“When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose”

“Like a Rolling Stone”

Bob Dylan

1

Back in the MySpace days, when I still responded to complete unknowns, which I no longer do, a guy sent me his music and…

I’m never going to lie. I’m never going to give false hope. But I’m also not going to slam you to the wall. So…I told him it was interesting, and to keep at it.

Fine, case closed.

Only it wasn’t.

About a month later, this same guy sent me an e-mail telling me to tell my entire list to vote for him in some MySpace music competition. Yeah, right. I didn’t respond. But he kept e-mailing me, and after the fourth time…that’s when I made my big mistake, that’s when I crossed the line and ultimately learned my lesson, this interaction proved to me that ten percent of the public is crazy, and you don’t know which ten percent it is, so unless you know someone, or they’re famous, or established in the firmament, DON’T RESPOND!

Yes, after the fourth missive, because I’m a f*cking idiot, I sent an e-mail to the guy saying if he didn’t stop, if he kept telling me to send a missive to my list telling people to vote for him, I’d send a missive to my people telling them NOT TO VOTE FOR HIM!

There, done, problem solved.

I got up, went out for an appointment…this was in the days before ubiquitous smartphones…and when I came back to my computer…

My e-mail was rolling. I mean seventy or a hundred e-mails were downloading every few seconds. What the hell? I consider my inbox inviolate, I don’t want junk in it. But this was worse, how could I find the good stuff, I couldn’t just delete it all, I’d lose the important stuff too.

So diving into one of the e-mails, it turned out that this guy went on MySpace, gave people my e-mail address, told them what a prick I was and got them all to e-mail me telling me off.

Wow.

So, I’m not the average bear, right? I got ahold of MySpace and had his account frozen, because this was a gross violation of the terms of service.

Whew, problem taken care of.

NO!

This guy just started all over again under a new address. Of course this too was a violation of the terms of service, but what did he care, what were they going to do to him, he had nothing to sacrifice, he was nobody, and he knew it and was weaponizing it.

2

That’s what you get from playing online. You see how the world really works. Whenever I write something positive about social media my inbox goes berserk, people tell me about Jonathan Chait’s book, say that social media is the ill that is killing society, and they wouldn’t give TikTok or Instagram Reels a minute of their time, they wouldn’t go on the services, because just like Spotify, THEY’RE THE DEVIL!

There.

Only that’s where all the people are. This is how both Republicans and Democrats missed the affordability crisis. Because they don’t interact with the general public, they have no idea what people think. The same way the so-called “Greatest Generation” missed rock music. You think there’s hatred against hip-hop? You’ve got no idea how much an entire generation decried the Beatles and what came after. Dylan might be lionized for going electric today, they even made a movie about it, but back then it wasn’t only the folkies who hated him.

So the oldsters missed “Like a Rolling Stone.” They didn’t know you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. That an entire generation was enthralled by rock and roll and there would be an upheaval, which some called a “youthquake,” and society would ultimately be changed forever. Free love? Well, it might not have been so easy to get, but having sex before marriage became de rigueur, divorce became rampant, the social fabric was ruptured and rebuilt.

And the oldsters missed it.

Just like Trump missed Iran,.

3

You could come up with a plethora of reasons why Iran should be neutered. But Iran isn’t America, just like Vietnam was not America. These people don’t have the same values as Americans, they don’t see the world the same way, they’re willing to sacrifice, just about everything, to maintain power.

We’ve seen this over and over. Even with the Taliban. We think they’re fighting by our rules. They’re not.

So life is all about reading the room. And Trump failed to do this. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has always been a big swinging dick, a bully… Fly commercial? He ain’t got a little Gulfstream, he’s got a 757. He got Qatar to give him an entire plane. (Just know, a gift is never free…you learn this in business, get a favor, owe a favor.) He’s got no idea how the “little people” live. Nor does he want to.

And it’s not only Trump, it’s the billionaires.

Okay, you made all this money on the backs of the public, not that you believe that, you think it’s all you. And the people are pissed not only that you have all this money, but that you pay little or no taxes. And they want not only a level playing field, but retribution. And what do you do? YOU FIGHT!

How f*cking ignorant are these people? They don’t understand this is a bad look, that will haunt them? Moving to Florida… As if there’s any respite, as if there aren’t agitated people everywhere. You STFU. Maybe pay a few dollars more. It’s not going to affect your lifestyle. But these people are so removed from the general public, and want to be, that they’re unaware of how people think. And if there’s a big problem, they figure they can pull some strings and fix it via their relationships. This is why they all hung with Epstein, not for his money, but for the relationships he yielded, and that’s where you truly gain money and power.

And now it’s not only California, but Washington. And New York City. We can debate the efficacy of wealth taxes all day long, but this is now a movement.

4

So the Strait of Hormuz is closed and Trump looks over his shoulder, looking for reinforcement from the little people, all the countries he’s dissed, and what does he hear? CRICKETS!

So now he tells Iran if they don’t open the Strait, he’s going to bomb their electrical plants. And not only does the nation’s powers not care, they double down, saying if Trump does this:

“Iran dismissed the ultimatum as it launched a new round of attacks on Israel and issued its own warning. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, an Iranian military spokesman, vowed on Sunday that if Iranian energy sites were attacked, it would strike more infrastructure in the region used by Israel, the United States and American allies, such as fuel depots and desalination plants.”

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/22/world/iran-war-oil-trump

There, take THAT!

There’s nothing Trump can do to stop them. As for regime change, unless he puts boots on the ground and invades the country, it ain’t gonna happen. We can say it should happen, that what is going on now, the stranglehold of a theocracy, is terrible for the world and the nation’s people, but these clerics, these powers, they don’t give a f*ck, they’re willing to sacrifice EVERYTHING!

5

And you can extrapolate this concept into other areas. Live Nation went behind the court’s, even the litigators’ back. But this ain’t gonna satiate the public, which is incredibly pissed. And will continue to be pissed. And you can only piss off the public for so long.

Live Nation is just a headline,, because it directly interacts with the public on a sexy issue, music. But it’s all these corporations ripping off the public in an era where the masses are hurting. But they’ve got flat panel TVs and smartphones, even SUVs. They’ve got it better than they’ve ever had in history, they should be happy!

Keep telling them that. See how that works out.

Remember Napster? And who saved the recording industry, not anybody in it, but a techie from Sweden.

These are immutable rules of life. We all live together in a society, we’ve got to get along, and it’s a delicate balance, and you can only push so far.

Used to be you learned this via records.

Today, despite preaching fealty to their fans, the acts are brands, mini-corporations, selling not only t-shirts, but perfume and…

Don’t listen to a musician if you want to know which way the wind blows.

But they grew up in a mercenary society. They want what the rich have. To fly private, to separate themselves from the general public. They want to WIN! Art? SCHMART!

Society never changes. A strongman, a dictator, can maybe keep the lid on it for a while, but only a while.

At some point you have to accept the opposition’s values, you’ve got to start from there. Make fun of them at your peril. Believe they’re going to act like you at your peril. BECAUSE THEY’RE NOT COMING FROM WHERE YOU ARE!

You’ve got so much to protect, they’re willing to burn the house down.

Amazing how so many people in power don’t know this, they believe the system will save them.

The system couldn’t save me at MySpace. Well, eventually. And then MySpace died. But I know contracts are just a starting point. You can sue, even win, yet good luck trying to collect. And some people are judgment-proof. If I had all the money people owed me…

But I had to leave it on the table, as a cost of doing business.

How come I know this and the people running the country don’t?

Because they’ve been getting their way for so long they’re oblivious, they think the rules don’t apply to them.

But they do.