Totally agree Bob.

Dems had an election win in their hands then ran the worst campaign I have seen since 2016.

Not fighting the last war but fighting one from a couple of generations ago.

Not a recipe for success.

And surprisingly, the more Musk has gotten involved, the calmer Trump seems to be. Fewer stupid nicknames, actually acting more like an adult etc.

And now the Democrats are playing defence – will Kamala go on JRE? (She won’t is my guess). When Anderson Cooper is calling you out, you know the plot has been lost.

We have an incumbent VP in a strong economy and she is on her heels. I still think there is a path to victory for her but wow is it a narrow path.

And she has shown little ability to thread the needle.

Thanks for your insights as always.

Jeff King

____________________________________

“If I feel broke, you’re not going to convince me otherwise by doing the math.”

OMG, thank you for writing this. It’s incredibly frustrating. On the one hand, logic says, of course, you want to counter these MAGA arguments with math and facts. On the other hand, MAGA doesn’t want to hear all that. They’re mad, and they blame the world for the crappy position they’re in. They want punk rock! They want to feel that their anger is justified with more like-minded leaders.

Sadly, my brother and a few cousins have been seduced by the dark side and given in to their hate (they’re full MAGA now). No matter how often I try to show them that their emperor is lying to them by clearly laying out the facts with evidence, they don’t care.

The blue side definitely needs a punk rock leader – someone who isn’t afraid to show more passion and emotions and mix it up and bend some rules when it comes to their outreach and campaigning

Adam L. 

____________________________________

Ugh Bob. I read your email and then went to Tik Tok. Trump fills the Garden and the wide shot shows a packed house. Production value through the roof. A few more swipes and I’m at Kamala’s rally in Philly (?) and it’s a robocam medium shot twitching back and forth. Her audio has a hum in it throughout and when the walk off music plays it is distorted. Totally embarrassing. No wide shot because they can’t show you the Garden. I so want her to beat Trump, but why can’t the Dems at a minimum provide the standard of production everyone expects? They can afford plenty. They’re gonna cheap out and blow it if they haven’t already. God help us.

Stan Kellam
Cat Head Media, Inc.

____________________________________

My wife said one hope is these young people—the young men—don’t take the effort to vote. But: If these young men are registered, will they get that sticker as a symbol of being part of their tribe?

The Trump signs are back up in Michigan on the outskirts of Ann Arbor, in Superior Township & Canton on Ford Road, plus the expected small towns in mid Michigan, littered with lawn signs. I am getting the spider sense that I had in 2016 when I was bar gigging across the state. I know, we aren’t supposed to use our gut.

Trump supporters can’t be shamed into being a Harris voter. And more people who are embarrassed by Trump’s behavior will vote quietly like 2016. Harris has to inspire. The constant fearmongering about another Trump presidency can’t be the main message. We know!

Mike Vial

____________________________________

Very well said.  I was a round table the other night with some very experienced politicians who have been in the White House on both sides of the aisle, and one of them said that Trump will win because he represents the biggest middle finger Americans can give to the system.  They are fed up with inflation, endless government spending that never makes its way to the middle class, and the fact that leadership doesn’t seem to care.  Democrats in particular are so self absorbed and delusional so as to be unaware of any of this, and they can’t fathom how anybody would dare vote against their self-righteous (if well meaning from an emotional standpoint) agenda.  Don’t forget the budget hasn’t been balanced since Clinton, though.  I was glad to see both speakers adopt a conciliatory tone during the conversation and recognize that continued diviseiveness will be very detrimental to the country.   Hopefully somebody somewhere can find a way to lead us without resorting to every single lowball dirty tactic in the book.  As you mention, social media, the internet, and technology in general have transformed the profit equation in many industries, some for better and some for the worse.  Seemingly in music and politics, it’s for the worst.   Let’s hope for the best.

Robert Corwin

____________________________________

Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote “Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind” almost 40 years ago. The entire book boils down to the idea that it’s not what you do to the product, it’s what you do to the mind of the prospect.

Their premise remains “…same as it ever was”- people’s perception IS THEIR REALITY. Mind boggling that so many smart people can’t understand a simple reality we all deal with daily. BTW, you are right about Mark Cuban who could well be President in 4 or 8 years. Would have been a great Harris VP pick.

Mark Maheu
Barrie, Ontario

____________________________________

Thanks Bob,

You make a lot of great points here.   I feel like the Democrats are akin to old school car salesmen/women that don’t realize the consumer likely knows more about the car they are selling than they do.   It seems to me that the Dem’s need to start talking about things as they are and not how they could be.  Perhaps then the conversations and perhaps even the debates could have  more substance.

One other point you touch on is a deep concern for me and that is the marginalizing of young men and boys.  I’m not against women doing well for themselves but the risk of diverting most of our resources to their advancements is the neglect of boys and men.   My feeling is that if boys/men aren’t getting a modicum of education they cannot effectively voice/communicate (if anyone even cares anymore)  their wants and needs which I think will ultimately lead to a violent means of expression and or joining clubs/groups of the like minded.  Our culture and its institutions sometimes require a level of forward thinking that cannot be understood without reading/education and the further our men and boys get away from understanding the basic concepts of our social contracts the closer I fear we get to their last resort, which is violence.  I’m not sure the remedy here but one place to start is to start listening without judging the lack of depth.  Maybe.

Colin Dutton

____________________________________

You pretty much nailed it on this one Bob. The Dems live in a bubble. The masses see through their grift & gaslighting. Trump may not be the best option, but he seems to be the only one the masses have, when they’re desperate for the “Hope & Change” that never ultimately came their way.

My mentor once told me, “Just remember, things will never be ideal. Things will always be JUST good enough for you to get by”.

Well that isn’t good enough.

-Rick Marino

____________________________________

What you say is undoubtedly true, but sadly it’s been this way for decades. As you say, it’s not about facts but perception. And the fact is that for decades, the left have been horrible at electioneering, branding and marketing but very good at actually governing, whereas the right are fantastic at campaigning, branding and marketing and a disaster at governing.

Which is why as you say, Trump very well may win, and the pattern of Republicans screwing up the economy, deficits and environment and leaving a mess for Democrats to clean up While Republicans successfully complain that the Democrats aren’t cleaning up the mess fast enough is likely to repeat yet again.

-Zach Ziskin

____________________________________

I have a great story for a snapshot of America.

My very democrat mother in WV heard a man at breakfast loudly saying that we would never vote for a former prostitute for president. He kept going on and on until my mother had enough and stood up and said “that doesn’t make any sense.!” The man pushed back and said “even Kamala admits to being a prostitute”

This idiot had confused prosecutor and prostitute.

He gets to vote.

Philip Pendleton

____________________________________

If Elon is wrong about something he posts, there is community notes to correct him.

Who else in politics and/or mainstream media allows direct correction to a statement by “the people”?

A correction in a newspaper will never be with the published article.
The amount of times Tv news has corrected itself over it’s lifespan can be counted on one hand. That’s why a lot of it is opinion based.

Elon’s first answer to a question is frequently a response question: “What do YOU think? “

What a concept!!

So he ruffles feathers…who gives a sh*t! We can be happy we have him in our generation!

Cheers,

Andy Altmann

____________________________________

Nailed it!

Steve Androulakis

____________________________________

You’re right AGAIN, Bob!

Marhsall Block

____________________________________

Nailing it Bob – keep it coming.

Respectfully,

John Murray
Traverse City, Michigan

____________________________________

“God, if I was Kamala Harris I would lean into my days as a prosecutor. That’s what resonates with so many. You’re out there fighting crime, preserving order, so I can raise my family in peace. ”

I couldn’t agree anymore.

John Rodriguez

____________________________________

“Meanwhile, you’ve got Elon Musk spewing willy-nilly, constantly on X/Twitter, and he’s completely unrestrained, like the rock stars of yore.”

And this is good somehow…. Pls enlighten, how exactly?
Spew lies, cheat and hurt people… but hey, you are authentic and you are RNR somehow?

I don’t want our leaders to be celebrities and also to entertain me necessarily. I don’t want our cultural icons to promote lies, be weird, invoke and promote the unchecked, lowest passions all in function to divide us and antagonize us, so they and their businesses may benefit unimaginable wealth.

These are not lessons DNC should be learning.
Yes… they should find a better message for young men in particular. That messanger should not be a DNC version of Elan Musk. Less RNR, pls. More normalcy and decency.

Srdjan Mihaljevic

____________________________________

I’m a white old man for Trump. “Im mad as hell and im not gonna take it anymore.” F the men in dresses.

Chris Badynee

____________________________________

This is the most “on-target” thing I’ve seen in these emails since I started receiving them.

Thanks,

Bob Sheehan

____________________________________

Unfortunately ‘progressive’ America is still not ready for a female President, let alone one who is of mixed race, regardless of how good or bad she is as a candidate. It’s 2024 and the world is still living in the Stone Age where men rule and women were barefoot and pregnant back in the cave and had no say in anything.

Trumps going to be your guy come next week and chaos will reign for the foreseeable future. Musk, Bezos and the other uber male billionaires will thrive while the world fall into further decline because the common folk just don’t know any better.

Good luck to America and anyone that relies on them for guidance or assistance, you’re going to need it!

mmpoppa1

____________________________________

If Musk is your idea of a leader, you are so far gone the capitalism poop shoot you can’t even see daylight. The man is a fraud and a grifter. Do some research about his “hidden past”. He has not really been a productive citizen. If you look at it from a the conservative view he is a foreigner with 12 anchor babies!

How long does it take a person making 40K a year to net 1 billion. 25 fing thousand years. People don’t make a billion dollars. They lie cheat steal and fraud their way to that much money. Fink outright states it. He doesn’t care who wins the election. It doesn’t matter. Blackrock is king today. All the while mainstream push that this is the most important election of your lifetime.

We all wake up everyday, usually it’s a urge just to survive while Musk blathers on about how to repopulate the planet and colonize another one. Sh*t is upside down and backwards.

Derek Lowe

____________________________________

Via some CNN instagram posts, I’ve clicked to see comments out of curiosity and on a few recent posts and I’ve seen nothing but Trump supporters bashing whatever/whomever the post was about (usually pro Harris story). And I’ve seen a few more Trump signs in my neighborhood than before.

My point, I am hoping for a blue wall like no other with all the early voting that is occurring. There are more of us than them.. That is the only thing I can add to this.

Steve Anderko

____________________________________

Bob…you are right…the tech billionaires are the rock starts of today. But I don’t think it’s ok that someone like Musk can buy a public forum like Twitter and turn it into a propaganda arm for one side of the political spectrum. That shouldn’t be acceptable in a democracy and we shouldn’t celebrate it.

Adam Gorgoni

____________________________________

Well said Bob!!

Elon is a hero to so many I know, he is unbridled to a fault and leads by example,

Kanye tried to be punk rock but Elon is kickin a*s and breakin glass babeee,

Love em or hate he’s leading.

Julien Jorgensen

____________________________________

Great view on things!  Not a fan of either side.  I was born middle class. lol.  She really has to do better to convince me to vote for her..

Best,
Michael Canter

____________________________________

Kamala went on “Call Her Daddy” podcast and was excellent. She’s going on Shannon Sharpes very popular podcast tomorrow. She is doing a fine job playing it relatively safe versus Trump who is a weak, sad, low energy old man.

Van Patton

____________________________________

I hope Ol’Bob doesn’t die of Terminal TDS before the election that Harris still might win. By hook or by crook.

He can’t really be saying the media hasn’t consistently propped up and covered for Harris and Biden.

Any reasonable person knows each side is acting like a “used car salesman” now – but he is pretending Harris is truth telling – really Nazis, Hitler that scare stuff isn’t gonna win over any voters at this stage.

Ol’Bob is better than this, but as I have said many times – politics is not his strong suit.

Ernie Pinder

____________________________________

I think you insult young men. But worse change a name or two and it’s an endorsement of Adolph Hitler. “Hey! Hop on board! They are mendacious and clearly corrupt and evil but they have the money & power”. So let’s blame the ones playing by the rules meant to support democracy because it’s old fashioned and in the way. Not all young men want to be Elon Musk. Some have character and self respect. So old fashioned but this period like Nazis in Germany will pass unless we capitulate which is how you sound. MAGA is even, not winning. It shouldn’t be even so you could say that’s winning but the country is a rotten corpse of what it used to be. But that doesn’t mean MAGA wins.

Michael Fremer

____________________________________

As I have watched the last four years play out, I have come to realize that 2020 was a necessary evil.

2020 was the wake up call that many people needed in America. We needed to see what kind of evil we were really up against. And we saw that tenfold. We saw four years of an administration that has put America last. We saw an administration that has taken every single American citizen for granted, has robbed them blind and imported a brand new class of voters to replace them.

2020 showed us all that we have that fighting spirit. We saw the rise of a new and more awake conservative, who was ready to mobilize and fight back. We saw an awakening among independents and minority voters after four years of destruction by the left. Our movement grew, it became stronger, more diverse and more inclusive. The old Republican party died in 2020 and out of its ashes rose a party that is for the people, a party of common sense. We added powerful allies in RFK, Elon Musk, David Sacks, Bill Ackman, Nicole Shenihan, and Tulsi Gabbard.

The left and their depraved hatred of Donald Trump have alienated so many and instead of destroying Trump, they made him out to be a martyr.

They thought they destroyed him in 2020 but instead  all they did was invigorate us to fight even harder for the choice to pick who we want as our president, which only made him that much stronger.

2024 feels different. The vibe check is definitely bigger than 2016 and 2020.

The momentum is on our side and we need to continue to do what we have been doing, which is to act like we’re 20 points down but talk like we already won.

John Warden

____________________________________

Thanks for the missive, Cassandra. There is definitely a bad moon on the rise. I had to look it up to make sure I knew what myth I was talking about…The figure of Cassandra is symbolic in Greek mythology and is still interesting today. The term “Cassandra” is sometimes used to describe someone who can see what will happen but is not believed.” Dirty job, Bob but someone’s got to do it. Like John Lennon said in 69 about the Beatles, “the dream is over, luv.” Same for the American dream. Put a fork in it. It’s done.

Chip Lovitt

____________________________________

I’m sure you’ll be happy if Trump wins..Then you’ll have stories and more bullsh*t to spread…what have you done to improve things with your cache?..always second guessing..after many years you’re wearing out your welcome..
Peace,Jason

Jason Miles

____________________________________

Meanwhile, the Rogan-Trump interview is getting a million views an hour.

Kelly Breaks

____________________________________

Hey Bob-

But don’t forget who’s angrier – women.

Grace Mosqueda

____________________________________

Landslide. Harris. You missed the bottom line. America, not the 80 million, despise Trump. Online and off.

A John Pithie

This is how the music industry and the Democratic party lost control of the national consciousness. Both remain in the past, when today’s world is all about the present.

Twenty years ago it mattered what Eminem had to say. Ditto Springsteen back in the last century. But they no longer impact the culture. They’re both edifices, locked into an old paradigm. You know, the release schedule! We put on an album, market it to high heaven and then go on the road. And then repeat.

But this does not happen fast. This happens over YEARS!

In a world where today’s headline doesn’t even make it into tomorrow’s paper.

That’s how fast the cycle spins.

Taylor Swift? What’s the message here, what is she selling other than herself? She’s a billionaire, great. She’s been hurt by men, fine. But where is the leading, where is the nougat? This is what rock stars used to embrace and no longer do, embody and sell the message, which has got nothing to do with dancing and stage effects.

Ditto BTS. So the K-pop act has an army. Big deal. Their main effort is to defend the objects of their desire, young Korean men who Frank Zappa would label dancing fools, puppets controlled by a master. This is the antithesis to what the modern music business was built upon.

In a much longer cycle.

Everything’s been slowed down for the money. We’ve got to figure out a way to make the most money. That’s the number one concern.

Meanwhile, you’ve got Elon Musk spewing willy-nilly, constantly on X/Twitter, and he’s completely unrestrained, like the rock stars of yore.

Did Musk ask the government if it was legal to give away a million a day in his constitutional sweepstakes? OF COURSE NOT! He’s already given away money, meanwhile the lawmakers and the enforcers aren’t sure if it’s legal and aren’t sure what to do and…

Yes, move fast and break things. Those damn techies.

But that’s why they became heroes to the youth to begin with, that’s why they usurped the power from the musicians and other entertainers. They acted like they owned the world, like there were no limits.

Like rock stars used to.

We all need something to believe in.

Quaint boomers may believe in the Beatles, but Paul McCartney hasn’t released a hit record, something worth listening to day and night, for decades.

Mick Jagger is better known today for his lifestyle than his pronouncements.

And Eddie Vedder may have something to say, it’s just that the number of people listening is not very large. Pearl Jam’s hits are in the distant past. Sure, they do great road business, kudos, but as far as affecting popular culture? Not much.

So what you’ve got here is rich and powerful men, they’re essentially all men, all of them smart, some of them educated, who have thrown off the reins and are doing what they feel is right, to a great degree acting on instinct. Do you know how exciting, what a beacon this is to younger men?

Let’s see… They’ve been hearing for decades that they’re the problem. They don’t know how to behave. They’re too rough, they need to be on Adderall, the girls get all the compliments. And if you dare say something negative about a girl or a minority, other than Jews, you’re excoriated, you’re done. One strike and you’re out. Talk about feeling boxed in.

That’s one thing that has never been acknowledged post #MeToo. It hasn’t changed male conversation, it’s just that they know not to say it in mixed company. Men are the enemy.

Whew, you don’t agree with that!

Well, that’s why Trump may win the election.

And there’s a good chance Musk will put him over the top.

Musk is spewing his thoughts 24/7. Are all of them right? OF COURSE NOT! But Musk is showing that you don’t always have to be right, you don’t have to employ a filter to survive. He’s who young men want to be like they wanted to be rock stars in the past. Today their aspiration is to be Elon Musk, not a musician. Who’d want to be a musician? It’s nearly impossible to make it, you’ve got to deal with so many censors, whereas on X/Twitter you can go directly to the people. As for money… Isn’t that what Robinhood and meme stocks is all about?

People are more excited about the stock market than the music market.

Because we are not minting new rock stars. Oh, we’re minting successful acts, that can sell tickets, but they’re not rock stars.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are living in the pre-internet era. Instead of Biden being available 24/7, they hid him, and when we finally got to see him…they told us to deny what was on our TVs. You’re supposed to believe in these people?

And these young men don’t think Harris’s ascension was fair. It’s fine with me, anything to get rid of Biden, but I get their point. Isn’t their vote supposed to count? The Democrats make themselves vulnerable to all the criticism the right has endured over the past two decades.

And everything Kamala says seems filtered, rehearsed. She’s the anti-Musk. She’s not letting her freak flag fly, god forbid she make a mistake. And sure, the mainstream media is unfair to her vis a vis Trump, who’s lying and committing faux pas 24/7, but the election won’t be decided by the mainstream media. The ratings for cable news are anemic, even Fox. Ditto on every newspaper but the “New York Times,” and the Gray Lady’s reach is nothing compared to every social media platform. Want to reach the people? You go direct to them online.

It seems like the Democrats completely missed this memo.

Online is rough and tumble, you’ve got to defend yourself. Do I approve of this? That’s irrelevant, that’s the world we live in.

We’re looking for leaders. Harris isn’t one. And Trump isn’t one either. But Musk most certainly is.

We do have one equivalent on Harris’s side, Mark Cuban, and he’s making inroads, but until very recently, he didn’t even consider himself a Democrat. Cuban bites back, Harris smiles and says nothing.

If Trump wins it won’t be about him, but hatred of the left. Which has allowed itself to be defined as elite, woke…the list goes on and on. Such that if you’re oppressed, if you’re having trouble making ends meet, who you gonna blame?

THE DEMOCRATS!

Biden a man of the people? Maybe in the last century, not today. He doesn’t know how to communicate today.

Everybody’s upset. Everybody doesn’t like the way the country is going. But rather than own this, Harris and the Democrats keep telling us how good things actually are, not knowing we live in a world of perception, not facts. If I feel broke, you’re not going to convince me otherwise by doing the math.

And Biden and the damn Democrats can’t even keep Musk from talking with Putin? You know this wouldn’t happen under Trump. Because he punishes his enemies.

Which is exactly why the Democrats don’t want him elected, but people admire those with balls, metaphorical balls, women can have them too.

God, if I was Kamala Harris I would lean into my days as a prosecutor. That’s what resonates with so many. You’re out there fighting crime, preserving order, so I can raise my family in peace. Oh, don’t quote crime statistics, you’re missing the point, it’s how people FEEL, which may have nothing to do with the truth.

But Harris is so afraid of offending the minorities she put into prison that she’s running away from her days as D.A. How does this evidence power?

Who knows, Harris could still win. But the reason the Democrats can’t gain power and hold it is they refuse to look into the mirror, refuse to question themselves, continue to run with an old playbook. I mean how big is the difference in society between the twenty first and the twentieth centuries? HUGE! Hell, you didn’t even have smartphones back then.

Do you think the bros, the young men, want to put down their smartphones? Disconnect? This is the only way they can feel good, by conversing online. Their idea of escape is video games, where the music is secondary, not primary.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s numbers went up, Musk has more power with X/Twitter than essentially every other news outlet. And he’s got an agenda and he’s proud of it, he’s not pussyfooting. He’s got his enemies, he’s got his wants and desires.

Like the rock stars of yore.

Not the wimps, the brands of today.

Yell at me all you want, that does not mean I’m not right. How many e-mails have you gotten from the Trump bros? How much time have you spent on TikTok, Instagram Reels and X/Twitter? If not a lot, you live in a bubble, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

But you don’t believe that, because you went to a good college, have a good job and know better.

OH YEAH?

Do musician endorsements help or hurt political candidates?

Tune in Saturday October 26th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

They call it a chilling effect.

That’s the terminology in constitutional law. What influence, what change in behavior will the statute or decision have.

AWS was the pioneer in cloud computing, and is still the market leader. Yet under Trump, the government contract was given to Microsoft.

Bezos does not want to let that happen again.

Let me bring it closer to home… Anybody who has ever blown the whistle re sexual abuse in the music business has never worked again. They may have gotten a big check, they may have some minor job in a private office, but working for the big boys, and it’s usually boys, that’s history.

All of which is a good reason not to vote for Trump.

But none of these messages are reaching those not already converted.

So how do you change minds?

Trump going on Joe Rogan is a master stroke.

Joe Rogan has 14+ million listeners to each of his podcasts.

Think about that, Harris was on CNN the other day and reached 3.3!

You see everything today is about identity. Joe Rogan’s podcast is not successful because of the guests, but because of the host. Ditto “Call Her Daddy.” And this same paradigm explains why you can have a hit and be unable to sell tickets. And it’s also a reason why Harris’s campaign is challenged.

The last two cycles were about social media. But X has turned into a right wing cesspool and only oldsters who know who they’re going to vote for are on Facebook and all the Democrats are doing is complaining. Is this any way to win an election?

Now the power is in podcasts.

To tell you the truth, I think Bruce Springsteen appearing at a Kamala rally hurts her more than helps her. The non working man working man is abhorred by those on the right. They see him as a left wing shill. The media is controlled by Springsteen fans. Kenny Chesney can sell out stadiums across the country, Bruce does not even go clean in every arena.

We’re living in a changed world and all those in control of the narrative refuse to acknowledge this, because then they’d have to look at themselves and change course.

Seth Godin wrote a brilliant column this week:

“How to Avoid Strategy Myopia”

https://t.ly/2sThz

The route to future profits does not always go up, up, up! Adobe changed from a sales model to a subscription model and revenue went down before it went up.

“But polishing yesterday’s work isn’t useful if the world is in flux. When we focus on improving the efficiency of our current plan, we inevitably miss the opportunity to develop a new strategy in response to new conditions.”

This is today’s record business. Contracting to make Wall Street happy. Polaroid made Wall Street happy before it went out of business. Instant photography was a gigantic market until digital photography came along and killed it. The indies are eating the majors’ lunch these days. How are they reacting? BY PUTTING OUT FEWER RECORDS!

And with less money, the indies are making more urgent recordings, nailing a feeling as opposed to reworking a song written by committee to fit a radio format that doesn’t mean much anyway.

The WaPo is not the only paper that has refused to endorse a presidential candidate. The “Los Angeles Times” has taken the same route. The paper wanted to endorse Harris, but its owner said no. Because he sees pulling away from Harris and leaning towards Trump by the other tech titans, and that’s how Patrick Soon-Shiong made his money, in medical tech, and he doesn’t want to end up on the wrong side of the divide.

Elon Musk is talking to Putin! How powerful does that make Biden and Harris look? Not very.

Now is the time to let your freak flag fly, now is the time to be an individual, now is the time to own your identity. Joe Rogan may have been boosted by TV and the UFC, but Alexandra Cooper doesn’t have this CV. She started at Barstool Sports and has risen to the top on her identity, her personality. That’s a star, not someone who has a hit record and then tries to rip their audience off with perfume and overpriced merch.

And Elon Musk knows that controlling the narrative is everything. That’s what he’s got with X. Unlike the owners of the “New York Times,” Musk is a mega-billionaire. Used to be publishers’ power was in the ink, not their bank account. And more people are rooting for Musk than either the Yankees or the Dodgers. He’s playing his own game. That’s today’s world, you invent the game, then you play it. This is why Trump is so successful. He’s not playing the usual game, he’s not playing the Democrats’ game, and therefore he can’t be beaten in his efforts. Every day there are articles in the news about Trump’s heinous behavior. If anything, that EMBELLISHES his image. It’s the opposite of Springsteen for Kamala. Springsteen is a shill adding his imprimatur to a traditional candidate. And sure, Trump is only for himself, but everybody knows it. What you see is what you get, unvarnished.

Trump controls the narrative. Because he refused to play the old game and made it all about him. How do you compete with this? By creating your own identity and establishing your own narrative. Instead, we were told by Democratic insiders that Biden was up to the game, when nothing of the sort was true. They were hiding him in a world where everybody is exposed all the time. Biden and his wonks were showing their age, they’re still living in the last century.

There is a lot up for grabs in this election. But somehow, the Democrats and the “New York Times” have not done a good job of convincing people this is so. And therefore tech titans are hedging their bets, even publishing icons. They don’t want to go down with the ship. And it’s all in plain sight.

That’s what Trump ushered in. Nothing is taboo anymore. If your handler says not to do something because it will offend people…chances are they’re living in the past. You’ve got to lead, and if you’re trying to appeal to everybody, you lose. I don’t listen to Rogan, I’ve tried him out, he’s not my thing, but that does not mean double digit millions are not tuning him in every day.

The politicians have become pawns. Trump wouldn’t even have become president without the salesmanship of Mark Burnett.

And despite her insanity, Marjorie Taylor Greene keeps getting elected.

Good for Kamala for going on Howard and being on “Call Her Daddy” but the problem is Howard has left the bros behind, he’s got a more upscale audience these days, more intellectual, to his credit. If you want to reach the bros, you’ve got to go into the lion’s den, and be unafraid in doing so.

Everybody’s so scared. Bezos, Soon-Shiong. This is where politicians can shine, because it’s not about the money, it’s about control of the narrative, policy, power.

But just like everything else in America politics is solely about the bucks today. Bezos and Soon-Shiong don’t want to sacrifice any, don’t want to risk any.

You know these people. The ones who won’t take a chance, who won’t lead.

Don’t be afraid. Own your identity. Evidence it.

It’s the only way to win.