1

“And sooner or later

Everybody’s kingdom must end”

Elton John had already cut an album that wasn’t even released in the U.S. Despite the Troubadour hoopla, most people first became aware of Elton on the radio, with “Your Song,” another ballad by a pop star.

Only it wasn’t. Not only was “Your Song” a step above, far from evanescent, a track that hit you in a different way from the rest of the hit parade, it wasn’t really representative of who Elton was, or didn’t show his suit of many colors, shall we say.

Now conventional wisdom at the time was that “Tumbleweed Connection,” released shortly after the American debut, the eponymous “Elton John,” was superior. And I felt the same until the release of the CD.

“Tumbleweed Connection” didn’t have a hit single, but it had the studio version of the live showstopper “Burn Down the Mission.” And Spooky Tooth covered “Son of Your Father,” and Rod Stewart did an even better version of “Country Comfort” on his true American breakthrough, “Gasoline Alley,” whereupon Rod the Mod gained believers, who were ready to spread the word when “Every Picture Tells a Story” was released.

As for the rest of the album, for a long time my favorite Elton number was the second side opener, “Where to Now St. Peter,” I’d play it every day when I got back from skiing at the Middlebury Snow Bowl, and there is the exquisite “Come Down in Time,” never mind the charming yet insistent “Amoreena” and the floating down the river feel of “My Father’s Gun.”

But “Tumbleweed Connection” sounded different from “Elton John.” And I didn’t truly realize this until the CD was released.

Unlike a lot of albums, the initial Elton John CDs sounded great. And I played them a lot. And being able to cherry-pick and repeat tracks, I got beyond hooked on “Sixty Years On” and “The King Must Die.”

Now my favorite cut initially was “Take Me to the Pilot,” which never got the respect it deserved. This showed that Elton was not just the crooner of “Your Song.” You only had to hear “Take Me to the Pilot” once to get it, and when you listened to it it brightened your mood.

But now it was the opener and closer of side two that had my attention, twenty five years later.

“Sixty Years On” is eerie. Magnificent. The kind of haunting track that built the reputation of rock music. It was far from one dimensional. Rock was a big tent that allowed experimentation, which is why you could hear Jethro Tull, Yes and Elton on the same radio station, never mind Led Zeppelin.

As for who’ll walk me down to church when I’m sixty years of age, the most amazing thing, the spookiest thing, is I’m older than that now.

And as big as Elton was, he became even bigger. Many listeners believe “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” is the best, but it’s not. And let’s be sure to mention “Captain Fantastic,” but that first American album was cut when Elton was nobody, when he had something to prove. And you can hear it. And it sounds not like it was cut in a studio, but a church.

“Caesar’s had your troubles

Everybody’s kingdom must end

And I’m so afraid your courtiers

Cannot be called best friends”

You can’t do it alone, you can never do it alone. We live in a society. Those billionaires would not be if the public didn’t buy their products. And there’s a story in today’s “New York Times” how Tesla’s sales are off because the left-leaning acolytes who purchased the cars are now looking elsewhere: https://rb.gy/xuyxcm In other words, it’s a two way street. Even if you’re a dictator, that does not mean you’re safe, ever heard of a revolution? That’s what happens when you push too far, when you abuse the public.

Everybody’s kingdom ends. No one lives forever, no one rules forever, even though many think they will. They serve at the mercy of the public, even though it may not seem that way. But even more they serve the board, their constituents, the elected officials.

You may pack the board with your cronies, but good luck once things go wrong. You may get a proxy fight, you must always look over your shoulder, you’ve got to sleep with one eye open. Rust never sleeps and neither do your detractors, the Apostles even plotted against Jesus.

2

“And sooner or later

Everybody’s kingdom must end”

What they’ve been telling us is not true. That it’s Biden’s decision whether to continue to run for President or not. He not only serves at the will of the people, but the Democratic Party, which is now turning against him.

That’s today’s news. Gotta say, we haven’t had this momentary excitement since Napster. Or at least I haven’t been refreshing the news on the internet this constantly since Napster. But now there are even more sites. I’m looking for stories, I’m trying to take the temperature. Exactly what is going on?

It’s one thing to have a belief, to pontificate, but it’s another thing to know which way the wind blows.

Today is the beginning of the end. Because elected Democratic officials are breaking rank. They’re speaking publicly, Nancy Pelosi just said on MSNBC that Joe Biden’s mental status is a “legitimate question.”

And then there’s the slew of news on Axios:

Four hours ago:

“‘Freaking the f*** out.’ Turmoil in the White House over Biden”: https://t.ly/ToQ0K

And posted at the same time:

“Biden faces growing revolt from Democrats in Congress”: https://t.ly/8fJwO

Within this article it was stated that Sheldon Whitehouse had broken ranks. And Peter Welch too. Both elected Democrats.

And then just twenty five minutes ago: 

“Scoop: Inside House Democrats’ anti-Biden vent session”: https://t.ly/9wJ3H

But it wasn’t only Axios, the “Wall Street Journal”:

“Biden Campaign Tries to Calm Democratic Donors, Lawmakers as Criticism Mounts – Rep. Lloyd Doggett calls on president to leave race, while other Democrats urge him to take hard look at his future”: https://t.ly/OPz2C

That’s right, another elected Democrat has come out of the closet, broken ranks, it’s not quite a tsunami, but it’s a very different situation than it was over the weekend.

And the “New York Times” came out with a double-barreled shotgun:

“Biden’s Lapses Are Said to Be Increasingly Common and Worrisome – People who have spent time with President Biden over the last few months or so said the lapses appear to have grown more frequent, more pronounced and, after Thursday’s debate, more worrisome.”: https://rb.gy/vjmoow

And the piece-de-resistance:

“Democrats Go Public With Panic About Biden Amid Fears of an Electoral Debacle – After days of quiet hand-wringing, a few Democrats went public with their concerns about the president, worried not only about his chances but also the party’s ability to hold the Senate and win the House.”: https://rb.gy/76piyi

Never mind Biden’s campaign alienating Democrats by calling those agitating for Biden to drop out as “the bedwetting brigade,” as out of touch and offensive as Hillary Clinton labeling citizens “deplorables.”

3

I’d rather write about music. Politics is not my passion. Art and skiing are. But I’ve been distracted by the maelstrom, in addition there’s so much at stake.

Then again, Elton John appealed to everybody without even trying. He didn’t make music for a small subset of listeners. There was melody, choruses, and in addition to being able to write and play Elton could sing, prodigiously.

But the stars had to align for him to reach people, to have commercial success. It took a team, and talk to any label, they don’t want to work with a**holes. It’s not as simple as delivering a great record.

But Elton did.

It ain’t easy for Elton to crack the Spotify Top 50 these days, then again he’s one of the few classic rockers able to do this. Has Elton lost his touch, or is the game unrecognizable. Nepo-baby Gracie Abrams has been the beneficiary of umpteen reams of hype, but did you listen to her voice? This is not Elton John. As for great lyrics and great delivery, Joni Mitchell aced it in the vocal department too. And her music is still sitting there online for youngsters to discover and listen to.

There comes a time when it ends for everybody. And now it’s Biden’s time to go. And since he wouldn’t leave of his own volition, he’s being pushed. And once a couple of people break ranks, the dam crumbles, and everybody else does.

It’s kind of like seeing an act that can’t sing anymore. Are you going to go again?

Even Bob Dylan. He’s got fans just like those of Biden who say how great his shows are. But his voice has deteriorated and he rearranges the songs to the degree that you don’t know what they are, even if you know the recordings by heart. Some people still go, but most are not interested, especially if you’ve seen him in the last thirty years, once is enough.

We vote every day in the music business. By choosing to stream, by choosing to purchase a ticket. But we only get to vote for president every four years. And we depend upon our proxies, the parties and the elected officials, to vet and put forth the best candidates. And you can’t hide failings, you can only obfuscate for so long. And then the truth comes out.

The truth was revealed Thursday night.

The king is dead.

Long live the king.

Spotify: https://rb.gy/h9budq

YouTube: https://rb.gy/8j5fq2

Subject: Re: Chris Stapleton At The Hollywood Bowl

Hi Bob,

Light moves faster than sound- the images are often timed to give a better experience to people farther back who make the most use of the screens.

The production will calculate the best delay to cater to the largest % of the crowd, this will be lessened if there are additional screens father back which themselves may be timed to the sound as it travels

Before the digital processing, analog image and audio were in sync at the stage, great for those us up close, and for the band looking at themselves- but not as good for the majority of audience.

The audio will also be delayed in any rear speakers so that they are in sync with the main PA avoiding the “parade ground echo” we see in movies

Eventide provided what were probably the first audio delays at Watkins Glen.

Cheers, TS

________________________________________

From: Tom Johnston

Subject: Re: Chris Stapleton At The Hollywood Bowl

Thanks for shining the light Bob, Chris Stapleton is indeed the real deal and an Uber talented singer/ performer. In this time we’re in he’s an example of the path back to reality in the music world. But we need more examples to make the journey.  When musicians could write, play their instrument(s), and sing in their own style the music world was genuine and had a vast array of styles. All viable.

My 2 cents

________________________________________

From: Don Forbes

Subject: Re: Chris Stapleton At The Hollywood Bowl

In 200?? my niece got married in Swannee Tenn. At the time, Southwest had direct flights from SFO to Nashville so we flew in, spent the night in town, and hit Main Street for music. After checking out everything for two blocks, it became apparent that nothing was going on but rather tired, country cover bands, grinding it out. I pulled up the “local music scene” on my phone and saw “Jompson Bothers”, rock ‘n’ roll, somewhere nearby. I loaded everybody in the car and headed out. We found the place and walked in to find maybe 10 people in the club. The band was like a throwback to some 1970s-looking southern rock ‘n’ roll ensemble with this big shaggy-haired guy killing it on vocals and guitar. We only heard them for about 20 minutes before they quit for the evening but I was knocked out! So while my family was trying to hustle me out of there, I went up to the bandstand and talked to the guy. I wished him luck and ended up buying their CD or EP. “The Jompson Bros”. 4 or 5 years later I was reading an article in Songwriter Magazine about Chris Stapleton, and how he had both a bluegrass band and a rock band, The Jompson Bros that it connected!🙀

I immediately got on the phone and called my kids saying “HEY!!!!! REMEMBER THAT GUY IN NASHVILLE?? THAT WAS CHRIS FRICKIN’ STAPLETON!!!!!!  Another chapter!

Love your writing, Bob!

Cheers,

Don

________________________________________

From: Robert Paris

Subject: Re: The Chart Is Broken

Date: May 29, 2024 at 9:02:01 PM PDT

“Used to be charts impacted sales. Because retailers would order and feature more product.”

Not only retailers.  The upshot is that “cooking” the charts also caused labels’ inventory control to order more product since they thought they had a hit on their hands and reorders would follow.  This provided a boon to my business as I dealt in overstocks and cutouts and enjoyed feasting on these deals.  I even procured Beatles product that Capitol dumped even though it was contractually prohibited.  Those were the days….  Bob Paris

________________________________________

From: Colin Newman

Subject: Jeff- guitar-Dead & Company At The Sphere

Bob, Your poignant mention of Jeff Beck moved me to respond with a small exclusive story and reveal. As Jeff’s managment team Sandra, shon and myself are creating and filming a documentary on Jeff’s # 3 Strat that he used in 2022.  It wasn’t the main guitar he played on stage but it was the one he played the most in 2022.  In his final tour he just played it on one song on stage but it was in his dressing room, bus and hotel throughout. He essentially lived with it.  He played that guitar more in his last year than he did any other. 

We chose this guitar to create a filmed journey through the hands of his friends,  associates and admirers by inviting them to play and use the guitar in some cases “on stage” as an unannounced guest.

Here comes the relevance of my note to you. 

As you say, when Weir and Lesh and Hart and Kreutzmann are gone, it will be over. Period. Just like with Jeff Beck. I still can’t believe he’s gone. That SOUND!

On the very night you saw The Dead Jeff was there in spirit and with John Mayer playing Jeff’s #3 Strat. Other uses are in process and we hope the sound and spirit of Jeff’s very  personal instrument will continue to tell his story.

By supporting the voyage of the guitar we are ensuring that even though Jeff is gone his legacy is still with us although no one will likely capture THAT SOUND, but his spirit can still live on through the guitar and those who carry that torch with equal passion, humility and respect. 

It’s a security nightmare as the guitar has its very own minder but we shall endeavour to continue the journey with a biography of Jeff’s guitar told through the playing of this instrument by others.

Colin Newman, friend and co executor of Jeff’s estate.

________________________________________

From: Shawn Mckelvey

Subject: Re: The Road Less Taken

Thank you for being you, Bob. You’re a voice of reason in a forest of hostile, conformity demanding,  falling trees. I don’t agree with everything you say, but the insistence of absolute “with us or against us” thinking is everywhere.

I even see it in Led Zeppelin groups, where if you dare to question the authorship of songs, “you’re not a real fan”. I am a “real fan”who loves Zep, but I am also realistic.  I saw people complain about Keith currently singing 3 songs, presumably to ease Mick’s workload, and getting attacked as, again, “not real fans”. I love 3 Keith tunes, but can absolutely see how someone else would not. God f’n help you if you say that aloud among your fellow parishioners.

Thanks again, I really needed to read this today.

________________________________________

From: Michael Alex

Subject: MTV News archive (I created it) deletion

Hi Bob.  Don’t know if you’re going to write about Paramounts deletion of MTV News digital archive, but if you are, do what you like with this (I founded MTV News digital and ran it from 1994-2007 btw)

The archive was my doing in 1996, as we prepared to launch daily music news online.   At my local used record shop they sold old copies of Rolling Stone, Circus, Creem etc.  They were wonderful to page through…I turned on to Led Zep in 1975 but wanted to read what Jimmy Page was saying years earlier, and with old magazines I could!  So archiving MTV News’ about to be launched digital first work was a no brainer. Music fans always wanted more information, more context, more history, and the archive made it available.  We even seeded it with transcripts of select interviews from older acts with legs  (the Pixies, Nirvana etc) to share what fans never previously got to see or read.

 

Within 18 months the archived news and interviews were doing more traffic per week than the new music news coverage.  The archive was an easy and obvious win.  Music fans cared about the pasts of their favorites.  Over the years the archival traffic kept growing, becoming particularly huge around our hip-hop coverage.   They were gold that kept on giving.

 

That Paramount saw no value in maintaining 20+ years of music news history is mind boggling.

________________________________________

From: Fred Goldring

Subject: Re: The Debate And Its Aftermath

Bob – I was at the event in the Hamptons yesterday and saw it with my own eyes.

I’m a huge admirer of Joe Biden and I think he is a true patriot whose heart, wisdom and experience are exactly what you’d want in a president. He truly cares about people and has done an amazing job against enormous headwinds (the democrats just suck at getting this information out). I went to the event hoping that Thursday was an anomaly and that there would be some logical explanation given – especially to the small group of high roller donors in attendance – but there was nothing other than he “had a bad night”.   And you would think at least he would have an impromptu conversion with his donors to allay concerns that he can’t think on his feet not a completely scripted speech.

Jill came on to  introduce him – super strong, loud and energetic. You almost felt like she was auditioning for the job not him. Joe stood stiffly zombie-like next to her. It was like “Weekend At Bernie’s”. Then Joe gets up to speak and weakly gives the exact same stump speech he gave at a rally in NC the day before reading off a teleprompter – to a small group of important donors, not thousands at a huge rally! And it got worse. He used an example of how when he had his aneurysm years before and the doctor told him there was a 35-40% chance he could die his doctors said he was an eternal optimist. Why the hell would his handlers write a speech that brings that up and reminds people he had an aneurysm especially at this moment? The contrast between his much more youthful wife and Joe was such that you wondered why they even had her introduce him. I spied Jeffrey Katzenberg watching with a sullen face and then walk backstage before Joe was even finished. (If you read the NYT article on Katzenberg he seems like somebody who could  – and should – get to Joe and tell him the truth.) Because he saw exactly what I saw.

James Carville (who I wish they’d put in charge of the campaign) is a no bullsh*t guy who calls it as he sees it. And he said the problem is that Joe needs advisors and what he has is employees. He’s right; employees are afraid of losing their jobs so they tell the boss what he knows he wants to hear not what he needs to hear.  And Joe needs to hear that he must step aside. For the good of our country and the future for our children and grandchildren.  One thing we do know is that in a Trump second term DT will only surround himself with sycophants and we’ll have no guardrails. That would be catastrophic and we’ll have Project 25 and be living like in “The Handmaids Tale”.

If Joe decides to stay on I’ll still vote for him because the alternative is unthinkable. And because there is a difference between right and wrong, morals and no morals, narcissistic dictatorship vs putting country first and democracy vs authoritarianism and facism. But it’s now abundantly clear that it’s time for Joe to pass the baton and save his legacy in the process. Because unfortunately what I saw and heard yesterday just confirmed that what 50 million people saw on Thursday was not a one off.

Fred G

________________________________________

From: Matthew Meyers

Subject: Re: The Debate And Its Aftermath

The NYT article comments today about Biden campaign hurrying to reassured big donors is the real article.  Readers comments say it all.

“Top Biden Officials Seek to Calm Donors: ‘Breathe Through the Nose’ – The senior Biden officials downplayed the political fallout of President Biden’s debate performance but provided precious little new information.”

Free link (scroll down the page to click on the blue bar at the bottom of the page for reader comments): https://t.ly/1wYcW

________________________________________

From: Kevin Andrusia

Subject: The Debate

Hi Bob

Thank you for weighing in on the debate, both with the analysis and the Napster item today. I tried sharing both on my Facebook feed and they were both taken down, TWICE, by their “technology” for attempting to mislead or share falsehoods (my words, but that’s the gist).  They have never done this before with anything of yours I share.  Ever.  Only since the debate.

Welcome to America. The takeover has already begun.

Kevin Andrusia

Orlando, FL

Deny the public what it wants at your peril.

And the public does not want Joe Biden to be the Democratic nominee for President.

It always happens first in music. It’s the canary in the coal mine. It’s the hottest medium amongst the young people, our future (they’re here to replace us as Jerry Seinfeld said). Songs are small, malleable, can be created and distributed nearly instantly, nothing is holding listeners back from adopting the new, they’re not tied into mortgages or long term car leases. They’re open to the modern and different. And therefore the industry is always ready for disruption. As a matter of fact, it’s on the precipice of disruption right now and the major labels won’t admit it, if they’re even aware of it. They’re proffering ever fewer records in stale genres while ignoring the rest of the audience, the majority of the audience, to their detriment. Kind of like the publishing industry. Which killed the e-book when they recovered pricing power and Amazon could no longer sell digital copies cheaply. But now physical has tanked and there’s no potential upside, especially after they’ve trashed e-books for fifteen years. This is like rock, which said Spotify was the devil ever since its inception. Now rock is a backwater that is ignored by nearly everybody.

So, the recording industry thought it had a perfect product. The CD. Which was shiny and digital, which didn’t skip like vinyl or wear out like tape. Who would want anything more?

Well, how long a run did the cassette get? It’s hard to even claim twenty years, from sometime in the seventies until it expired in the nineties.

As for the long playing vinyl record… It reigned from sometime in the sixties until the eighties.

A student of the game would see that the CD started in 1982 and was ripe for disruption. But that couldn’t happen, because there was so much MONEY involved!

Yes, CDs were more expensive than previous formats, MUCH more expensive. And the artists were convinced to take lower royalties to help this medium grow, with the promise that said royalties would rise in the future, which never happened. What did happen is the executives got rich, richer than ever before, they became more powerful than the artists, and they wanted it all to continue.

There was only one problem, the customer…the customer felt ripped-off.

Only one good track on a CD. Furthermore, you couldn’t buy the one track you wanted, you had to get the rest of the dreck. This was frustrating, but the public had no choice.

But when you give the public a choice…

I don’t want to promote Donald Trump, but he did give the public an alternative. Hillary Clinton, a vastly superior candidate, was part of the past, part of the establishment. When jobs disappeared after NAFTA, who was looking out for the blue collar worker? Trump tapped into voter discontent and the Democrats and the media were stunned, positively stunned I tell you, when if you were in contact with the people who voted for Trump you could see this coming. But the problem was no one in D.C. or New York, in politics or the media, seemed to be in touch with the public.

So some youngster from nowhere starts Napster.

Well, it won’t take hold, it’s just a blip on the radar screen, because the public at large isn’t technologically-savvy and they don’t have high speed connections.

But it turned out the hoi polloi was more than curious, it wanted to partake, even at slow internet speeds, and Napster software was easy to use. And you should read the just posted Bill Maher piece in the “New York Times” re the public wanting something new here: 

“Bill Maher: Why I Want an Open Convention”

Free link; https://t.ly/fER8M

Yes, Bill Maher. Not a cable news anchor, not a late night TV host. Maher is in his own lane, different, and this is always what gains notice and power, the establishment fades and the new takes over, this is why the major labels are teetering and don’t even know it.

But the labels, the old people knew better. MP3s didn’t sound as good as CDs. But it turned out the public didn’t care about the sound, never mind almost no one having the equipment to hear music at a high quality with the advent of cheap stereos and boom boxes. The MP3 was good enough. And it was portable. It was all about the music, first and foremost.

Well, the labels would teach the public a lesson. It sued Napster. And won, but not until everyone had experienced Napster and seen how great it was.

And then came KaZaA, which didn’t have the central database of Napster and therefore did not fit within its ruling.

Well, the labels sued that distribution platform. And then came lockers and… The public still “stole,” so the industry started suing the users themselves.

The public wanted a new model, and the record companies refused to give it to them.

And then along came Steve Jobs, with the iTunes Store. And when the labels wanted to raise the price, he famously said NO! That they were going to kill the business. Steve Jobs, a Bob Dylan and Beatles fan, worked in computing, he was living in the modern world, unlike the music titans still having their e-mail printed out by their assistants.

But the real savior was Daniel Ek. He literally saved the record companies, revenue went up. Hallelujah. But everybody inured to the old model couldn’t get over the new model, they kept carping. Ten bucks a month was too cheap. How come I’m not getting paid more?

And this continues, but we age every day. Other than wannabe musicians, no one is complaining about the new model, the Spotify model, it’s just the fading oldsters.

Once again, disruption comes from the outside. The record labels refused to disrupt themselves, they fought for their old model, even as revenues decreased.

Just like the Biden team.

Oh, we have options. That’s what Biden and his team are banking on. Watcha gonna do? Vote for Trump? No, maybe just stay home. When you’re disenfranchised with no options, when you’ve been ignored for eons, like the young Democrats, you’re sick of being told to get in line, you just stay out of the game, you protest. Ironically, like the Trump voters in 2016.

For every action there’s a concomitant reaction. You want to run a fading old man for President… It’s nearly impossible to convince those on the fence to pull the lever for him, and every vote truly counts, we learned that in Florida in 2000, never mind the battleground states of today.

The anti-Biden fervor is deafening. How do I know? In addition to the major media screeds, you’ve got to read the reader responses, at the “New York Times,” at the “Washington Post.” Almost everyone is anti-Biden, they don’t want him to run. And this is the liberal elite that Biden and his team consider his bedrock!

And then there’s the belief that the debate won’t matter, that no one will see it.

Want to see something? Watch Biden descend the steps after Thursday night’s debate:

https://t.ly/aFfJ-

This is all over social media. But Biden and his team have their heads so far up their rear ends that they don’t realize that’s how the younger (and in many cases OLDER) generations get their news and still believe putting their seconds on Sunday morning interview shows solves the problem.

The internet is flooded with evidence of Biden’s age. This story doesn’t die, it perpetuates, it gets stronger as the election nears!

As for short attention spans…

Sure, on some things, but not others. One faux pas can kill your career today. Assuming it’s egregious enough. Sure, Biden fans may still support him, but politics is not a niche enterprise, rather it’s a broad one, binary, and it impacts EVERYBODY!

But being scared of Trump is not enough to motivate everyone to vote. Especially in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions. I feel powerless, you probably do too. And our team, the liberal team, is now just as bad as their team. Close your eyes and follow, period. Otherwise be excoriated. I thought we were better than them, I guess not.

Clayton Christensen, the dearly departed business genius, said if you don’t disrupt yourself, someone else will. This is what happened in 2016, with Trump. The establishment could not see that the electorate had changed.

As for disrupting yourself, that’s the only way you survive. In other words, you get younger candidates, you appeal to the younger generations, their needs and wishes.

Instead the Democrats are selling us Biden, a CD, when new cars don’t even come with a CD player!

And then there are those pointing to the professor meme, the guy with statistics saying that we should stay the course with Biden, since he was right in the past. Until he’s not. I can’t tell you how many people have gotten it wrong in the past decades by relying solely on history. The past may be prologue, but it’s not definitive when it comes to the new. The music business was saved by a model that no one could have predicted, that no one could have fathomed, that when it arrived no one believed would work!

This election is an outlier. We’ve never had an 81 year old candidate before. None of the old models factor in age to the degree it’s important now.

Meanwhile, the Biden cabal wants everybody to STFU, speak out against him at your peril.

But what did we learn from music? All the insiders were publicly against Napster, but many used it themselves. But the labels had to present a unified front.

And at some point they said Doug Morris could not run a label anymore, he was too old. The torch had to be passed. Morris is 85, he was squeezed out of Sony in 2017. But Biden? He’s going to run the country, which is far more important than a record label!

I don’t want to give up, but I’m close. I’ve been a Democrat all my life. I’ve ridden the ups and downs. But this is a bridge too far.

Enough with the living in the past. We live in a digital world and all the oldsters can do is hate on the smartphone and do their best to get rid of TikTok. Do you hear the youngsters complaining about this? The oldsters have never experienced this, if they’re online they’re still on Facebook, where a youngster wouldn’t be caught dead. When it comes to digital, online, our oldsters do not know better, to their detriment. They’ve got no idea what is going on.

Yup, I want you to motivate young people to canvass for Biden like young people did for candidates back in the sixties and seventies. Never gonna happen. And the campaign is all about pessimism, how bad Trump is, there’s no optimism, none of the hope that Obama ran on, never mind JFK, or even Clinton!

But Biden knows better. He’s not listening to us.

But what he and his team don’t know is we’ve stopped listening to him. We’re worn out by the duplicity, the gaslighting. With so much on the line they want us to stay the course, put on blinders and embrace the CD.

Not gonna happen.

1

Biden won’t be the candidate.

Because he can’t win in November.

On Wednesday, the day before the debate, the “Washington Post” said Joe was losing in five of the seven battleground states, the only contests that truly matter in this election. And then Nate Silver released his initial prediction, based on his averaging of the polls, and the headline of his piece was:

“The presidential election isn’t a toss-up – As our model launches, either Biden or Trump could easily win — but the odds are in the ex-president’s favor.”” https://t.ly/nLelB

But we were assured by the Bidenites that everything was copacetic, that in the end people would wake up and Biden would win, after all, who’d want another Trump presidency?

And then came the debate.

The week long run-up bothered me. That’s the benefit of getting old, you ignore the hype and wait for the event. Not that I expected the event to move the needle, but then it started.

This is why you play the game. This is why life is worth living. Because despite prognostications, you never know what will happen in the future, NEVER! But we haven’t seen an upset of this magnitude since 1969 and Super Bowl III, when the Jets beat the Colts, who were favored by 19.5 points. But please don’t use this spread as a reason to believe Biden will win, Joe Namath was young, if not quite spry, his knees were not in the greatest of shape, whereas Joe Biden is old.

There, I said it. Joe Biden is too old.

The Democrats are the worst offenders here. And the backlash is deafening. Everybody can do the job. We need to let handicapped people play in the NBA. What ever happened to the best person for the job?

But for the best analysis, I refer you to Nate Silver once again:

“Joe Biden Should Drop Out – Denying Joe Biden’s decline has put the Democrats in a terrible position”: https://t.ly/vrKAy

Now the reason you should read this second article is it’s a statistical analysis of aging and dying. What is lost and when. Baseball has been revolutionized by statistics, just read Michael Lewis’s “Moneyball,” and that was published back in 2003! That’s right, our entire world is now run by data, but when it comes to the DNC? It’s irrelevant.

Bottom line…if Joe Biden finishes a second term he’ll be 86. Stop and think about that. Do you really want an 86 year old chief executive? There are only two people older in the Fortune 500, Warren Buffett and Roger Penske, and they control their companies: https://t.ly/0fZqp The thought of having someone of that age in the top job is horrifying in business. But in politics?

Bottom line is decline happens faster as you age, and your odds of dying increase. It’s not linear. So you’re asking the public at large to elect someone who may not even be alive in four years, who may exhibit mental decline? And, of course, there are nonagenarians with perfect cognitive abilities, but my mother started repeating herself in her mid-eighties. As time went on, she was not even in charge of her checkbook, because as you age, the mind falters.

These are facts, but if you don’t believe them, we can just brush them aside. Because we saw Joe Biden on Thursday night and it was perfectly clear that the aging process, the decline, had not only begun, but there was further attrition.

And everybody freaked out.

I don’t know about you. But from the very first moment Joe spoke I winced, audibly. I just couldn’t believe it. His stiff walk on stage maybe I could let pass, but not his performance. And then my text messages started to go wild. People were weighing in from across the country. People who’ve never communicated with me regarding politics, they were absolutely stunned, they could not believe their eyes, they felt there was no chance Biden could win.

But for the last forty eight hours we’ve been told to deny our eyes, not to believe what we saw, and now the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans, who keep telling us January 6th was a picnic, a romp in the park. But I saw both of these events in real time with my own eyes!

No wonder no one believes in politics anymore.

But it gets worse.

But first there was a dose of reality.

As soon as the debate was over, I switched to MSNBC, where I expected the usual spin, pro-Biden. But just the opposite took place. Rachel Maddow spoke first, and her words were halting. She didn’t paint a positive picture, not whatsoever, what she’d seen was an unmitigated disaster.

And then Nicole Wallace echoed her statements. And then Joy Reid, who said she’d been in contact with the Democrats during the debate, that her phone had been blowing up. Rachel asked Joy if these were just citizens, or true insiders with power. Joy said the latter.

Then they threw it to Alex Wagner, on the floor of the debate. It was like a family member had died.

And then back to Lawrence O’Donnell in the studio, who started talking about how bad Trump was.

This is what happens when you’re too inside, you can’t see the game. This debate ended up not being about substance, but PERCEPTION! It didn’t matter a whit what either candidate said, first and foremost because you often couldn’t even hear Biden, never mind understand him. His voice was not only raspy, but soft. Softer than anybody in attendance.

As for those who said Biden got better and Trump worse at the end… You can argue such, but you can’t get over the initial perception, that Biden was old and had lost a step.

And then Chris Hayes echoed Rachel and Nicole and Joy and Alex.

I’ve never seen this before. There was no spin. Just acknowledgement of what a disaster this was.

2

And then I drove to the Hollywood Bowl to see Chris Stapleton, and constantly refreshed my phone for analysis. The L.A. “Times” had none. Proving that when you cut your staff to the bone you pay a price. And the big players didn’t instantly go negative, but by time we hit about 10 or 10:30 Thursday night, they had.

It was clear. This was a debacle. Biden was toast.

I get it, I get it. It’s a game. You’ve got to have your ducks in a row before you proceed. You’ve got to have a plan for the future before you get rid of Joe.

So there was the rally in North Carolina after the debate. All we hear is how firey Joe was. But if you watch the video, when Jill Biden is on the podium, Joe is a deer in the headlights behind, just like he was at the podium the night before.

And speaking of the night before, have you seen the video of the walk-offs? Trump turned tail and strode off the stage. Biden? He had to wait for Jill. Who took his arm, and then had to help him down the tiny little steps.

Maybe you didn’t see it. But it’s all over social media. And the Republicans will make hay of this. And there’s no issue of editing, this is raw footage.

And now I have to beat up the DNC. How in the hell did you let this happen? This is the same outfit that is asking us for money for television ads? They’ve got no viable plan to reach the younger generations who live online, other than paid ads with grandpa Joe asking for money, which are execrable. The DNC’s entire plan was to talk about how bad the other guy was. You cannot win if you don’t play offense, you’ve got to put some points on the board. And Biden was in the dugout, on the bench, and when he strode up to the plate… I wouldn’t say he choked so much as crumbled.

It doesn’t matter if he had a cold, this is much worse than a bad night, this is TRAGIC!

And once again, if you’re on the social media the oldsters who say they know better deprecate, you’ll see footage of the Vice Presidential debate between Biden and Ryan with Charlie Rose back in 2012. Your jaw will drop. It’s a completely different Biden. Talk about losing a step, Biden has lost many.

And all we hear from insiders is their hands are tied. That there’s nothing they can do, it’s Joe’s decision whether to stay or go.

That ain’t true in the least. That’s the kind of hogwash that gets my dander up. It’s very simple…

Let’s use the case of Watergate. The Republicans denied, denied and denied, but then they realized it was a lost cause and they went to the White House and told Nixon he had to resign. This is how it always happens, very slowly and then all at once.

Not only can you speak truth to power, you have a lot of tools in your box. You can say you won’t introduce any legislation in a second Biden term. That you will block all of his appointments. That you’ll vote to defund his travel. This is how you fire someone who won’t go, you freeze them out. This is why Al Franken left the Senate, they squeezed him out by telling them they were going to freeze him out if he didn’t leave, and he left.

As for Biden defying this… Why? He’s the only one who can beat Trump? Anybody who saw the debate who thinks that Biden can still defeat Trump is delusional.

As for Trump… He lied his ass off. But until deep into the debate there were no histrionics. He observed the time limits. He spoke slowly. Trump rose to the challenge, Biden did not. If anybody looked Presidential on stage, it was Trump.

3

You only have one job now, to stop supporting Joe Biden for President. It’s a losing cause.

I’ve been saying Joe Biden is too old for nearly a year. And whenever I do, I lose hundreds of subscribers. People can’t handle the truth. They want to argue with me. Thursday night taught me a lesson, to stick to my guns. Tribalism and groupthink got us into this mess. And it ain’t gonna get us out.

The world has changed and the Democrats have not.

So who is going to run? IT ALMOST DOESN’T MATTER!

I used to believe in Gavin Newsom, but the right has done such a good job of defining him, negatively, that he’s no longer that strong a candidate. Polis and Pritzker are good, but not well-known. It’s very simple, Gretchen Whitmer for President and Josh Shapiro for Vice President. Not only are they both competent, they’ve got higher profiles than Polis and Pritzker. And even better, they’re governors of two battleground states. Time to fight fire with fire.

As for Kamala Harris… She’s in a worse situation than Newsom. The Republicans have defined her so negatively that even Democrats have accepted this characterization. Once again, perception is everything, EVERYTHING! As for those saying getting rid of Harris will alienate Black voters and women… If everybody wanted Harris so much, why did she do so poorly in the 2020 primaries, never mind the debates.

But one thing is for sure, it can’t be Joe. Anyone but Joe.

And in truth the hoi polloi might be donating since the debate, but the deep pockets, the big spenders, are now holding back. Not only do they feel duped, they want to wait until the dust settles.

Biden is bloviating, but everybody knows it’s over. And they have to ensure that this is the case. Sooner rather than later.

I know, I know, you can’t get rid of Joe without a plan. So you’ve got to kill a bit of time. But I’m sick and tired of all these loyal soldiers defending Biden. Chris Matthews on Bill Maher last night made me puke. And you might not even subscribe to HBO, but in this overloaded fragmented world “Real Time” is where many people get their news. And to see this guy be noncommittal…

But it’s not only Matthews, it’s seemingly everybody with a profile. No one can have a backbone, no one can speak the truth? We saw the debate with our own two eyes, over fifty million of us, and you’re going to tell us we can’t believe what we saw? This was not a bad night. This was evidence of someone who needs to retire. Pronto. With a bit of his dignity intact.

And don’t compare 2024 with 1968. It’s completely different. The story then was Vietnam. There is no Vietnam today, young people are not afraid of being sent overseas to be killed in a fruitless war. As for Israel/Gaza… Can we stop letting the tail wag the dog? Can we stop letting the minority control the majority? It’s a very few people protesting. You’re not supposed to be afraid, you’re supposed to lead.

And I’m old enough to remember when JFK told us “Ask not what your country can do for you…ask what you can do for your country.” We’re dying to help. But enough with our money, enough with knocking on doors. First and foremost we have to believe in the cause, that’s what motivates us. And it’s time to turn around this selfish nation, make it more compassionate. That’s what most people want. You can win by leading with kindness.

Not that the ultimate Democratic candidate needs to fight with one hand behind their back, when they go low we need to punch them right down, correct their falsehoods.

4

I had no intention of writing about the debate. I saw no upside. And now it was clear everything I said about Biden’s age was right. Period. I don’t believe in victory laps like Kara Swisher and Bill Maher, telling you I was right. You followed me, you know.

But what has happened since… Biden doubling-down, his seconds building him up, that just pisses me off. I saw the truth with my own eyes and now people are telling me to just believe… Well that hasn’t worked out so far. And let me reinforce, if Biden is re-elected he’ll finish his term at 86! Divorce it from Biden. Just think about that. Do you want an 86 year old running ANYTHING? Sure, oldsters have accumulated wisdom, which we rarely listen to, never mind respect in America. But you need someone fit, quick, on their toes to be the President, and that ain’t Joe.

Just gimme some truth. But there are no John Lennons plying the boards these days, everybody thinks about the team, the bucks first. But the team is not always right. They were wrong about Biden…

NEXT!