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.

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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.

https://t.ly/sBx9m

This is a stupendous book.

We’re watching this Apple TV series “Women in Blue,” not that anybody’s e-mailed me about it, not that there’s a buzz, but it has great RottenTomatoes ratings, 100/86. It’s a Mexican series inspired by real events about a killer and the government’s decision to hire women on the police force to improve the administration’s image. And in one scene, one candidate, one cadet, accuses another, her sister, of always coloring inside the lines, always doing what she’s told to do. Would you?

That’s the essence of education. Regimentation. By following the rules you get to ascend to the top of the ladder, get into a good college and then a good graduate school, even though those who change the world oftentimes drop out.

So…

So, Germany took over France in 1940, and Jews had to report their identity, wear clothing that reflected this, and then had to report to the government of their town to be sent away. Myriam’s parents did what they were told, to earn brownie points, favor with the administration, believing dividends would be paid when the war was over. And…they were sent straight to the ovens. And this was after two of their children were taken previously.

But through a quirk of registration, Myriam escaped. Truly. Her father told her to run away.

And this is the story of her survival.

But even more it’s the story of how her past haunts her daughter Lélia, and Lélia’s daughter Anne, the author of this book, and Anne’s daughter Clara, they can’t escape their Jewish heritage, even though they don’t practice the religion, Anne has no idea what goes on at a seder.

Sounds like a book only for Jews.

But that is not the case whatsoever. I recommend “The Postcard” to everybody who is able to read. For the first sixty percent it is unputdownable. It’s a bit confusing for the subsequent twenty or thirty percent, when Myriam is in hiding, on the run during World War II, and then there’s a strong finish, just when you don’t expect it.

The reason I’m not just raving about the book from start to finish is to preserve my credibility. Too many people tell you stuff is great that is not. I want you to trust me. It’s not that the second half of the book is bad, indecipherable, not whatsoever. And it’s a necessary part of the story. And I couldn’t put the book down during this section either, it’s just that what comes before…

You’re drawn into someone’s world, a whole family’s world, you’re taken away to another place and another time…

That has too many parallels to today.

So, we’ve got the family. They have to leave Latvia. Are you willing to leave everything behind, sacrifice all you’ve built, to survive? This is a question that is asked in this book again and again. Myriam’s grandparents decamp to Palestine and despite their hosannas when Myriam’s family gets there they find out it’s hot and desolate and you need to work hard and you can’t really make any money so after a few years they decamp to Paris.

And then comes the war.

But in the twenty first century a postcard arrives listing the names of the deceased, those sent to the camps. This is a mystery. WHO SENT IT!

That’s the underlying story. And you’d be surprised how many people don’t want to talk about the past. You’ll also be surprised how artifacts of the past, looted from the houses of those deported to their death, are now residing in the houses of their neighbors, who pilfered said items.

It’s living history. And it never ends.

I mean I’m reading the book and I’m not thinking it can’t happen here. On some level, it already is. Did you read the “Wall Street Journal” article?

“Jewish Students at UCLA Were Harassed, Threatened and Assaulted on Campus, Report Finds – UCLA antisemitism task force says the university prioritized free speech over stopping protests, which were among the most violent of the pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations”

Free link: https://t.ly/M5_EE

That’s only a couple of miles from where I live. I go to the hospital on campus and my doctor tells me the latest. He feels the oppression.

And this is where Elon Musk’s absolute free speech leads you. Not that I want to get deep into a discussion of that, but I will say that if students can’t attend classes because they’re Jewish… Isn’t that a problem?

Appears not.

If you’re Black or Palestinian or of some foreign ethnicity the institutions will protect you, but if you’re a Jew…

My point here is how I feel. And if you’re not Jewish, you may not feel it. But if you read “The Postcard” you will.

You’ll also read about those who joined the Resistance, fighting for what was right as opposed to being sheep herded by the Germans and their French proxies. And you’ll also learn about the clergyman who was a double agent who told on them and then these people who were working against the Germans were killed. This was not America, there was no trial. Cross the Germans, hide those against the regime, and you’re gonna die if you’re found out, and it ain’t gonna be pretty.

So reading “The Postcard” you’re taken completely away from everyday life. Talk about a respite from the election and obligations. Then again, in some ways it’s just like life today.

Clara asks her grandmother if she’s a Jew. Not in the forties, but in this century. And when Clara finds out she is she responds:

“They don’t like Jews very much at at school.”

She won’t get picked for a team because she’s Jewish.

Now “The Postcard” is translated from the French. And occasionally you can tell, the words, the passages…they don’t flow, but this is very occasionally.

I guess what I’m saying is “The Postcard” is very readable. You’ll start and you’ll keep reading, you won’t want to put it down.

You’ll be pinching yourself, is this really a true story?

It is.

Get back to me when you’ve finished it.