There’s nothing I hate more than physical retail.

Mostly it’s an OCD thing… I’ve got to find the perfect thing. If it’s clothing, it’s got to fit exactly right and…

At this point I do all my shopping online. Where I can do research ad infinitum. Too much, but at least I get what I want. I know, I know, you can return stuff, but that’s a pain in the rear end.

As for settling for good enough…THA’TS NOT ME! I need the best. And the best isn’t always even more expensive, you just need to know what to buy.

And I always buy the best footwear. Nike. Now New Balance. No imitation for me, no equivalent to Thom McAn instead of Stride Rite, if you can remember your single digit days.

So…

I’m going somewhere where I need slip-on shoes. I’ve got to take them off and put them back on multiple times. So, I decided to investigate Skechers… It’s a mid- level brand, then again it’s become a juggernaut and I’ve seen all those ads where you can step on the heel and slide right in.

They don’t make those anymore. But I didn’t find this out until I went to the retail store and they told me.

Now they make slip-ons, but not the crunch slip-ons, they haven’t made those for two and a half years. Are they coming back? The help wasn’t sure.

So let’s get this straight… I drove to the physical store because I wasn’t sure exactly what size I was in Skechers. And like I said above, I don’t want to go through the buy and return process online.

So… It’s late in the afternoon, there’s no one there. Well, one customer. As for help? Nowhere to be seen!

But after waiting the better part of ten minutes, a guy shows up and I ask him what’s the difference is between all the shoes.

And he asks me what I’m going to use them for…

A reasonable question. I say walking, I want a cushy sole.

Let the games begin!

They’ve got a zillion styles. And this guy can’t tell me the difference.

Finally I decide to do it by process of elimination. Try on two different models, pick the better one, then compare that one to the next one until I find the one I want.

He disappeared for so long I think he went to the factory to get them, but he eventually came back and I found out the sneakers were true to size, and I liked the cushioning in one better.

Great.

Then he left me to take care of a sale. Which he was still doing when I exited the store twenty minutes later. I mean how hard is it to do? You swipe your card and..?

And now a woman comes out of the back. She’s wearing the Skechers shirt, but she’s not coming over to me.

So I go over to her.

And I start asking her the difference between the shoes…

And that’s when I realize she knows less than the first guy.

And I’m thinking they’re not that expensive, and the first ones worked, but I was interested in their arch support shoes, for stability and I told this woman and she spoke in gobbledygook, I mean some shoes said Arch Fit right on them! So I just pointed to a pair to try them on.

Hmm… I’m not sure if I need the arch support or not. But one thing is for sure, I want a shoe with more cushioning than this one.

She says they don’t have any. Huh? I can see them all on the wall.

But she says they’re all wides…

Then again, that’s what the first guy said before he brought out the right ones, that they only had them in wide, which is too wide for me.

And all this time I’m trying to go to the website on my phone. But I’m in a mall and there’s no access. Says they have wi-fi, but good luck connecting.

Meanwhile, the music is blasting so loud I can barely communicate with these people. Then again, they did play the Spinners’ “Rubberband Man,” so it wasn’t a complete loss.

Then I’d had too much, I was overloaded. I was going to have to go home and study the website, and buy them from there, if at all. I mean at least online they’ve got all the INVENTORY! (And these definitely weren’t commission salespeople.)

What do I always tell you?

DISTRIBUTION IS KING! No matter how good it is, if you can’t buy it, it doesn’t matter.

CVS? Walgreens? You’re better off buying from Amazon, because they’ve got all the items in stock!

As for the help… They don’t pay anybody so no one is any good.

I go to this ski shop in Vail that charges top dollar. You can save $75 to $100 on everything if you want to. They go by MSRP, “Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price,” as opposed to MAP, “Minimum Advertised Price.” Even the websites of the manufacturers go by MAP.

However, at this shop the employees are lifers. They don’t stock everything, only what’s right. I went against the salesman’s advice once, I’ll never do that again. He sold both products, but the other one was better for me.

As for the people who mount the bindings… Lifers.

The tuner? He worked on the World Cup.

Now, like shoes, maybe you don’t need the best, maybe adequate is good enough for you. Then again, you may not have experienced the best to know the difference.

But most retail outlets won’t pay the help an adequate wage because the public will go across the street for a penny, take another airline if it’s ten dollars less, even if it took a hundred dollars to get to the damn airport. You’ve got to pay for service, and no one wants to.

So what we’ve got is stores with incomplete inventory and ignorant help. You waste your time and good luck getting what you want.

I was in Lululemon in Vail buying some shorts. I wanted to try the next size up to compare. No, they didn’t have odd number sizes, only evens, that’s what they told me. But I just got an e-mail from Lululemon telling me shorts were back in stock and I clicked through and found OF COURSE they make them in odd sizes, it’s just that the store in Vail didn’t stock them!

That’s what made Tower Records so great. The breadth of inventory, they didn’t only stock the greatest hits album.

As for streaming…

There used to be a rare records business. Out of print stuff. Stuff that no retailer would stock. But online, almost all of that stuff is just a click away on a streaming music service, and if not there, on YouTube. Sure, you don’t have the physical product, but at this point in time… Collecting is so last century, today it’s about access and experiences. There’s no reason to build a monument to yourself.

Now the truth is malls are dying left and right. My experience tells you why.

The news tells us there’s been an uptick in retail shopping after lockdown, but…

I just don’t get it.

Then again, I never saw shopping as a sport, as entertainment.

Shopping is just another way in which the internet has eclipsed the physical world.

Then again, there’s a good story in today’s “New Yorker” about Cory Doctorow’s new book about ensh*ttification:

http://bit.ly/4mGiLG1

Which I find worst on Amazon. The site is littered with ads and Amazon’s Choice is not always the best and in truth most of the company’s profits come from AWS, Amazon Web Services, to the point that the guy who ran that, Andy Jassy, now runs all of Amazon, he replaced Bezos. Furthermore, Amazon makes more money selling third party products than their own.

So a good thing never lasts.

I want to give you my money, can you just make it a bit easier?

But you’re squeezing every last dollar out of the business, which makes me hate you.

I mean I go into the ski shop, I have a relationship with the help. They don’t rip me off for knicks and knacks.

But I’m paying for that service.

I’m going to delve into the Skechers site now, wish me luck!

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74mV9qwlCgg

Chalk one up for Aerosmith. The band that too many saw as imitators of the Rolling Stones have trumped the English band with their latest release, it’s got the energy of hard rock in a way nothing on “Hackney Diamonds” does.

Then again, where do you put the Stones these days, which slot? They’re not Top Forty, they appeal to the oldsters who always bought their records.

But Aerosmith… Wasn’t Steven Tyler supposedly retired? But then he’s singing here and there, like at the Ozzy tribute, where YUNGLBUD appeared in his breakthrough moment.

You start to feel it, a name keeps coming across the transom, and it reached fever pitch for YUNGBLUD after that July show.

Not that the average person knows who YUNGBLUD is, BUT THAT’S JUST THE POINT!

Hell, I didn’t even know this single was out until I was reading Ryan Downey’s Substack newsletter which told me it had gone to number one. HUH?

But Active Rock is a backwater. It very rarely cross-pollinates with the Spotify Top 50. This is not the era of MTV, where all genres sat side by side.

As for Active Rock… It’s HARD ROCK! Bang your head for real rock. And I’d like to tell you to tune in an Active Rock station but unless you’re a dedicated fan, you’re going to be turned off by most of the material. It derives from Metallica more than Led Zeppelin. It’s noisy and angry, JUST LIKE MY ONLY ANGEL!

I guess that’s the point. Consciously or unconsciously Aerosmith and YUNGBLUD didn’t make a song for everybody, but those in the Active Rock ghetto.

How do I know it’s a ghetto? According to “Billboard,” “My Only Angel” had only two million streams last week and it went to number one on the Hard Rock Songs chart. To put that in perspective, Laufey’s song “From the Start” sits at #50 in the U.S. Spotify Top 50, with 520,502 streams A DAY! And that’s only one service!

Now hard rockers have shot themselves in the foot, they’ve agitated ad infinitum against streaming, and it is now hurting them. Scratch a hard rock listener and they’ll tell you streaming sucks and it doesn’t pay.

But it does… At least more than no listens at all!

Then again, how big a sphere is hard rock in today’s world?

I guess that’s one of my points. One thing about Steven Tyler, HE CAN SING! (Well, at least historically and here, how often and how well on the road…I don’t know.) And that separates him from almost everybody else on the Active Rock chart. And that means if you were a fan of the old hard rock, which was heavy but not necessarily fast and screaming, you might like this.

And if it were the old days, MTV would have played “My Only Angel.”

Is it the best track I’ve ever heard? No. But the litmus test is whether you want to hear it again, and I did.

Having said that…

This is music made for old school stereos. With POWER! And clarity. This stuff doesn’t sound good on earbuds.

I listened first via Spotify on my Genelec computer speakers. The chorus stood out, but the verses blended together in noise.

So I fired up Qobuz and listened in hi-res and suddenly the vocal was more prominent. Ditto on Amazon hi-res.

But still…

This is when I fired up the big rig. With enough power to wake up the neighborhood. And when the sound came out of the speakers…

This was the experience of yore, being surrounded by music, having the noise of life squeezed out.

So…

“My Only Angel” is niche. Everything is niche today. Even Taylor Swift. There’s mania over her new album, but do you care? Do you care about Alex Warren? K-pop?

If you read the music trade press you do. Where the major labels have manipulated the charts into irrelevance. Hell, the newspapers that still exist don’t even publish the top ten anymore, because WHO CARES?

So we read about this label exec and that promoting pop and hip-hop dreck that makes it to the Spotify Top 50, but has no meaning.

But Aerosmith is from a different era. The second generation of rock, influenced by and taking off from the first, the Beatles and the Stones. When the goal wasn’t brand extension, but sex and drugs. Sure, you wanted to make money, but the music and the lifestyle were superior.

So…

Check out “My Only Angel.” If you don’t like it, no biggie. You don’t like most stuff and neither do I! But don’t be under the illusion that anyone cares about your opinion, that you don’t like stuff. The bottom line is…do some people like something enough for its makers to have a career?

And everybody knows that it’s about careers. More than momentary hits. If you’ve got a catalog of albums that fans adore, even if most tracks are unknown by most, then you can tour forever. And in today’s world, starting from zero, if you build it on the road and it grows…it never falters, because it’s not hit dependent.

So that’s the world we live in today. One of the Weeknd and Sabrina Carpenter and the rest of the acts with press and attention who oftentimes work with producers like Max Martin where the act is fungible. That’s right, Max can create a hit with ANYBODY! A modern day Mutt Lange. So when you have a hit with him… I’d like to see you do it with someone else!

But although Aerosmith has worked with different producers, one thing is for sure, it’s about them, they are in control, they always sound like themselves.

And “My Only Angel” sounds like Aerosmith.

This would have been a big deal in the pre-internet era.

As for working with YUNGBLUD…this doesn’t look like rockers making disco tracks in the late seventies, but a marriage of the old and new while sticking to your roots.

This collaboration may not be featured in all the news outlets printing what PR people serve up to them, but the truth is today’s world is all about word of mouth, spreading. That’s what happened with YUNGBLUD. How far will the word on “My Only Angel” spread? I DON’T KNOW! But that doesn’t matter, because the metrics have changed, it’s almost a return to the early seventies when having an AM hit was unnecessary to have cred and a career. You’re making your music for your audience. You want to satiate them. Not necessarily giving them what they want, but with them in mind. You don’t need cowriters, you don’t need remixes, you don’t need to polish the turd into slickness, you can leave it rough such that…

When you go to the show and they play this music you nod your head and smile and feel good.

This is the essence of the rock experience. When it was about what was in your ears as opposed to what was on screen, big time production.

I don’t want to oversell “My Only Angel”…I’ll just say in an era when most classic rockers have given up making new music, believing no one cares, and others are making new music that’s a far cry from the old, Aerosmith has somehow delivered just what they used to. “My Only Angel” is not a retread, it’s new, but it sounds like the band. And YUNGBLUD is just a dollop of guacamole upon the chip.

This is the future.

Instead of thinking about everybody, think about yourself and your audience and career. Stick to your guns.

And BE GOOD!

And that’s a very high bar for most to hurdle.

Pauline Kael famously said: “I only know one person who voted for Nixon.”

Needless to say, Nixon won the 1972 election. In what was declared a landslide.

I find that most of those on the left/Democratic side of the fence are never really exposed to the words of those on the right. I even read “The New York Times” and I say to myself, “These people are living in a bubble.” It’s an echo chamber, they are not experiencing right wing blowback from the rank and file, and therefore they don’t have their finger on the pulse of the nation. And this is one reason Kamala and the Democrats lost, they were out of touch with the street. It’s one thing to watch Fox News, but quite another to talk to the people who watch Fox News.

So I print the below e-mail as a service. To those on the left, who are not exposed to what Republican voters, think/have to say. And until you interact with said people, you truly don’t know what is going on.

——————-

Re: Job Firings

I read your column for amusement.. I don’t there there’s another far leftie like you in America that spews so much hate for the Christian right.

You’ll continue to preach the left mentality knowing that the majority of us.. that’s right, the majority think you’re full of sh*t.

I like you Bob.. we grew up in the same generation.. I played music professionally . I know some of the same people youdo (did).

I worked for Nick Di Anthony…

Somewhere we went divergent paths.

I believe in A world different from the California dumpster you consider paradise.

I sold my California business division when it became apparent that California has no future but I’m super glad you’re still there to pay the ridiculous taxes  to support a third of your population who are here illegally.

Like I said, I will continue to read your column, especially when you focus on your passion, which is music in the arts.. as for politics, you were one of the most confused people I’ve ever come across. List in your own SoCal bubble.. good luck with your future.

Chris Linck

Note: There’s a fiction that everyone who was fired was, as a writer below puts it, “dancing on his (Charlie Kirk’s) grave.” But that is untrue.

This is what Suzanne Swierc posted on her PRIVATE Facebook page:

“If you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can’t be friends.”

She lost her job.

“She Was Fired for a Comment on Her Private Facebook Account – A look at how one state has turbocharged the crackdown on anyone who has criticized Charlie Kirk after his death.”

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/us/charlie-kirk-free-speech.html?unlocked_article_code=1.p08.0y9U.dW-QpdWTqqT0&smid=url-share

As for the people who lost their jobs:

“A Broad Wave of Firings Followed Charlie Kirk’s Assassination – More than 145 people in a wide range of occupations have been fired or disciplined after they made statements about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.”

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/us/kirk-critics-fired-free-speech.html?unlocked_article_code=1.p08.z4n1.B8NUT8asjUUx&smid=url-share

____________________________________

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Freedom of speech isn’t going public with your glee at a father and husband’s horrific assassination.  I wouldn’t want these assholes in my workplace.  If you have these kind of negative thoughts, talk to yourself.  Feel free to have that inner voice, no matter how toxic.

We don’t have to hear it.

Jonathan Gross

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the best charlie kirk eulogy

Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning

The white Christian nationalist provocateur wasn’t a promoter of civil discourse. He preached hate, bigotry, and division.

Elizabeth Spiers:

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/charlie-kirk-assassination-maga/

Jeff Weicher

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” No one should be assassinated.”

Respectfully, I think Vladimir Putin should be assassinated. Preferably by a Russian (in Russia). But i’d settle for a Ukrainian (in Russia) with a clean shot.

Anyway other than that quibble I’m with you.

Brian Reiser

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Could you publish a list of these employers. Maybe some companies we could decide not to use?

Cam Combs

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Some fair points here but you also I think need to take into consideration the fact that when you’ve got people like school teachers and public employees that go online “grave dancing“ then employers have a right to judge that behavior in the context with which it was shared. There are definitely work standards that employers have, and if you choose to go online and make ghoulish, celebratory remarks about somebody’s death, yes, you have a right to do it, but others have a right to respond as well. It goes both ways.

Chris Epting

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Your acting like this is something new, a hundred ish people, nothing,

Try in the 10’s of thousands just in California alone in 2016, just to say you support Trump. I saw it at my workplace,

145 people, ha nothing

Julien Jorgensen

____________________________________

fear based leadership (authoritarian light)

cause they don’t have the ideas or majority of the people

Coley

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Bob, your post really spoke to me. Not just because of the political nature of these recent firings, but also because of the economic one. Over the last two years, I’ve spoken with more than 2,500 people who’ve either been impacted by layoffs or work for companies that have done layoffs…I think what we’re seeing right now is politically charged but especially economically motivated. Employers, especially big corporations, are willing to part with long-time employees for almost any reasons…in some cases, they’re inventing reasons to do it then saying they justified it under the guise of A.I. It’s really unfortunately so many working and middle class people are being caught up in this era of greed, hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance, but I am trying to do my part with the work I’m doing.

Joah Spearman

Founder, TenYour

P.S. Here’s one of our customers, post-layoff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43zVXwwV6dg

____________________________________

Sadly you hit the bullseye once again, Bob.
This an’t the country I grew up in! Yeah, I’m old,
but I still believe in America and not this Amerika.
Infected by the creeping orange menace.
Keep up the good work, although the majority
do not want to hear truth or logic.
Thanks for the words

Jimmy Wachtel

____________________________________

“You just ruined this person’s life. Maybe their family’s life. FOR EXERCISING THEIR RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH!”

Right. It’s called cancel culture. Who do you think started it?

John Naglick

____________________________________

Uh, this has been going on for quite some time under leftist ideology there, Bob….Is this a joke?

Zdunski v. Erie 2-BOCES (2d Cir. 2023) — Public-school employee fired after refusing mandatory LGBTQ anti-bias training; court rejected his religious-discrimination claim.
Littler Mendelson P.C.

Snyder v. Arconic (8th Cir. 2024) — Factory worker fired after posting that the Pride rainbow was an “abomination to God” on company intranet; appeals court said the firing did not violate civil-rights law.

Vlaming v. West Point School Board (Va.) — HS teacher terminated in 2018 for declining a student’s pronouns; after Va. Supreme Court revived his claims, the district settled for $575,000 in 2024 and cleared his record.
Justia Law

Kluge v. Brownsburg Community School Corp. (7th Cir. 2025) — Music teacher who used last-names-only accommodation for religious reasons; appeals court revived his Title VII claim, sending it to a jury (post-Groff standard).

Meriwether v. Hartop (Shawnee State Univ.) (6th Cir. 2021; settlement 2022) — Professor disciplined over pronouns won key First-Amendment ruling and later a $400,000 settlement.

“No to DEI training” case (2024) — Employee fired for refusing unconscious-bias training; lawsuit dismissed and dismissal affirmed on appeal.

Shall I go on?

Todd Fernandez

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How jews can support anything the democrats do is f*cking bewildering…

Harv Glazer

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Bob,

It appears you are off the medication. Get back on them, stat!

Jason Gomperz

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It’s become infuriating. Have you been on X lately? It’s just mean spirited people using pronoun word salad like thy/them to sow division. It used to be informative and now it’s regurgitating talking points then people commenting using f bombs and hitler to make their point. No one is principled and standing up for the constitution or what makes us America; it’s all gotcha screaming at one another and bucketing people into 2 camps. Last but not least, if people really wanted to honor Charlie Kirk, the one thing I agreed w him on was love civil discourse. Screaming at each other online w no desire to listen or learn is a waste of time. We can’t go on like this.

Mark Burrell

____________________________________

It’s called white supremacy, Bob – a centuries-old project run by the ruling class to strip ancestral identity from poor (and now middle-class) European Americans, give us elevated socioeconomic status, and galvanize us as a unified front against the Black, Brown, and Indigenous human beings from whom they extract labor and resources.

CK was a mouthpiece for white supremacy. And now he’s a martyr for it.

That’s the kind of f*cked-up world we’re living in.

Shawn Madden

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amen, brother!

Doug Van Pelt

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It’s cancel culture x 10, with a dose of cruelty added in

Mike Renault

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Last year, while I was working at a corporate music company, one of the department heads walked into a meeting with a “Free Palestine” sticker prominently displayed on a company-issued MacBook—in a room with more than its share of colleagues of the Jewish faith. Exercising their right to free speech. No one said a word.

Then I thought: what if someone had walked in wearing a MAGA hat?

We both know that would’ve been a very different outcome. Freedom of speech in the workplace isn’t absolute—it’s filtered through company culture, peer dynamics, and public perception.

Timothy J. Smith

____________________________________

This is the same society who tried to make a hero out of a 5 time felon.  Floyd didn’t deserve to die under police supervision and neither did Kirk, but neither were heroes.  Yet people lost their livelihoods in both cases just for stating an opinion.   Something is not right.

Tim W
in Calgary

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How many gov employees lost their job for not wanting to take a vaccine…

Marc Baxter

____________________________________

Mr.Charlie Kirk preached hate for others who didn’t align with his thinking ~

Thats enough to make me turn away ~

R. Singer

____________________________________

Freedom of speech doesn’t preclude consequences to that speech

Celebrating a murder is cause for banishment from polite society

Tim Endres

____________________________________

Thank you for taking a stance here!

I grew up in West Germany and i start to get the distinct feeling that we are getting closer to the East german Days where you had to keep your mouth shut or else.

i am a green card holder and i am already self censoring in the land of the free…

yeah right

christian petke

____________________________________

They are free to exercise their rights and employers are free to exercise their rights to employment people who represent them in a positive manner. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. How about don’t pee on someone’s grave the day after they were publicly executed. You do that and you’re a bad person and you get what you deserve. It’s good that they are self identifying so the good people can stay away from them.

Chip Hines

____________________________________

This is no different than when people were forced to be vaccinated during Covid. No proof of vaccination, no entrance. No vaccination, you are discharged from the military. Refuse to use someone’s pronouns, you’re labeled homophobic.

Shoes on the other foot now and it doesn’t feel good does it.

Dennis Paulik

____________________________________

So glad to see this post in recognition of what people go through.

Free speech is today’s news. What about the 300,000 federal workers who have been laid off or fired in this administration supposedly in the name of efficiency. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/27/us/federal-workers-trump-layoffs.html

This president is a job killer.

Britt Benston

____________________________________

You are correct Bob; what kind of f-upped world do we live in when mobs rule.

You rail against the mob on the right. You ignore the mob on the left. Remember, the mob on the left started “cancel culture.” In fact, I would posit that the far left progressives started the whole “mob culture” that we endure today.

But hey, I’m just a guy who tries to see the world in all its shades of grey.

Matt Grandi

____________________________________

What is so outrageous, uncomprehensible, unprecedented, and shocking is how America could after 250 years as the apex global example of a government dependent on a majority of “we the people” laws and freedoms (especially of speech) be so easily hijacked and tyrannized by a convicted felon and sexual assaulter, pathological liar, and unapologetic egomaniac, and his supporters.

Alan Segal

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Your culpable.  You are so blindingly biased.   It is such a shame.

Kevin Patrick Connors

____________________________________

Welcome to our world.  All those attacked for questioning the jab.  Jobs lost was just the tip of the iceberg.  So t forget Jimmy’s “joke”, “sorry Wheezie,  o medical care for you”.

I’d like to see your email box now.

Woke cancel culture coming home to roost.

Unfortunately what was once teachable moments are becoming crimes.  Bring on the digital ID.

Ed Kelly

____________________________________

The snitch culture that Republicans have created has more in common with Pinochet’s Chile, the glory days of the Stasi or Saddam Hussein’s Baath party than the whole Spirit of America/small government/rugged individual ethos they are so fond of preaching about out of the other side of their mouths.

Vince Welsh

____________________________________

I’m not afraid Bob-
I don’t say stupid things at the workplace or online. That’s the difference you are missing. I don’t dance on graves or wish Ill will. I can control my emotions and do not need to broadcast them to an echo chamber of hate online that will be yesterday’s news before yesterday is even yesterday.  You can make mistakes – we are human. You are correct on that. Why make your hateful opinion online for all to see then wonder why you lost your job? Why make that post? That is the difference – it’s undisciplined and selfish to broadcast that over the social media platform and bot expect a backlash. Have some self control! Maybe people will start thinking twice when something bad happens.

Tony DeStefano

____________________________________

hey bob,up in canada we can still speak the truth.charlie kirk was a straight up racist,sexist,hate monger.i am a pacifist so obviously don’t condone murder but to memorialize this guy is just insane.sorry to see where the u.s. is heading.i’ve got a gig across the border in washington state but i’m gonna pass.don’t want to deal with u.s. border nazis.nik tee

Nick Tatroff

____________________________________

Hmm,  it’s a little like leftist people writing off family members, ending friendships or kicking people out of restaurants and stores just because they’re a Trump fan.   Shoe hurts a little when it’s on the other foot, eh?

I didn’t like Obama, but no way would I ever be jumping for joy if he got assassinated.  And I would worry about the character of any person who would.

You write: “They’re coming for you if you’re not like them, if you say anything in contradiction of their agenda.”  Bob, that’s the EXACT playbook leftwingers were following when Biden was in office, and Obama before him, and many are still following it.  They figured they’d be in charge from now till eternity, so they could have anything they wanted.  But now the other side is in power and they’re suddenly frothing at the mouth, unable to deal with it.

We’re supposed to talk to each other, not fight with each other.  Social media is ruining this country.  That’s it.  We need to figure that puzzle out and just talk to each other without shooting.

Mike Blakesley

One would think it’s so unhinged and laughably hypocritical that a rational populace would see through the BS propaganda.  I can’t help but think that with over 50% of the country reading at or below a 6th grade level we are reaping what we’ve sown.

Kirby Hammel

Bob I think you have convenient amnesia, it was the Left who started this with “cancel culture”!! You had no problem when it was conservative comics and people losing their jobs and being censored on Twitter. But now it is the end of the world cause it’s liberals losing their jobs for saying very hateful things. I though you Bob and the Left were against hate, ah I guess it’s just when it affects your side that it is OK.  Not a good take at all Bob!!

Doug Gillis

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That was an excellent one. I have no idea where we go from here and it sounds like you don’t either.

Rik Shafer

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It’s hard to believe that all these snowflakes on the right don’t see their own hypocrisy. How can you whine for years about cancel culture and then want to see everyone fired who doesn’t glorify Charlie Kirk, a blatantly white supremacist, misogynist hater? Shame on every employer who’s gone down this route. It stinks of Nazi Germany. In its early years, if you didn’t salute when the brown shirts sang the Horst Wessel song (glorifying a fascist thug killed in a street battle with communists) they beat you up, or worse. Later it was concentration camps, torture, murder.

I’m proud of you for telling it like it is, Bob.

Thanks,

Ross Eisenbrey

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Bob – Lifelong democrat here, usually agree with you but what you said regarding those openly celebrating the assassination of a public figure is completely disingenuous. First, they got fired for openly celebrating his death online in really vile ways (made me ashamed to be a democrat honestly), and while that is protected under free speech, a private company may feel that this kind of abhorrent behavior doesn’t fit their corporate culture; which is entirely fair. I would definitely fire someone who did that regardless of who was assassinated because it makes me as an employer look bad!

As for the January 6’rs that’s an entirely separate debate and we can’t conflate the two, very different arguments and circumstances.

Kind regards,

Mikael Johnston
Mephisto Odyssey

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All i can say about this is you reap what you sow. The left set this as the standard a decade ago and are now being held to it. Welcome to the receiving end of cancel culture. I believe there are thousands of articles and books written by the left on why its a good thing.

Brendon Wood

I’d like to take this opportunity again to remind everyone that this is all a distraction from what’s happened to our country. The rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer and the middle class has evaporated. One side is actively trying to dismantle this end stage capitalism while the other thinks the enemy is a trans person who dyes their hair and has nose rings. That’s all.

Just Danny Jay

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Thank you Bob.

Yes, it’s hard to fathom what’s happened to our country since Trump was re-elected. And if we don’t vote like our democracy demands we do, we will lose it.

Trump’s not sending the National Guard and Marines into cities because of violence in these cities. And he’s sure not doing it because he thinks he’s “winning.” These are “trial balloons” that he’s using so when the GOP loses the upcoming midterms, he will say the election was rigged against him and therefore disallow the results. But by then, he’ll have more experience in sending troops into cities to quell any uprisings that will occur because people will be out and protesting.

Where’s the guardrails today? The GOP Congress and Senate are completely in the tank for Trump. Certainly not the Supreme Court, which seems to vote in favor of what ever Trump wants. Our Constitution will need to be seriously amended and/or rewritten as we can’t allow any future person to claim to have the authority Trump is abusing now.

More than ever, voting is not just our right, it’s our duty. Let’s not waste it!

Robby Scharf
Beverly Hills, CA

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I’m with you 100%. This is how dictators and authoritarian governments work. They create a culture of fear. And wait until the king declares martial law….

Carl Nelson

Woodstock, MD

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Right on Bob.

At the same time he’s bestowing national honors on make-believe martyrs, and his followers are meting out his master’s punishments on ordinary people, Trump’s blaming and demonizing the “left” with gleeful hatred and whipping everyone up into a frenzy.

Meanwhile, he is building up his own troops so they’re ready to go the minute he says they have to fight a war in all our major cities (he’s already using language to get us used to the idea by saying there’s a war in Portland right now).

He will then declare a state of emergency and cancel the 2028 elections. He hinted he would do this over chuckles with Zelensky (who did so in Ukraine as Russian bombs we’re landing) as they sat together in the oval in front of Trump’s Russia-envying gold wall adornments. Only, he’s not kidding.

In the final act, every Republican governor will rubber stamp what Trump wants and boom, no more democracy. No more beautiful America. My wondrous and inspiring country that I love so much will be dead forever.

It’s over Johnny.

Paul Gigante

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Yep.

Once again you indulge yourself in this peculiar form of cultural and political amnesia.  Akin to an hallucination.  You have blue-pilled yourself into a fatal form of delirium.  Like a fever that never breaks.

EVERYTHING you just said — E V E R Y T H I N G — EXACTLY maps to the years 2020-2024.  Bingo my friend.

So, well, as my mother used to say,  Tough Nuggies.  Suck it up straw man.

andy lavalle

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Shoe’s on the other foot now. It’s beautiful to see!

John Frye

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you are joking, right?

the left invented cancel culture bob

Ira Transport

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“If you storm the capitol you get pardoned? Jesus Christ, you are dishonest.

600 of the J6 rioters had already been convicted or pled guilty to some charge. The pardons were not an effort to evade responsibility for whatever law was broken, but to end the persecution from the Biden admin. They paid a price. There were 14 commutations of sentences where people were in JAIL…they were let out.

The people who got fired were fired by private citizens. That’s what happens when you speak out…there’s always a price for it…you have to b e willing to pay. And if you think killing Charlie Kirk was ok, why did you want to work for or with someone who loved him?

Thanks,

Bob Sheehan

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Let me fix one of your sentences:

“It’s not only racism that’s going to make you lose your job, but opining on the death of a racist.”

With all the hero worship going on, isn’t it telling that we haven’t seen a Kirk tribute about the man and his words – you know, like those produced in honor of people like JFK or MLK?

Obviously, many on the right feel Kirk is deserving – and yet compiling and playing back Kirk’s own words would likely be viewed by those same people as disrespectful. About whom else deserving of such a tribute can one say that?

George Wood

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Dude, are you serious? Yes, you lose your JOB!!  If you had an employee openly and gleefully celebrating the assassination of a human being, and you just sit back and claim, “oh, it’s their right under the first amendment, yadda, yadda, yadda,” then you are part of the problem. None of these people were required to be on the “Charlie Kirk was a hero train”. These were disgusting evil people.  You don’t have to like the guy, but to throw an online party when a father and husband was brutally murdered is showing some pretty nasty colors. I’m wondering if you’d have the same attitude if you had an employee that exhibited their absolute excitement in the social media strastophere that the world was better off with 1200 less Jewish people after October 7, 2023. I’m guessing no. Thankfully, unlike you, organizations have morals, standards and guidelines that employees are expected to adhere to. I don’t want those types of people teaching our children. I don’t want those types of people anesthetizing me during surgery. You can have them all to yourself.

Alex Novielli

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You still don’t understand; this is a game of taking scalps. “You make me cry, I make you cry.” “You get me fired, I get you fired.” You don’t get to cry about about the other side being better at a game that you and your party invented. If you had any balls you would have yelled about “cancel culture” when your side invented it a few years back. Remember when everyone had to bow at the altar of “Me Too” or “BLM”? Two movements that have now been objectively shown as being nothing more than capricious cash grabs. No, you have to sit back and take this. The rules were thrown out on September 10th when an individual on your side of the political aisle shot a man in his neck and we witnessed scumbags dancing on his grave. And don’t twist this into some 1st Amendment issue. You have every right to say what you want to say without fear of reprisal from the government; however I’m free to completely disassociate with anyone who sadistically cheers when a Husband and Father gets viciously murdered. No tears shed and no quarter given to low lives who condone and celebrate murder. If you feel so badly about it Bob please feel free to hire them to work for you.

Frank Costanza

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Yep.  You must weep and wail and beat your breast and gnash your teeth, but it may not be enough to satisfy the buzzing wasp nest…
They put the flags at half mast so apparently he was some kind of hero, just like the soldiers who fired down on unarmed women and children at Wounded Knee.  The heroes must keep their medals, Hegaeth said.  There’s no rewriting history, they say.  Just cover your heart and recite the pledge and hope they don’t come take you away.

Geronimo Son

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What kind of F’d up world does the POTUS preemptively pardons staff members, guilty of covid crimes, as he’s leaving office on his way to a dementia nursing home.

 

From the most recent video evidence, it doesn’t look like the patsy Tyler Robinson killed saint Charlie. It was an intelligence organization, either US or foreign. He was too effective not to off and stepped too far out of his lane in the eyes of the supreme leaders, talking about ending the Israeli war funding, Epstein files, questioning the avant-garde DEI ideology, among other contentious issues. No one is too sacred not to off when billions are involved.

 

Obama and Clinton deported way more non-citizens than Trump has even come close to. It was a corner stone of both their administrations. Trumps methods are too heavy handed, but it’s the same red line.

 

In general, leaders want citizens to be distracted with low priorities that inflame their ire, like immigration, while they run off with the bag.

 

We saw this with Cheney and Rumsfeld’s war in the middle east when they earned trillions through war profiteering.

 

We saw it during the subprime mortgage crisis when Banks and Financial institutions got bailed out to make trillions.

 

The Ukraine war profiteering.

 

Israeli’s Gaza war profiteering.

 

DOGE uncovered the corrupt NGOs funneling billions into nefarious programs and personal accounts.

 

Tack on Trump and Melania’s meme coins. All of crypto, depending on how one views that unregulated, nebulous world.

 

My advice is: Focus on improving your city and state, not on the charade of political distractions.

 

Writing about the Left or Right’s extreme ideology doesn’t encourage anyone to do anything but shake their head and dig their heels in.

 

I remain an Independent, because both sides have lost the script.  But in the final stages of empire, as Ray Dalio inculcates, this is inevitable.

 

I create and lead by example, that’s how I make a difference.  You’re just whining.

 

Best,

Alan Matkovic

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I’ve been a loyal follower of yours for years and always enjoy your commentary. Whether I agree or disagree, it’s always good to explore different opinions and you consistently make me think.

I see this differently. The First Amendment protects us from government limits on speech, but it does not stop a private employer from setting standards and taking action when an employee’s public comments hurt the company’s reputation. That is not government censorship.

It is also not the same as a Capitol rioter getting a pardon. Hundreds of people who stormed the Capitol have been prosecuted and sentenced. A few high-profile pardons do not erase that.

Public backlash online is not Soviet-style repression. People are using their own right to free expression when they call out something offensive. Employers can then decide whether that speech conflicts with their values.

Losing a job is serious, but there are legal protections such as unemployment benefits and, when appropriate, wrongful termination claims. People do rebuild careers after controversy.

Most of the high-profile firings have involved speech or actions that clearly broke a code of conduct, often things like racism or harassment. And many people who make a public mistake apologize and eventually move forward.

So I see a big difference between private accountability and government suppression of speech. We can and should debate how employers respond, but calling it creeping authoritarianism is a stretch.

Hope this helps add to the conversation. This kind of discourse is exactly what Charlie would have wanted.

Keep the hits coming, we can take it.

Concerned Citizen

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You are correct on all counts, Bob. It’s become a sh*t show and it’s going to get worse. If anyone gets shot and killed by a left-leaning zealot this is all this administration needs to activate the apparatus to declare martial law and go after anyone who protests. They’ve already done it and they’re doing it now. The man in the oval office is of questionable mental health, and so is the MAGA right. You have every reason to fear speaking out because that’s who they’ll go after. Who wants to place a target on their own back and for what? Speaking truth they don’t believe anyway?

Just like they did with the so called ‘Communists’ in the McCarthy era, and just like they villified Jews in Nazi Germany. Innocent people who only mean well and want what’s best for the greater good are the ones they will go after, if for no other reason that they threaten the status quo. This is how dictatorships work. Can it be stopped? I don’t know how, they elected this guy and he’s stacked the courts and government with his supporters and if anyone objects they get fired and another sycophant is hired. It’s complete insanity. Do you think Trump’s going to leave office in 2028? Hell no! They are already setting the stage for making sure he isn’t going anywhere. There are a lot of rich powerful people behind this. He who holds the gold makes the rules!

If people protest in large enough numbers I suppose it could make a difference but what happens when Trump and the MAGA machine use the National Guard and ICE to round up the protestors? It’s astonishing to me we’ve reached this point but we have and each day it appears to be getting worse.

When people like Charlie Kirk are made into national heroes for spewing the terrible things he said, well… I think that says it all.

There’s a documentary out there by Errol Morris called AMERICAN DHARMA. In it, Steve Bannon is interviewed where he talks about creating a civil war. It’s a scary watch because everything in it is coming true. God help us all.

Mark Curran – Los Angeles, CA

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I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I do watch and look carefully at things aware of minute details many miss. I felt something was strange and now believe the Kirk killing was a planned hit job. I know you will think I’m nuts, but there it is. Before reading anything or looking at any particular videos showing the things that are suspicious, I felt like there was something way off, that didn’t make sense. Looking at evidence, even with the additional admittance from the FBI, there are a lot of things off.

Melissa Ward

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Bob,

Charlie may have been all those nasty things people say he was, but he was killed by fellas of NAFO who saw him as on obstacle to their campaign to unite the right behind Ukraine, because he was against our nation’s proxy war on 110 million Russian Orthodox Christians. And because both wars started with support from Democrats, he also didn’t stand for the rainbow values globalists were pushing East. F*cking bastards on Fox, CNN, MSNBC, NewsNation, NEWSMAX, or any major media network or government office or agency will  NEVER utter that fact. It’s what the narrative Kash Patel hand-delivered to the scene on the spot was trying to avoid. It’s what spooked Trump’s reversals. Netanyahu was just a decoy. There is too much money in THIS war to let it go, even if Black Rock wrote off its monstrous share last year. At present those forces are seeking to take Charlie’s movement over. Pray they fail. We need a peacemonger in his place, someone NOT subject to foreign policy whims or manipulations.  That’s where the social-engineering battle for the next era is right now.

Do the research Mr. Newsletter Man and get back to us!

I am in good health and not depressed or distressed. If anything happens to me, wake the dead and rattle the living.

Ken Shain

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After a business partner lied to me and my employer for two years, I texted them, “you are dead to me.” While this was a popular figure of speech at the time, the partner claimed, without evidence, that I was “threatening them with violence.”

The phrase “dead to me” is obviously an idiom used to express extreme rejection and the end of a relationship, signifying that the person no longer exists to the speaker on an emotional level. For normal human interaction, it is not typically considered a literal threat. However, workplace policies often prohibit language that can be perceived as threatening or intimidating. Abusive language, especially when combined with aggressive or intimidating conduct, can be grounds for dismissal. That was not the case at all here. In fact, I was a great partner and an exemplary employee with numerous internal awards reflecting that fact. 

The company knew who I was and that this behavior was far out of character for me. Something terrible must have caused this reaction, no?

I admit it was a mistake to put my feelings in writing. However, the message was also a test of my company’s loyalty to me. They, too, had lost confidence in this partner due to their dishonesty. I had already planned to leave my job, but I was curious to see if my employer would support me. So, I sent the text knowing where this might lead, but also feeling this would just end my involvement with this particular partner and everyone would move on.

They did not. The company sided with the partner, and I was fired for what I considered “silly speech,” but any company would say is “for cause.” My frustration lies in the fact that my direct, albeit colloquial, communication was deemed unacceptable, while more subtle, “metaphorical” backstabbing is often tolerated in corporate America. This experience highlighted for me a disconnect in corporate culture, where loyalty is not always reciprocated, and the interpretation of communication can be weaponized.

The Orange Despot and his fascist regime wants the rest of America to act like a corporation with him as CEO. Any American can be “fired for cause.” Probably might lead to revoking citizenship, or certainly societal ostracizing.

Oh! Don’t worry about me! I re-invented myself and am 1000% happier for doing it. I was right and in this particular instance, it was good I lost that job. It set me on a better path, but also, I was prepared for the consequences, even if I didn’t think it would come to the eventual outcome. But it taught me a lesson about free speech in the professional class. It’s only free, if you pay for it.

Christian Swain
CEO Pantheon Media