Spotify playlist: https://tinyurl.com/3ttbckuy

You probably don’t know who he is, or should I say was.

I’m reading this terrible book about the Stones’ girlfriends, “Parachute Women.” The writer said Chris Jagger was Mick’s older brother. I winced, everybody knows Chris is the younger brother. Then again, the author Elizabeth Winder was born in 1980, long after Chris’s eponymous solo album was released in 1973, and made a dent in the chart, however minimal. I bought it, there was actually a good track on it, but that’s what we did back then, we wanted more.

So, Winder makes the case that Mick and Keith were relative choirboys, and it’s Anita Pallenberg who corrupted them, who made them who they are. Interesting take, at least I thought so until the book became so gossipy that I wondered where the writer got her information, asked myself if she made it all up. And now I think I’m going to stop reading, after the Chris faux pas. As my old friend Tony Wilson said, how are they gonna trust you on the big things when you can’t even get the little things right?

And surfing on TikTok I saw a clip of Marc Maron on Howard Stern talking about revering Keith, patterning his look after him. And this reminded me of when we used to do this, back when we were impressionable. And we were all impressionable once, but we seem to have grown out of that. The older you get, the more you realize everybody is the same. And when you see old rockers holding on desperately to their fame it rubs you the wrong way. Getting plastic surgery, wearing a wig. Got to give Robert Plant credit for refusing to trade on his role in Led Zeppelin, he allows himself to look old and ragged, and he keeps exploring musically, testing limits, whereas so many of his contemporaries are locked in amber.

But the weird thing is the classic rockers are dropping on a regular basis these days. To the point where it’s barely news, a blip on the radar screen. As for Jerry Moss… Kudos to his achievements, a great effort, he deserves all the respect, but at this point I give him credit most for living for 88 years, that’s quite a milestone, a full life. And Moss got into horse-racing, he was not stuck in who he was. But many don’t have his money, and have fewer opportunities. Their fame burned bright for a limited period of time, and oftentimes it was someone else in the band who got all the press. And so many don’t live as long.

Ray Davies… For decades there was a mania of respect. But that’s mostly in the rearview mirror now, as his fans have aged. So many of the acts that made their bones in the sixties and seventies are rarely talked about these days, especially in an era where rock does not dominate.

And the interesting thing about Davies and his Kinks is that they had three distinct eras, all of interest and value. The original sixties hits, then the theme/story/play/concept albums, and then the comeback on Arista. All different, but with a through line.

John Gosling didn’t come along until 1970’s “Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One,” and lasted through 1978’s “Misfits,” the best of the Arista years. And Gosling wasn’t a writer, although he was an occasional backup singer, but he was an integral part of the Kinks back then. Mostly when the act was in the wilderness, in the RCA years, but the band’s fans kept him alive.

Now they recently remastered “Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One.” But it was a stiff then and it’s not like it’s garnered a whole new life. The album was the follow-up to 1969’s “Arthur,” a concept album lumped in with “Tommy,” that got attention and airplay. “Lola” was a semi-hit, it barely made it into the top ten, but it has survived more than those more commercially successful, based on its merit. But the album was a stiff. I know, because I bought it as a cut-out. The label expected more.

And then the Kinks decamped for RCA, a terrible outlet. And although there was a good amount of press, “Muswell Hillbillies” was commercially unsuccessful. If you’re a fan you remember “Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues,” “Holiday” and “Skin and Bone,” the latter a highlight of the live show, but the rest of the public is ignorant as to these cuts. But the opening track, “20th Century Man,” has survived.

“I was born in a welfare state

Ruled by bureaucracy

Controlled by civil servants

And people dressed in grey

Got no privacy, got no liberty

‘Cause the twentieth century people

Took it all away from me”

And shortly after this verse, at 3:30 in the song, John Gosling sits on the organ and it’s indelible, adds a texture, a meaning, a special sauce to the song. What started out as an acoustic number is now a rollicking rock track.

The following album, 1972’s “Everybody’s in Show-Biz” is not as good. It’s a double-album, and the second disc, which is live, is satisfying, but to say the studio LP is uneven is a bit charitable. However, its closing cut is a stone cold classic. You never heard it on AM radio, but you know it by heart, it became an FM standard.

“You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard

Some that you recognize, some that you’ve hardly even heard of

People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame

Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain”

John Gosling’s organ might have just been flavoring in “20th Century Man,” but his keyboards are integral in “Celluloid Heroes,” they’re the bed, they make the track legendary.

Gosling’s organ plays the same part in “Soap Opera”‘s closing track “You Can’t Stop the Music” as it does in “20th Century Man,” it adds flavoring. It’s there, with its added texture, the cut would not be as magical without it.

1977’s “Sleepwalker” was the comeback, the first on Clive Davis’s Arista, Clive did well by the Kinks, he got them back on track without compromise. Despite the airplay for the title cut and the opener “Life on the Road,” the best tracks are on side two, the opener “Juke Box Music” and the closer “Life Goes On.”

“Juke Box Music” is a complete surprise, kind of like “One of the Boys,” the second side opener on Mott the Hoople’s “All the Young Dudes.” It’s an in-your-face rocker, you didn’t think either band still had it in them.

“She sings along with all the saddest songs

And she believes the stories are real

She lets the music dictate the way that she feels”

That’s how it was. The music was not superfluous, it was not secondary, but primary, it rode shotgun, it influenced us.

And ‘Life Goes On” is quieter and more meaningful, but in both John Gosling is a member of the band, he’s in there, this is not a solo effort, Gosling is there adding flavor once again.

And then there’s the highlight of “Misfits,” “A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy.”

“There’s a guy in my block, he lives for rock

He plays records day and night

And when he feels down he puts some rock ‘n’ roll on

And it makes him feel all right

And when he feels the world is closing in

He turns his stereo way up high”

This is the best song about the experience of being a rock fan extant. The music was both our leader and our escape, it got us through. John Gosling is all over this.

And, of course, Gosling lays the bed for the great second side opener, “Permanent Waves,” back in an era when perms were prevalent, when they peaked.

And then Gosling was gone. He was replaced on the follow-up, 1979’s “Low Budget,” which cemented the Kinks’ status as an arena act. Yes, the Kinks were back on top. However, some thought they were starting to play to a lowest common denominator.

As for Gosling… He ultimately opened a music shop and then became a music teacher. And ultimately he formed the band the Kast Off Kinks made up of former Kinks playing the band’s repertoire. And then he died, just the other day, at 75.

Gone. Kaput. More than a decade younger than Jerry Moss. A footnote. But not a loser. After all, Gosling was trained at the Royal Academy of Music.

But none of the above songs was the one that went through my brain when I heard Gosling passed, that was “Money Talks.”

After “Everybody’s in Show-Biz” came “Preservation Act 1,” which was even worse, it seemed mostly superfluous. There was “Sitting in the Midday Sun,” but not much more. And then, half a year later came “Preservation Act 2,” an unnecessary purchase if there ever was one. I mean who needed more? But the reviews were exceptionally good. In some cases raves. Not that there were any significant sales, there was no airplay, but I decided to buy it and dive in. It’s the best of the concept/play albums. The highlights are legion, the story is comprehensible, there’s constant magic, I drove cross-country listening to the four sides, I own “Preservation Act 2” in my heart.

And there are so many great cuts, I especially love the closer “Salvation Road,” which is akin to the aforementioned closer of “Soap Opera,” “You Can’t Stop the Music.”

And then there’s “Scrapheap City” and “Nobody Gives” and “Second-Hand Car Spiv,” not that I knew what a spiv was when I purchased the LP, Ray Davies was never afraid of employing British colloquialisms.

There’s the killer “He’s Evil” followed by “Mirror of Love” on the second side, a one-two punch.

And on the first side, there’s “When a Solution Comes” and “Shepherds of the Nation.”

But in between them could be my favorite Kinks song ever, “Money Talks.”

“Show me a man who says he can live without bread

And I’ll show you a man who’s a liar and in debt

There’s no one alive who can’t be purchased or enticed

There’s no man alive who wouldn’t sell for a price

Money talks and we’re the living proof

There ain’t no limit to what money can do

Money talks, money talks”

And that’s only the beginning, the song continues to drop wisdom and insight. It’s a marvel. It’s an encapsulation of life on this lonely planet, from the outside, from an artist, that’s the artist’s responsibility, to reflect truth back upon society so it sees itself, can possibly understand itself.

“Show me an upright respected man

And I’ll have him licking my boots when I put money in his hand”

Money rules the world, even more than it did in ’74, today people are slaves to the green gold.

“Money buys you time and people listen

Money can buy a smile and make life worth living

If you’re ugly money can improve you

I just couldn’t face the world without mazuma

Money talks, money talks”

It most certainly does. And if you’ve got it you can parade your name all over the news, show up in social media. Be a whore, um, influencer, selling your soul on social media. Money trumps everything these days. People admit it. That’s how sick our society is.

But at least there used to be a contrary opinion. Appealing to people’s better instincts, through their brains. Yes, the Kinks wanted you to think, not that hard, but if you were mindless you didn’t get it.

And most people didn’t get “Money Talks.” Almost nobody even heard it. The only time I heard it on the radio was decades later, on SiriusXM. “Money Talks” is not a standard. It’s a lost classic. But I don’t think it will resurface, the song is too rough, too edgy, anything but easily palatable. “Money Talks” is closer to Nirvana than its corporate rock brethren back in the seventies.

I not only know “Money Talks,” I sing it to myself on a regular basis. I quote it all the time. And…

“Money Talks” starts with an indelible waterfall John Gosling piano part, it sets the stage. And then continues as part of the assembled multitude.

I’m sure “Preservation,” both “Acts 1&2,” is still in the red. “He’s Evil” has 240,450 streams on Spotify, but nothing else on “Act 2” breaks 100,000. And although cuts from “Act 1” have more streams, confoundingly, none breaks a million.

But the cuts are all there, they live on. To be sampled, to be discovered, there to enrich you when you’re ready. Pay might be low, but if the old days persisted this music would be lost to the sands of time, no store would stock such poor-selling product.

So, unlike the business titans of the past, John Gosling’s legacy lives on. His playing is positively alive in recordings. And he doesn’t need the money anyway, he’s dead. And when it all ends, what are you going to be remembered for? Probably nothing. But artists march into the wilderness, hone their chops and try to lay down their truth.

The Kinks did this.

And John Gosling was part of the band. A group’s power depends on the skills and attitudes of its members.

So John Gosling reached me. And others who don’t even know who he was. But to me…

He’s the guy banging the keys at the beginning of “Money Talks.”

And more.

If you’re telling me how great you are, how you did this or that, what you own, where you’ve been…my eyes start to roll into the back of my head. That’s how you tell someone is an amateur, if they don’t stop telling you how great they are.

You’ll know this if you ever encounter those at the top. Who are typically more warm and gentle than those at the bottom. Their accomplishments speak for them. If you’re a public figure and you’re telling us what you’ve achieved, you’re just demonstrating your insecurity. You think you’re winning, but you’re not.

I know that the music business, many businesses, are based on salesmanship, but you have to know when to sell and how. If you’re a full-force bundle of energy your words bounce right off others, they stop listening. First and foremost people want to know who you are, that you’re likable, that you’re interested in them. Want someone to be your friend? Ask them questions, listen to them. And this does not only work in business, the number one complaint of women TikTok daters is the guy only talked about himself, that he didn’t ask them a single question. Doesn’t matter how good-looking they are, how much money they’ve got, they don’t want to go on another date.

If you’re telling someone you know this person or know that person to embellish your image, you’re losing. Unless asked, hold this information back. Or maybe add an anecdote about the third party that further illuminates the conversation. There’s a podcaster who can’t stop telling us that she knows this or that tech person, that she just spoke to them yesterday. I thought it was only me, but my nephew says he refuses to listen to any podcast she hosts, because she’s intolerable. And the amazing thing is she doesn’t seem to know this.

Once you’ve made it, don’t keep reminding us that you’ve done so. We know. Or we’re not worth impressing in the first place.

And you’ve got to know, how ever much money you’ve got, wherever you think you’ve been, there are people who have more and have done more… Don’t try to compete, it makes you look small. Makes you look like you play in a backwater where this works. However, don’t be a sycophant. Those who’ve achieved can smell this, and they stay away. Or lose respect. Those at the top can hear a contrary opinion more than those at the bottom, because they’ve already made it, and they know that to continue to be on top they’ve got to constantly learn, adjust and take risks. So, if you can add insight, they treasure it. If someone is shouting your opinion down, that means they’re not really in control, not really a player, they’re too uptight about their place in the firmament.

Where you went to school… Who your parents are… Especially in the music business, no one cares. It’s a fluid society wherein a CV means ever less. Sure, an Ivy League degree might help you on Wall Street, in consulting, at Procter & Gamble, but it’s actually a turn-off in the music business. Because if you bring it up it demonstrates that you think you’re better and entitled, when in truth everybody starts from the same line. Look at the music business, MBAs are scarce, certainly compared to other industries. And have respect for those who’ve been doing it. It might look easy to you, yet it’s anything but. You want to be a concert promoter. Are you familiar with building rebates? Without them you almost definitely won’t turn a profit. Don’t think you know more. Which is different from offering insight, analysis.

If you’re backstage, if you meet someone by chance, and you start telling them what you’ve achieved, they tune out, go on autopilot, ask themselves how long they have to stand there until they can move on. Oftentimes they brush you off. If the person you want to impress is silent, you’re in trouble. You may think they’re listening, but usually they’re judging, negatively.

Be secure in your achievements. And know if you’ve got none, odds are no one is interested in listening to what you have to say. And rather than go up and introduce yourself, have someone else do so, someone the object of your affection already knows, already respects.

If you meet a rock star don’t tell them how much you love their music, or maybe just employ a line, but then ask them about their hobby, what they’re interested in. If you’re that much of a fan, you know what that is. They love to wax rhapsodic on these non-music topics, because no one ever asks them about them, or cares what they really have to say about them. And ask deeper questions, to show you are listening. If you are listening you are one step ahead, then someone can see you as a friend, and they have to see you as a friend before they see you as a possible business partner.

And certainly don’t waste anybody’s time. If the big muckety-muck has been talking to you for a while, excuse them, let them off the hook, let them go. They respect this. Because you demonstrate understanding of their position. The bigger the person, the more time-challenged they are. You do not want to use up more than your allotted time. If you’re dominating the person, not letting them go, they’ll never want to talk with you again. And you’d be surprised how well people remember those who are friendly and express interest. Much more than the salesman trying to push something upon them.

So, you own a flashy car. They might own five.

You might have flown private. They own a plane. And then there was that article in the “Times” saying not to boast about your jet, because someone else might have five. Yes, there’s always someone further up the totem pole, be wary of trying to impress them with what you’ve got.

And also learn to say no. If they invite you somewhere, offer to include you, give them an out. It shows respect. If they really want you, of course you’ll come. And even though they’re rich, offer to pay, they’re never going to let you, but it shows you understand the game, they’re sick of being ripped-off, always opening their wallet. Then again, if they’re on an expense account everybody knows they’re not really paying anyway.

Learning how to interact with the rich and famous and powerful is a skill unto itself. You can learn it, but you have to be open to it. I know people who refuse to bring certain others to meetings because they won’t shut up. You don’t want to be excluded, you want to be included.

Subtlety pays dividends. Leave the boasting to the acts, but even that’s  a bad look in most cases. But if you’re behind the scenes, in business, you’ve got a career too. You want to ingratiate yourself, be a member of the club, and by selling yourself for inclusion 24/7 you’ll end up out.

Grace Potter has a new album, “Mother Road,” inspired by her cross-country drives during Covid. From Waitsfield to Topanga, we cover it all!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grace-potter/id1316200737?i=1000624749775

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/b4449b46-53f6-46f8-8355-315c8212b5cc/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-grace-potter

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/grace-potter-306428686

“What Happens When a Pop Star Isn’t That Popular? – Pop’s middle class enjoys loyal online fan bases. For these artists, pop stardom isn’t a commercial category, but a sound, an aesthetic and an attitude.”: https://tinyurl.com/bdcd3x6y

That’s a free link, and you should click on it.

As for the Kesha/Dr. Luke story, if you don’t subscribe directly to the L.A. “Times” you can still read it as part of the Apple News: https://tinyurl.com/3z9hzrpe

If you’re on TikTok or Instagram, you’d think that Bebe Rexha is a big star. Rexha has 8.4 million followers on TikTok and 11 million on Instagram. And for weeks there’s been a debate about her weight. Rexha’s retort has been that she has PCOS, which notoriously causes weight gain, and she is doing the best she can. So Rexha is both humanized and humiliated, still an object of hate. But that’s social media. However, when it comes to charts, Rexha is challenged.

And despite the Top Ten being published every week in news outlets, it’s only oldsters and those in the business who care about charts, the fans care not a whit. They’re fervent believers willing to take on all comers, defending the object of their affection, such that one might get a skewed view of the overall marketplace.

Just like Trumpers.

If you were aware during Watergate the Trump indictments are a head-scratcher. News for a day and then they disappear. And on Fox, it’s not even the main story. In a world where Hillary Clinton is President and Hunter Biden the Democratic Minority Leader of the House, there are more important fish to fry. But you can’t tell a Fox fan, a Trumper, any different. But how many  Trumpers are there?

This is where media falls down. Basing its info on polls that have been notoriously inaccurate for nearly a decade. Why trust them now?

Trumpers are a niche. Even if you give them 35% of the Republican electorate. But the Democrats are deathly afraid, and non-biased media too, because if they say anything anti-Trump, their inbox is going to go wild.

That’s right, decry Trump and you’ll be flooded with incoming. Praise Biden and some of these same people will blow back, but the Biden voters, the Democrats? They’re not that active, they don’t see a need to defend Joe, or any of the Dems, as much as the Trumpers need to defend Donald.

So if you’re in the maelstrom, you’d better have perspective, or you’re going to get it all wrong.

Like I said, on social media Bebe Rexha is a queen. And she is, just to a very small number of people. And it’s the same with Trump.

As for the Trumpers…

They ain’t gonna show up in person. They learned their lesson on January 6th. They want to be vocal, but they don’t want to go to jail. Those days are through. It’s easy to bloviate online, yet to put your person at risk is a no-no. But the Donald doesn’t even understand this himself. He doesn’t know he’s living in a past era. If he really wanted to win he’d adjust his message, but vengeance excludes all contrary input, actually, all input other than exacting revenge is excluded. In other words, despite being told again and again that Donald Trump is in touch with the public, just the opposite is true.

But still, if he shows up, the crowd will go wild.

Well, there are acts you’ve never heard of that sell out Madison Square Garden, that’s how fervent fans can be these days. And people need to believe, to make their lives work. As for truth? That train left the station long ago.

But non-Trump media keeps wincing, keeps adding right wing commentary, all to appease a right that will never be satisfied. If you’re going to deal with these people at all you must go on the offensive, but the only people who know this are those who interact with the right wing each and every day. You think teaching is easy, but talk to a teacher, just keeping order is a big problem, controlling the classroom is a skill unto itself. Unless you’re there, you don’t know.

So…

The wheels of justice turn slowly, but they turn. Right now Donald Trump is sh*tting bricks. This ain’t some civil b.s., this is criminal, if he loses he could go to jail. And his constituents can’t help him. It’s not like they’re going to revolt in the streets, they tried that, and once bitten, twice shy.

So really, you should laugh at Trump. Laugh at his minions. You see they’re on a losing path. They’re desperate. Kind of like those Japanese soldiers still fighting the war years afterward. They may think the battle is continuing, but it’s over, the public has moved on.

Don’t be scared, just vote. If you do, it’s no contest. And it turns out the Democrats are motivated, that’s what we learned in Ohio. Being in the public eye for all these years, giving us a look at his shenanigans, most people are scared of giving Trump control of anything. But the news is like Chicken Little, always telling us the sky is falling.

And reporting on Trump’s so-called defenses.

Let the circle jerk itself. You’re never going to penetrate it. They’re going to say it’s free speech. That’s like you’re four year old saying he didn’t know not to eat all the cookies in the jar. The kid is desperate, they’ll say anything. But you don’t set up a court and hear the defense, because it’s obvious. Just like Trump’s crimes are obvious, they were in plain sight, January 6th was on television, and if you think that’s peaceful, how about we do it at your house?

Forget these people, they’ve forgotten us. And their goal is to jet back to a past that was worse for everybody and is never returning anyway.

And they’ve got their statistics, which like Bebe Rexha’s are in a vacuum. Jason Aldean’s song going to number one! Well, most people don’t even listen to the radio and you can live quite easily not knowing a single song in the Spotify Top 50. This is not the Beatles, the song is not ubiquitous, there’s a hard core that know it, and that’s it.

Kind of like this Oliver Anthony “Rich Men North of Richmond” kerfuffle. A tempest in a teapot. Maybe if you’re in the business, you’ve seen the story. But otherwise, no one knows. And if you pay attention, like with the Aldean song, you come across offensive lyrics:

“Well god, if you’re 5’3″ and you’re 300 pounds

Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds”

Now let me see… The red state people are all skinny, and those in the city are fat. Actually, percentage-wise the opposite is true. In other words, to be a fan of this song you’ve got to be self-hating. And just like every family has a gay person, every family has an obese person, maybe all of the people. Where is fat-shaming a good look?

Once again, once you pierce the bubble you find there’s nothing there. But the right wing agitators keep throwing up this crap and making the left crazy, which is exactly what they want. No, Oliver Anthony is not a new hit artist, he’s a brief moment in time, ultimately meaningless, because almost nothing sticks these days, to have a career means to pay untold dues that most people don’t want to. Even if you have a hit it’s forgotten. But we should pay attention to this bigot?

I don’t think so.

But all those on the left are up-in-arms. As if their agitation will make a difference. The first rule of internet hate is don’t respond, that’s exactly what the haters want. But those with keyboards on the left never seem to have learned this, while they keep telling us to put the smartphone down. Pick it up, the more you’re on the more you win. Hell, the most revered person in the music business today is the internet marketer. If you can penetrate the morass and reach the people you’re king, or queen. But you’re hearing just the opposite from those who made their bones in the last century.

The “New York Times,” the “Washington Post,” they’re on the back foot, constantly playing defense. Don’t they understand that the only thing that will satiate their haters is if they shut down the entire enterprise? Hell, if I listened to all my haters I wouldn’t write at all, which is exactly what they want. And the haters are more vocal than the lovers, always.

But we’d better not indict Trump, his numbers will go up, people will attach ever more tightly to him. In what world have you ever seen this? Sure, his hard core, who were never going to give up the fight, might embrace him more, but no one else sees Trump being indicted and says “He’s my man!” but the old school bloviators keep telling us the wolf is at the door, and Trump is commanding an ever-growing army. Yeah, just like Putin in Ukraine. Everyone thought he was going to win in a second, but here we are many seasons later, and he’s far from victory. Furthermore, even more of what’s behind the curtain has been revealed. Putin is holding on by a thread.

But Putin is proffering disinformation. Like the educational system of Florida. But if people truly loved DeSantis’s policies he’d be trouncing Trump, but the guy is cold and offensive and the closer you look the more you’re disgusted.

Just like abortion. Dodd revealed the culpability of the Supreme Court. It single-handedly undercut their credibility, just like lawyers in Watergate. Lawyers haven’t regained their status, and it’s fifty years later. The Supreme Court is vulnerable, seen as a bunch of self-dealing doofuses who can’t even judge their own lives properly.

Turns out people want abortion rights, and they’ll come out to fight for them.

In other words, the left is winning. As Trump and the nincompoops dug their hole ever deeper, the rest of us woke up. And we’re saying NO MAS! That’s the one thing we all agree on.

So how about a news reset. How about the end of fearmongering. How about making fun of Trump and his people. How about owning this great country of ours instead of getting down in the gutter with these agitators who just want to tear down the government. Yeah, just wait until there’s a natural disaster in their backyard, they’ll be looking for a federal handout. And their hero Elon Musk digs his own grave each and every day. He’s another one we should ignore. Leave him in his own backwater.

But first and foremost pull back and see the landscape.

Musk dented Twitter and it’s never recovered. And sure, Threads is no replacement, but if you think we need Twitter/X, you think that tech could never survive without Steve Jobs. I mean there’s no lack of information. And what’s important will get out, it always does.

And social media is a nightclub, it’s hip and successful and then it goes bankrupt. It’s a moment in time. Everybody realizes it’s no longer cool and they go somewhere new. But Elon Musk doesn’t understand cool, and the world runs on cool. And Donald Trump is not cool. Nor is white nationalism. However much they press, their platform is a bad look.

So just ignore the Trumpers. Don’t argue with them. And if they can’t shut up, stay away from them. And if they continue to talk, just laugh. They want you to engage, don’t. Supersede them, live above them.

Because they’re niche.

And to win in this country you’ve got to be mass. And Trump is losing followers each and every day.