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Are not really about AI.

They’re about reduced prospects for college graduates, the detachment of techies from the general public and the fanning of the flames of AI by prognosticators and the media.

It’s income inequality run rampant, I tell you.

One thing we’ve learned is the tech bros are not like us. The dueling dullards arguing over OpenAI at the trial… From the sidelines, everybody looks bad. Elon Musk looks greedy and Sam Altman appears smug and…aren’t these guys rich enough?

As for the Molotov cocktail thrown at Altman’s house… I do not approve, of the action or any future violence, but I understand it. What we’re seeing is a ramping up of actions against those reaping rewards from a game that most people cannot even play. It started with Luigi Mangione shooting the CEO of United Health and… All we hear from those with a public voice is violence will not be condoned (ironic in a gun-riddled society where even 6 year olds shoot people), they never speak to the underlying condition. They label the shooter a crank and…

And now as bad as the health care system is, Congress let the Obamacare subsidies expire and prices went through the roof and millions of people are now going bare. And what is the response of those who don’t want to deliver these subsidies? That the people involved can go to the emergency room. That’s like telling people to drive without insurance because the people they collide with are probably have coverage. It’s just kicking the can down the road, we all end up paying, and believe me, the public knows it.

When done right, heroes should not be zeros, they should be able to relate to the public, or be leaders. Instead, everybody’s chasing the dollar. You’ve got vapid musical acts and then billionaires bitching that someone wants to take their money… Did you check out the Bezos interview? He’s talking about all the taxes rich people pay, but he leaves out that many billionaires don’t pay anything at all, they just borrow against their stock, kicking a taxable event down the road.

Billionaires are not like us. But we no longer mean that in a good way.

We used to admire the leaders, techies replaced rock stars. They were pushing the envelope, wowing us with their breakthroughs, thrilling us with constant innovation. But it seems the game of musical chairs has ended, no one new can grab a seat and those who remain are self-centered and self-satisfied, their idea of charity is to build a school that their kids can go to. They’re doing anything but spreading the wealth around, and the public knows it.

So the truth is this graduating class had access to AI for all four years of college, and have been using it. It’s not like they were boycotting ChatGPT with their schoolwork, rather the issue is how to keep students from using it. So it’s not AI they’re pissed about, but…

Come on, we keep hearing that AI is going to take our jobs and then destroy the world.

As far as taking your job…if you deal in ones and zeros, if you’re a coder. But beyond that, the human is still king, because of AI’s hallucinations/mistakes. God, we’re seeing it in court and books and…professionals are constantly being busted for relying on AI that not only is wrong, but makes things up! We are not moving to a society where this is accepted. Just the opposite, the screws are tightening now that the problem is being evidenced in quantity.

As for corporations… It’s all a ruse I tell you. They say they’re laying people off because of AI, but the truth is it’s a cover-up, they just want to lay people off! Think about it, if AI was actually doing these jobs, they’d lay off people in waves, as AI became able to do their jobs. But instead, these companies are laying off thousands all at once! They don’t want to look bad and say they’re just firing/downsizing people, then the public blowback is too great. And then Wall Street starts to wonder if anyone’s in charge, why were these companies so far from rightsized!

I mean whose jobs is AI actually taking? God, AI is a buzzword, it’s everywhere, the sky is falling! But it’s not.

Look at the computer… Now lawyers do their typing themselves. There is no longer is a steno pool, but this efficiency has flowed to the bottom line. As for the value add of the steno pool, there was none.

But there isn’t even spellcheck for AI! The companies themselves can’t root out the hallucinations!

Yes, AI found security holes in Apple’s OS, and that’s worth extrapolating and contemplating, but now that AI is being used for even coding it turns out that sans human oversight, it can’t do the job.

I’m not going to sit here and say AI won’t have an effect on the world, but everybody losing their job overnight, no…

But these are the same people who sold us crypto. And then Polymarket and Kalshi. Systems that look flat on the surface, but are rigged by people using inside information and quants. You can’t win if you’re the average punter. As for online gambling, the odds are stacked against you, but if you do happen to win big, they limit your bets.

And then we’ve got the ultimate grifter in D.C.

We are talking about college graduates here, they’re not dumb, they can see through what is happening, Trump may have successfully primaried candidates, but that’s because boomers voted his way, youngsters overwhelmingly went for the incumbents.

Get the picture here?

It’s us against them.

And the only us who will stand up and take a risk are the young ‘uns, who’ve got their lives in front of them as opposed to behind, they’ve got nothing to lose.

As for Eric Schmidt…talk about a smug as*hole… I figured I’d ask him about music discovery, he dismissed the question like it was positively inane, saying it would all be solved by machine learning momentarily. That was before Covid, needless to say it didn’t happen, it will NEVER HAPPEN! It comes down to humans, not the machine. Whether it be TikTok or something that hasn’t surfaced yet.

But these techies believe chips and software can solve every problem, run the world. They’re the ones who are myopic, not us.

As for the constant trumpeting of AI by the press… This is the same press that was gung-ho during the dot com revolution at the turn of the century, and then the market collapsed. Turned out you couldn’t deliver a popsicle for free.

So far, the startup AI companies are financially challenged. Anthropic just posted a profit, but it’s bupkes compared to the investment. ChatGPT is still struggling.

As for data centers… It was a field day for Wall Street. Never mind the financial engineering, like keeping the centers off the books of companies like Meta. No one anywhere thought about the social aspects. It’s fracking on steroids. Not only do you want to build these eyesores, you want to use all our electricity too! And you’ve got Elon Musk installing gas turbines that cause noise air and noise pollution without getting permits first. This guy doesn’t only think that the rules don’t apply to him, but the laws don’t apply to him! He’s got a long history of doing this, ignoring the U.S. government, it’s cheaper to settle after the fact, if there even is a settlement.

But Musk is too out of touch to realize after DOGE he’s no longer a public hero, he’s got his acolytes, but Tesla has stalled and many are wary of anything he does. Never mind his riches.

So you thought you could be a rock star.

But now not only are the odds long, it takes longer than ever to make it and even if you do, you can’t make anywhere near the riches of the techies.

And then you thought you could build apps.

But that turned out to be a free market, people don’t pay for apps.

So where are your entry points if you’re an entrepreneur?

And if you’ve just got a computer science degree, they’re laying off people in your world, not hiring.

And prices are going up and you’re told not to worry about it. And buying a house is off the table for many, and they also don’t want expensive kids and…

We’re told we’ve got smartphones, so we should be happy! That our standard of living is higher than it’s ever been before! Maybe, but compared to the winners, most people are positively broke.

But they don’t get a voice, because they don’t have the money to pay for politicians, if they even vote.

But the old and wealthy, they’re invested in the game. Believe me, college graduates are aware that not only Bezos flipped, but even Tim Cook. None of them have a backbone, and if they’re called on it, they say they have no choice.

EVERYBODY has a choice.

But not everybody has options.

That’s what this is all about, options. People are sick and tired of doors being shut.

They’re starting to break them down.

If you’re waiting for a public reaction, a conflagration over Trump’s slush fund or ballroom or arch…

People only react when it affects them directly.

People feel their futures are bleak, and that’s what they’re reacting to.

It’s plain as day.

Dan Beck was Michael Jackson’s product manager and has written a book about the experience, “‘You’ve Got Michael’: Living Through HIStory.” If you want to know what it was like working at a record label in the pre-internet era, this is the place.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dan-beck/id1316200737?i=1000768901251

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/8aed22c2-dda8-4684-af71-e4d4864ad6ef/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-dan-beck

Does he know how bad he was? Is he in a bubble, is it the emperor’s new clothes, does he not know how he comes across?

In case you missed it, try this:

It’s positively sad.

Then again, athletes retire, why not musicians?

Then again, musicians never retire, they say they do a few times, but they always go back on the road.

When Paul McCartney went back on the road with Wings Over America in 1976, it was a startling event, a Beatle in person.

And now he’s turned into Bob Dylan…

But at least Dylan seems to be aware of what he’s doing.

Then again, the people who go to the show and say Bob is great now… I guess if you find shows where you can’t recognize a single song to be exciting and fulfilling, maybe… But where’s that at, if you want me, I’ll be in the bar.

But at least Dylan’s keeping it interesting for himself. I mean to go out for thousands of shows, singing the same songs that became famous when you were in your twenties, sixty years on? Other than the adulation of the audience and getting paid, that sounds like death to me.

I give Paul credit for surviving. As one of the most popular people in the world. All that attention, the love, the expectations, how do you live a normal life? Having children, all of whom seem to be reasonable, which is not an easy feat. Not staying holed up, but living a life…

But Paul definitely knows who he is. He’s got an ego, and he displays it. Then again, it’s nearly impossible to make it. Despite how humble stars may appear, underneath it they’re egoists, if not narcissists, who have a hole they’re trying to fill via their success.

And Paul deserves all the credit he’s gotten. And as revered as John Lennon is, it’s hard to compete with a dead man. Imagine if Jim Morrison was alive today? It’s hard to carry off that mysterious distance when you’re in your fifties, never mind sixties or seventies.

Paul is 83, he’s going to be 84 next month. When I was growing up, that was positively ancient. Most men didn’t make it that far, my relatives certainly didn’t. And those who did were crotchety, moving slowly, having difficulty hearing…

I was sitting behind Bruce Springsteen at an awards show and I saw his hearing aids. I’m not putting him down, not in the least. Hell, he could have grown his hair and covered them up. He’s owning his identity, just like he has let his hair go gray and has admitted taking antidepressants. How do you cope when you’ve achieved all your goals? How do you keep marching forward?

But as big as Bruce Springsteen is…

No living musician is as big as Paul McCartney.

The truth is his vocals have been substandard for over a decade now. But Paul literally has the best band, and they do a phenomenal job of covering up for him. But when he’s singing alone at the piano…you cringe. I’ve been there, I’ve seen it.

Now I understand the pilgrimage, paying homage, bringing your kids to see him in the stadium where the sound is so imperfect you fill in the holes with your memory… But to go on SNL and show the world how bad you really are, how you’ve lost more than a step?

How could Paul not realize this? He had plausible deniability prior to this. Even YouTube videos… They’re shot from the audience, not copied from the board, they’re almost all imperfect. But when Paul goes on national television, INTERNATIONAL television!

That’s what YouTube is, it lasts forever.

Now I wasn’t going to write anything. Because the truth here is self-evident. And the manager is a friend of mine. Why pile on.

But there’s a message here, beyond Paul McCartney. Sometimes you just have to hang it up.

Like Gordon Lightfoot. I went to see him and…it would have been better if he was singing to tape, like Frankie Valli, who finally called it quits, or employed an avatar. Felice wanted to leave almost immediately. I needed to hear “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” but after that we bolted. It was too excruciating, I didn’t want my memories f*cked with.

Now Gordon passed not long thereafter, this was truly his last hurrah.

But it was happening off the radar screen.

But Paul still garners eyeballs…

It’s sad that the legends are dropping, Jack Douglas last week. What am I going to say about Jack, he was a friend… We did a podcast together, there was almost nothing left to say. Obituaries are written by those who don’t know somebody for those who didn’t either. But if you knew Jack, you knew about his trip to Liverpool…

And then there are the managers. Bernie working with Bob Weir, and then he dies. What are you going to do then? How are you going to march on? There’s a giant hole in both your life and your pocketbook.

As for music today…

The big news about the Drake album is how hip-hop has not charted well for eons, that we live in a pop world.

Like the one we lived in in 1961, ’62, even ’63, before the Beatles in America. Vapid stuff that fills a hole, but not the soul.

Paul McCartney filled our holes and our souls. And his music will continue to do so.

But Willie Mays could no longer catch a ball running backwards…

What is Paul McCartney supposed to do with his time?

Does Bob Dylan have nothing better to do, is this his only option?

But it’s not only them, it’s me, it’s the rest of the boomers. Sure, there are politicos hanging on for dear life, laughably, knowing nothing about the tech that drives our culture, but at some point you have to face the fact that your time has passed. So what do you do with your time?

I’m still trying to figure that out.

But I do know there are certain things I can no longer do.

And I’m not the only one.

As far as Paul McCartney goes, he can still sing, but not like a bird, more like…

You and  me, but not even.

If he only owned it…

Why do all our heroes always push it too far, displaying their clay feet?

I’d like to know.

P.S. The YouTube link above is for Paul’s performance of his new song “Days We Left Behind.” “Band on the Run” wasn’t quite as bad, but it was not good:

P.P.S. The best performance was the closing number, “Coming Up”:

@chaosandcreations_deek

Coming Up – Paul McCartney Live Saturday Night Live 2026, cerrando con todo Paul McCartney #paulmccartney #thebeatles #rock #music #saturdaynightlive

? sonido original – Chaos_Palomo???