Everybody can't do everything.
My inbox is littered with people saying not to use their name. As if the average citizen in New Jersey has to worry about Trump's revenge. (Then again, maybe they do...)
They call this a "chilling effect." Bedrock in Constitutional law. Something might look benign on the surface, but have the unintended result of stifling speech or action by Americans.
Americans are ShuttingTFU for fear of retribution by Trump.
Actually, our nation is so fractured that many people refrain from making statements if they don't comport with conventional wisdom, even if they believe they are correct. You don't want to support Israel instead of Palestine...(Did you see Chappelle's statements over the weekend, reinforcing the divide between Blacks and Jews?) You've got the woke left, the anti-DEI right...we can't even have a debate in America anymore.
Even about music...
W. David Marx has a new book "Blank Space," which refers to the hole in culture that we've experienced in the recycled twenty first century. He references "poptimism"... You know, the junk that dominates Top 40 that true fans of music used to decry. Now, that stuff is considered good, criticize Taylor Swift or BTS at your peril. Their minions will attack you. And the main reason you can't say anything negative is because of the MONEY! If it makes a lot, it's good. Period.
And you wonder why so many have checked-out of popular music, don't listen at all...
As for "musicians," did you see yesterday's "New York Times" article talking about the influence of Britney Spears?
"Gen Z's Pop Breakouts Danced in Britney Spears's Footsteps in 2025 - Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae and Addison Rae's music is influenced by the superstar who shot to fame before they were born. They've learned lessons from her hard times, too."
I'm not going to dignify this article with a link, never mind a free one. It's the end of music when Britney Spears is seen as a paragon of excellence, someone whose legacy is worth referencing, never mind exalting. Britney Spears had one great song, "...Baby One More Time," a certified smash that I went out and purchased just to be able to hear on demand. But that record had little to do with Spears, it was written, and co-produced with Rami Yacoub, by Max Martin, who is the biggest star of the past thirty years... Can you say "Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)"? While the top line artists have recycled themselves and the past, Martin has evolved, no producer since the Beatles has had this long a run making different styles of music than Martin. Sans Martin, Taylor Swift is a country artist. It was Martin who brought her into the mainstream with "1989," who is propping Swift up on her latest album... Martin is the star machinery behind the popular song.
And you can't get a modern musical star to make a statement, take a side, for fear of alienating some potential audience member. This ain't art. The job of art is to challenge convention, surprise people, make them uncomfortable. Today's artists just give listeners more of the same, and we read about their vapid lives in massaged publicity efforts.
And we've got the wannabes... Just because it's now easy to create and post music online that does not mean you deserve to be a professional musician. And I can't even say that! I'm pissing on people's dreams! Truly, I hear from people all day long that musicians should be guaranteed a living, that the system is stacked against them... Hogwash, if you're good, you're surviving. BETTER than you did in the old days. More people are making more money in music than ever before. But if you don't say that everyone deserves a chance, that Ticketmaster is screwing the artists and the public, you're a pariah.
Which brings us to Bari Weiss.
You might have seen John Oliver's takedown, but the article you need to read that got much less fanfare was recently in "New York":
"L.A. Woman - Bari Weiss left New York five years ago under a cloud of infamy. Her exile in Hollywood paved the way for a triumphant return."
https://apple.news/ABwYAe3IBTL6_rbA9v9zPkQ
This is the music business article you should read. This will tell you more about how to become a success than any of the fawning tripe you read in "Rolling Stone" and elsewhere. You see first and foremost Weiss is a businessperson. Who charmed contacts to become a star and ultimately a multi-millionaire and head of CBS News. These are the skills that make someone successful in the U.S. today.
Do you have access to household names? Do you know how to charm them?
This is what you learn in college, this is what elite breeding and education yield. You've got to be able to speak their language, manipulate them, otherwise you're just a pawn in their game, truly.
As for becoming a star... Bill Maher says in this article that he made Weiss one, and I've got to say he probably did. He gave her all that exposure.
And now she's head of CBS News. Which is like Andy Lack becoming head of Sony Music. Remember the rootkit controversy? Maybe not... But Andy Lack came from news to get the trains to run on time at Sony, and then he nearly ruined the company with this fiasco and more. Just like Bari Weiss is doing at CBS News.
You know... The reporters at "60 Minutes" are amateurs, no match for the insight and skill of Bari Weiss...
This is like saying your middle schooler is ready for the NBA!
Like no one in TV news knows anything.
And unlike the wimpy, brain-dead, fearful musicians (people hate when I criticize musicians...but why should they be off limits, can't I implore them to lift themselves and the music up?), the "60 Minutes" producer responsible for this pulled story barked back... Saying she reached out to the Trump administration and that it hadn't responded, that the story was screened five times and was cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. Furthermore, it was ADVERTISED! Was Weiss now giving Trump a KILL SWITCH?
But Bari Weiss said the story wasn't complete, that it wasn't ready...
Because it nailed the Trump administration, and CBS is part of Paramount and Paramount wants to own Warner Bros. Period.
Have you been following this story? "60 Minutes" settled with Trump on a specious claim so that the Ellisons could buy Paramount. But now Trump is wavering, he's been attacking "60 Minutes" again... The game is to get Trump to put the kibosh on Netflix's acquisition of Warner so that Paramount will get it. Period.
Don't think otherwise.
As for the news... Who can you trust?
That's where we've arrived. Our institutions have crumbled. Not only because of Trump, but the string-pullers referenced in the Bari Weiss article linked above.
Meanwhile, there's so much news, from oil tankers in Venezuela to killing the offshore wind industry to sending a special envoy to Greenland that this "60 Minutes" story is now being buried under the tsunami of everyday B.S.
As for Weiss... Like a pre-internet dolt, she has gone on record today defending her position, believing her elite status is such that she's entitled to do things her way...
That's America. The rich and powerful don't even live in the same world as the hoi polloi, they fly private, live behind gates and have contempt for those who are not in their circle. Weiss is too stupid to know that by doubling-down she's undercutting not only her own reputation, but that of CBS. If anything was required here it was a mea culpa... But Weiss believes she's bigger than the game, bigger than the institution, just like when she cried foul at the "New York Times." How come Bari Weiss knows so much and we know so little?
Now most of the rich and powerful refrain from publicity unless it is manipulated by a team, they don't want you to know how evil they are, and how they've arranged their finances so they pay few taxes to boot. But Bari Weiss is bigger than the system, she knows better.
And you and me?
WE'RE SCREWED!
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