Re-Grushecky/Springsteen Protest Song

Bob
I'm going to write a
protest song about
charging money to download protest
songs (from your own
web site).
They sure got the title right!
Speaking as an artist-traditionally, that's not
why we write 'em.
My song will be available for free.

Joe Walsh

__________________________________________

Nailed it as usual Bob.

Saw this popping up in my social feeds all morning. Rolling Stone and Pitchfork both using the misleading language to 'hear a new Springsteen protest song here (their websites)'. Only to arrive there and find the link to a 99 cent download. Didn't even give it a second thought to download it. Went to YouTube ... as you noted: nothing.

At this point I'll wait until it eventually services on Apple Music (yes my paid streaming service of choice, mostly because of Zane Lowe and his ability to show me new music) or somewhere else online or forget it all together.

Ryan Hobson

__________________________________________

Oh boo-hoo-hoo!!! I've never seen you poor mouth any rocker over 99 cents. Pittsburgh is not a bastion of high standards of living, it's a working man's town with working man rock. And if Joe's buddy deigns to help him out every once in a while historically and stylistically to his craft, and if it helps a working man make 99 cents, then bravo for one rocker helping out another. But YOU are no help decrying that he's using old tech. At the same time, kudos to you for making your list aware that the song exists, because even in your ire, you're helping him make a buck.

Paul Cramer

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I just read your column and, as usual, I'm first hearing about this hype from you. I read about 1/3 of your column and got curious. So, I go to try and find the song. Finally after a few errant clips here and there, I find the website and se that it'll cost me a dollar. At first I think, "Why not? It's only a dollar and I hate Trump so it'll be worth it, right?" But then I start to feel like a sucker and I don't like to feel like a sucker so I end up abandoning the effort and go back to your email. After reading through the rest of your message I'm totally with you. Even with all my money, I won't even give the guy ONE MEASLY DOLLAR to satisfy my curiosity.

I do kind of hope that it's a hit only because I'm excited for the resurgence of the GOOD protest song and if Trump can't start a new era of protest music, it can't be done.

Thanks again for another fun trip this morning!

BRIAN W. ROBERTS

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Welcome to 2017, Joe. Lefsetz is 100% right. Not to mention the irony of trying to make a measly buck off of a "protest" song.

Jeffrey Stern

__________________________________________

Bob, I had not heard of this song...Nowhere on Insta or FB or YouTube--and I'm on those all day, every hour...sometimes by the minute. But because you said it might be worthy of attention and time...I want to hear it, suss the lyrics, see if it resonates, has the gravitas we desperately need right now to fight and Resist. But go to the guy's site and pay and download?? No way! That's not what makes America (or Internet freedom) Great...more like something the Erstz Alt Right new order schemed up. I'll pass. Thanks for the heads up tho...Marin

__________________________________________

Josh Solomon here. Indie musician and member of Chicago-based, Americana roots-rock band, The Empty Pockets.

I'm a fan of your writing.

A line in your latest email struck me...

"So you hope that the stars align and people will check out your tune."

As an indie musician whose made a living making music for 10 years, my sense is that is very bad advice.

That's old world thinking.

Screw the "stars aligning."

Musicians should build their email lists. Build an audience. Cultivate a tribe.

No need to be famous anymore to make a great living, have a good career, etc...

At least that's my two cents.

Cheers,

Josh

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Already circulating as soon as it hit radio via video on Facebook. So much for the download only option.

Are these people living in the past??

Stephen Tatton

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Is this another April Fools joke?

Mary Beth Medley

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Agreed. You snooze, you lose.

Carolyne Mas

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Amen Bob! Identical experience.
Onto the next now without ever hearing it

Dave Morris

__________________________________________

A 1%'er writing a co-writing a protest song because his favorite politician didn't get elected? And here I am thinking that the thing that really needs protesting is that there are 1%'ers.
It's not like consolidating appx 92-95% of the wealth in the hands of the top 1-2% has anything to do with why no one can afford to purchase music or go see live shows-right? Except for the 1% fashion show that Coachella has become I mean. "Glamping?" REALLY??
That you missed this and concentrated on their dinosaurish method of how the song was released is sad. And that Springsteen missed that instead of protesting he should be organizing- using his largess to back candidates he supports for the 2018 mid terms? That is downright pathetic.

Chris Long

__________________________________________

Facepalm... more like faceplant.

Gonzo Rock

__________________________________________

take that Grushecky. ya dummy ya...

David Elkins

__________________________________________

"And monitor your social media feeds. I tweeted Grushecky all of the above and what did I hear...

NOTHING!"

You sound more like a scorned lover than an objectively minded industry insider (in this case)

I anticipate your reply :-)

Jon Landry - GroundSwell Music

__________________________________________

Sounds like Joe Grushecky is the kinda guy still wearing an onion on his belt!

Jeremy Silverthorn

__________________________________________

He's free to do with his music as he pleases, Bob! He's not decrying streaming services. He's just not using them. His choice. Good choice? Maybe not. But his choice.

Michael Fremer

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Did I miss something Bob how come you never mentioned the big protest song with Dylan et al???

jr

__________________________________________

Maybe he's too busy teaching school to monitor his social media feeds....

Joe Haus

__________________________________________

He is still teaching school. He's working. OK?

Calm down and get your ego under control. So he didn't answer .
He responds very well to his fans.

Tom Claycomb

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Is Bruce still trying to pull off the working man Schtick from one of his mansions? Seriously!

Bill Tibbs

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Not going to pay either. What is it, "the dawn of correction" for a new era?

David Reilly

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I tried too. Saw it in my social feed and clicked through. I would have even a download with say a one click Paypal purchase. Nope, full registration form - I was aghast at the lack of insight. I did check Spotify and he's there but not this tune. I did listen to several tracks though...
Don D

__________________________________________

Preach it bob preachhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Any appreciation big or small is a dream come true for a true artist. If someone believes in you enough to listen/participate AND engage, you have to as well!

CAPITAL LLC

__________________________________________

what a great line

"And the enemy is not piracy, but obscurity"

Love, Peace and Soul
Dave Moskal

__________________________________________

A new Joe/Bruce track? I had to have it.

I'm still okay with a download - though have become a very loyal Spotify user in the last year.
Still use my iPod all the time, just hated the Apple Music streaming interface so bailed a few months ago after years & years of being an Apple loyalist.
The fact that they discontinued the Classic and made me buy a new one every time the previous one crashed helped my exit too. Downsized to a smaller model.

Er, Joe's website's commerce function - not working.
So, today's awareness (I only heard about it from you) drove too much traffic to the site & crashed that area of it's functionality.
I hope it's working when I try again tomorrow. Will remember to because it's these two guys.

But if it's not working again tomorrow, you're right - I'll hope it's streaming soon.

Best,

John Porter

__________________________________________

Maybe Bruce thought up the lyrics while he was on David Geffens yacht with the Obamas, Oprah, Tom Hanks and other oppressed people. He can really feel the pain from there. I love Bruce, I know most every song but come on. He smells phony. He can never come across as genuine as Dylan. Oh well I am sure he will be fine without my advice or yours for that matter.
You've got to buy it to hear it. That's funny. Maybe The Springsteens wants to keep up with the Geffens.

Anthony Rizzo

__________________________________________

No, he's living in 1980... I'm from there. Was a broadcast engineer and built a lot of studios there.

Sargasso Sea of the Mid-atlantic ... as you can tell.

WAM

__________________________________________

You have picked the wrong object for your ire.
It is Springsteen, who has not lifted a finger, and been totally absent from any presence at any of thousands of meaningful demonstrations, marches, press conferences, meetings, or acts of civil resistance or disobedience, who deserves our scorn and anger.
Imagine what his presence could have meant in DC, or Dakota, or Ferguson.
And now he is SELLING his- ho ho ho "protest song " ?
Fuck him.
He is perhaps the single most notable MIA among the many artists about whom you have written— AWOL in the struggle, and whistling on the way to the bank.
In fact, fuck them all.

David Rubinson

__________________________________________

i bought it.
it's not great... feels rushed.
there are some good parts that could've been made to stand out more.
maybe make it more anthemic?
oh well.

Matt Gorny

__________________________________________

Thanks for another great post. This one is such a clear lesson. I am one of the old fashioned ones who ripped the 1000+ CD collection and still buys track from ITunes. But even I wouldn't pay for a track I have never heard or, most frequently, seen in YouTube. Also, I am not an insider but certainly a music lover for four decades and I must confess, I did not know who was Mr. G. was and I still don't. Sad to see a man wasting a prime opportunity to use his collaboration with "The Boss" to make himself known to new audiences.

Alberto Torres

__________________________________________

My song idea. Give trump supporters somewhere to go, so they can turn away from him in good conscience. Acknowledge we all hoped he could rise to the occasion. Ease into what appears to be early dementia( or just aging) he's not who he was even a year ago.Highly unsafe. Acknowledge deep sadness at having to let go, Then ask him to get a better support team (Obama and staff?) and if he won't., then we take the only responsible path--------impeachment. I'll try to come up with catchy lyrics and melody, I may ask my daughter Wendy Griffiths to work with me on this. Or you??? Your friend, Sue Cook

__________________________________________

So if artists only give away their work on YouTube how will they pay rent?
Doesn't make "cents"

David B. Cooper

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Good job Bob, at least you are shining a light on these "protest" song efforts. I've said it a few times, good deeds get noticed when people like you talk about it. Well done.

Pete Meehan

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Do let us know when they tweet back at you! We're waiting breathlessly!

Fer crissakes...

John Cunningham

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For some folks it costs them to protest for some folks it pays them to protest ?

Mike O'Dwyer

__________________________________________

This is pathetic. 24hrs later. Nothing. A digital desert for a song that is supposed to be a resistance call to get people charged up. A song for the masses stuck behind an antiquated paywall is an absolute zero entity today. I LLOOOOVE Bruce, his people know better. Fix it then. I want to HEAR the song.

Len Ottesen

__________________________________________

Your letter left me curious, so I went to the purchase link to see if they at least played a preview before purchase, and got this:
Resource Limit Is Reached
The website is temporarily unable to service your request as it exceeded resource limit. Please try again later.

Amyah Parrish

__________________________________________

Great read as always Bob. Q: why has 'The Boss' gotten so DeNiro-politico since his book tour...?

Douglas Haight

__________________________________________

I'm trying to get clear on your advice here… I know you say we need to get all of our songs out there, to keep everyone interested in them… But if my production and budget only allows me to put out one produced single every 6 to 9 months, should I still be putting my other songs out in raw form, meaning homemade YouTube videos of me performing them acoustic, if I'm confident the performance is strong, or should I wait for the produced singles?

Gregory McLoughlin

__________________________________________

Living in Philly, and knowing how passionate our Springsteen fans are, I have to believe people will pony up for this. Regardless of the delivery system, these are people who will pay top dollar to see a 3+ hour show...they'll pay $1 for the song

Jesse Lundy

__________________________________________

So I went through the process of buying the song. Oh my god what a hassle! You have to buy from his site. I didn't know who he was as I'm sure most don't. You have to fill in customer information and then after wasting all this time I FINALLY downloaded the song. And it's a .m4a file. I purchased it through my iPhone 7Plus (mobiles the way, right?) so there's no option to just play it. But I can open it in iMovie. WTF?

And the song is just ok. Too bad. If this was available for free and better yet on YouTube it would get immediate traction. Few people are going to go through the hassle I just went through (and I'm a tech geek!).

Preach, Bob! Teach these people how to get their music out there!

Smfh,
- Kevin Thomas

__________________________________________

Joe Grushecky-@JoeGrushecky:

@Lefsetz Working on it Bob!

__________________________________________

Jon Bahr - @JonBahr:

@JoeGrushecky @Lefsetz We at @cdbaby can help you get it right out this week.


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The Idiot

"The Idiot": http://amzn.to/2natbV5

Do you ever feel like you don't fit in, that you didn't get the memo, didn't realize there was a manual, that everybody else is comfortable in their own skin and knows how to get along?

I do. I always feel this way. Maybe that's why I'm addicted to art.

I like people. I like to hang, exchange ideas, but I'm always self-conscious, unsure whether to talk or not. Then there are the boring sots who won't shut up, I don't know how to make them stop, I endure their prattle, they believe I'm their best friend. And then, now and again, I'm inspired, feeling my oats, telling a tale that could go on forever, with tangents, believing my audience is entranced before I ultimately become doubtful and shut up. I used to talk quite a lot, but I don't think it worked for me. Somehow I alienated people, going on about what I was excited about, having opinions. So now I'm quiet. But I'm not happy about it.

Now when I was growing up we were all apart. There was no internet, long distance phone calls were expensive. You lived in a community where everybody had your number and this drove me crazy, because they formulated an opinion about you and it stuck, forever, until you moved to a new place. Somehow they were all on a path. Maybe not to anywhere exciting, the law firm, or their daddy's business, but they were resigned to it, didn't complain about it at all, me, I wanted to get out, I felt there was something bigger out there, more exciting. And there is. But too often I still feel uncomfortable, like I don't belong, I don't know how to behave, what to do.

And I know, I know, you tell me everybody feels this way, but I'm not so sure. My father was not a member of the group, although my mother was the straw that stirred the drink, to this day, she's the center of activity, maybe there's just not room for me, or I'm playing the role of my father, that's what's scary, the older you get you realize you're just like your parents, no matter how hard you try not to be.

I used to love to go to the movies alone, back when that was a thing. Sit there in the darkness and bond with what was on screen.

And the records... Especially when we hit the FM era and it was no longer about ditties, but opuses. Have you ever listened to a Moody Blues album? The band is denigrated, they belong in the R&RHOF ages ago, but when you listen to their albums you get taken away. Start with "Days Of Future Passed," yup, the one with "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Nights In White Satin," but however great those cuts are, and they truly are, it's what surrounds them that makes the album such a great listening experience. Like a classical village where the players understand you.

Kinda like a Yes LP. Sure, they had a hit with "Roundabout" but when you were listening you felt like you were in a cave, or in one of the cover paintings, alone with the sound, it was so magical. Which is why I liked going to the concerts, to bond with the acts, sure I wanted to hear the hits, but even more the album cuts. And my concertgoing is not littered with hangout experiences, going in a group, meeting new people, it was mostly a solo endeavor, where I connected with the acts.

And I could quote legions more acts.

But one thing's for sure, that's not what artists are selling anymore, that's not how our society works. Now it's all about the team, your network of friends, helping each other out, the rugged individual, the outsider marching to his own drumbeat, is nowhere to be found. So when I glom on to something that rings my bell, speaks to me, I can't put it down.

Kinda like "The Sopranos" the very first year, when there was no hype and no general acceptance. It was the nuances that put the show over the top. How Meadow had her parents twisted around her little finger, suggested they take away her gasoline credit card as punishment, and then bragging to her friend on the phone how her 'rents were clueless.

Every Sunday I comb the "New York Times" Book Review section looking for things to buy. And I always do it electronically, I don't want to go to the store, where the help wants to be your best friend, I'm looking for a more private experience. And I read the "Wall Street Journal" book section too, but it's mostly non-fiction, I don't care about that, I don't want to know about what once was, I want to be taken away to a new land, where it's only me and the author.

And I don't know why I downloaded the sample chapter of "The Idiot," but when I opened it up and read the first few pages, I knew this was for me, I bought it.

Selin goes to Harvard, her lineage is Turkish, she falls for Ivan, a Hungarian, but she just can't get it right, she doesn't know how to act with a man. She's got the urge, but none of the chops. She's obsessed with him despite his having a girlfriend, she believes they share something special, when she doesn't.

And she can't stop pursuing him, but mostly in her mind.

Do you know what it's like to be obsessed but unable to call? Because you don't know what to say, because you're fearful they're gonna laugh in your face?

This is not the story of a dropout who conquers Silicon Valley.

This is not the story of someone who graduates at the top of his class and dominates Wall Street.

This is the story of a smart person who worked hard to get into a good college and realizes other than book learning, they know nothing.

That's the weird thing about elite institutions, the grinds who get in are often compromised, they're looking to spread their wings, some do, some fall flat on their face.

So I'm not gonna tell you any more plot. I don't want to ruin it.

And I will say the book has so many literary references you feel inadequate unless you have a Ph.D., and what bugs me about books is they're all sponsored by foundations, what I like about music and movies, TV too, is they live and die on their appeal. Either you dedicate your life trying to make it happen or you get out. You succeed or you don't. Your movie hits or your record climbs the chart or you find another path. Not that overnight success is rampant, it's just that you get signals, that you're on the right course.

Maybe you call that capitalism. And I don't want to get into a political discussion of economics, but when something rings my bell I want everybody to know, so it can be given a chance, so these artists can give up their day jobs and focus on their work, because being an artist is a full-time job.

Most people hate their jobs, they live for the moment when they can turn on the TV or play some music and now...

Now this is getting too complicated, too dense, when really I wanted to capture the concept of alienation, how I feel it and when I see it expressed in art I resonate.

I resonated with "The Idiot."

"In high school I had been full of opinions, but high school had been like prison, with constant opposition and obstacles. Once the obstacles were gone, meaning seemed to vanish."

"Human beings, all of us, hate to take risks. We all want to hide."

Yup, all the wankers telling us to just jump off the cliff like them, quit our jobs, go our own way, they don't understand we're not like them, WE CAN'T!"

"I'm hearing a lot of contradictory emotions from you. It seems to me that your sense of other people's awfulness might be compensating for your own sense of inferiority and fear of rejection."

This stopped me in my tracks. Why do we behave the way we do? Who's gonna explain it? Certainly not the winners who say to put your head down and keep marching, what ever happened to the life of contemplation?

"At a table near the door, two students were slumped over their books, either asleep or murdered."

There's a sense of humor, a turn of the phrase, the protagonist is her own best audience, that's what happens when you grow up alone, in your head, you create a whole way of seeing the world that no one else comprehends, even though you're eager to share it.

"Did anyone ever get as much of anything as they wanted?"

"I was troubled by the Beatles, by the contradiction between their jaunty, harmoniously innocent warbling, and the calculating worldview that seemed to underlie it."

Bingo, it's the darkness that made the Beatles superstars.

"Beautiful people lived in a different world, had different relations with people. From the beginning they were raised for love."

If you know any beautiful people you know this. And looks matter. But being yourself leads to its own rewards.

"But, to me, nineteen still felt old and somehow alien to who I was. It occurred to me that it might take more than a year - maybe as many as seven years - to learn to feel nineteen."

I've never felt my age, have you?

"Almost everything that was interesting or meaningful in my story was, in her story (her mother's), a pointless hazard or annoyance. This was even more true with my aunts. They didn't take anything I did seriously; it was all some trivial, mildly annoying side activity that I insisted on for some reason, having nothing to do with real life."

Did your parents understand your need to follow the music, to throw away everything else in pursuit of the sound?

I rest my case.


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Bill O'Reilly Gets Canned

No one is bigger than the system.
You may think you rise above, that you're better than the rest of us, know more, are entitled to more, but that's not true. Furthermore, the nature of human beings is they want to tear you down to their level if they think you've gotten too big for your britches.

Bill O'Reilly lost contact with the working man, the same person he said he was speaking to in his show. And what a show that was, one in which he said he slung it straight, but if you disagreed with him you couldn't get a word in edgewise and were labeled a nitwit. Do we blame O'Reilly for our present national condition, one in which facts don't matter and rational discourse in search of truth is out the window? Yes, along with the rest of the right wing blowhards who should realize if you live in a glass house, you shouldn't throw stones.

Like Rush Limbaugh, who lost his hearing from overusing opiates after denigrating drug addicts. Turns out right wingers O.D. just like Democrats, but for a long time the Republicans did not agree, not until their kids started dying and they became compassionate. And expect them to come around re global warming and gay rights and so much more. That's right, Democratic/left wing principles win in the end, because they're people-oriented as opposed to money-oriented, they're more about love than hate. Did you see the WaPo story saying Trump voters pulled the lever because of racism? I believe that, hell it even exists in the institutions of higher learning, wherein Asians are excluded. You work hard to get ahead and then those in power don't like it, they want to keep you down. And Bill O'Reilly, despite constantly saying he was defending the little man, was doing anything but.

What do these people want?

To exorcise the government from their lives, to eliminate taxes so the corporations can rape and pillage with no restrictions, not worrying about safety whatsoever, so you can sit on your porch self-satisfiedly believing you're free, come on.

Yup, that's the truth. Send me all the hate mail you want.

Of course the issues are complicated. The left wingers agitating for bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. are delusional, no one wants to pay 3k for a flat screen and the truth is most of the jobs go to robots anyway. And isn't it funny how Trump has picked up this call, all this America First garbage, not knowing there's no such thing as an American car company, that we live in a global economy no matter what you think.

But all over the world the downtrodden, the losers, are up in arms. The uneducated want to return to what once was. And I ask you how good that era was, when African-Americans were second-class citizens and automobiles had no safety features and the government was not making sure drugs were safe. Yup, that's where I want to go back to, the fifties, when whites ruled, smokers died and tobacco companies denied the harm of their product with impunity. Who turned things around? The denigrated tort lawyers and the government.

So we do have a problem, with automation putting people out of work, that needs to be addressed, but not by giving paeans to coal while retail workers are losing their jobs in droves.

Fox News was the anti. A home for all those left out along with the corporatists trying to shore up their fortunes. For years the left wing was decrying bias, despite the head-turning slogan that the outlet was fair and balanced.

Blame Rupert Murdoch. Who has done so much to ruin this world. He bought the "Wall Street Journal," the business newspaper of record, and turned it into the editorial page 24/7, eliminating the business coverage and injecting biased news coverage, albeit brief. He created the right wing alternative, but since he's rich he's untouchable. Actually, one of the reasons they fired O'Reilly was because Murdoch wants to own all of Sky and he's worried the British won't let him.

Sky? You don't know what that is?

I'm not gonna tell you. Other than to inform you it's your duty as a citizen to be informed, all the information is at your fingertips. And you've got to read left and right. And the "New York Times" prints the best of both every day, just go to their app, but the "Times" has been neutralized by the right wing naysayers and you're not gonna hear a contrary voice on Fox News, ain't gonna happen, unless it's some apologist wimp like the recently departed Alan Colmes.

Society is shifting. Used to be you had two drinks at lunch, when was the last time there was alcohol at a business meal, I haven't seen it before six o'clock. And gays can get married. And sexual harassment is a no-no. Not only amongst left wing women, but all women.

And what's worse, like Cosby, O'Reilly was a serial offender, in a workplace where if you spoke up you got fired or your path to the top evaporated. But then Gretchen Carlson spoke up, it's the rugged individuals we depend upon to right the ship, and after being labeled a no-goodnik gold digger opportunist other women came out of the woodwork, it turned out what she was saying was true.

And then Fox lost Megyn Kelly, who was afraid her future would be affected by the boys club atmosphere and that's what we've been fighting since the sixties, the boys club. One wherein where you went to school who your parents are what teams you played on and who you know trumps every other attribute. No wonder women couldn't triumph, they weren't born with a penis, they couldn't snap towels with the guys in the locker room.

And this atmosphere still exists, we've got oh-so-far to go. To the point where men need to learn to self-check, to say no, to escape the groupthink and do the right thing. Al Campanis was sacrificed at the altar of racial equality and now Bill O'Reilly is being sacrificed at the altar of sexual equality. Sorry, it doesn't matter that everybody else is doing it, NOBODY SHOULD BE DOING IT!

Credit the younger Murdoch generation, who are going to inherit the monolith, they saw that O'Reilly was tainting the brand, and today the brand is everything.

The brand supersedes truth, you believe in the corporation because the individuals have become shills for it. Whether it be musicians selling out to the highest bidder or workers afraid to unionize for fear they'll lose their jobs.

Everybody in America is afraid, except for blowhards like O'Reilly, who believe if they just yell loud enough they can win.

Just because you raise your voice that does not mean you are right.

Just because Mercer and the Kochs fund right wing causes that does not mean Soros is just as bad. No, that's false equivalency. Is the left wing flawed? OF COURSE! But it's absent the sex and financial scandals, at least to the degree of the right, because if you act this way on the left you're excommunicated, if you act this way on the right you're embraced.

But maybe no longer.

O'Reilly is a footnote. He's already in the rearview mirror. No one's gonna give him a platform. Because it's one thing to spew hate, it's another to live the hate, to be a sexual harasser, speech is cheap, actions have costs.

So, so long Bill O'Reilly. You outlived your era, the internet and the media revealed your heinous behavior, you can't hide the facts in today's world.

You're the poster boy for everything that's wrong with this country. And now you've been sidelined.

Will you admit your fault? America loves a repenter, embraces him or her with open arms.

But that would require you to take a long hard look in the mirror, see that you're part of the problem as opposed to the solution.

We're all in it together folks. The sooner we can all agree on the same facts and come to conclusions that truly benefit us all, or at least the majority, the better.

But no, we live in a world of chaos, where those who do the work every day are eliminated from the equation and having brains and being fair are faults, not attributes.

The "New York Times" has the most boots on the ground. It bends over backward to be fair, even if it occasionally fails, hell, it even has a public editor looking out for the reader, but in a world where ignorance is king, where those with power want to keep it, the uninformed are kept that way, through subterfuge and bread and circuses.

But not today. Today the "Times" brought O'Reilly down.

Chalk one up for the good guys.


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Grushecky/Springsteen Protest Song

You've got to buy it to hear it.

The buzz started last night, I was getting e-mail, how Joe Grushecky and Bruce Springsteen had collaborated on a new protest song, entitled "That's What Makes Us Great." There were even lyrics!

So I woke up this morning ready to click to hear...

And I found news stories all over the web, directing you to Grushecky's site, in order to purchase a download.

A download? What, is Grushecky living in 2003? The iTunes Store is dying, streaming is rescuing the music business, just check the RIAA statistics all you on demand haters out there, and Grushecky is keeping his music behind a paywall?

For the uninitiated, Joe Grushecky is a Pittsburgh lifer who put out a highly-hyped album with his band the Iron City Houserockers entitled "Have A Good Time but Get Out Alive!" back in 1980. I bought it. Joe's voice could have been better, as could have the songs, but there was an undeniable energy contained, I've paid attention to Joe ever since, who continued to play music while teaching school, collaborating with blue collar rocker Springsteen now and again.

And now this...

Publicity only lasts a moment in today's world. What happened this morning is old news by tonight. If the light shines upon you, you must be ready to deliver, your product must be available.

And the enemy is not piracy, but obscurity. It's hard for household names to get traction, to get heard. No one's got any time. So you hope that the stars align and people will check out your tune.

Yes, one tune, that's all we can handle. If we like that, we'll dig deeper, for more. Which is why you must have a plethora of material on streaming services, on YouTube, so those interested can learn more, but don't squander your opportunity in the marketplace by putting out an album, which comes out once with publicity in a short window which then evaporates unless your sole goal is to get it up on streaming services so people can check it out sometime in the future.

As for YouTube, you must put all new songs there immediately. You want to cover all bases. Forget those talking about the "value gap." First and foremost, listens on music-only streaming services are now eclipsing those on YouTube, if you're fighting YouTube you're probably still fighting Napster and KaZaA. Furthermore, some people will never pay, at least not at first, give them a chance to sample your wares.

And monitor your social media feeds. I tweeted Grushecky all of the above and what did I hear...

NOTHING!

When you're in sell/promotion mode, you, or someone on your team if you're a big shot, should be reading and responding to all comers. People expect this today, everybody's important, we're all on the same level, ENGAGE!

I've got no idea whether "That's What Makes Us Great" is bad or good. But one thing's for sure, today I wanted to hear it. Tomorrow?

Almost definitely not, unless the buzz is deafening, which is doubtful, since most people will not pay and the media will be on to something else.

Feel lucky if someone wants to check out your art. There are many avenues of exploitation/income if people listen and care. Don't be stuck in the last century, expecting people to pay before they listen, worried about piracy, yelling at the new distribution models like Grandpa Simpson. Harness the tools, don't decry them!


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The Institution Is Bigger Than The Individual

Disney cut ties with PewDiePie. Fox News is about to dismiss Bill O'Reilly. Weren't they supposed to be able to harness the power of the internet to supersede their corporate overlords?

Wrong.

The internet is controlled by a small cabal of companies. You can utilize their tools to get ahead, but only if you play by their rules, which they might change at any time. But without the corporate behemoths on your side, you're positively moribund.

Of course there are exceptions, like Chance the Rapper, then again, he got 500k for a two week exclusive at Apple.

So let's drill down. We've been hearing for six months that fake news is rampant and the press is impotent. Yet the "Wall Street Journal" took down PewDiePie and the "New York Times" tackled Bill 0'Reilly. Just because Hillary lost that does not mean the mainstream media always gets it wrong. Furthermore, the recently published book "Shattered" delineates how Hillary herself decimated her campaign, maybe it wasn't just that the takedowns in the media were ignored.

So Bill O'Reilly is making beaucoup bucks for Fox. Only problem is he's a serial harasser. Sexual harassment, anti-Semitism, these are third rail behaviors that cannot be outrun in corporate America. Advertisers flee. No Fortune 500 company wants to be the new United Airlines. Customers start agitating and companies pull sponsorship and the purveyor pulls the plug. Money only goes so far when you're a public company. They love their profits, but they can be shamed into doing the right thing. Kinda like that company that raised the price of EpiPens...

You see if the light is shined upon bad behavior, if you're in the media crosshairs, you're doomed, just ask Theranos. And Theranos was brought down by the WSJ, it's not only the NYT that can decimate your career. And sure, a news item can get started on a blog, most of which are now monetized, the boy in his basement pontificating and having impact is passe, but it's only when the big boys glom on that there are consequences.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. The internet was supposed to level the playing field, give us all a chance.

But you can't get on Top Forty radio if you're not signed to a major label, or aligned with one, that's right, gain any traction and the major will come up with an offer. You can't go it alone. Everybody online keeps telling you you can, but that's an empty echo chamber.

So the internet is run by four companies, Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook. Go into competition with them and they'll imitate you, are you seeing what Instagram is doing with Snapchat? And Instagram is an interesting story, it was sold to Facebook. Now the goal is to sell out to one of the big four, and they'll threaten you if you won't. Amazon went to war with Diapers.com, which they bought and recently shut down, and Amazon gave an ultimatum to Zappos, saying it would go into competition with the shoe company, and Zappos made a deal with the retail behemoth too.

So Glenn Beck gets canned and goes independent and has almost no impact, he's no longer part of the national discussion.

Bill O'Reilly loses his perch and...

No one else will hire him. Hell, even Dan Rather couldn't get another big gig with a much less heinous faux pas. Will Bill's books continue to top the best seller list? Will he lecture to his minions and be heard?

On a fraction of the level he is now, because he's losing his microphone.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are irrelevant and there is no middle class. Meanwhile, you keep thinking you have a chance when you don't, the game is rigged.

You're sitting at home making music on Pro Tools. Putting it out on Spotify via CD Baby, spamming everyone you know via social media and ending up nowhere. You just can't get heard, you need to be aligned with one of the big boys to do that.

And if you're building your own business via YouTube advertising you might get killed when the video giant changes its algorithm. David Pakman used to survive on YouTube ad payments, now he's on Patreon begging for donorship. As for Patreon, it's where niche players go to survive. Not bad if you can make a living, but you've got no social impact, no footprint, you're a footnote.

For the past fifteen years we've seen internet phenomena which give the sole proprietor/artist hope. There was Radiohead with "In Rainbows," Amanda Palmer on Kickstarter, PSY on YouTube, but none of them were replicable, they ended up stunts, footnotes in internet history.

So what we've learned here is you live and die by the sword of the big boys. And you can even vote for the renegade, but he'll turn his back on you when he gets in office.

And nobody is bigger than the institution.

And the institution can fathom no hits to its reputation. Roger Ailes had to go. When star Megyn Kelly leaves because of sexual harassment, Fox wakes up and realizes it must protect itself, comes to the conclusion that Bloviating Bill is expendable.

And without the imprimatur of the major, O'Reilly is toast. Just like Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, which left oppressor Interscope to ultimately sign with Sony after testing the independent waters.

Everything we were told was wrong. That the internet would topple the old, slow, ignorant players.

No, they just became more powerful.


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Mailbag

From: Richard Griffiths
Subject: Re: I Don't Know

I signed Ozzy to Virgin Music Publishing in about 1983. It was the Bark at The Moon Album. Ralph Simon at Zomba had offered about $750,000 on a 75/25 split. I offered$1,000,000 on 60/40 split. I got the deal. I had known Sharon for a while. Steve Barnett had introduced me. We always understood each other . It was a successful deal for us all. We renegotiated and extended. Always making sure that the cash up frontw was good.

Sharon is probably the best manager I ever had to work with. And she's a laugh! A night out with Sharon and Ozzy was always one to remember.

Then in 1990 I find myself running Epic Associated in NY. I had brought in Micheal Goldstone to run AnR and in between signing Pearl Jam, Spin Doctors and Rage Against the Machine, we set about making Ozzy next album, No More Tears.

It's a masterpiece. Sharon and Ozzy allowed us to really get involved with the sessions. Michael was doing something that Ozzy had never had before. He was being AnRd! And I was doing something that Ozzy had never heard before. I said NO!

I recently saw Ozzy on a flight from London to LA. It was so lovely to see him and he said the nicest thing when he introduced me to his tour manager. "This is the only man who has ever said no to me. And he was always right. Even if I didn't think so at the time"

Michael and I are proud of our work with Ozzy. He is one of the truly great rock stars. You can rain on his tv show as much as you like. But it worked. It resurrected his career. Sharon is a management genius.

We had our fights and we had our laughs.

Working with Ozzy and Sharon with Michael Goldstone by my side was some of the most fun years I ever had.

I have to also add that Tony Martell was there. He had lived through so much of what came before. He was a wonderful man who couldn't quite understand what the fuck Michael and I were doing but he went along with it all and gave us young smartarses with no track record credibility when having to explain to Tommy Mottola why we were spending all his money. Tony was a great man.

Ozzy is a legend.

_______________________________________________

From: Roger McNamee
Subject: My thoughts on the opportunity in music

Dear Bob,

As a follow-up to the conference in Santa Barbara, I want to summarize the thoughts I shared in our conversation about the opportunities in music. With your permission, I would like to send this to the email list from the conference.

The industry has been in a defensive crouch since the mid-90s, as its share of entertainment revenues and business model eroded. But the defensive crouch is no longer appropriate. Eight and half years after the launch of Spotify, streaming has transformed the industry, creating a new equilibrium that justifies a positive outlook about the future. With more than 100 million paid customers around the world, streaming is now established in China and India, as well as North America and Western Europe. The time has come to be optimistic about the long term penetration of streaming. It is not crazy to imagine that half of all smartphone users might eventually pay something for streaming services. Given that penetration is 10% or less today, the industry is likely to benefit from a major tailwind for at least the next ten years. Many people will choose streaming plans that cost less than today's $10 monthly standard, but aggregate revenues are going to rise … a lot.

The success of streaming transforms the industry's revenue outlook, and it will provide a safety net for addressing two other problems plaguing the music business: culture and loss of engagement.

The culture problem is the persistent conservatism/pessimism that were the inevitable result of a long, brutal downturn. From where I sit, it is time to trust the success of streaming and take advantage of the growing cash flows it will produce. Don't harvest streaming! Use a portion of growing streaming revenues to ramp up experimentation with new platforms and technologies. Sow seeds for future growth.

The other big problem for the music industry is loss of engagement. In the era of LPs, consumers actively engaged with recorded music. They put an album on the turntable, read the liner notes, rolled a doobie, and focused on the music. Engagement declined with transition to CDs and evaporated with MP3, as music became a soundtrack for other activities. There is nothing inherently wrong with being a background activity, but it is less valuable than being front and center. This helps to explain why concert ticket prices have risen so high in recent years. Concerts are the last area where music demands and rewards deep engagement.

Rising revenues from streaming creates a safety net that should empower the industry to experiment with new products that compel the full attention of consumers … and reward artists and their teams with incremental revenue streams and valuable intellectual property. This is a particularly good time to do so, as the industry's former nemesis, Silicon Valley, is in the early stages of a correction. The much publicized Unicorn cycle is not working out according to plan, which is likely to produce business failures, layoffs, and increased openness to new ideas. Silicon Valley has plenty of capital … and at least two emerging platforms whose success will depend compelling content that does not yet exist: virtual reality (VR) and augmented realized (AR). In VR, Facebook's Oculus division, Sony's Playstation division, HTC and some start-ups have collectively invested hundreds of millions of dollars in new platforms that are still a year or two away from commercial viability. VR is positioned to take a large percentage of the $30 billion video game industry, but to do so, it needs compelling content. I am confident that they will eventually crack the code, but they have not done it yet. And they need some new ideas. In AR, Microsoft and Magic Leap have spent hundreds of millions on new platforms that, like VR, are still a year or two away from commercial viability. Both AR players were blindsided by Nintendo's Pokemon Go, which used smartphones (instead of specialized hardware) to create the most successful video game launch in history. Having broken Apple's AppStore during the first week, Pokemon Go has had half a billion downloads in 9 months. This raises the stakes for Microsoft and Magic Leap, who need really compelling content to justify the cost of their hardware. As in VR, the content formula is "to be determined."

VR and AR are two platforms that will enable the music industry to create new products for active, rather than passive engagement. To be successful in this endeavor, the industry must be open to two changes in its business practices. First, the industry has to stop its practice of forcing every new initiative into is standard license model. It must be willing to work with outsiders as partners, with a business model that maximizes the probability of success. Second, it must view new platforms as new media. You can slap songs on just about anything, but the economic value of doing so will generally be modest. A better strategy would be to empower artists to create new art forms on each new platform. What Bjork did on iOS was a step in the right direction. As with all experiments, there is lots of risk in any individual project. To be confident of success, you need to be prepared for failure and persist through it. The first experiments are unlikely to be the ones that create the most value. The beauty of VR and AR is that the categories are brand new; the playing field is level … and it is easy to imagine compelling products based on music. The cost of experimenting today is far less than it will be once the platforms are established. The people backing the new platforms cannot succeed without compelling content, and will almost certainly invest big dollars to improve their content portfolio. They will pay even more for exclusives. Whether they will do so with musicians is unknown, but I suspect you can influence the outcome.

There is one other way the music industry can leverage the tailwind of streaming: re-imagine the scarcity model. The industry still works on a cycle of big events; an album every few years, with a supporting tour. Step back for a minute and think about that. Many artists are only in the market every three years. In a world dominated by real time news feeds on social media, how much sense does that make? I am not recommending more frequent recording cycles or tours, although they will be good choices for some artists. I am recommending aggressive experimentation with new platforms, new media and new forms of engagement on cycles unrelated to albums and tours.

When I worked with the Grateful Dead, I came to appreciate that every band has a pyramid of fans with three tiers: drive-by, standard, and fanatics. The drive-by fans the most numerous. They are the ones who like all kinds of music and develop their tastes from radio, Pandora or Spotify playlists. Drive-by fans have been the bread and butter of the music business for decades. Standard fans like the band, buy the album and generally go to a show when the band tours. Bands like the Rolling Stones, Paul McCarty, Bruce Springsteen and U2 have millions of such fans. At the top of the fan pyramid are the fanatics. They go to multiple shows on every tour. They sport a tattoo. They buy everything the band puts out … and they can never get enough. The Grateful Dead built a monster business on fanatics. Bob Dylan, Pearl Jam and others have followed suit very successfully. It's time for the rest of the industry to identify and engage with the fanatics. They are few in number, but can account for a majority of a band's revenues. There are tons of marketers who would gladly pay for access to every artist's fanatic fans.

There is another opportunity for artists and managers … learn from Marvel Comics and Major League Baseball Advance Media. Marvel Comics was a relatively small media company, with sales substantially less than $1 billion, that sometimes licensed its content to film makers. Then it made a series of moves that allowed it to move up the value chain and dominate Hollywood for a decade. MLB Advance Media created a proprietary streaming platform that is exceptionally good – with more than 3.5 million paid subscribers. They get $25 per month per subscriber during the baseball season. MLB Advanced Media just sold one-third of their technology platform to Disney for $1 billion. Think about that for a moment. A relatively small subsidiary of a sports league sold technology to media company. That's not how it's supposed to work. Media companies exist to provide technology and distribution platforms to content owners, not the other way around. But Marvel and MLB Advanced Media turned the model on its head, with huge economic rewards.

This kind of thing used to happen in music. United Artists, Reprise and A&M are examples. There are more opportunities for artists to control their destiny today than ever before. Examples include the new media I described above, as well as some aspects of traditional music operations.

The good old days have returned to the music industry. Newspapers would kill to be where you are. In a few years, more than a few participants in television and film may feel the same way. Good luck.

_______________________________________________

From: Duff McDonald
Subject: The Golden Passport

Bob - Duff McDonald here. Thanks so much for the shout-out to my new book in your recent missive. I agree wholeheartedly that the majority of business biographies aren't worth much more than the paper they're printed on, and are mostly whitewashed revisionist histories that strive to claim foresight and planning where the truth was usually luck and timing. The purpose of my book is to take a good hard look at just how MBA-style analytical thinking has had a corrosive effect not only on decision-making at individual companies by individual people, but also how it has led to a narrowing of the frameworks by which all sorts of decisions are made across all of society, when what we need to be using is a more holistic approach that takes into consideration that multitude of factors that can't be counted, measured, or gamed. I hope It resonates with readers as a call for a rethinking of what we value as a society away from that which can be shoehorned into a spreadsheet.

_______________________________________________

Subject: Re: The Periodontist

Bob,
What you're experiencing is something many baby boomers are going through.

We were the first generation of Americans to get regular dental care but we also grew up before the invention of dental sealants. Why is this important? Because when our teeth first erupt into our mouths the enamel on the chewing surface is not completely coalesced. So for the first several months it has tiny openings to the dentin, which is softer than enamel and prone to decay. Fluoride helps offset that vulnerability but it isn't perfect. Sealants, which did not come about until we were in our 20's covered those openings while the enamel finished coalescing and prevented decay much more effectively than fluoride alone, so the generation after us has a drastically lower incidence of decay

So we had cavities; most of us now in our 50's and older. But instead of getting teeth pulled like the generation before us, we got them filled. But fillings wear out. And when they get replaced they often have some recurrent decay around the margins so the replacement filling is bigger than the one before.

So the cycle goes something like this:
Get a cavity at age 8 or so and get it filled. Then 10-15 years later the filling gets replaced with a bigger one. Then 10-15 years later THAT filling is worn out and gets replaced but this time a replacement filling is going to be too big to be stable so you get a crown. For some teeth, all of that cumulative work has been very stressful for the nerve so at some point after the crown is placed (from as soon as a few weeks to as long as several years later) the tooth starts to hurt and you need a root canal to remove the offending nerve and fill in the empty space the nerve used to occupy.

At this point, the tooth has had so much work that more of it is restoration than actual tooth, and cracks in what's left of the tooth (namely the root) can develop. Root cracks or fractures are the bane of modern dentistry. Cracks hurt us in 2 ways.
1. When we bite on a tooth with a root fracture the mechanical movement of the two fractured pieces against the jaw bone to which it is attached is physically uncomfortable.

2. The fracture line itself becomes unattached from the surrounding jaw, creating a pocket for bacteria to live in and cause additional pain.

We have no restorative material in dentistry that will both bond the root fracture, AND be tolerated by the surrounding jaw bone to allow the attachment to reform. So the only choice at that point is to extract the tooth.

Factors that add to the potential for a tooth to fracture are diet (particularly a person who chews ice) but especially habits like clenching or grinding. If a person is stressed (and who isn't?) that stress can sometimes manifest itself in clenching or grinding, which fractures teeth over time. Most of us clench and grind when we sleep and aren't aware of it. If you think you might be doing that I would suggest you get a nightguard.

A nightguard won't stop you from clenching, but it will cushion your teeth and help preserve them. Nightguards can be as cheap as the $20 ones you can purchase at WalMart to several hundred dollars for a custom fit one that your dentist makes.

I am an Endodontist and don't place implants, but they are highly predictable and successful and yours should do very well for you.

I know you like to know a person's credentials so I will tell you mine.
BA Indiana University 1981
DDS Indiana University 1985
3 years of service in the US Navy
MSD and Certificate of Endodontics Indiana University 1990
I maintained a practice in Gainesville, Florida for most of the 1990's and also taught, part time, at the University of Florida College of Dentistry, Department of Endodontics for 5 years.

Feeling the pull of the Music City, I relocated to Nashville in 2002. Also, I am a Diplomate of the American Board of Endodontics since 1997. You might want to ask for that credential when you visit your next specialist (oral surgeon, Endodontist, periodontist)

Becoming a diplomate, or "board certified" is a long (years), three part process involving separate written, oral, and case presentation exams graded by existing diplomates within your particular specially. Becoming a diplomate is not required to practice as a specialist, but attaining that status is considered the pinnacle of achievement by the profession.

Just so you know that you're getting more than a fancy office and slick presentation next time you're visiting someone new and trusting your health to them.

I always enjoy your letter, even if I don't agree with everything you write. You've also become a trusted source for me and I give your recommendations a lot of weight. I hope this response has given you some information that is useful for your decisions on your oral health.

Sincerely,

Jim Blaney
Nashville, TN

_______________________________________________

Subject: Re: I Don't Know

Bob
Respectfully The Stake (written by David Denny) was different and had a 4 chord preceding the similar 4 note riff which kept it out of the courts. 8 notes in a row is the precedent for melodic plagiarism, but who's counting?

Kenny Lee Lewis

_______________________________________________

From: Johnny Lloyd Rollins
Subject: Re: Relationships & Power

Hey Bob. Check out Scaling Up by Verne Harnish. Following its principles, we took a small candy store making 200k a year to 2mil in less than 3years. Our year over year growth is exploding like crazy.

Scaling Up. Best book on business I've ever read.

Cheers

_______________________________________________

From: Ed Trunk
Subject: Re: I Don't Know

Bob

Randy was a monster and a star. But the real secret sauce of Ozzy was Bob Daisley. Ozzy is not a songwriter. Contrary to what some credits read, Ozzy only wrote melodies. Even Geezer Butler wrote lyrics in Sabbath. I've talked to so many about this and it's fact. The lyrics on most Ozzy solo albums, including the classics you reference, were all written by Bob Daisley. Bob also played bass on every Ozzy recording from the first album through No More Tears. For a brief time Sharon had the bass and drums (by Lee Kerslake) re recorded on the first two albums to get out of paying these guys over a royalty dispute. Jake E Lee wrote Bark At The Moon, even though he was screwed out of credit. When he talked about this on my TV show (That Metal Show), he was uninvited to a recent Sabbath show.

I'm not for a minute trying to diminish Ozzy's role in his success. But there were many unsung heroes and history has somewhat been revised over the years. But nobody looms larger than Bob Daisley. His contributions are massive and should be recognized. I hope you print this because more people need know.

PS: Lemmy is also a co writer on Mama I'm Coming Home.

Eddie Trunk
TrunkNation SiriusXM Radio
Eddie Trunk Rocks FM/Syndicated
The Eddie Trunk Podcast /PodcastOne & Itunes
Real To Reel AXS TV
www.EddieTrunk.com

_______________________________________________

Subject: Re: Claremont McKenna

From a guy who did live through the 60s, some of it in prison, I just want to say that you've hit the nail on the head.

John Berg

_______________________________________________

Subject: Re: Thursday Playlist

Dear Bob,

I was in The Journeymen with John Phillips and Scott Mckenzie before John started the Mamas and Papas. I agree that 12:30 is a wonderful song. Another lesser-known song of his called Strange Young Girls captures the whole concept of lost innocence : "offering their youth, on the altar of acid." Another entirely different excellent song is me and My Uncle, recorded by Judy Collins and the Dead.

I wouldn't call John a folkie, though. Before The Journeymen, John had a group called The Smoothies, who stood somewhere between the Four Preps and the Four Freshman. He was also a tremendous Ray Charles fan.

Besides being a superb songwriter, John was a wonderful vocal arranger. He liked nothing more than to get a bunch of people together and teach them vocal parts to a song. Trying this, changing that, until he was happy with the result.

The Mamas and Papas had such a specific sound that John was stereotyped as a folk-rock songwriter. There are dozens of songs that very few people have ever heard that cover a wide variety of musical styles and subjects. That's the tragedy of his musical life and legacy.

Dick Weissman

_______________________________________________

From: Andrew Oldham
Subject: Re: Thursday Playlist

bob;
glad you are too a 12.30 fellow.....
" i used to live in new york city, everything there was dark and dirty ..... "
the universal john !
who BTW renamed his former manhattan cellmate allen krime ....
best, o

_______________________________________________


From: Stein, Seymour
Subject: FW: Re-The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore

Andrew,

Have been tied up all week and only just seeing this now, or I certainly would've chimed in.

You covered all the bases and left me very little room to comment further about Bob Crewe. Most importantly, I want to state that I've made several attempts at nominating Bob Crewe for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Hopefully, your and Bob's comments, and this barrage of mostly favorable emails, will do the trick.

Also, might have mentioned Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, who I believe Bob discovered, and wrote great Four Seasons songs like "Working My Way Back To You," "Don't Worry 'Bout Me," "Let's Hang On," together with Crewe, and one of their best songs, which Linzer co-wrote with Bob Gaudio, "Dawn (Go Away)." To me, Randell and Linzer's greatest song was "A Lover's Concerto," which went a long way toward helping launch Bob Crewe's Dynavoice/New Voice labels, and also the follow-up, "Attack!"

Then, there was that fabulous triplex apartment on 5th Avenue overlooking Central Park that Bob shared with Alan Stroh, Mitch Ryder's first manager. Remember all the great parties and goings on there, one of Bob's sidekicks, and our dear friend, Roberta Goldstein, and of course, Bob's brother, Dan.

Bob (Lefsetz), if you print this, allow me urge your followers to email me their thoughts on Bob Crewe being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

One last thing. Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun, two of my great mentors, were huge fans of Bob. In fact, Jerry took Bob down to Memphis and co-produced a relatively undiscovered album of Bob Crewe, titled "Motivation."

All the best to you both, and your readers,

Seymour

_______________________________________________

From: Neville Johnson
Subject: RE: Re-The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore

Bob Crewe was a despicable person. He never paid royalties to Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. He sold his catalogue to Morris Levy, who didn't pay them either. I had to threaten Rhino with litigation, which did the right thing, and they've been getting paid since. Mitch writes about his horrible experience with Crewe in his award winning biography, Devils And Blue Dresses. Yes he wrote some great songs and made some good records. Remember them, not the man as he deserves no accolades for his morals and business practices.

_______________________________________________

From: Terry Gottschalk
Subject: Future

Podcasts are the new hit-song. Nobody has told a colorful story in a song since...I don't know. Ice-T? In the late 80's??
These stories that we're all listening to are completing that cycle started with radio stories from the long- or almost -dead. It's fascinating to...listen to! When might one of these assholes (pop/rock stars) finally tell a simple story instead of a vague moment hinged upon emotion?
...and how long does country music get a pass for having not been original for the past 50 yrs?

Love your stuff!

T

_______________________________________________

From: JJ Israel
Subject: Re: The John Oates Book

My date had "RIch Girl" played for me at our senior prom. The lead singer of the band said my name into the microphone for everyone to hear; I was humiliated.

We had gone as friends. We had been friends since we were little kids. Our whole class in our small, cloistered Michigan town had grown up together. We started out with 68 kids in our kindergarten class and graduated with 74 kids in our high school class. My date knew my family and I knew his; we had similar backgrounds. I just couldn't believe he would've done that to me. And I didn't feel like a "Rich Girl" at all! Our whole town was pretty upper middle class. There were MANY families who were more well off than ours; my family was just average in our town. I didn't know that our town of some privilege fit differently in the world at the time.

When I told my date that I was upset about the dedication, he was honestly surprised. He thought I'd actually LIKE being called a Rich Girl. He thought all girls in our town wanted to be Rich Girls and so he thought he was doing something really nice for his friend. I forgave him and I'm glad I did. We lost touch over the years. I moved away from our small town -- most of my classmates migrated away from Michigan in the 80's because there were no jobs or opportunities to be had. There was no hope for any kind of future in my beautiful lakeside hometown back then. Things are changing now. I know some people who have moved back and are managing to make good livings and are enjoying all the gorgeous natural resources in the area. As you get older, it's easier to see the cycles life can bring. Hopelessness can give way to hopefulness.

Unfortunately my date didn't live to see this. He died of alcoholism about 10 years ago. Even though I hadn't seen him in over 20 years I was really sad to hear the news. Our small class has lost quite a few too soon to the disease of addiction. I've heard people in their 50's suffer from depression at a lower rate than most other age groups. Makes sense to me because we get to have a perspective we didn't have at any other point in our lives, and we, for the most part, still have our health. I wish my friends had had the time to see all this.

But anyway, your post about John Oates made me think about my friends and my senior prom and all of it. Coming of age in the 70's, Hall & Oates were definitely part of the soundtrack of my life. Thank you for bringing me down my own little memory lane.

~Jenny

ps I wish more women responded to your posts! I suspect you include as many women's responses as is feasible, but we're SO outnumbered. Maybe women could fix the music business if they had more power -- it still feels like an old boys network.

_______________________________________________

Subject: chuck berry

Bob - In 1978, I was 17 when the band I was in (Teaser) was hired by the concert promoter to play as Chuck Berry's band at the Roanoke Virginia civic center. No rehearsal of course. The band was expected to know his repertoire, which we did, although Chuck changed the keys and tempos of his songs freely. It was memorable. The capper was when he invited a decent crowd up on the stage during his encore. He then unplugged and stepped off the back of the stage and into a limo inside the arena near the loading dock. He left us in mid-tune with a crowd on stage - it was shaking and alarming! A lucky experience! RIP Chuck Berry

Josh Gutfreund

_______________________________________________

Subject: Re: Life Rules

Good post, Bob.

I've always worked on the basis that I know my story so it's much more interesting to discover other people's. It's one of the things that pushed me to make documentary films for over twenty years. That's certainly a bonding experience.

What always surprises me is how poor people are at asking questions and yet it is a key skill. You can't know everything, though there are plenty of people out there who pretend to, but if you can ask the right question in a polite manner, you can basically unlock any information and, perhaps even more importantly, virtually any person.

Unfortunately, many seem to think that scoring points over the person in front of them is more important than genuine communication. But that's a lonely path to travel in my view.

Best wishes,

Richard Conrad Morgan

_______________________________________________

From: Jody Whitesides
Subject: Re: Re-Money

Bob, I direct this at Byron Udell from AccuQuote:

As someone who lived in Park City before Deer Valley existed - Byron, you're reasoning is part of what makes me think the property taxes should be 10X the rate of us that live here full time. The giant shells of wasted space & resources dotting our community is disturbing. Not only do the people who waste money on Uber McMansions create problems for locals, they also have some warped sense of entitlement for the few times of year that they show up. It leaves a really bad taste in the mouths of full time residents who have to put up with elevated costs of living due to people with too much money stealing space by any means possible.

What would make a lot of us full time residents feel better is to require even more from those who think its ok to destroy our nature for their 4th or 5th home. If you don't agree, locate your ass in Park City full time then bitch about the overbuilding, property taxes, infrastructure, and quality of life. Currently I can count 8 houses surrounding our full time residence that are all used about 2 to 3 weeks out of the year. They chew up our view, have eschewed proper building practices by throwing money or lawsuits at the city and quite frankly make our neighborhood and town look like shit.

Jody

_______________________________________________

From: Sandro Pugliese
Subject: Re: Internet Privacy

Thanks for bringing attention to the important things, as always.

One quick correction, it isn't your browser history but your entire history of all internet access at the ISP layer, which is infinitely worse. If it was your browser you could fix this problem. This is all your online activity by your browser, your email and your apps. Enjoy the oppression. Time for router level VPN services.

_______________________________________________

Subject: re: Money

Hi Bob

I have great difficulty believing those pro-trump mails you get are from real people. Given the spread of Kremlin-sponsored hacking, I suspect they are the work of bots.

Regards,
W.R. German

_______________________________________________

Subject: Re: "I Wrote Six Songs That Weekend"

Bob, PLEASE read this:

I went to listen to the new Kendrick Lamar record Friday morning. I made it through a handful of songs when, all of a sudden, I heard something that blew my mind....and it's not what you think....

The song FEEL. uses a sample with some warped vocals and some eerie synths. That sample is downloadable from Splice, a now commonly used library of licensable samples that can be searched by instrument, genre, bpm, key, etc.

I learned all about it when I moved to Barcelona, went to a music studio, and saw no instruments, no microphone, not even a midi controller. All this producer/writer/DJ did was use Splice :0....

So back to Kendrick.....that sample I HAD USED TO MAKE A SONG WITH 5 MONTHS PRIOR.... And while we had different drum beats, the song was essentially exactly the same. Same key, same bpm, same exact Splice sample. His instrumental and mine would constitute a court case 10 years ago. He didn't even bother cutting up the sample or going somewhere else with it. He didn't even drop it out for a bar or 2.

So he literally dragged and dropped that song...no instruments, no music writing, nothing. Just drag, drop, track vocals.

So what does this mean?

Are my decades of honing my craft almost useless in the pop world?

Being able to improvise off a riff that Bach wrote might be a cool YouTube video, but it doesn't mean I have a better shot of putting money in the bank than someone who just uses Splice.

And what does this mean for copyright laws?

If people are making big hits using these licensable samples that can be purchased and used legally for a fraction of a penny, are we close to seeing the end of "sound ownership"? In the same way music went from $20 for a CD to basically free, is the music creation and ownership process itself going to depreciate to zero?

Would love your thoughts,
On so many levels, we live in a Brave New World .

Pianist, Composer, Producer, Ex Pat,
Dylan Charbeneau

_______________________________________________

Hello Bob,
I hope you'll be able to speak about my friend Allan Holdsworth who passed away yesterday.
Allan was the Picasso of guitar, the Einstein of his approach, and to this day is regarded as the most groundbreaking guitarist of all time. No exaggeration.
He was also overlooked by the mainstream, and now his family is using social media to try to raise enough money for a proper memorial and funeral.
I would naturally assume that you're aware of Allan, and I have many great stories of our times together as well as the music we made, but right now it's most important to make sure he's laid to rest with dignity and with no more hardship for his sad and suffering family.

Thanks,
Jeff Watson

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Re-MOAB & North Korea

Dear Bob....I am Toni Tennille....yes THAT Toni Tennille....Muskrats, Love Will Keep us Together...all of that silly pop music stuff I am sure you have disdained for decades. I have been reading your emails for the past two years. My nephew, Michael Donaldson, recommended your writing to me and I have been fascinated by it ever since. I am 76 years old now, and a lot of what you write about today's business of music is beyond my understanding. I come from the era where you drove around the country with your single, and tried to get Music Directors at radio stations out in the middle of nowhere to play your 45. Anyhow....as you know, we were in the right place at the right time with the right music. Sheer luck.

I am writing today because I AM SCARED TOO!!!! Terrified, actually. I have always believed that our country will be relatively safe no matter what happens in the rest of the world. Naive maybe. But I see Trump, ramming a big stupid stick into several angry international hornets nests, and we are all going to suffer for it. This President is truly a loose cannon who has no understanding of what he is stirring up. God knows who is pulling the strings in his administration.....or maybe HE is, which is even more terrifying, I think.

Anyhow.....I just wanted you to know that you are not alone in your anxiety. I am right there with you. If I weren't an Agnostic, I'd be praying hard right now.

TONI TENNILLE
Facebook - The Real Toni Tennille
Lake Mary, Florida



Same as age as you. Like you, went to
Middlebury but only for a year.

TWO GUYS OUT OF THEIR DEPTH AS HEADS OF STATE EQUATES TWO GUYS OUT OF THEIR MINDS.

You are not alone in being afraid.

Jonathan Ehrlich


Just took some much needed comfort in reading that I'm not alone in feeling the same way right now. Thanks as always for your words.

Chris Jay, Army of Freshmen



One of your very best essays. Thank you.

Yuri Mamchur



No Bob, you are not the only one.
Please share this article with your list:
If a nuclear bomb is dropped on your city, here's where you should run and hide: http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-explosion-fallout-radiation-survival-shelter-2017-3?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

David Wildsmith



What about the fact htat the gas attack that started this could possibly be a sham?
That it was used to get things rolling because shithead was taking on a ton of heat and had to deflect the attention?
Something is definitely rotten in Denmark.
I just hope we don't play the role of Hamlet this time around.

David Tobin



It's the boomers Bob. You guys are responsible for all of this. Now own it.

Toli Galanis



Great newsletter. I always feel like I've learned something after reading them.

re: North Korea. I live in Seoul as an expat and it's pretty funny how indifferent Korean citizens are to North Korea's posturing and threats. It's just "meh." THey've lived so long under this cloud that it's a but the-boy-who-cried-wolf. Insiders in the US military tell me that it's when you hear of embassy and military families shipping out that we should get worried. Not even a hint of that yet so if it's any assurance, things are pretty status quo as far as North Korea goes.

Woody Pak



I'm in Macao right now and Beijing is under curfew and I can't get there. It's quite unsettling .

Matt Gaines



Bob, I can't tell you Kim won't bomb the United States.
However, let me remind you that "they" called Khrushchev a madman too. There was no telling what he would do.
Then they called Mao a madman. There was no telling what he would do.
Now the latest "madman" is Kim Jong Un. And the Iranian mullahs.
We need a boogie man to keep those funds flowing to the militarists.
I think Kim is calculating individual surrounded by other mostly calculating individuals.
They have a good thing going for themselves. They have no desire to throw it away with a crazy attack on the United States.
The US is the only country that has ever used the Bomb. Japan at that time lacked the power to retaliate.
On our side, we need careful leaders who don't do anything stupid either. Maybe that's what you are really worried about.
Anyway, I'm sleeping soundly.
I live on the East Coast.
Best,
Tom Moore



I can't either. I know no one is flying the plane. And that this is happening is so frightening. Who and how can we get out of this deadly tailspin. Scared for real.

Sandra



Every time I hear a comment about Hillary losing it stifles me. Were it not for the archaic Electoral College (that was conveniently designed to help mostly white populated states where Non-Anglo Americans had no desire to live there), Hillary won the popular vote by 3 million along with an untold number of provincial ballots mostly from inner city districts that were NOT counted.
You try to say there's equality between the Democratic Party and the Republicans when it comes to war....but that's a lazy, ignorant hypothesis. Republicans are notorious neocons and they stole this election.
Apparently, we have hundreds of thousands of missile in that could intercept any nuclear attacks from North Korea.
I am a proud San Franciscan who wonders about a world without Los Angeles. Keep the citizens alive in the desert but farewell to the city of Lost Dreams. Hmmm just a thought.
You're funny Robert. Drop that comment about your grandparents 3 story abode. Are we supposed to be impressed? What exactly did it have to do with your point.
To the Chumpsters out there, thanks a helluva lot....8 years of a dumb quasi-Texan and now a potential 8 years with an inarticulate racist who swims in the seas of mendacity like bottom feeding parasite. You think he's still so wonderful, do you? There's a reason why some of us know only New York and California and nothing in between.

Naomi Klein is a visionary. We can only pray that what seems inevitable, won't happen.

Kirk Bonin



You aren't the only one who is freaked. I feel the weight of a looming disaster that could possibly change life as we know it if terrorists should successfully target our country's aging power grid or oil refineries. I'm stockpiling shit as much as my limited budget will allow - food, water, survival supplies. I'm a 57 year old blues musician and I'm appalled to find myself turning into a prepper because of this underlying sense of urgency that sends chills up my back when I read the news.


Laurie LaCross-Wright



Yeah, I can't stop looking for updates on what appears to be one awful weekend of death. I also keep wondering if things were always this bad. And then I start cycling through memories of what I now think of as freewheeling carefree days when I didn't give so much attention to all these grave matters.

I do read Hamlet all the time. We should all read it more often. It's possible to hide an adult consciousness a bit inside of an "antic disposition" and have some minor relief from the pain and trauma of human societies. And of course, we are all living inside of a play inside of a play inside of a play. Though the blood is compulsory, thanks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, we have great power to will ourselves into puzzles and into abstractions of reality. So, I don't know if tuning into the boob tube is as useful as harnessing our anxiety and fear as creative tools.

It's all one long day, isn't it?

Keep writing, BL. We are reading.

:-)
You don't know me,
Bryan Sanders




It's a mess Bob. Who ever thought we'd end up feeling "safe" at the tip of Africa. Yes, we've got our political and racial issues but they seem small in comparison.

Come visit.

Darren



Oy Vey. I hear ya...

Josh Dorf



I hear you loud and clear. Have you tried chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo?

It has a very calming effect.

http://www.sgi-usa.org/memberresources/introducebuddhism/winninglife/docs/The_Winning_Life_ENG.pdf?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

Best,
Sam Nardella



Again your political views so confuse me. You say this, "And I haven't been so afraid this century. Haven't been afraid for decades. Yes, 9/11 happened, but that was in New York, first stop for Europeans, a bit more of a hop, skip and a jump from the Middle East, but the centralized city, Manhattan, makes a perfect target."
So it is ok they flew planes into building killing thousands? Yet the US drops a bomb on uninhabited desert (for the most part) and this scares you?
They cut off head with basically a steak knife, burn people alive, throw homosexuals off of balconies. Fathers engage in "mercy" killings.
And a bomb scares you?
I will never understand the left.

William



It is crazy that we're only 3 months into a brand new president and the bombs are already dropping - wars are threatened and he hops off to Florida resort weekends on taxpayer dime - and nuclear war is in the air. Not only is his finger on the button but he's openly talking about pressing it.

It's hard to shut it off when everything from this administration feels like psychological warfare.
They win when we tune it out and want ignorance. Ignorance is bliss - but only if there's an inhabitable world left.

Jared Shelton



Thank you for saying this bob. I feel like the general populations of 'the west' have been bullied and bruised by stagnation and general despair into a malaise of isolationism and fear. Ergo Trump & Brexit. But why?

I remember after 9/11 - I was about 12 - I saw a man on the news from the US (imagine a sweeping generalised white man, white hair, baseball cap, polo shirt) saying 'we're gonna make a big fucking glass creator out of the middle east' - he got his wish I guess. He must have felt like we were huddled behind Moab and the might of those B52's because it protected him and the rest of us - but what's it really done? Absolutely the opposite. The world is way - WAY more unstable now than it was when I was a child, born the year the the Berlin Wall fell. For what possible reason are we now looking at the brink of a nuclear war with North Korea?! A state we know is best left ignored. Why are we, again meddling in the Middle East bringing more instability to Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. We've bombed our way into an extremist's wet dream - endless justification for countless acts of brutality.

So it's like the fight in the play ground where you say 'yeah if you fight me, I'll fight you back and I'll beat the crap out of you' but then you both just end up getting hurt and realise there no real winner; only a few black eyes and animosity that stinks out your personality for a couple of weeks.

We're on the verge - as the human race - of the utopia that's been written about. Technologically we're ever so nearly there, ever so near to post scarcity - where food is produced and put into its designated mouth and not wasted - where transport is automated and abundantly cheap - where we've harnessed the suns power and run our broken capitalist system off it until people realise there's no need to perpetuate the farce of working in data entry or for a law firm. The loom freed the weaver - the car freed the horse - AI will free mankind.

But we need to stop distracting ourselves with meaningless shit on TV and blowing each other up and do some fucking work!

Aren't we all in this together?

Lewis Fieldhouse, London



NOBODY IS GIVING UP OUR RIGHTS DUMMY. What do u think the 2nd Amendment is all about? LIBTARD.

Aristedes aka Mr. Melody



I'm with you Bob! I'm 59 and grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan. I've lived in the SF Bay Area since the late 80's and it's obvious that this area is a bubble. No one believed that Trump (Agent Orange) could win. But here we are! It's worst than Dr. strangelove
I'm bombarded everyday by elected officials on the Democratic side begging for money. I thought that was part of the problem... Money in politics . It feels like no matter how much one gives, it's never enough...
Nothing gets done for the average schmo. Anyway.
...and now this narcissistic crazy tweeting idiot, fueled by dark money and even darker political movers, is stirring up revenge and hatred ...!? WtF ! I can't even turn on the news or listen to it on the radio! I know I should, but I've been burying my head in the sand. It upsets me so much.
That said, I'm heading to the streets tomorrow in protest!
See you there! Thanks for your heartfelt writings ! I appreciate them!
Sincerely
Chipley Trombley



Bob
We would not be in these Dire Straights if our Last President didn't go around bowing to other leaders of the World and apologizing for our Country's past actions. Then to draw meaningless lines in dirt - sand or whatever and not follow through was not only demeaning but our status in the world plummeted. Our words became meaningless. Our friends became skeptical. Our enemies no longer feared us!!

Bullies love a coward! Taunt taunt taunt! They get their rocks off! Or maybe their nukes in this case!!

Eight years later - now it's us (you) that have fear. And you say to lay the blame at the feet of Trump. You kid me? The Bitch Killery pushed the Russian reset button. Joke. Took out Gaddafi. Joke. Abandoned Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi then blamed a YouTube video. Sickness! Obuma paid ransom to a terrorist country - in cash. Stupidity!


You really need to rethink why you're feeling afraid.

M. Vaughn Duck
Nice, France.



Seattle has a nuclear arsenal. Seattle is the place.

Kai Strandskov



Surely the best, most moving, honest and relevant piece you have ever written, Bob. Thank you.
Annie Nightingale
London



Bob: I hid food in my basement in case they dropped the bomb........
I lived right outside of D.C. in the late '50s- would have been part of the hole.
The Cuban Missle Crisis - my dad was the public information officer
at Alameda Naval Base that year.......my school was having a field
trip to the base. Dad met the buses and told us to go back to school,
we were not allowed on the base. I'll never forget it.

I'm also worried about Korea, living in Oregon, I worry. And
I can't believe I still have to worry in 2017........I thought those
childhood fears were behind us.
Katie Bradford, Portland.



No, actually - you should't relax, Bob. Too many Americans zone out and tune into the Kardashians or whatever their preferred diversion is. You're doing the right thing. Vigilance is the only antidote when things get scary. To do otherwise hands the keys to the car to folks who are not tested on the global stage and don't yet deserve our confidence. (Do they ever!). -t

Tony D'Amelio



U got that right uncle bob

HYIM



No you're not the only one. We're all afraid, everywhere.
In Europe we have the general feeling Trump should be impeached before he will get us all killed. He's like the big fat bully back in elementary school. He will not back down but nor will his enemy. And you know what happens when people are getting frustrated, they'll do crazy things even if it would mean it's the last thing they'll ever do. They don't care anymore, it's just about their pride and personal feelings and they'll do whatever it takes to make their last blow count.

But when the dust settles, we're the ones left in the schoolyard facing the consequences because some of the kids in the schoolyard have access to WMD's. And like you, I'm afraid they will hit L.A. or New York first. Or an oil field, whether it's in the US or outside. Somewhere where it makes an impact.

Or maybe not right away.....maybe the first thing they'll hit is a country that happens to be somewhere in the middle where it has no impact but can be seen as a 'last warning'. Maybe the Netherlands (where I currently live) will one day become a chapter in history books as collateraldamage.

The general feeling (or hope) over here is that Trump will either be impeached, or stopped by one of America's own agencies/services before his 'personal' real enemies get to him. And that's perfectly fine with us, we just hope it will be quick enough before he takes us all down.

Why aren't their mass demonstrations? Even the most conservative right wing republican Obama hater should be able to see that Trump is going to destroy this beautiful nation? We're not talking fiction here anymore. It's no a 'what if' scenario. I've seen more people protesting against New Coke back in the 80s?

We are human and we all make mistakes. But learning from them is what makes the difference. And you don't need to be an apt pupil to see that if we don't wake up soon enough, we'll all face the dire consequences.

Remember the feeling we had back in the 80s? The videos for Land of Confusion and Relax? Quite scary, right? But it's a lot worse now....

No Bob.....you're not alone. We're all afraid....
All the best,

Björn de Water



Nope. Got home from my gig last night and watched the news with a very sick and nervous feeling in my guts. Trump and Kim Kong are both total lunatics!!

Steve Young



Thank you for this, Bob.

Adam Blake



Bob, I've never written/replied till now. I'm in New Zealand.

To your question, am I the only afraid one...? Ummm... no. I mean NOOOOOOO....!

Even way down here, I've gone from laughing, to incredulous, to pissed off at your country's voters. I have no real right to be in one sense, but the fact it it does matter and does affect all of us. By "us" I mean humans.

The US has elected a moron. As the Chinese have said, he's as ignorant as a child, yet has such power and respeonsibilty that he has no aptitude or value set for.

So no, you're not alone. All I hope for is that there's enough of "you" to rein him in by shaming, ridiculing, cajoling and that Govt Officials tie his hands (should I say coach and guide him).

Duncan Wylie



You're MOAB piece was thoughtful, thorough and well articulated. I wish I could disagree with just a single statement in it, so I could at least feel a tiny bit less stressed over the state of world affairs as I see them. I can't. Diplomacy now seems to be the tactic of last resort for many leaders of powerful nations, including Putin and Trump, whose egos appear to often override common sense. Add to that the inexplicable behaviours and ominous sabre rattling of utterly mad tyrants, such as Kim Jong un and Assad, and it makes average people like you an me feel completely vulnerable and powerless. And, yes, frightened. Those of us who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis as kids lived in a world that was still reeling from the horrors and aftermath of World Wars I and II -- a world that had to wait days or weeks to hear, digest and react to events around the globe. Today's instant communications make international crises seem like a global reality show, which we can only watch, aghast, as spectators. Despite that, regardless of race, nationality, or beliefs, we all share 99% of the same DNA and a single planet; yet, somehow, greed, religion and a lust for power seem to blind us from the inevitable conclusion of self destruction if we continue down this unsustainable path.

So, no, your are not the only one who's 'freaked out.' And thank you for such a depressing, albeit necessary essay.

Bob Kennedy,
Toronto



Damn right you should be afraid, Bob. The guy in charge cares about one thing: his approval rating & now he's seen his numbers take an uptick after 'my military' (good God!) dropped some ordnance. And he says they have carte blanche to strike. What could go wrong? Add his utterly strange personality...that 'chocolate cake' interview should give historians a laugh somewhere down the road, if we survive. Yeah, feels like any long range planning is pointless right now. Our fate rests in the hands of a guy who is completely disconnected from history. Jeff Hayward/Maine



I was out with 6 lawyer friends and mentioned my distaste with the "fetishization" of this bomb by the media and by the populace. They jumped my shit and talked about how the bomb was dropped and how it worked for 10 minutes. We have lost our way. We are the people we were afraid of.

Michael A. Becker



It's about time that people is the USA started to feel afraid of what their President might do, and what he might cause others to do. This is why we in the UK joined CND and marched in the sixties, and why women camped at Greenham Common. We thought that things had moved on, but now it's hard to believe that any more. And it's not just certain foreign leaders who are 'not rational people, they're power-hungry overlords, who are more worried about their image than safety' . Your own President is just the same, with the difference that he has the resources of a super-power to call on. We should all be scared, and we should realise that being scared isn't the same as being weak. NOT IN MY NAME.

Mike Donovan



Also, what does KJU get out of bombing the US? His ground troops are going to overrun LA? He's gonna take over San Francisco? Hell, even the SF politicians can't run the city well. You think he wants that headache? He might be crazy, but he knows his country would be vaporized if he sent a bomb our way. Of all the geopolitical things to worry about, this ain't it. Take a Xanax.

Steve Hurlburt



It is scary. But there's an excellent article written by Carolyn Glick a few years back called Israel The Strong Horse (a jump off from a book by the same name if I remember correctly), and the idea is that in the worldview of regimes like ISIS anything less than dominate strength is seen as weakness, and weakness is what empowers them.

http://carolineglick.com/israel_the_strong_horse/?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

Observing world events with that perspective in mind has been especially enlightening.

Jenny Sjolund



.......yup.

Tommy Allen



Seems like every side/Country/person/leader calls upon their god(s) to help them... but really God, PLEASE help Humanity!

scared too

Joe Schneider



Don't relax.

And for the bozos - yes, I chose the word carefully - who say it's ridiculous to compare him to Hitler, I just want to ask them a few questions to see if they actually KNOW anything.

It started this way. Hitler was voted in with a small majority. He ramped up the rhetoric. Blamed others - Jews, gypsies, "foreign" powers. Turned up the volume. Built up the military.

"Make Germany great again".

Surrounded himself with crazy suck-ups and then the others followed. Next, he invaded a small piece of Europe.

Approval ratings soared. A crazy man had the power. And, he used it.

Don't get comfortable Bob.

More history.

President Truman wanted to use the Atomic Bomb on North Korea in the Korean War.

Eisenhower, the last decent Republican President and a REAL soldier, talked him out of it. He knew too much about death and killing.

One nuclear bomb puts so much radiation into the atmosphere for so long that cancer deaths will spike everywhere including America.

As for two or three-well, just listen carefully to the lyrics of the 60s folk song "Just a little rain".

That's why Trump tested the waters with a non-nuclear weapon first.

This is madness.

But Trump pulled it off.

The bozos aren't talking anymore about Russian collaboration, about treason, or about his business dealings.

"Make America great again"

Be afraid. Very afraid.

Sieg heil.

John Parikhal



Hi Bob. I lived through the Cuban Missile crisis. Was living at a Air Force base in Texas so mom and dad knew we would get whacked if things got going.

I too think we are at a dangerous cross roads. Kind of a damned if we do, damned if we don't. If North Korea can deliver nukes to LA, the blackmail of a lunatic will have begun. Iran will have them in short order and neither coast will be safe.

The Chinese are the only ones who can address this and Trump is wise to put that requirement far ahead of all other discussions and negotiations with them. No longer a currency manipulator. That was the first "give" in the program. One of the great things about Trump is he is pretty transparent.

This transparency is allowing, no forcing us, to see and look at, with a very bright light the issues and problems that have festered in the last dozen years. The Middle East, Korea, the resurgence of the Soviet Union, radical Islam, countries without boarders, unfunded social welfare Programs, a general and consistent decline in Judaeo/Christian values and norms.

It happened on our watch Bob. We
screwed up and let our country (and the rest of the world) become ruined.

The major issue with our country is lack of cohesiveness. Many have enjoyed the bashing of the elections and the results. Whipping too many of the American people into a fury of fight and difference rather than peace and collaboration. It is a climax of the last decade of build up of the approach from both the left and the right.

And it is really about selfishness. The it is all about me country we have become.

Have you read "The Fractured Republic?" You should if you haven't. It does a great job showing how we got here.

Best,

John Kendig



Come on now Bob, you were 9 and scared during the Cuban Missile Crisis......... It wasn't you who was scared , but the people around you who scared you . I was in college and was not scared at all. Call me naive ,but without media pushing negativity in your face , we didn't really know a lot about it.. I was in Massachusetts , where Kennedy was "top dog" and cover profusely by the media.......... I know many people my age were eligible for service in war and were either totally antiwar ( flee to Canada ) but most were proud to be of service to their country. The beatniks were prominent in Mass. , but not the hippie movement at that time. Most anti anything protests were "underground" or passive.

Cathy Hancock



Yeah Bob. Being afraid for yourself is one thing. Being afraid for your entire civilization is quite something else. I agree.

Matthew Antolick



I hear you. Saw what could be coming years ago and we picked up and moved everything to a rural countryside in Costa Rica last year. If you want to relocate I suggest going somewhere with water.

Janine Jordan



Read this. And get ready for more shots of Trump wearying his Commander-in-Chief wardrobe. The draft dodger is playing army.

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/trump-craves-praise-we-praise-him-for-bombings-what-possibly-could-go-wrong/article34703117/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&&&utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

Dave Logan



You are not alone. Keeps me up at night too. Brinkmanship. Perfect description. N Korea could not at this point have much of a chance of actually reaching the west coast with a missile. For me the truly terrifying thought is that this may be the prelude to a power grab by this administration.

Wally Wilson



Dead on.

L. Morales-Spencer



Once again I am with you on this.
I am obsessed with the news. Fall asleep listening, wake up reading.

For the first time in my life I thought we need to have a plan!?. Living on Lake Ontario
( across this huge body of water is Canada) do have an escape route? Or do we stock up on bottled water in our basement? What do we tell our 3 small children? How do we walk that fine line of being aware & prepared without becoming freaked out and paranoid?

Or does it even really matter....

Keep writing and I will keep reading.
Nice to know I am not alone.

Alayna Alderman



On the one hand, it's absolutely reasonable to be very worried when we have a Commander In Chief who is a bully, narcissist and has zero experience in governance or foreign policy.

The only thing that I take solace in right now is that the one good thing Trump did was select James Mattis as secretary of defense. That guy is no joke. He knows his stuff, is about as highly respected by the military as they come, and is probably the biggest grownup in the administration. He's seen some shit. He's not going to advocate for reckless foreign policy, and I think (hope) Trump knows enough by now to listen to the guy.

Also, the fact that China is getting sick of North Korea's shit tells us that this isn't just about unchecked U.S. aggression, this is something we need to legitimately be concerned about.

In the end, all we can do is hope as always that cooler heads prevail.

Zach Ziskin



I'm right there with you. Hayes, Maddow and O'Donnell, with a dash of Cooper and Lemon. Hold the Jeffrey Lord.

Tom Quinn



Hey Bob, thanks for the column.

Crazy times indeed. The nation is clearly divided in partisan politics, and unfortunately our orange Cheeto-fingered, self-proclaimed "pussy grabber", Chump, isn't even the least bit trifled with any real concerns of the American people while he vacations at his Mar-a-Lago estate playing golf and stuffing his puffy little pie-hole with chocolate cake on tax-payer dollars while he whimsically authorizes preemptive military strikes, and bombards his Twitter account with insanely ill-informed and unsubstantiated propaganda about "wire-tapping" allegations and #maga bullshit that only serve to obfuscate facts and enhance his obvious narcissism and megalomaniacal agenda. It's getting to the point where even Spicer is at a loss for words... what a sad state of affairs. Let's hope he doesn't finally piss off this other reckless, bullying, half-cocked sycophant that will ultimately hand his ass back to him at innocent people's expense. I pray for us all.

Regards,
Mark Lane



Coupla points Bob. 1. Don't fall for the propaganda — (yes it's a bad country but) the leadership of NK aren't crazy or irrational, they have one motive and it's survival. They saw what happened to Saddam and Qaddafi and they aren't going to let it happen to them. They've run the country since 1947, no way they would have pulled that off if they weren't rational. (As a not unrelated aside, why do you think Putin took over the Crimea? Power-mad dictator? Or calculated pushback after we overthrew the Ukrainian government and turned that buffer country into a CIA funfair?) And 2. Ask the people of Flint if they care about some foreign entity poisoning the water. We have to stop this nonsense and get our own house in order.

Charles Kennedy



"ISIS is comprised of bad guys, I get it."
Respectfully ... don't believe you do, actually

Robert Carey



Bob

Relax.

USA, Russia and China already decided the outcome. Obama was MIA rollover for 8 years and a re calibration is occurring. It's just theatre.

Read the alternative history of the CMC http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/10/08/the-myth-that-screwed-up-50-years-of-u-s-foreign-policy/?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

Fake news back then.

Rick Vogt



Move back here to Vermont! :)

Bob Kalill



Pack it up Lefsetz and stick to music.

Paul Cibrano



It's not just you...there's plenty of us scared about the country's rapid move towards militarizing international conflicts. After ignoring MSNBC for the past bunch of years I can't get enough of Rachel and team. A short book you should consider, written by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, is"On Tyranny: 20 Lessons From the 20th Century".

Gene Joly
Thousand Oaks



You would enjoy this extremely informative and interesting history lesson on nukes. You get thorough descriptions of their power, Truman's decision to use them, the psyche and decision points behind having to make that decision and more. One of the main points is not to live in fear, but don't lose sight of how fragile the world can be, and understand the massive power we put in the hands of our President. Highly recommended for anyone...particularly those like me who were not alive during that era.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History - Destroyer of Worlds:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dan-carlins-hardcore-history/id173001861?mt=2&i=1000380386551&utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea
-Jason



Dear Bob,

No, you are not the only one. Throughout the election campaign that I followed intensely I feared this the most.
The one pervasive thought going through my mind was "Has my country lost it's frigging mind putting the world's
biggest military in the hands of narcissist like Trump????"

It was predictable that this man turned President would be a bull in a china shop and was capable starting WWIII
on a whim. He actually said and I quote "I made the MOAB decision while eating the most wonderful piece of chocolate!!!!!

So in turn I have to quote you. How the hell in this crazy fucked up world did we get here? I have nothing but stressed and sleepless
nights thinking about how this idiot could actually be the catalyst for the end of the world.

From my perspective, now living in Paris for the last 15 years and not being influenced by US media outlets, Trump is simply doing a
spin a la Rogers & Cowan to take the focus off the fact that he should be impeached and jailed for High Treason by colluding with the
Russians. The inevitable truth of which will be revealed hopefully before he starts a war that could end the world.

Let Love Rule,

Dan McConomy




Bob, dial up your shrink..........your slipping away.

Bill Jackson



Wow. You hit the nail on the head here. I remember practicing 'duck and cover' in grade school and discussing whether or not I'd want to, or could, survive the nuclear holocaust on the school bus trip home. I'm afraid, too!
Carole A.



History is not a forecast of Destiny. But it gives a forshadowing of the range of outcomes. I too was a middle schooler during the Cuban missile crisis. I went to Catholic school, so I also had "going to hell" to worry about. We have no idea what the slightly chubby 13 year old looking NK leader is really about. But it is usually the evil genius types that end us in great conflagrations, acting often in slow motion, or the ruling classes who sometimes just really getting it all wrong (WW1) almost randomly, not guys like him, who will get taken down if he really is a Nuke warrior.

You have lived through part of the Korean war, several Israeli/Arab wars, Vietnam, the Russian Afghan war, the Iran Iraq War, the US 2 Iraq wars, the US Afghan war, the semi global ISIL/ISIS guerilla war, the Cold War, the South African Revolution and more. We now have this odd but seemingly impotent cultural domestic war between the further left and the further right in domestic politics, which to me looks like Kabuki theater.

There is no eternal peace on earth. In North America, two oceans have helped keep Canadians, Americans, and Mexicans relatively isolated from the worst of the historical global messes over time. Of course MAD can always break down as a deterrant. I think the media, like any other business, wants us to buy what its selling. But the news is just a tiny filtering system which ignores the 99.9% of normal living that goes on day to day. I say stay informed, but put it in perspective. Most of the time living is normal, and even when not, it effects a small percent, even if maybe one day you or me are the small percent

But to feel almost frantic because NK is doing its annual pray to grampa day, and we dropped a MOAB on an empty mountain is something we can and should control. As cynical as we all seem destined to be, most of the world leaders are not trying to solve for disaster. Car accidents, family violence and suicides produce the most steady and consistent rates of death worldwide(besides illness and old age), but we really don't fret all that much about them. If we really care, we should get involved in things, project calmness and get on with living the very short time we have in this incredibly bizzare Universe we live in.

Mike Rulle



I always enjoy the letter, but gotta correct you on one thing. It's understandable that folks in the middle of the country do not feel at less risk from nukes. As a child, like you, I was also given the response not to worry about missiles cause it meant we would all die. We lived in what was then called ground-zero...by Strategic Air Command. So that meant not only were we gonna die, but we'd go first. My parents thought it was a comfort that "we won't know what hit us." Remember that t.v. movie "The Day After?" Set in Kansas, I think.
Lots of missile silos and command centers in fly-over country. So unfortunately, we all have reason to be afraid. I'm with you, Bob. Scary times.
"Let the music keep our spirits high"
~~Jackson Browne (Before The Deluge).

Peace,



Tell me Bob....why is Russia's supposed 'meddling' with the election such an issue .....yet the Saudis giving $25m to Hilary's campaign nothing worth mentioning ?
Also - if you really want to know where America is heading, I implore you to visit Dearborn Michigan ( preferably wearing a yarmulka and a Star of David) and then tell me again why Trump is so evil to want to curtail Muslim immigration.....
Seriously - I will buy you a First Class round trip ticket from L.A. - as long as you promise to report what you encounter there.
Cheers
Tony McAuslan



I knew you would be good at this. Picking up the rock and looking underneath. Lots of ugly creepy crawly things under there. Many people don't like to do yard work. They won't pick up that rock. They don't want to know what's under it.

Korea and ISIS are the antithesis of everything we stand for. Tolerance, transparency, equality, democracy, justice, mercy, social programs to aid the less fortunate, etc.
But even in this great country, those precepts are now scarce and fading fast.

This new administration could potentially be dangerous. But like the popular pit bull, it can be trained and become a part of family. How do we do that? Art. Music. Freedom of speech. Humor. And most of all, like what you do Bob, communicate. If we all stay in touch, and keep reminding our elected officials of where we stand, our voices will be heard. Then we can use that collective thought in the voting booths next year and in 2020. Though we might not agree on all issues, those precious concepts our forefathers protected are still all we have.

Hopefully, as you have assigned Bob, some new young rebellious writer out there in the music community will soon pen the next "For What It's Worth" because there definitely is something happenin' here and it ain't exactly clear.

Praying for peace
Kenny Lee Lewis



Hi bob, I follow you're articles closely, I gotta say that your admission that you only skim the international news is what got you guys into the mess you're in now. In many respects, you get the government you deserve. Far too many people like you don't know a thing beyond their own few blocks let alone foreign nations. Yes, America is a great land! But, without understanding much about neighbours near and far, your fate is to be governed by those who will take advantage of your ignorance. Best of luck, wish you success and peace, get some reading in! RHK (Rick Kesler), in Toronto.



It's scary, but North Korea is scarier. If they aren't stopped before they are able to attack us, we will be sorry.

Agostino Scafidi



"...who got it all wrong, their statistical modeling told us Hillary would win and she didn't."

Not true.
Polls were contingent on Dems voting. However Americans sat their complacent apathetic butts at home & now we're ruled by a rabid minority & their insane clown posse.
It's not a democracy if the people don't participate.
Thanks for your posts, Bob.
--Joel Messerer in SF



Yep. And Chamberlain didn't want to piss off the Nazis. Glad to see you've learned from history.

David Harris



I've been feeling the same way. The complexities of our new media world requires a savvy leader. Trump ain't that. He's a bully! I have yet to hear a sensible strategy on anything from health care to global warming. He's in way over his head.

Being a Canadian, we are tied to whatever America does as a loyal friend and supporter over the years.

I feel helpless. What can I do to change things. Nothing!
And that's sad.

Dave Charles




Bob - I think war with North Korea is inevitable unless Jong-un backs down and abandons his nuclear ambitions.

Kim Jong-un has been nothing but ruthless in consolidating power and proving his mettle over the past six years he's been in power. None of us know his true intentions and we'd be fools to think otherwise. We grew up with Kim Jong-il and grew to understand how he did business. This is not him.

We can't project our own logic onto other leaders that grew up in other environments. What we must do is assess what is his most dangerous course of action, most likely course of action, and prepare for the most dangerous.

Clearly the most dangerous is that he develops a nuclear capability of hitting the United States and will strike once he has it. We can say that's unlikely, but that's not good enough. We must prepare for the most dangerous and act accordingly.

Therefore, the current strategy of "maximum pressure and engagement" makes sense to measure whether Jong-un will back down. If he doesn't, we will keep escalating and escalating until we go to war.

Believe me, while war with North Korea would be horrendous right now, it is certainly better than war with North Korea in 5-10 years when they have the capability of hitting the United States with a nuclear missile.

Since the international political system is an anarchic environment where there is no supranational authority that can enforce the rules, the United States must do what it has to do to ensure its own self-preservation.

Like you mentioned, we are all fortunate to live in the US where we are not faced with these types of uncomfortable and horrendous choices often, but a decent portion of the world out there is still run by dangerous and scary people with the capability of doing a lot of damage/harm on a mass scale.

I respect Gen. Mattis a lot as both a scholar and a statesman. I feel comfortable that he has the trust of the President, and the only options he is presenting him in the best interest of all of us.

Let's hope that Jong-un is happy with extracting money, food, etc. in exchange for stopping his nuclear ambitions like his father. If not, we will be in for a long reign with him in charge...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-trump-north-korea-strategy-20170414-story.html?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

Sean Gilfillan



You are definitely not the only one freaked out. The article on "preppers" from a recent New Yorker, says it all.

https://www.google.ca/amp/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich/amp?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

Dave Mason



Glad to know you've seen the light. 20 years plus of fanning the "hate Hilary and liberals" flames certainly was the
overriding factor. I was not a supporter due to her policies and many were lashing out over both parties' indifference to the screwing we've taken at the hands of politicians and their corporate masters, but the Hilary hatred was masterfully played and Trump tuned these people up with a great con job.

We are in great danger, I'm worried this could turn out very bad.

Jim Bowers



Bob, you are so right, this is not right / left, republican v democrat. This is life and death. But the policy of paying off the guy in N Korea is how we got here. He hid his nuke program, or the president at the time looked the other way and pushed the problem to the next guy. He is now in a position to sell the most destructive weapon mankind has ever made to the highest bidder. What if that is ISIS? Maybe we should buy them? Russia crumbled when they could no longer afford their military after Reagan refused to play their game. I'm sure you hated Reagan but he realized the only thing bullies understand is power. Pretending this guy in N Korea doesn't exist or that the middle east will settle down if we just ignore it or cut deals with them like we have for the last 8 years? Those bills are coming due. A smart general is one who knows war is the worst possible outcome, let's hope Trumps are in that mind set.

Jim



Good morning Bob,

If they're lobbing bombs Hawaii is the place unfortunately.

The truth is:

"In Hawaii a profusion of four-star military commands — including U.S. Pacific Command, which oversees U.S. military activity over half the globe — makes Oahu a strategic and symbolic target."


Also of note an intercontinental ballistic missile (icbm)can reach Hawaii in under 20-minutes from NK... (Hawaii is 4,661 miles from Korea and LA is another 5,626 miles further...and not as strategic a hit).

What's more shocking is the only real missile defense systems we have are based in Alaska and California; the $36 billion system was rated by the Pentagon in Dec as having low reliability...

I only hope they sort this sh*t out and don't f up my home state, or my Hawaiian holiday...

Aloha,
Fiona

P.S. All notes taken from the Hawaii State Emergency Management Agency (last updated 5 days ago): http://dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/main/north-korea-threat-to-hawaii/?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

Fiona Frawley



You are not alone Bob. Religion helped create civilization. Now it as become our destroyer. Trump is just the distraction, the real magic that will change the planet can be accomplished in two assassinations: 1 - Religion, and 2 - Beef. That will require will-power not fire-power.

Pax, Hartmann



No one can keep America safe? I'm sorry you are so desperately lost in your ideology that you cannot see that we must destroy the jihadist ability to wage war against us. That will keep us safe. But is that even the goal? Just keep in America safe. Or do we have an obligation to the world as THE lone superpower that is a force for good in the world to take action and let people know that we will not be intimidated or bullied? The truth is as we breathe the jihadists are building and stockpiling weapons and planning to kill everyone that disagrees with them. Inaction is no longer a reasonable option. And these people aren't diplomatic, so don't give me this crap that we just have to be nice enough and then we'll all just get along. They don't want to talk - they don't even care about their own flesh and blood.
Your probably more scared of Trump than of the crazy murderous people in the world though right?

Anyway, the truth is what God says it is. So start praying for the truth to be revealed to you and strip away all your preconceptions bc the truth is probably something you've never even thought possible. Are you scared of someone who can destroy the body? What about someone who can destroy the soul? That's what's really going on here my friend....

Ben Kruse



Bob,

It sucks to be an American in Amerika.

They say Trump doesn't drink or do drugs. Yet. we can't hold his father accountable for allowing him to eat paint chips contaminated with lead when he was a kid.
Trump voters wanted change. They have it. Via treason.

The rest of us need to think seriously not about what we WANT, but what we NEED. Now. Before this crazed piece of shit and his bootlicking toadies kill us all.

Since election night, I've see and heard "RESIST".
Resist, my ass. Resistance is for pussies. Break out the t-shirt silk screening machines, folks.

REVOLT.

Scott Sechman



You are not the only one. I follow your blog. While I don't agree with everything you say, this is the first time I have replied and agreed, because I feel it is most important. I wrote this at the same time you wrote yours:
"Trump had his mini Reich-stag fire. He momentarily picked up a few supporters, but they were quickly lost. His efforts in Syria did nothing except maybe appeal to his misguided zealots. What this President has tried to paint as gains and wins, couldn't be farther from the truth. His gains quickly turned into loses. Then he dropped a MOAB on tunnels in Afghanistan. Again there was a momentary bump which he quickly lost. The cost of that bomb could have fixed many things in the US (like the pipe in Flint Michigan, or meals for grandma). And removing what appears to be just 36 Isis fighters, will only make them have more resolve. Trump's bluster to make himself look good was not effective or properly conceived. Then he separated himself from our military saying he gave them permission to do what they want. While I trust our great military to not be stupid and start something with North Korea. I do not trust a President that has lied so many times they cannot be counted. Will this next event with North Korea have the same outcome of momentary bump then ultimate loss, will the insanity of control and ego take presidence and cause war. Their leader like our President, using the words of Mike Pompeo, "As long as they make a splash, they care nothing about the lives they put at risk or the damage they cause to national security"...."Yes, they try unsuccessfully to cloak themselves and their actions in the language of liberty and privacy; in reality, however, they champion nothing but their own celebrity." Yes these were the words of Pompeo about Assange, but they seem equally appropriate about our President and North Korea's leader. Recent reports I have heard say this NK leader will respond if provoked. I will hold trump personally responsible if anything negative happens. He has not gone to Congress to ask if he can make these war-like acts. It is Not the job of the military to have to act as a conscience for a President without one. None the less, it may come down to that necessity. Please be vocal about what you think should happen, before we slide into a war no one can win."
And in your case, continue to be vocal about what you think.
Thanks.

Bernard Fox



Good one!

Would love to hear your thoughts on why Trump is pushing for anti-abortion legislation so hard and if he does have religious motives?

JD Yarosh



http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-explosion-fallout-radiation-survival-shelter-2017-3?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

Cob Carlson



Amen!

Dax Martinez-Vargas



No, you're not the only one. I know you've mentioned several times how much
news you're absorbing these days. I do, too, but also spend a lot of time
reading history. And that saying is correct: history doesn't repeat, it
rhymes.

Incompetent, insecure leaders started butting heads in the early part of the
last century and they couldn't stop things once it got rolling. They gave
mixed messages to each other, which led Germany to become aggressive,
thinking Britain and France wouldn't step in. And we ended up with World War
I. Which gave us World War II.

Trump's inconsistent and incoherent statements on (well everything, but in
this case) foreign policy, have made our enemies bolder. And now he appears
to be overreacting.

Yes, feel free to be freaked out.

George Evanko



Great bit of writing. We do all want the same thing. It may all come to blood to get it.

Billy Fields



Hi Bob,

I have never reached out to you before but I really resonated from this article, despite it having nothing to do with music.

My family came from a royal background in Prussia. My great grandmother was the sister of Nicolai the II. They lived in a palace and during the Bolshevik revolution they lost everything. Their entire family was slaughtered. Only my grandmother and her parents survived out of our immediate family thanks to a butler who hid them in a secret library. They lived in hiding for many years. My grandfather was a tank commander of the Soviet Union who earned, equivalent to our US honors, 4 Purple Hearts. When he personally, in front of Joseph Stalin himself, declined to support Mao Zedong in 1950, he was immediately stripped of all his medals.
My father worked for the KGB, higher above than Putin at one time and one day, for no reason whatsoever, was demoted. He saw how corrupt and unjust it was and found an opportunity to defect the Soviet Union in 1979. He came here with $1,001 in his pocket like Shaharizad's story of $1,001 nights, also a story deeply rooted in survival. He was offered to work for the CIA but wanted nothing to do with it. He got into real estate and thankfully, we are in a better place today because of it.

Now I'm intending to help heal all the past trauma our family and our ancestors underwent through various (hope I don't lose you here if I haven't already) sensory somatic and therapeutic practices. It's my way of showing appreciation of my ancestors and for clearing out any negative karma for the future.
We've always had egomaniacal kings and dictators and you are absolutely right; the problem is we think it's us and them. There is no us and them. Only us. I know that because I am able to feel compassion and hurt for people we don't even know, all across the globe. It's difficult to do and much easier said than done, but I especially try to pray for and send positive energy to everyone who's hurting our world. They too, hurt inside, deeply rooted in sadness that, when not channeled properly, cultivates into anger, hatred, rage and destruction. I believe if everyone can revert back to their inner child to harness and express their emotions in a healthy way, before all the conditioning that was done upon them and understand where and what they're doing or intend to do stems from, the world will truly have a little more peace.

Nicolai Savaro



Bob. Excellent!

All the best,

Jeff Haddad



Trust neither N Korea, China or Russia. Let alone Syria or Iran.

Jeffrey Farrell

P.S. That was then, this is now.



Well, your mom is still right. Death will come one way or the other.
Fear is the enemy. Secondly maybe Trump or North Korea. Fear makes us stupid and do stupid things.
Our minds have a fear compartment that's always there, always looking for a reason to be.
Trump, Hillary, Mexicans, Middle Easterns, Chinese, blacks, all the different religions.
Best to deal with fear first. Death is a total mystery - as most of life really is.
I think we live in a wonderful mystery. It's what propels us.
One thing at a time. Fear first, then we can look at the other 'enemies'.

Richard Sales



Bob, I'm on the same bus and our fears are the same. It brings me back to the duck and cover under the desk days from grade school.
Trump taking the country over militarily has been one of my greatest fears. It does feel like we might be getting closer to that possibility
I sure hope not.
It's difficult living this alternate reality, but I guess it's our reality right now.
With all the things he is reversing and destroying we are going to have a difficult time turning it back around if at all.
It's scary stuff and he has no idea what he is about to get us into.
Or does he?
Alan Oreman



Canada Bob, yes Canada. We just went through this for 10 long years. See G20 Toronto 2010.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yCOXSH4l-Y&utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea
20.000 cops shoved into downtown Toronto to "protect" the G20 attendees. 1200 arrests. innocent people kettled in the rain and shoved into pre-installed pens, people beaten and laughed at. students pre-emptively arrested in dorms, people forced to show ID by black clad militarised police and yes snipers on the roofs.
And 1.2 billion dollars spent so our tyrant of a Prime Minister could show how tough he was. Oh, Pittsburgh spent 32 million the year before on their G20.
What's terrifying is watching Trump do the same thing in such a condensed time frame.
We went through suspension of civil rights, voter suppression, withdrawal from kyoto, charity audits, suspension of environmental agreements, enemies list, increased police powers and until Trudeau finally beat him Harper was going to install a "barbaric practices hotline" so we could snitch on muslims.
You are right to be afraid. If Canada could do this Anyone can but you were born in revolution so there is hope yet though I'm beginning to lose faith.

David Ray



You're playing right into Trump's hands. Fear has been the tool of war mongers for years, and is often used to rally the citizenry. Whether it's unarmed Black men in cars, a group of Mexicans toiling in the fields, or Muslims kneeling and praying, the drumbeat of fear works - just look at the last election. Fear breeds hate and hate breeds war.

The proper emotion is anger. That's right, get mad, then go out and do something about it, even if it's writing a letter to your congressperson. Trump has turned over military decisions to the generals.Preferring to play golf, he has his family member firmly entrenched within the White House, like a third-world dictator.Worse yet, we have a liar for president and one who is ill-read on history. One can easily tell he has an itchy trigger finger.

Elections have consequences.

Tom Cartwright



In October 1962 I sat in a 3x3 foot TV announce booth, reading successive tear sheets from an AP teletype to people in Boston.
"We interrupt this program … "
I had two children under two, and I was terrified for them, and for the country.
The most frightening time of my life.

I'm 80 now, still terrified, with a man-child barely at the helm of a still great country.
When I watch the Twin Towers fall, I knew the country would never be the same.
I have those feelings today.
Full speed ahead, they drifted …

Gotta hold on for the ride.
Sad for the next generation, and the next.
Somewhat relieved that I won't be here 20 years from now.

Dan Beach



"?Cause we're allllllllll, chainnnnned... to the rhythym!!" -Katy Perry

MJ
Program Director KUDD/SLC?



Bob,

I was an 8-year old in Eastern Ohio during the Cuban Missile crisis and clearly recall the (foolish) "duck under the desk" drills and civil defense bomb shelter stocks kept in a concrete basement storage room at St. Joseph's Central elementary. It was scary as shit and yep, sure as hell feels like that again with trigger happy 45 at the console.

I can appreciate your concern about your personal vulnerability sitting in SoCal with madmen at the helm in two hemispheres, but take minor solace in two facts;

North Korea doesn't have nuclear or launch capacity to nuke you YET, and we here in present-day Minneapolis are closer to real military nuke danger than you. How so? The Twin Cities are the closest major metro proximate to one of the largest concentration of nuclear silos in North America in nearby North Dakota. Pretty much one of a few predictable ground zeros if Trump and Putin want to square off over who has the biggest "package" on the planet. This stems from the fact that NoDak is strategically the closest US launch point (over the North Pole in miles) to reach Moscow, (theoretically) a few seconds before their nukes launch in retaliation and I'll need to bend over and kiss my ass goodbye.

On the serious side, add to that the risks of some 300 nukes in some 150 silos in ND since 62'-63' that are almost as old as you and I, in poor repair, operated by antiquated analog control rooms lacking modern technology controls even fraction of the power of your iPhone, and prone to human error like the 1980 near-disaster "military cluster-f%#k" ( oxymoron) in Arkansas when a dropped wrench caused a nuclear silo explosion ejecting a (fortunately unarmed) warhead.

Makes this article about our North Dakota nuke arsenal penned weeks before the 2016 election interesting reading:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/10/missile-silo-sites-in-north-dakota-lack-maintenanc/?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

Then again if you want to laugh to keep from crying, there is always this parody article on NoDak Nukes from The Onion:

http://www.theonion.com/article/the-draft-ep-2-31?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

I, like you, hope and pray that by some miracle rational forces prevail and we all survive the era of Twitter-in-Chief and his fellow trigger-happy Pentagon cohorts.

But if the worst happens, we here in the Upper Midwest are likely to be vaporized or irradiated sooner ( by at least a few minutes if by Putin), than you and your neighbors in LaLa Land.

Here's hoping for the best, but if the worst befalls us at least the immediacy of social media may give us instant notice that the red buttons have been pressed, nukes are incoming, and we will at least have time to launch Spotify and listen to a few minutes of our favorite playlist one last time before kissing our asses goodbye...

In the meantime, keep up the insightful writing...

All the Best,

Chris "Zannman" Zann



You always present a thought provoking perspective. Though, in this instance, I have to ask, wouldn't you be more worried if North Korea was allowed to develop nuke tipped ICBM's? Isn't it better to confront this now through diplomatic means, even if it involves some brinksmanship rather than wait until the threat to U.S. cities is real and we may be forced to use our nukes to stop it?

Some of our most effective presidents have used the threat of nuclear force to get an adversary to back down (Kennedy, Reagan). Isn't there a high probability that when Kim Jong Un realizes China will cut them off economically from the world and/or that the U.S. will be forced to decapitate his regime that he will realize staying in power is more important than pursuing ICBMs?

If he really is crazy, there's no question in my mind that we have to deal with it now as Trump and his team of experts is doing rather than kicking it down the road a la Neville Chamberlain.

Best,

Peter Ventrella



Your mom was right when she said that if they dropped the bomb we'd all die.

The again nobody, no matter how important or irrelevant you think you are, gets out of here alive.

Until then, Don't worry, be happy!

Argus



?Frankly, I'm not freaked out at all. Reason? Because our enemies will hate us in any case, and want us all dead in any case. I lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis as well. When you are a Believer, you know that God is in charge...not puny man. You should ask YOURSELF: Is it OK to gas innocent children and we do nothing? Is that "who we are?" I think not. Under Barack Obama, the U.S. was viewed as the weakling in the world's sandbox. No more. Don't get me wrong: I hate war. I hate killing. But as the old bumper sticker says: "You can't co-exist with people who want to kill you." This is why the Crusades took place--they realized there was no other choice. So ask yourself: If our enemies want us all dead anyway, would you rather go down like sheep to the slaughter, or would you rather fight back to survive? I'm PROUD of our new President! And P.S. It's not that we hate Hillary--it's that we hate her corruption...her lying...and her arrogance.

Claudia Nelson



It's time that you get your dream home in the mountains!

Best,

Ron



I can't tune out and relax, either. But, I don't think I should. I've decided to try and maintain faith in our constitutional system, and fight within that framework. My congressmen's staffers know my name by now- I call all the time. The congressmen aren't listening, but when I and others like me vote them out, they'll know why. I can't go full-time political- my family needs me. I'm doing what I can within the system our forefathers created, and trying to live my life in the meantime. I hope it's enough.

Kit W.



The State Motto of New Hampshire is simple.

"Live free or die"

Don't let these people who live thousands of miles away get in your head.

Kevin McCloskey



War-mongering is the best time-tested method for a president to (1) distract the public from his incompetence and chicanery, and (2) scare the public into thinking that the country needs his "protection". Paul Lanning



Wow Bob this is one of your best ever. Like you were going for a Pulitzer. Vintage Lefsetz, as folks say, in term of really speaking from the heart. Thanks for your perspective.

Wallace Sanders in Arkansas



Stop reading the paper dude

Kuba Oms



Unsettling times, indeed, Bob. I'm old enough to remember when the air raid sirens were tested once a month in my old Mar Vista neighborhood. And there were weekly drop drills in elementary schoool. Not sure why the teacher closed all the blinds. To minimize glass shards flying into us from the force of bombs? I'm sure dropping to the floor and covering our heads would've protected us from the "big one."

Jeff Hillery



Just another Trump distraction. North Korea may have a bomb but remember where you live Mr. Lefsetz. The US, China, Japan & Russia all have there eyes on them. Do you honestly think that anything of significance would get anywhere near it's destination before it would be blown out of the sky from any number of sources including space? I wouldn't worry about Kim Jung and his brainwashed followers launching what most would consider a firecracker vs the Death Star that is USA arsenal let alone NATO or there nearest neighbors.

Relax Bob war is profitable but no one makes money for total annihilation unless it's the US doing the deed.

USA USA USA!

M1



Had this exact chat with a friend yesterday. A President who diverts attention from his scandals and Team in the US by dropping bombs. I am nervous as I live in NYC. Read Rick Lowry in NY Post yesterday talking about Ivanka and Jared and Cohn all really Dems for the first time figuring out how to reign in Trump because of potential damage to the brand and this clowns dropping bombs more than he tweets.....

Makes you realize why the Tues Club and Freedom guys are putting up resistance.

Chris Apostle

P.S. Again on mad point.....drinking too much Bustello.....read Rich Lowry in yesterday's NY Post.....( I m a serious Democrat but I like to keep my enemies close so I read NY Times and Post every day).....he mentions how The Jared and The Ivanka are trying to reign in the big elephant in the room and for the first time someone mentions how he could damage THE BRAND.......he of course fails to mention that Trump is using the oldest mantra in the world......distract your enemies with deflection.....I mean who in this genious Republic attacks a President when we re at war? I ve said it all along....he's anti Israel....anti anyone who disagrees with him and apolitical....hell Cohn on his Wall Street Team of Rhodes Scholars is so left he makes me look conservative.....funny how he makes me feel like Lindsay and Ryan and the Breakfast club guys and gals are the sanest people in the room

Yes Bob I m scared for the first time in my life and our family compound in Vermont is looking good

I wasn't in NY for 911 as was in LA for Latin Grammys at old Forum and stuck for 6 days until TM rented a plane from Ross Perot to fly us home from Van Nuys.....kiss your wife, ski until you drop , spend your money and keep writing.....you struck a nerve here in a very eloquent manner.......

And Putins laughing all the time.......



Bob,

I sympathize with how you're feeling these days, as this is how many
of us Trump supporters felt for much of the last eight years as our
enemies around the world were able to do whatever they wanted without
fear of meaningful consequence.

Our support of Trump has nothing to do with our dislike of Hillary as
a presidential candidate. It does have to do with the fact that
Russia, North Korea, ISIS, and Iran are all now the sizable and
undeniable threats they are today thanks to the inability of the Obama
administration to keep them contained. It was especially difficult to
watch the media seeming to celebrate (and perhaps even endorse) the
"even-tempered and stoic" approach of Obama as opposed to taking a
more aggressive and questioning of statements and actions the way they
have from day 1 under Trump.

The administration and the media tried to equate Obama's inaction as
somehow establishing the moral high ground. How naive. This doesn't
make you right. It delays the inevitable need to confront a now
escalated and complicated set of situations across the globe that
Trump is now forced to clean up or fuck up.

Do you really believe the Iran deal has made the world a safer place?
Do you really believe Obama not taking decisive action after the
Syrian red line was crossed has somehow helped us avoid confrontation?
Do power-hungry dictators respond to weak verbal threats or sanctions
that aren't backed by the real and immediate threat of force and
death? Should Trump continue to do the same things that got us to
this point? (Insert overused definition of insanity line here).
Survival of the fittest has gotten us to this point, but
unfortunately, it appears the right and the left just don't see the
world the same way any more.

History is very clear - the longer we wait to deal decisively with
conflict, the bigger and more costly the consequences.

Hopefully we didn't wait too long this time.

JD May



you are surely not the only one freaked out, Bob. I know a lot of people who are and I keep seeing and hearing them on TV and radio. this is one of the things we were all mortified about when the guy was elected, and all we heard was that we were sore losers that Hillary didn't win. and I keep saying she/we didn't lose....America lost. and we're starting to see that playing out, hopefully not existentially but I'm nervous and terrified too and at the same time, downright shocked at all of this. I feel like this Russia thing will take the whole Trump operation down, because it's very real....but that's assuming he doesn't blow up the planet before that.

thanks, Mike Farley



Kim Jong Un 'would nuke Los Angeles' if his rule was threatened, North Korea defector reveals: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/kim-jong-un-nuke-los-angeles-north-korea-nuclear-weapons-icbm-missiles-defector-us-leader-a7545011.html?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

Brandon Deroche



I can't either . It's terrifying times and I am glad I'm old and lived thru the heyday of America, when dreams could become reality and we all felt safe because we lived in America. With climate change and insane world leaders , where are we headed?



I am with you Bob. Yikes!

Liz Nowak



Bob,

You're not the only one freaked out by this. Many of us are. But we must keep a clear head and watch for our opportunity to start turning things around. People like Trump and those who surround him thrive on people being afraid, so let's not give them what they want.

PJ O'Rourke, who, despite his Republican bona fides, has in recent years, had difficulty staying positive about much of what the American Right has done, predicts a big Republican Congressional defeat in 2018, at about 12:16 in this video.

http://www.salon.com/2017/04/12/listen-p-j-orourke-looks-ahead-to-the-gops-big-defeat/?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

What I find kind of amazing, is how, post-Trump, everyone on the Right seems to want everyone on the Left to just shut up now, hence all those of your subscribers who say, "stay out of politics, Bob." They're willing to listen to your opinions on music - which, as interesting as they are, are totally subjective, but are outraged to hear your opinions on politics, equally as subjective, as if you have ever separated the two at all.

I performed a new anti-Trump comedy song I wrote for a songwriter event, shortly after the election. After finishing the song, and attempting to intro my second song, a guy gets up and starts yelling, "I didn't come here to hear this," and proceeded to loudly tell everyone how wrong it was to have written and performed a song with a strong political view that he disagreed with. It later led to a fist-fight in the parking lot when someone tried to get him out the door so the show could resume.

People on the Left, especially in colleges, are also sometimes trying to stop people from having their say. For the record, I'm against it when the Left does it too.

But for someone to come to a singer-songwriter/folksinger evening, and be outraged that someone sang about Leftwing politics? Like Claude Rains being "shocked" that gambling is happening in Casablanca. And for someone to expect a child of the 60s and 70s, like yourself, to keep quiet about a man like Donald Trump taking over the Oval Office... it's absurd.

Gary Stockdale



I totally get it.

All you can do is keep breathin', Bob.
Greg Prestopino



When America elects someone as unqualified, ignorant, bellicose and narcissistic as Trump, eventually something really dangerous happening becomes a distinct possibility. We're there in less than 100 days and it's already scary. I still think there's no need for a resident of LA to be worried but if you live in South Korea, Japan or North Korea, a war could be fatal.

Jeff Capshew



I'm with you and there is no way that you (I'm Canadian) or anyone can bomb away an idea and that is what ISIS is. You are right they are getting more and more pissed off and every bomb aggravates the situation and then our allied forces leave and these countries are worse off and no freer. We need to help these people to help themselves. They need dignity, food, healthcare and education. If we put the same amount of funds and personnel into giving them a hand up instead of a hand out we would be much further ahead but that doesn't feed that military machine (which is a massive part of the US economy) and educated people who can think for themselves are dangerous.
Kim Jong Ill is uncontrollable? What about Donald Trump? The Russians have never been our friends despite anyone trying to convince us otherwise.
Yes, I am scared too but I'm not sure who I should be afraid of. When the Cuban missile crises happened (I too was in school) the bad guy seemed obvious but now I'm not so sure. Are the times so different or is it just that when we were younger everything was black and white.

Ruth O'Doherty



Bob,
I love your newsletter/Blog and have been reading it since before you went online.

I used to be a successful pro musician (who hated the lifestyle) who went into Broadcast Radio 20 some odd years ago and now have found myself unemployed for the past two years for the first time in my life.

Finding a new job in a new industry when you are pushing 60 is tough. I have enough in savings and investments that I am not starving, but after paying taxes my entire working life, I found the help offered to someone (like me) to be willfully lacking. I received 13 weeks of unemployment assistance at roughly $230 a week (which didn't even pay my rent), and that was it. My wife is a social worker who receives a larger discretionary budget to help people arrested (for drugs) whose kids are in danger of being taken away than I was offered.

You are so sharp on many levels but so unaware on some.

Your recent rantings about your health had me laughing. You have NO health problems despite what you may think. I have several chronic diseases, including (but not limited to): Type 1 Diabetes (my whole life), Gastroparesis, Pernicious Anemia, 80% Hearing loss in my left ear (from my R&R days), Hyperthyroidism, High Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure, two frozen shoulders, and Neuroendocrine Tumor syndrome which resulted in approximately 1/3 of my stomach being removed. My insurance has a $6,000 deductible each for my wife and I, and cost almost $900 bucks a month in premiums, and yet you feel the need to complain about itchy skin and a bum tooth. Snowflake. Maybe you should go sit in your safe space.

Your politics are so out of the mainstream American experience that I feel sorry for you. You, Sir, are a grown adult snowflake.

Are you so imbedded in your Left-Coast thinking that you don't recognize your own bias?
Dude? I am not some right-wing republican wacko: I truly believe in the legalization of ALL drugs (tax the shit out of them to provide medical help for the small percentage of people who have addiction issues) and believe the government has no business legislating any paternalistic crap about who I sleep with or what orifice I stick my dick in. However, it is also not the government's business to legislate who (or what) uses which bathroom, or who the fuck I bake a cake for, etc...

We are the world's police force, like it or not. After 8 years of President Obama's woefully lacking foreign policy it is only natural that a new administration is going to have to set a new course. You should be applauding the badly needed show of force in both Syria and Afghanistan. North Korea is a bully and surely you recognize the best way to deal with a bully is to punch him in the nose. The Cuban Missile Crises was resolved because of a show of force: The naval blockade of Cuba and Russia blinked.

Trump is a symptom of a problem. He is NOT the problem. He didn't call for the MOAB bomb to be dropped, he empowered the people who should be making these decisions, to make a decision. And hopefully, they know (far better) how to battle ISIS than any bureaucrat in Washington does. Surely you agree that Obama had the entire military cucked under his directives. You think it would be any different with "career politician", "bought and sold" Hillary Clinton in Office?

Thank you Bob for letting me rant. I feel better now.

I gotta go look for a job or an investment opportunity. Love ya, Bob, GROW A PAIR!

Anonamoose



I am just a subscriber from Maryland. My cousin got me interested when she forwarded one of your articles to me about one of our classic rock heroes. Can't remember which one. We are both classic rock nuts. But I really enjoy reading your newsletter (should I say blog?).

No Bob. You are not the only one scared about this and I am guessing we are close to the same age. My husband can't peel his eyes away from MSNBC and CNN. In fact, he just came up from downstairs to report to me that the lunatic in Korea tried to launch a missile but it failed. Trump and his advisors are meeting even as I write this.

Sallie Sterling


I like your honesty
You are in the right ballpark but it's actually a little worse than that.
This is what an ex - Australian foreign minister had to say about the Donald a couple of days ago.
Bear in mind we are one of your biggest allies so you can imagine what less enthusiastic USA supporters think.
Maybe a lot of your readers really can't imagine that .. I guess that's what Our problem is ..
But I'm on it .. and there's millions of people like me and you
So thanks (sincerely) for your honesty
Best,
mw

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/04/13/psychologically-ill-equipped-gareth-evans-blasts-trump?utm_source=phplist5815&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-MOAB+%26+North+Korea

Mike Wilde



I feel the same as you. Scared. I am a holocaust survival from Budapest, Hungary. I came to New York through Austria after the revolution in Hungary when the Russian tanks came in and bombed the city-again.
Thank you for writing. I am a chemist now a painter. I am 83 years old.
My only son is a drummer and in sound and writes music. I wanted him to have a better world. I did not want to have children until I got to the US. in 1957. I just want him to be happy and survive.
My very best to you: Susanne Palagy



It is scary Bob. I was in Argentina in 2008, and I left there thinking if we don't think what happened there could happen in North America we are wrong.
Tom Netzel, Calgary



Bob, a quick note that I haven't really read in the mainstream but that's been told to me by gents in the military is that MOAB wasn't really meant to kill people as much as it was meant to send a huge shock and destroy all the tunnels ISIS uses. The blast spans about a mile radius so all tunnels (and any people in them) would be destroyed. That removes some of their infrastructure.

As for fear, well, if it serves you then it's good. If it debilitates you then it's not. Use it wisely. You're a good man Charlie Brown. Peace! G

Etan G



Oh to return to the pacifist ideology of aggression only when provoked and needing to defend oneself. I miss Barack Obama.

Rich Pagano



No, there are plenty of other hypocritical lefties like you freaking out as well, though most of you didn't make a peep about the 26,000+ bombs the Obama Admin dropped in 2016 alone. But when a Republican bombs ISIS tunnels and a Syrian Chemical Weapons Air Base, "it's WW3!!! The sky is falling!" The double standard makes my head spin.

Regarding North Korea, Kim Jong Un's missles cannot currently reach the United States and if it is stay that way, then action must be taken by China, the USA, or both to reign Kim in. China is nearly as frustrated with NK as the USA is because they receive little to no benefit from NK's sabre-rattling. It destabilizes the Asia-Pacific zone, hurts trade, and makes China look bad since they are still technically "allies." In short, NK is an embarrassment for China.

President Xi and President Trump reportedly had a good meeting and you can bet your butt that some of it was spent talking about what to do with North Korea. Kim Jong Un's days are numbered.

And for the record, I am generally anti-war and do not support American adventurism/interventionism. However, in the cases of ISIS and North Korea, both have directly threatened this nation and because of this will be responded to accordingly. See: MOAB & Carl Vinson Battle Group.

Lastly, Bob, I used to enjoy reading you; both your insights about music and about life. But as of late you've turned into a political hack. I am fine hearing views I disagree with, but I have a low tolerance for intellectual dishonesty and hypocrisy by partisans of either "side."

Have a good weekend.

Selah.



Right on.

Ria Curley



It can seem as though it's all happening at a dizzying pace. It's easy to let it overwhelm you. It's easy to stay home. That's the goal of terrorism: kill a few, scare the rest.
But we fight the war there, so we don't have to fight it here.
By any measure, historical or current, you are safe in this country. Sure, there are isolated instances of terror in the West. Killing is easy. But look at how ineffective they are. Parliament met again the day after the attack right outside its door. Niece is bustling. Brussels is as vibrant as ever. Lower Manhattan is now some of the most valuable property on earth. W. 23rd street, where a bomb exploded last Fall, was open to pedestrians two days later. Sting sang at the Bataclan. We honor our freedom by exercising it. It must piss the terrorists off, right? I'm going to The Blue Note tonight. Sinful jazz. They can't stop it. Music will play in every city and town in America tonight. 300 million people all listening to, mostly bad music. But they get to because ISIS is no threat to them. Or you.
North Korea is a legitimate threat to Japan and South Korea, but not the United States. It's why we have Guam and a Navy and THAAD and billions of dollars in hardware.
One last point. ISIS needs no provocation from us. They do it out or warped ideology, not because we defend ourselves. The stated objective of ISIS is to spread their law throughout the world. By their own admission, they will settle for nothing but the destruction of all apostates and non-believers. It's best to take them at their word and act accordingly. Obama thought so. So does Trump. On How many other issues do they agree?
Go out today. Celebrate the freedom and safety you enjoy. Go to a park and look at the children playing and know they will all get home safely tonight, and grow up to continue this imperfect experiment with freedom. And know also that there are parts of the world where that is not an option.
Jim C. Dolan



These are indeed scary times when our President states should China not deal with North Korea we will! Makes me miss my original hometown of St Louis where basements and shelters are prevalent. We would nuke North Korea into oblivion however who suffers before this occurs? Likely us and yes should we be the target of a Nuclear attack, we won't be around to talk about yet a lot of our country will be and that's where it's clear to me we would prevail yet you and I in Santa Monica would likely be vapor that the rest of the country mourns based on two megalomaniacs who have their fingers on buttons of mass destruction... saddens me as the LA Times articles do... How did we let this happen? I thought in my lifetime we would see terrorists continue to want to attack the US although not provoke such behavior and challenge a mad man. Didn't Joe Walsh say you can't argue with a sick mind? This dictator has shown he'll poison his own half brother, execute people is his country by horrific means. What makes anyone believe he's not capable of dying for what he believes is his world under attack by the US? Not much and I pray that smarter heads prevail soon yet seems there are too many Americans who likely feel they'd be just fine without a California coast. Just not me! P.S. Look up bomb shelters in Santa Monica. I can't find one! Should u, let me know, I'd like to have some place to go should the sirens start to blare and sincerely praying I never hear such a thing in my or anyone else's lifetime...

Very best
Gary Nuell



I too grew up during the Cuban Missle Crisis. That seemed so far away from Brooklyn; it was down near Florida, wherever that was. We hid under our desks in school, joking it was to make it easier to find our bodies. No matter how hot-headed Fidel was, his overlords, the Soviets were cool, calculating types who wanted to live. Not so much with today's nutty dictators. To understand foreign policy today, watch 'The Mouse That Roared.'

Regarding where is it most safe today, my vote goes to either Coast. The Word Trade Center was attacked, twice, because of its size and name. Having worked in the North Tower (1 WTC) on that day, I can assure you it was nothing fancy, just 2 really ugly relics of urban renewal, '70's style. A large mid-continent city is more under threat to show anyone, anywhere, can be a target. Let's hope not, 9/11 was a shit day.

Rich Eichen



Well, N.Z. starts looking pretty good. This is the time to live in a civilized country that doesn't want to be a world power. The jihadists will come after us whether we retaliate or not. Fact of life. And now we finally have our very own overlord who is as ego driven as the guys who are making us nervous.

Right here, it is no longer about recognizing our common ground. Much like the Civil War, it is the differences that are magnified. And let's face it, each side has contempt for each other, a genuine dislike. Gone are the days of mutual benefit and bipartisanship because with nothing happening in Washington, all that's left is to make the other side wrong. It's not even about substance anymore as much as it is a matter of perception. Technology has sped up the pace at which we are fragmenting as a society. Social media and news organizations amplify the space between us. We don't read or think for ourselves. I can't watch the news anymore because it's crap. I want analysis not soundbytes and sensationalism. I want someone who doesn't have an agenda or a vested interest in grabbing eyeballs. That goes for Rachel as much as it does O'Reilly.

The shelf life for our democracy is about to expire. They don't last forever without a major 'correction' or some form of adjustment. Capitalism is no more the answer than is communism. European democracies are hybrids and they have found a balance with multi party systems that make it impossible for two groups to be pitted against one another. Alliances and compromise end up being the only options available. The three branches of our government can't become any less effective. So we will continue to be paralyzed by ideology and geopolitical differences, and it will get worse here all on its' own, without Kim Jong Don firing a shot.

Guns sales are down, now's the time to buy. You'll feel better, if only marginally.

John Brodey

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