husband... The scion of the owner of a VW dealership.
And then the recession hits. Turns out money held the family together.
And the wife grew up without money, with an outhouse, not indoor plumbing.
And the husband... He had a brother...
And you're reading the book and stuff you thought you had nailed is suddenly up for grabs.
But what is life, how do you make your decisions. You think it's going to all work out, and then you wake up at some point and find out it's far from your dream. Were you weak, did you make bad choices, or is this the way it is for everybody?
And how important is sex, desire. Can it trump the practical, does it always rear its head.
And do you live the prescribed life, the one laid out for you from nearly birth, or can you jump the tracks.
And when you go away to college... You grow, you become someone different, this schism causes tension, not only in the family, but in yourself.
Every member of the family's story is delineated.
And everybody has advantages, and everybody is challenged.
And they're all residents in a small town, where everybody knows everybody else, is deep in their business.
"The Bee Sting" is Franzen, but with a lighter tone. The last Franzen, "Crossroads," is a leap forward, there's less of an air of heaviness. But nowhere while reading "The Bee Sting" do you get the sense that Paul Murray is shooting for awards season, rather he's rubbing his hands, thrilled, laughing at times, over his plot choices.
This is not "Demon Copperhead." "The Bee Sting" is not quite a chore, but it takes a while to become riveted, to want to cast off your regular life and get back to it.
You want to know what happens, but you also want to read what the people think. There's a great combination of the interior and exterior.
And one thing that is done so well... We all think we know what is happening, and oftentimes we're just plain wrong. This happens all the time with gossip. Conventional wisdom is one way, but it's missing the point completely. Who you think is the father of the baby is not.
Don't read the above as instruction to immediately read "The Bee Sting." I need to warn you, this is not a mystery, this is not romance, it does not cut like butter. This is for serious readers who know how to commit, who are willing to work through the challenges to get to the nougat.
You know who you are. And if you're one of these people, I must tell you, "The Bee Sting" is OUTSTANDING!
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Thursday 23 November 2023
Simon Kirke-This Week's Podcast
Drummer for Free and Bad Company. Simon tells a good story, you'll enjoy this.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/simon-kirke-130150882/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/simon-kirke/id1316200737?i=1000635786171
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2wJFwX74jV0wmjqAQclexh?si=WUaKKtH1RfiyJAiqc9xTIg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/ddf9e0d6-44ff-4903-b284-d2a41a5a9628/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-simon-kirke
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-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/simon-kirke-130150882/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/simon-kirke/id1316200737?i=1000635786171
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2wJFwX74jV0wmjqAQclexh?si=WUaKKtH1RfiyJAiqc9xTIg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/ddf9e0d6-44ff-4903-b284-d2a41a5a9628/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-simon-kirke
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Wednesday 22 November 2023
Sexual Abuse Allegations
And now Jimmy Iovine?
Innocent until proven guilty. Then again, it seems the court of public opinion is everything. As for that settlement with Puffy/Diddy... Makes it look like it was about money. Well, what I mean is if someone is guilty, you should play it out to the end, to court, to a verdict. Having said that, it's very expensive and the opposition can bury you in paper. However... Until we have more admissions or convictions of guilt, change will be impaired.
Yet this is a turning point.
It goes back to Tommy Mottola. What I mean by that is Mottola flipped the script, to where the executive was more important than the talent. Of course this was always the case with Clive Davis, however he lived in his own pop backwater, and we all knew the credible stuff was put out by the other labels, certainly after Clive left CBS, which was fifty years ago.
So...
Many music executives are failed musicians. They're envious of the musicians. The stars can be lame, not showing up on time, bad with their money, substance abusers, but they are still treated like royalty, they can still get laid whenever they want to.
Walter Yetnikoff got into the substance abuse game, then again, those were the cocaine years, not inexcusable, but you didn't have to be an artist to snort the drug.
But in the late sixties and seventies, things were different. The artists had complete control. They recorded where they wanted to, cut what they wanted to, and the label had to put it out, as it was. Kinda like the movie business in the seventies if you think about it.
But then came the money.
In the movie business it was the blockbusters, it was "Jaws" and "Star Wars." We always had blockbusters in the music business, even though the business never got any respect, even though it was more profitable than movies for a long time, even though Warner Brothers' music division built the Warner cable system, but the twin towers of the overpriced CD with low royalties and the worldwide impact of MTV rained down so much money that the theft-prone labels, whose whole business model is based on taking the lion's share, started to rain down money, a lot of money.
So... The artists were getting screwed, getting vinyl/cassette rates on CDs, having agreed to supposedly help the new technology get a foothold, but then rates never went up, and the labels were making more and more money. And when Napster, et al, put a dent in revenues, the labels decided to horn in on the live action, they had to preserve their business model, they had to make money, and supposedly the execs were responsible for all this and rather than cutting their pay, they just got rid of all the little people.
And now the Big Three companies are publicly owned, no one has skin in the game. So the execs are paid so much... Lucian Grainge, triple-digit millions to take the company public? I'm not criticizing the job Lucian did, but I am criticizing the pay. And with that pay comes...
A whole new bunch of friends, all flying private, oftentimes on their own planes, sometimes with yachts, you're keeping up with a whole new level of Joneses, and you need the money to do so, and you convince the board you're indispensable and your compensation package... Good luck making that as an artist.
And with that money comes...
You've got to know, it's rare that the football captain becomes head of the multinational corporation. It's a different breed of people. In straight life, those who jumped through hoops, in the music business...hustlers, and the successful are very smart, and since the business gets no respect, no one is doing a deep dive into the activities of the brass.
So you were a nerd once, you couldn't get the time of day from the desirable women, but now you've got all this money and power and that buys a lot of action, but even worse, people with these assets start to believe they're entitled to this action. And that they're above the law, no one is going to get them.
And like I said above, it's a dark business. The artists are indentured slaves, independent contractors who get no benefits, and most don't make much, they get the advances but no more, and those who do hit have to pay for all the losers. As for all the talk about Spotify royalties, the truth is most acts of the past didn't even go into royalties. And now the executives decided whether you needed a cowrite, a hit single, whether to put the album out at all.
So we had #MeToo. But somehow the music business escaped. What's the phrase, "sex, drugs and rock & roll?" What part of that do people not understand? Sex comes first, it always comes first. Didn't so many of the male acts say they played music to meet women?
So...
Now these executives labor at a high price nearly unsupervised. Make the company money and you keep your job. Used to be the labels shuffled executives every few years, but that was back when there were six of them, now you don't work your way up from the bottom so much as enter in the middle and go to the top, and those who did start from the bottom, they believe they're entitled to their success, they believe they paid their dues, just like the artists.
As for the artists... Prior to cellphone cameras... Let's just say they used to rape and pillage. And no one is as hot and sexy as a rock star, no billionaire, not even a movie star, people are lining up to make contact with the artist, sometimes even sex, but even so, many men took it past the limit, into raw abuse.
But now there are cameras in every phone and it has completely changed life on the road. Forever.
And now these lawsuits are going to change the behavior of executives too.
As for lone wolves, like managers...they too are going to feel the heat.
Don't ask me to draw the line, what is abuse and what is not. But let's be clear, many men took advantage of women, period. And when this is all done, that behavior will be impacted.
Some women may be making bogus claims, but... This is like shooting fish in a barrel, sex is the essence of the business.
As for the defamation lawsuits in response... Some of these claims are outright false, but if you're guilty... This seems to be the only way to fight back and hopefully keep your reputation intact. But after this, boards will become more sensitive to this behavior, won't tolerate it, despite the profits.
It's a whole new world.
If you don't know where the line is...
You're oblivious, you're not looking. Because the line is always obvious. Just because everybody else does it that does not mean you can too. And if someone is intoxicated and you have sex with them...beware. Oftentimes there's an inherent power difference.
We don't need to remove the sex from rock and roll. Only the abuse.
And it's about time.
P.S. This is ultimately a mediocre article in the "Los Angeles Times," but it was right there on the front page of the Calendar section today, and the photos look like mugshots, talk about a chilling effect, hopefully...
"The music industry is finally having its #MeToo moment": https://tinyurl.com/ykbn45rh
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Listen to the podcast:
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Innocent until proven guilty. Then again, it seems the court of public opinion is everything. As for that settlement with Puffy/Diddy... Makes it look like it was about money. Well, what I mean is if someone is guilty, you should play it out to the end, to court, to a verdict. Having said that, it's very expensive and the opposition can bury you in paper. However... Until we have more admissions or convictions of guilt, change will be impaired.
Yet this is a turning point.
It goes back to Tommy Mottola. What I mean by that is Mottola flipped the script, to where the executive was more important than the talent. Of course this was always the case with Clive Davis, however he lived in his own pop backwater, and we all knew the credible stuff was put out by the other labels, certainly after Clive left CBS, which was fifty years ago.
So...
Many music executives are failed musicians. They're envious of the musicians. The stars can be lame, not showing up on time, bad with their money, substance abusers, but they are still treated like royalty, they can still get laid whenever they want to.
Walter Yetnikoff got into the substance abuse game, then again, those were the cocaine years, not inexcusable, but you didn't have to be an artist to snort the drug.
But in the late sixties and seventies, things were different. The artists had complete control. They recorded where they wanted to, cut what they wanted to, and the label had to put it out, as it was. Kinda like the movie business in the seventies if you think about it.
But then came the money.
In the movie business it was the blockbusters, it was "Jaws" and "Star Wars." We always had blockbusters in the music business, even though the business never got any respect, even though it was more profitable than movies for a long time, even though Warner Brothers' music division built the Warner cable system, but the twin towers of the overpriced CD with low royalties and the worldwide impact of MTV rained down so much money that the theft-prone labels, whose whole business model is based on taking the lion's share, started to rain down money, a lot of money.
So... The artists were getting screwed, getting vinyl/cassette rates on CDs, having agreed to supposedly help the new technology get a foothold, but then rates never went up, and the labels were making more and more money. And when Napster, et al, put a dent in revenues, the labels decided to horn in on the live action, they had to preserve their business model, they had to make money, and supposedly the execs were responsible for all this and rather than cutting their pay, they just got rid of all the little people.
And now the Big Three companies are publicly owned, no one has skin in the game. So the execs are paid so much... Lucian Grainge, triple-digit millions to take the company public? I'm not criticizing the job Lucian did, but I am criticizing the pay. And with that pay comes...
A whole new bunch of friends, all flying private, oftentimes on their own planes, sometimes with yachts, you're keeping up with a whole new level of Joneses, and you need the money to do so, and you convince the board you're indispensable and your compensation package... Good luck making that as an artist.
And with that money comes...
You've got to know, it's rare that the football captain becomes head of the multinational corporation. It's a different breed of people. In straight life, those who jumped through hoops, in the music business...hustlers, and the successful are very smart, and since the business gets no respect, no one is doing a deep dive into the activities of the brass.
So you were a nerd once, you couldn't get the time of day from the desirable women, but now you've got all this money and power and that buys a lot of action, but even worse, people with these assets start to believe they're entitled to this action. And that they're above the law, no one is going to get them.
And like I said above, it's a dark business. The artists are indentured slaves, independent contractors who get no benefits, and most don't make much, they get the advances but no more, and those who do hit have to pay for all the losers. As for all the talk about Spotify royalties, the truth is most acts of the past didn't even go into royalties. And now the executives decided whether you needed a cowrite, a hit single, whether to put the album out at all.
So we had #MeToo. But somehow the music business escaped. What's the phrase, "sex, drugs and rock & roll?" What part of that do people not understand? Sex comes first, it always comes first. Didn't so many of the male acts say they played music to meet women?
So...
Now these executives labor at a high price nearly unsupervised. Make the company money and you keep your job. Used to be the labels shuffled executives every few years, but that was back when there were six of them, now you don't work your way up from the bottom so much as enter in the middle and go to the top, and those who did start from the bottom, they believe they're entitled to their success, they believe they paid their dues, just like the artists.
As for the artists... Prior to cellphone cameras... Let's just say they used to rape and pillage. And no one is as hot and sexy as a rock star, no billionaire, not even a movie star, people are lining up to make contact with the artist, sometimes even sex, but even so, many men took it past the limit, into raw abuse.
But now there are cameras in every phone and it has completely changed life on the road. Forever.
And now these lawsuits are going to change the behavior of executives too.
As for lone wolves, like managers...they too are going to feel the heat.
Don't ask me to draw the line, what is abuse and what is not. But let's be clear, many men took advantage of women, period. And when this is all done, that behavior will be impacted.
Some women may be making bogus claims, but... This is like shooting fish in a barrel, sex is the essence of the business.
As for the defamation lawsuits in response... Some of these claims are outright false, but if you're guilty... This seems to be the only way to fight back and hopefully keep your reputation intact. But after this, boards will become more sensitive to this behavior, won't tolerate it, despite the profits.
It's a whole new world.
If you don't know where the line is...
You're oblivious, you're not looking. Because the line is always obvious. Just because everybody else does it that does not mean you can too. And if someone is intoxicated and you have sex with them...beware. Oftentimes there's an inherent power difference.
We don't need to remove the sex from rock and roll. Only the abuse.
And it's about time.
P.S. This is ultimately a mediocre article in the "Los Angeles Times," but it was right there on the front page of the Calendar section today, and the photos look like mugshots, talk about a chilling effect, hopefully...
"The music industry is finally having its #MeToo moment": https://tinyurl.com/ykbn45rh
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
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The GQ Chris Stapleton Article
"Is Chris Stapleton the One Thing That America Can Agree On? - How did a songwriter who never cared much for being famous transcend country music to become one of today's most popular stars? Ahead of a new album, GQ's Brett Martin goes road-tripping with one of the most reliable hit makers in music.": https://www.gq.com/story/chris-stapleton-gq-hype
What kind of crazy, f*cked up world do we live in where the best music article of the year is in "GQ"?
I missed it. I can now read "GQ" with my Apple News+ subscription, but style is not my thing, at least off the slopes, and too often in fashion magazines the writing is just filler between the pictures. But my sister Wendy sent this to me and I was wowed.
It starts off as the usual construct, faceless writer up close and personal with the artist, but over time certain details are revealed...
That Stapleton played baseball, football and basketball and was his high school's valedictorian. You'd be surprised how many successful people are smart, whether they be educated or uneducated. And sure, you can be a grind and be number one, but then you wouldn't have time to play all those sports, making Stapleton a regular guy.
Just as fascinating is the fact that Bon Jovi was Stapleton's first concert. We're too often set in stone, thinking the past is still the present, that our roots need to come from the sixties or seventies. Bon Jovi can be seen as a joke, but during the "Slippery When Wet" era... Bon Jovi was everywhere because the band and the material were great. And the band and material were great because Jon Bongiovi needed it, this success, and was willing to work hard to make it.
So Stapleton goes to Vanderbilt, but drops out. And then goes back to Nashville to be a writer, whereupon he does three writing sessions a day. A bit of this is hagiography, but it shows dedication, a willingness to work harder than anybody else. Talent only gets you so far. And Stapleton does not put down this artificial songwriting construct, because it hones his chops, and chops are everything. In order to be great, to do great work, you need to be able to ride the edge, continuously.
Not that inspiration is not key, after losing a great song to supposed memory, Stapleton records everything.
And the more you read, the more Stapleton seems regular.
Oh, believe me, none of these stars are regular. They're different. Otherwise they wouldn't be so successful. Especially if you write the damn songs, that's really hard to do, the way they used to do it, which is why they call it "classic rock."
But Stapleton is classic in his own way. He'd fit in perfectly in the first half of the seventies. You'd mention his name along with the greats. But today he stands alone, because of his standing outside the system. Yes, the system ultimately embraced him, but he seems to exist outside it, to not kowtow to it.
And then he talks about not being able to even get on stage on Bluebird open mic night. The road to success is paved with disappointment and disillusionment. If you haven't lost, you haven't won.
But even more interesting than the article, or just as interesting, is the video, a "GQ" routine, "10 Essentials." Check it out here:
"10 Things Chris Stapleton Can't Live Without": https://tinyurl.com/mv3h9n6c
I've seen this guy live twice, once in a club, pretty close to the stage, yet he's completely different from who I thought he was. You know, you get a picture in your mind, based on photos you've seen, even video, but that's not the person they are.
The way Chris talks, how he talks, what's important to him, you get to see the real him, and realize he's just a person, and you probably wouldn't connect with him one on one, because everybody is different, unique, not your best friend. Chris evidences a personality, that is not manufactured, that makes him come alive. I know this guy from school, albeit sans a southern accent, we might have even had some conversations, even done something with each other, but we are not best friends. This is where modern technology depicts a more accurate picture of the artist than the old.
You come to the end of the article and video believing you've learned something about Stapleton, and it's not all sheen, not all filtered for the public. It's not exactly raw, but an element of authenticity seeps out.
Read it!
(And watch it!)
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What kind of crazy, f*cked up world do we live in where the best music article of the year is in "GQ"?
I missed it. I can now read "GQ" with my Apple News+ subscription, but style is not my thing, at least off the slopes, and too often in fashion magazines the writing is just filler between the pictures. But my sister Wendy sent this to me and I was wowed.
It starts off as the usual construct, faceless writer up close and personal with the artist, but over time certain details are revealed...
That Stapleton played baseball, football and basketball and was his high school's valedictorian. You'd be surprised how many successful people are smart, whether they be educated or uneducated. And sure, you can be a grind and be number one, but then you wouldn't have time to play all those sports, making Stapleton a regular guy.
Just as fascinating is the fact that Bon Jovi was Stapleton's first concert. We're too often set in stone, thinking the past is still the present, that our roots need to come from the sixties or seventies. Bon Jovi can be seen as a joke, but during the "Slippery When Wet" era... Bon Jovi was everywhere because the band and the material were great. And the band and material were great because Jon Bongiovi needed it, this success, and was willing to work hard to make it.
So Stapleton goes to Vanderbilt, but drops out. And then goes back to Nashville to be a writer, whereupon he does three writing sessions a day. A bit of this is hagiography, but it shows dedication, a willingness to work harder than anybody else. Talent only gets you so far. And Stapleton does not put down this artificial songwriting construct, because it hones his chops, and chops are everything. In order to be great, to do great work, you need to be able to ride the edge, continuously.
Not that inspiration is not key, after losing a great song to supposed memory, Stapleton records everything.
And the more you read, the more Stapleton seems regular.
Oh, believe me, none of these stars are regular. They're different. Otherwise they wouldn't be so successful. Especially if you write the damn songs, that's really hard to do, the way they used to do it, which is why they call it "classic rock."
But Stapleton is classic in his own way. He'd fit in perfectly in the first half of the seventies. You'd mention his name along with the greats. But today he stands alone, because of his standing outside the system. Yes, the system ultimately embraced him, but he seems to exist outside it, to not kowtow to it.
And then he talks about not being able to even get on stage on Bluebird open mic night. The road to success is paved with disappointment and disillusionment. If you haven't lost, you haven't won.
But even more interesting than the article, or just as interesting, is the video, a "GQ" routine, "10 Essentials." Check it out here:
"10 Things Chris Stapleton Can't Live Without": https://tinyurl.com/mv3h9n6c
I've seen this guy live twice, once in a club, pretty close to the stage, yet he's completely different from who I thought he was. You know, you get a picture in your mind, based on photos you've seen, even video, but that's not the person they are.
The way Chris talks, how he talks, what's important to him, you get to see the real him, and realize he's just a person, and you probably wouldn't connect with him one on one, because everybody is different, unique, not your best friend. Chris evidences a personality, that is not manufactured, that makes him come alive. I know this guy from school, albeit sans a southern accent, we might have even had some conversations, even done something with each other, but we are not best friends. This is where modern technology depicts a more accurate picture of the artist than the old.
You come to the end of the article and video believing you've learned something about Stapleton, and it's not all sheen, not all filtered for the public. It's not exactly raw, but an element of authenticity seeps out.
Read it!
(And watch it!)
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
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It's The Economy, Stupid!
Who exactly do the Democrats represent?
Let's see, the college educated, the liberals who think they know better, those who have benefited from the tech boom, those who've worked very hard to be successful, who believe they've earned every penny and might have a little compassion for the poor folk but don't want to lose their status and comfort for this bunch of losers who pooh-poohed education, didn't get on the ladder of the corporation, who didn't become an entrepreneur..
Wait a second, isn't this supposed to be the Republicans?
It's income inequality, come home to roost. And I do blame St. Reagan. Turns out greed is not good. And after four decades the proletariat is mad as hell and just won't take it anymore.
It's analogous to what is happening on college campuses. You might have just become aware of BDS. But the Palestinians have been playing a long game, akin to the Republicans and the Federalist Society. Yes, the Republicans realized they were getting beaten judicially and they organized, supported right wing jurists, and voila, decades later we've got a right wing Supreme Court. You don't need no stinking right to an abortion, that's for the gerrymandered states to decide! And you sit at home saying it's unfair. And now you realize the vaunted Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a power drunk narcissist just like Joe Biden. How do you think they got this far? Do you think you're sitting at home and the President calls you to sit on the Supreme Court and you say "Who, me?" No, you plan for this role, you lobby for this role, you enter the game, few survive, few make it, but those who do are far from the rank and file. They won this game and they're not about to give up power.
So the Palestinians were sick of losing to the Israelis. They wanted the Jews gone. And then they realized the only way to win was to foment dissent. Yes, BDS was not formed spontaneously on campuses, that's a Palestinian construct. As for bringing students and liberal thinkers to Palestinian encampments, that was not serendipitous either, no that was a choice, an effort by the Palestinians, to get the bleeding heart liberals over to see how the Palestinians are living, how they're being abused by the Jews. You're a compassionate person, aren't you? How could you not take these people's side! They're just people, like you and me. And they've been held back and...
David Krebs has been bugging me about this for decades. BDS and intersectionality. He'd get me on the phone and start ranting and raving and I listened, but I thought he was overboard. But it turned out Krebs was tuned in, he knew what was going on, he was waving the flag and I ignored it. And it was someone else's battle, someone else's lift, right? And now antisemitism is rampant, it's come down to me, and I graduated from college back in the seventies!
But we've got Bidenomics! The country is flourishing! I mean look at Europe, with worse inflation, Biden's done an incredible job!
For the same elite Democrats.
Have you been to the grocery store? I started to notice it myself. The bill went from the two hundred dollar range to the three hundred dollar range, and I was buying the exact same stuff. As for gas at seven dollars a gallon... It was unfathomable, nearly a joke. Must be anomalous. Just like the California blackouts at the turn of the century, which turned out to be caused by Enron in Texas. That's not what the news told us, we heard some cockamamie explanation about the power grid and capacity. The newspapers were clueless, until after the fact. Enron collapsed, there was some prosecution, but employees walked away with handsome compensation, just like the self-centered Wall Street bozos after the crash they created back in 2008/9.
So there was that poll in the "New York Times" a couple of weeks back, talking about Biden losing in the only states that count. And what did Democrats do? Say the poll was flawed. That it couldn't be true. It didn't feel like it to them. Everybody they knew was doing well, supporting Biden, and you'd better shut up and do the same.
Thank god the media is not as stupid as the Democrats.
"Bidenomics Has a Mortal Enemy, and It Isn't Trump": https://tinyurl.com/m45we2tw
That's a free link and you should at least scan this article, there are charts and everything, it's easy!
Bottom line? The spoils have gone to the wealthy. Not only Elon Musk and the billionaires, but you, with your 401k and two late model cars in the driveway. The average person doesn't own stock. The average person lost their good-paying job when it was shipped overseas. They can't make ends meet. But they should realize that by the statistics, the economy is raging. How could Biden and the Democrats be so out of touch?
And all you can do is laugh at the Trumpers. I certainly do. There are some great TikToks with people saying inane things. But based on their speech, their education can't have been great, they can't be making much money, they've been screwed for decades, been left behind, and they're supposed to listen to the college graduates who did it to them say that they know better? It's laughable!
And these same college graduates... They blame religion, school laws, they've got a million reasons why this is so. But it can't be them, they're blameless, they donate to charity, they're immune!
And talk about living in bizarroland... This was on the Opinion page of the "Wall Street Journal" on Monday:
"A New Approach to Taxes That Pays Its Own Way - Two decades of unpaid-for tax cuts have eroded the federal government's revenue base.": https://tinyurl.com/3evwudhw
That's another free link. But in truth, the headline says it all. And of course we have to blame Bush II and Trump, but as the article states, the Democrats were complicit in a deal that made over 80% of the tax cuts permanent.
Of course the devil is in the details. But the bottom line is the rank and file got screwed. They were told to have confidence in the American Dream that George Carlin said you have to be asleep to believe in.
Life is hard for most people. But you say it can't be that hard, because they've got flat screens and smartphones.
And it's not only the Democratic elite, it's the Republican elite too. Talk about being out of touch. The Republican elite has completely lost control of the party, it's become all MAGA all the time, Trump's party.
And I could rail against Trump for days, but in truth he gives people something to believe in, because economic prosperity certainly ain't happening. Trump gives them hope. Biden promises what Hillary did, more of the same, and that ain't working for them.
But it's not only the Trump-lovers, it's the youth. Here's one of the money quotes from the above-referenced "New York Times" article:
"Zero — yes, zero — respondents under 30 in three of the swing states said they considered the economy 'excellent.'"
Try convincing them they're wrong. Whip out all that Bidenomics nonsense. Don't you get it, perception is more important than facts, and the perception of these people is it's not going in the right direction for them. But you know better.
It's a long con. Just like with the Palestinians. While you were asleep, savoring the fruits of your labor. Accumulating capital. Going on vacation on a whim. Sending your kid to private school... The left behind were falling further behind.
Hell, I don't recognize the country anymore. I was taught if you worked hard you had a chance of triumphing. What a bunch of b.s. that turned out to be. In a nation where the writers are on strike for bread crumbs and Zaslav and Iger make triple-digit millions. Even worse, they're not responsible. That's right, the corporation will roll on, they'll end up on the sidelines, but they'll have all that money! It's not like even you or me can sit down and say Zaslav is making good product. Hell, the story on Zaslav is he's not making any product at all, just whittling down debt. It's kind of like Biden... We need a leader, we need someone to believe in.
That's Trump.
WHAT?
Come on, that's what he is, a leader. Maybe not your leader, maybe not where you want to go, but where is your leader? Biden is so old he came of age before the days of handheld calculators. He remembers when there was no color TV. Digitally native? How in the hell do you expect young people to relate to this guy? Oh, just tell them it's good for them, like Hillary. And how did that work out?
There's a generation gap, as wide as the one in the sixties. But those who were challenging the status quo yesterday are the establishment today, and they just can't accept it. They're skinny as a result of Ozempic, they've got smartphones, they're hip!
Then again, social media is the enemy, TikTok is the devil. Ask one of these boomers or Gen-X'ers if they've been on TikTok. Of course not, they're bloviating on that which they're unfamiliar with. But that doesn't stop them, as they post family photos on Facebook, or look at static images on Instagram. In a world of video, they're still focused on stills, photos that is.
The world keeps turning, keeps changing, you're supposed to question your suppositions, or else you're left behind. But that's all we hear about from the oldsters, we need less time with the smartphone, we have to return to yesterday...
Now even the kids won't go to the movies. Yes, we hated the high concept superhero flicks, but at least the kids went to see them. Not anymore, now they stiff. And Pixar? Those movies are for Disney+. No, to get someone to go out to the theatre, it must be an event. But it turns out there are far fewer event pictures than we thought. I mean look at the cost... Enough already.
Everything's being challenged, everything's up for grabs, and all we get from Biden and the Democrats is trust us, we're doing a good job.
But instead we're living in "Groundhog Day." We've seen this movie before, back in 2016. Sure, Biden got rid of Trump, but he didn't reach the poor, the great morass, the youth, those who voted for Trump to turn over the table to begin with. Yes, Biden is Hillary. And don't tell me Hillary would have been a better president than Trump, anyone who argues otherwise is a fool, but Hillary wasn't going to address the problems of the poor, the underclass, those living from paycheck to paycheck either. Oh, there might have been some photo ops, some lip service, but Hillary's backers wouldn't have allowed her to screw them. Government is a business, and they're profiting.
Just like they are under Biden.
Trump is larger than life. It's like believing in a heavy metal band that everybody else hates. It gives you an identity. And what do those on the left say? You're dumb and delusional and we know better. Guess how much that resonates...not at all!
But I can't write the above. Because I've got to shut up and support Biden and no one I know wants to give up a single thing they believe they've earned. They've been living in income inequality land for so long they think it's de rigueur, unstoppable. Just like Jews in America believed antisemitism was a minor distraction.
Fighting antisemitism? God, I thought last week that worst case scenario I can move to Israel. Unfathomable previously, a realistic option today.
But what about all those who've been left with the short end of the stick in the continuing divide between the rich and the poor? Where are they gonna go?
Fascists promise to make the trains run on time, in a world where they do not. And you might not think that's the most important thing, but people have to get to work, they're sick of the chaos. They don't believe things are getting better, but worse.
But you bring out your spreadsheets and try to convince them otherwise. But it's a losing proposition. Because whatever you say, it doesn't feel that way, that they've just go to hang in there and things will work out for them. They haven't! And they see Trump as an outsider, not beholden to the system. Oh, don't try to dissuade me with the truth, it's not about the truth, this is what people feel. And what do we give them in the alternative? A doddering old man who believes in incremental change, if there's change at all. That's no longer enough for people. Don't tell me about what Trump will do. Biden now has a record. He got rid of Trump, but to the average person...they can't see that much more of a benefit. And they're hurting. They're not only seeing how celebrities live, but how you live, and they want to take you down a peg, and that's not by voting for Joe Biden. Come on, haven't you ever done something drastic, something dramatic, knowing it might hurt you a bit, but it has a chance of delivering a better future? Take this job and shove it?
Unions are flourishing. For all the MBA blowback, the WGA got essentially everything it asked for. And what do the professors say? Well, the writers didn't work for x number of months, and they'll never recapture that income... But that's not what it was about. It was about standing up to the man, saying they weren't going to take it anymore, and the victory feels so good, it's almost better than money.
And Shawn Fain triumphs over the three car companies and... The rank and file see that the Big Three had the money, that it's not going to put them out of business. Yes, the rich can sacrifice and still be rich. But they don't want to. Like the overcompensated CEOs. Well, since this guy is making so much, I should too, McKinsey told me so!
Wow. I find these facts self-evident. But too many can't see them.
Don't you get it, the revolution has come, it is here. When we were told to be calm, that it could never arrive. Every Jew in America is frightened, and everybody who got screwed, who's been sitting on the sideline watching seemingly everybody but them get rich? They've had enough.
It's not hard to trace the path. We can see how we got here. And we got here because those with something to lose were asleep, they thought nothing would ever change.
But it did.
Let's see, the college educated, the liberals who think they know better, those who have benefited from the tech boom, those who've worked very hard to be successful, who believe they've earned every penny and might have a little compassion for the poor folk but don't want to lose their status and comfort for this bunch of losers who pooh-poohed education, didn't get on the ladder of the corporation, who didn't become an entrepreneur..
Wait a second, isn't this supposed to be the Republicans?
It's income inequality, come home to roost. And I do blame St. Reagan. Turns out greed is not good. And after four decades the proletariat is mad as hell and just won't take it anymore.
It's analogous to what is happening on college campuses. You might have just become aware of BDS. But the Palestinians have been playing a long game, akin to the Republicans and the Federalist Society. Yes, the Republicans realized they were getting beaten judicially and they organized, supported right wing jurists, and voila, decades later we've got a right wing Supreme Court. You don't need no stinking right to an abortion, that's for the gerrymandered states to decide! And you sit at home saying it's unfair. And now you realize the vaunted Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a power drunk narcissist just like Joe Biden. How do you think they got this far? Do you think you're sitting at home and the President calls you to sit on the Supreme Court and you say "Who, me?" No, you plan for this role, you lobby for this role, you enter the game, few survive, few make it, but those who do are far from the rank and file. They won this game and they're not about to give up power.
So the Palestinians were sick of losing to the Israelis. They wanted the Jews gone. And then they realized the only way to win was to foment dissent. Yes, BDS was not formed spontaneously on campuses, that's a Palestinian construct. As for bringing students and liberal thinkers to Palestinian encampments, that was not serendipitous either, no that was a choice, an effort by the Palestinians, to get the bleeding heart liberals over to see how the Palestinians are living, how they're being abused by the Jews. You're a compassionate person, aren't you? How could you not take these people's side! They're just people, like you and me. And they've been held back and...
David Krebs has been bugging me about this for decades. BDS and intersectionality. He'd get me on the phone and start ranting and raving and I listened, but I thought he was overboard. But it turned out Krebs was tuned in, he knew what was going on, he was waving the flag and I ignored it. And it was someone else's battle, someone else's lift, right? And now antisemitism is rampant, it's come down to me, and I graduated from college back in the seventies!
But we've got Bidenomics! The country is flourishing! I mean look at Europe, with worse inflation, Biden's done an incredible job!
For the same elite Democrats.
Have you been to the grocery store? I started to notice it myself. The bill went from the two hundred dollar range to the three hundred dollar range, and I was buying the exact same stuff. As for gas at seven dollars a gallon... It was unfathomable, nearly a joke. Must be anomalous. Just like the California blackouts at the turn of the century, which turned out to be caused by Enron in Texas. That's not what the news told us, we heard some cockamamie explanation about the power grid and capacity. The newspapers were clueless, until after the fact. Enron collapsed, there was some prosecution, but employees walked away with handsome compensation, just like the self-centered Wall Street bozos after the crash they created back in 2008/9.
So there was that poll in the "New York Times" a couple of weeks back, talking about Biden losing in the only states that count. And what did Democrats do? Say the poll was flawed. That it couldn't be true. It didn't feel like it to them. Everybody they knew was doing well, supporting Biden, and you'd better shut up and do the same.
Thank god the media is not as stupid as the Democrats.
"Bidenomics Has a Mortal Enemy, and It Isn't Trump": https://tinyurl.com/m45we2tw
That's a free link and you should at least scan this article, there are charts and everything, it's easy!
Bottom line? The spoils have gone to the wealthy. Not only Elon Musk and the billionaires, but you, with your 401k and two late model cars in the driveway. The average person doesn't own stock. The average person lost their good-paying job when it was shipped overseas. They can't make ends meet. But they should realize that by the statistics, the economy is raging. How could Biden and the Democrats be so out of touch?
And all you can do is laugh at the Trumpers. I certainly do. There are some great TikToks with people saying inane things. But based on their speech, their education can't have been great, they can't be making much money, they've been screwed for decades, been left behind, and they're supposed to listen to the college graduates who did it to them say that they know better? It's laughable!
And these same college graduates... They blame religion, school laws, they've got a million reasons why this is so. But it can't be them, they're blameless, they donate to charity, they're immune!
And talk about living in bizarroland... This was on the Opinion page of the "Wall Street Journal" on Monday:
"A New Approach to Taxes That Pays Its Own Way - Two decades of unpaid-for tax cuts have eroded the federal government's revenue base.": https://tinyurl.com/3evwudhw
That's another free link. But in truth, the headline says it all. And of course we have to blame Bush II and Trump, but as the article states, the Democrats were complicit in a deal that made over 80% of the tax cuts permanent.
Of course the devil is in the details. But the bottom line is the rank and file got screwed. They were told to have confidence in the American Dream that George Carlin said you have to be asleep to believe in.
Life is hard for most people. But you say it can't be that hard, because they've got flat screens and smartphones.
And it's not only the Democratic elite, it's the Republican elite too. Talk about being out of touch. The Republican elite has completely lost control of the party, it's become all MAGA all the time, Trump's party.
And I could rail against Trump for days, but in truth he gives people something to believe in, because economic prosperity certainly ain't happening. Trump gives them hope. Biden promises what Hillary did, more of the same, and that ain't working for them.
But it's not only the Trump-lovers, it's the youth. Here's one of the money quotes from the above-referenced "New York Times" article:
"Zero — yes, zero — respondents under 30 in three of the swing states said they considered the economy 'excellent.'"
Try convincing them they're wrong. Whip out all that Bidenomics nonsense. Don't you get it, perception is more important than facts, and the perception of these people is it's not going in the right direction for them. But you know better.
It's a long con. Just like with the Palestinians. While you were asleep, savoring the fruits of your labor. Accumulating capital. Going on vacation on a whim. Sending your kid to private school... The left behind were falling further behind.
Hell, I don't recognize the country anymore. I was taught if you worked hard you had a chance of triumphing. What a bunch of b.s. that turned out to be. In a nation where the writers are on strike for bread crumbs and Zaslav and Iger make triple-digit millions. Even worse, they're not responsible. That's right, the corporation will roll on, they'll end up on the sidelines, but they'll have all that money! It's not like even you or me can sit down and say Zaslav is making good product. Hell, the story on Zaslav is he's not making any product at all, just whittling down debt. It's kind of like Biden... We need a leader, we need someone to believe in.
That's Trump.
WHAT?
Come on, that's what he is, a leader. Maybe not your leader, maybe not where you want to go, but where is your leader? Biden is so old he came of age before the days of handheld calculators. He remembers when there was no color TV. Digitally native? How in the hell do you expect young people to relate to this guy? Oh, just tell them it's good for them, like Hillary. And how did that work out?
There's a generation gap, as wide as the one in the sixties. But those who were challenging the status quo yesterday are the establishment today, and they just can't accept it. They're skinny as a result of Ozempic, they've got smartphones, they're hip!
Then again, social media is the enemy, TikTok is the devil. Ask one of these boomers or Gen-X'ers if they've been on TikTok. Of course not, they're bloviating on that which they're unfamiliar with. But that doesn't stop them, as they post family photos on Facebook, or look at static images on Instagram. In a world of video, they're still focused on stills, photos that is.
The world keeps turning, keeps changing, you're supposed to question your suppositions, or else you're left behind. But that's all we hear about from the oldsters, we need less time with the smartphone, we have to return to yesterday...
Now even the kids won't go to the movies. Yes, we hated the high concept superhero flicks, but at least the kids went to see them. Not anymore, now they stiff. And Pixar? Those movies are for Disney+. No, to get someone to go out to the theatre, it must be an event. But it turns out there are far fewer event pictures than we thought. I mean look at the cost... Enough already.
Everything's being challenged, everything's up for grabs, and all we get from Biden and the Democrats is trust us, we're doing a good job.
But instead we're living in "Groundhog Day." We've seen this movie before, back in 2016. Sure, Biden got rid of Trump, but he didn't reach the poor, the great morass, the youth, those who voted for Trump to turn over the table to begin with. Yes, Biden is Hillary. And don't tell me Hillary would have been a better president than Trump, anyone who argues otherwise is a fool, but Hillary wasn't going to address the problems of the poor, the underclass, those living from paycheck to paycheck either. Oh, there might have been some photo ops, some lip service, but Hillary's backers wouldn't have allowed her to screw them. Government is a business, and they're profiting.
Just like they are under Biden.
Trump is larger than life. It's like believing in a heavy metal band that everybody else hates. It gives you an identity. And what do those on the left say? You're dumb and delusional and we know better. Guess how much that resonates...not at all!
But I can't write the above. Because I've got to shut up and support Biden and no one I know wants to give up a single thing they believe they've earned. They've been living in income inequality land for so long they think it's de rigueur, unstoppable. Just like Jews in America believed antisemitism was a minor distraction.
Fighting antisemitism? God, I thought last week that worst case scenario I can move to Israel. Unfathomable previously, a realistic option today.
But what about all those who've been left with the short end of the stick in the continuing divide between the rich and the poor? Where are they gonna go?
Fascists promise to make the trains run on time, in a world where they do not. And you might not think that's the most important thing, but people have to get to work, they're sick of the chaos. They don't believe things are getting better, but worse.
But you bring out your spreadsheets and try to convince them otherwise. But it's a losing proposition. Because whatever you say, it doesn't feel that way, that they've just go to hang in there and things will work out for them. They haven't! And they see Trump as an outsider, not beholden to the system. Oh, don't try to dissuade me with the truth, it's not about the truth, this is what people feel. And what do we give them in the alternative? A doddering old man who believes in incremental change, if there's change at all. That's no longer enough for people. Don't tell me about what Trump will do. Biden now has a record. He got rid of Trump, but to the average person...they can't see that much more of a benefit. And they're hurting. They're not only seeing how celebrities live, but how you live, and they want to take you down a peg, and that's not by voting for Joe Biden. Come on, haven't you ever done something drastic, something dramatic, knowing it might hurt you a bit, but it has a chance of delivering a better future? Take this job and shove it?
Unions are flourishing. For all the MBA blowback, the WGA got essentially everything it asked for. And what do the professors say? Well, the writers didn't work for x number of months, and they'll never recapture that income... But that's not what it was about. It was about standing up to the man, saying they weren't going to take it anymore, and the victory feels so good, it's almost better than money.
And Shawn Fain triumphs over the three car companies and... The rank and file see that the Big Three had the money, that it's not going to put them out of business. Yes, the rich can sacrifice and still be rich. But they don't want to. Like the overcompensated CEOs. Well, since this guy is making so much, I should too, McKinsey told me so!
Wow. I find these facts self-evident. But too many can't see them.
Don't you get it, the revolution has come, it is here. When we were told to be calm, that it could never arrive. Every Jew in America is frightened, and everybody who got screwed, who's been sitting on the sideline watching seemingly everybody but them get rich? They've had enough.
It's not hard to trace the path. We can see how we got here. And we got here because those with something to lose were asleep, they thought nothing would ever change.
But it did.
--
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-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Sunday 19 November 2023
Thanks Songs Playlist
Spotify playlist: https://tinyurl.com/ykd4szxd
"I Thank You" - Sam & Dave and ZZ Top
"Thank You" - Dido
"My Thanksgiving" - Don Henley
"Thank U" - Alanis Morissette
"Thank You (Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" - Sly & the Family Stone
"Thank You" - Led Zeppelin and Tori Amos
"Thank You Girl" - the Beatles
"Thank You for Being a Friend" - Andrew Gold
"Thank You Song" - Livingston Taylor
"Thanks" - James Gang
"Thank God I'm a Country Boy" - John Denver
"Thank God I'm a Jewish Boy" - Allan Lieberman
"Thank You" - Bonnie Raitt
"Thank You Love" - Doobie Brothers
"Thank You Friends" - Big Star
"Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" - Talking Heads
"Thank U, Next" - Ariana Grande
"Thanksgiving" - George Winston
"Thank You Mr. Churchill" - Peter Frampton
"Thanks for the Pepperoni" - George Harrison
"Thank You" - Celine Dion
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
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If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
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To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
"I Thank You" - Sam & Dave and ZZ Top
"Thank You" - Dido
"My Thanksgiving" - Don Henley
"Thank U" - Alanis Morissette
"Thank You (Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" - Sly & the Family Stone
"Thank You" - Led Zeppelin and Tori Amos
"Thank You Girl" - the Beatles
"Thank You for Being a Friend" - Andrew Gold
"Thank You Song" - Livingston Taylor
"Thanks" - James Gang
"Thank God I'm a Country Boy" - John Denver
"Thank God I'm a Jewish Boy" - Allan Lieberman
"Thank You" - Bonnie Raitt
"Thank You Love" - Doobie Brothers
"Thank You Friends" - Big Star
"Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" - Talking Heads
"Thank U, Next" - Ariana Grande
"Thanksgiving" - George Winston
"Thank You Mr. Churchill" - Peter Frampton
"Thanks for the Pepperoni" - George Harrison
"Thank You" - Celine Dion
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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