Dear Bob, thank you for the article on Leon. It warmed my heart. As you know I adored his style of playing, singing and songwriting. He was a one off and treated me with incredible kindness when I came to America. He took me on tour with him and I was able to watch the maestro every evening. What a beautiful experience it was!

So glad that other musicians are playing homage to him.Great musicians and singers.

To be honest you have to be good to play his stuff. Derek Trucks is a beautiful man and an incredible guitarist as you so rightly point out. In fact DT plays on one of my upcoming album tracks. Tedeschi Trucks keep soulful music alive amongst many others.

Their tribute to “Layla” being a recent example. This is the music that inspired me and thousands of other musicians/singers. Joe Cocker was an extraordinary singer and performer. The rendition of “The Letter” has been shown many times to  new artists that I encounter. They always make me play it again. Also the backing vocalists are sublime. Ditto Bobby Keys. Going to shows like “Mad Dogs” made you feel superhuman after you left. Your whole being became joyful and full of love.

When I did “The Union” with Leon, I took HIM on tour and we played big arenas the likes of which he had not played for many years. When he came on stage at every concert he got a standing ovation. During  the barren years he had lost his self worth as an artist.

I was SO happy to give him his belief back. The album came in at number 4. He got into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. The Songwriters Hall Of Fame. His star was shining again. Alas his health had long deteriorated long before we started the album. He was unable to take advantage of his resurrection, so to speak. But, he got his self respect back which was all I ever wanted.

By writing about him you help keep the magic alive. Thank you so for doing that.

He was a true musical genius. And, I still think about him, talk about him and play his music on my radio shows.

I send buckets of love to you Bob.

Elton x

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Hey Bob, Mad Dogs! The Best. I grew up with that record, found the movie on DVD a decade ago. It is the most compelling music ever and the movie?  I couldn’t stop watching it. Being a young musician in LA at the time those people were heroes of mine. Jim  Gordon, Jim Keltner, Leon, Russell, Rita Coolidge, I mean with Carl Radle on bass and Chris Stainton on keyboards?  A few friends of mine knew Don Preston. Did you know they took the band into A&M studio after rehearsals before they hit the road? Henry Lewy recorded it. I know a big time engineer/producer that was the second engineer, he’s got a 1/4 of the roughs. He even said that night was the best music he has ever heard. I keep telling him to dig the tape out of his closet!

Marty Walsh

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I remember seeing this movie with my brother and some friends in the early 70’s when it came out.  I was in 10th or 11th grade.  I thought it was one of the best rock documentaries ever.  Became big fans of Cocker and Russell after this.  And since seeing it I never found another person who saw it.

Over the years I’ve had people talk to me about “rockumentaries” that we each had seen and when I mentioned this movie I just got blank stares.  So much so that I began to wonder did I dream that?  Was I just confusing it with something else?  Over the last 15 years I have searched the internet for a copy of the movie all to no avail.  Guess I never looked in the right place.  A couple of years ago I found a DVD copy of the movie on eBay and bought it immediately.  Alas, I wasn’t crazy.

This music was fantastic. I remember you saying you actually saw this show live and I was so jealous.  I actually met Rita Coolidge in 2017 when she came to see the band I was in play a couple of shows.  I really wanted to ask her about this tour but I thought of your constant advice about when you meet a star don’t talk about their work so I didn’t.  She did say she loved the stuff we had written and we should absolutely record it, so what more did I need in my musical life.  Frickin’ Rita Coolidge liked it and saw us more than once!

So I got that going for me.

Loved, loved, loved this piece and will definitely check out the documentary.  Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Charlie Vanture

Member of the now-retired Sarah Mac Band

__________________________________________

Cool man! Glad you liked it. I played bass in tedeschi trucks in that show. Was one of the best shows I’ve ever been a part of, and I’ve been part of a few. Was super powerful to be around those people and yes, sue and derek and chris Robinson are genuine stars.

Tim Lefebvre

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I was lucky enough to be working at A@M records when the employees were invited to participate as audience members for the filming of the original video of Mad Dogs and Englishmen in Hollywood.
One of my fondest memories.
It was a joy to work for Herb and Jerry during those glory days on the lot at Sunset
and La Brea!
Lin in Honolulu

Howard Wolen

__________________________________________

I was there at ten years old!

Between them and Sly Stone I thought all bands were about community, then later I joined one.

What a lesson I am still smarting from.

John Payne

__________________________________________

The link!

This Diamond Ring was my first 45 and this one was where it all began for me.

So – the link is that Leon Russell did the arrangement for the song and, of course, Al Kooper who you just highlighted last week, shared writing credits as part of The Brill Building stable.

My earliest LPs included the 2nd “Joe Cocker” LP and not long after, Leon Russell’s first.  Saw MD&E at the Fillmore East and the album was a had-to-have as soon as it was released.  The earliest incarnations of the jacket had a semi-floppy fold-up half.  The entire cover was made from some unusual material, not quite cardboard but something glossy and thinner than a standard LP jacket.

And without Carl Radle’s Oklahoma connection with Leon Russell, he’d have never been a Domino.

Leon Russell followed up the MD&E tour with a PBS special – The Homewood Session (recorded, or broadcast, the same night I saw the next to last Derek & The Dominoes US tour show at the Portchester Theater). An eye-opening peek at the creative Russell with entourage.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bwMqliLXZQ

Alan

__________________________________________

That was the shit. Went to see Mad Dogs & Englishmen in a theater in Hollywood on acid, came out at midnight and went downtown for one of my first tattoos. That music sounds better today than the day they made it and while we are on the topic, it was pretty much the same time frame as the first “Delaney & Bonnie” album was popular and to me those two recordings were THE best of the era and of course those musicians often mixed and matched. Jesus our generation brought it like a mother fu**er. Gerry McGee’s guitar on the Delany and Bonnie thing was hipper than anything old no mask Eric ever did once they got famous enough to be self destructive.

Larry Brown (guitar)

__________________________________________

I went to Franklin & Marshall College (Class of ‘71). Back in the late 60’, early 70’s, we had more major concerts per month than any college in the East Coast . Why? Because every major act that played Philly either Friday or Saturday would be offered to play Lancaster on the other night. Bill Honey was the Philly promoter who came up with the arrangement. Who else had Simon & Garfunkel in the afternoon and James Brown at night on the same day? I was on the F&M Student Union Board that booked the shows.   Bill offered us The Grease Band ( Joe’s 6 piece band) for $7,500.  A good draw as Joe was getting great FM play from his solo albums. But what showed up at Lancaster Airport when I drove out to pick up Joe,  was an old 1940’s Constellation plane that spilled out with over 40 musicians, singers and “ friends.” Sure Leon ran the music, but no one was there to see him.  It was Joe’s show, 100%.  They must have been losing many thousands of 1970 Dollars per day.   Jerry Moss was underwriting it as the double album was selling millions.  Years later, when Joe had a resurgence on Capital Records,  we saw each other in a NYC club, and reminisced about the insanity of it all.

Marty Scott

__________________________________________

I saw mad Dogs and Englishmen at Winterland in San Francisco. My girlfriend liked Joe Cocker and we had previously seen him with the Grease Band at Fillmore West.

I can still picture them onstage with Leon playing guitar standing on top of the piano and me with my mouth hanging open going WTF is that! I could not take my eyes off Leon the whole night.

I went to see him on tour with his own band as well. I later found out about his history as a studio musician in Los Angeles and his being part of the Wrecking Crew.

I think Carney is my favorite album of Leon’s.

Larry Green

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Bob, love the newsletter. But I’m an old friend of Jim Horn and I’m pretty sure I would’ve heard if he had died. In fact, Steve Cropper and I were talking about Jim just the other day and in the present tense (as in still circling the drain). If you know otherwise hit me back. But I’m pretty sure you got this wrong.

Thom Flora

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Leon and Shelter actually set up in Tulsa and their studio, The Church Studio, still stands today. After Leon, it was sold to Steve Ripley of The Tractors and then it passed through a few more hands in the late 00s before being purchased by the new owner, Teresa Knox. She and her husband are in the middle of restoring it into a functioning studio, along with adding an addition that will include a museum and event space. If you ever do make it to Oklahoma, make sure to stop in Tulsa. Get a tour of the studio and get a taste of our musical history. Like Leon was the in-demand studio musician that everyone in the know knew about but only had a flicker of mainstream success, Tulsa gets overlooked, but I’ve lost count of the number of touring musicians I’ve heard proclaim their affinity for this city after playing for a Tulsa crowd (or even better, in a legendary room like Cain’s Ballroom).

Sarah Martin

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Leon had 3 studios in Oklahoma. One in his house in Tulsa. One at his lake house on Grand Lake. His main studio was in a converted Church in Tulsa. It sounded amazing. Dwight also had an unknown bass player play with him, Tom Petty.  Leon signed two other locals, JJ Cale and the GAP band. GAP is short for Greenwood Archer and Pine. It was the location of the Black Wall Street and Tulsa’s race mass murder. Leon never had a studio in OKC….that I know of.

Steve Ripley of Tractors and Bob Dylan fame purchased the Church when he moved back to Tulsa from California. I will send you Steve’s radio show he did for the the Oklahoma Historical Society about Oklahoma music. It focused on Rock and Red Dirt.

Hope you are well.

Mike Busch

P.S. Here is a video of Dwight with Tom Petty playing bass.

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The Shelter Records studio in Oklahoma was The Church Studio in TULSA (https://thechurchstudio.com/)! Please come visit Tulsa in late 2022 or 2023, check out the Woody Guthrie Center (https://woodyguthriecenter.org/) and the soon to open Bob Dylan Center (https://www.bobdylancenter.com/) and the Oklahoma Museum of Pop Culture (https://www.okpop.org/).

You can learn more about all those great Okie musicians you mentioned including some of the all-time great drummers (Chuck Blackwell in Mad Dogs and the LOCKN reunion, Jamie Oldaker, David Teegarden (https://teegardenstudios.com/), Jimmy Karstein and the amazing Jim Keltner), as well as J.J, Cale, The Gap Band, David Gates, Jesse Ed Davis and more.

You can take in a show at the historic Cain’s Ballroom (https://www.cainsballroom.com/) and if you time it right, you can sit in on one of my Oklahoma Music History classes.

Twilley is still around, plus great art deco history, Greenwood/Black Wall Street (https://www.greenwoodrising.org/), and The Gathering Place (https://www.gatheringplace.org/). I’ll even treat you to a show at the Hard Rock.

Randy Cale

Hard rock Tulsa

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I don’t usually have much to say about music as I got out of DJing and went into news radio where I stayed employed for 34 years in Los Angeles. But before KNX & KFWB I was a construction worker in Tulsa and did a small bit of carpentry on the Church Studio that Leon built in 1972. It’s not in Oklahoma City. Although I never met Leon the club scene at that time was a blast. Freddie King , El Roacho ,Gary Montgomery & Gary Busey. My construction worker buddy the late Buzz Clifford,himself a musician, knew all of them.  Buzz went on to be a fabulous blues man but never made the charts again like he did with “Babysittin’Boogie”
They are restoring the Church Studio . You can read about it here:

THE CHURCH STUDIO NAMED TO NATIONAL REGISTER

I did say hello to Joe Cocker at the Byrds reunion show in Ventura.

John Brooks

KFWB-KNX  1979-2013

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We promoted Leon‘s last show with mad dogs at the swing auditorium in San Bernardino. I stood on the stage with my wife and my dog and watched how Leon ran the whole band. And an evening I’ll never forget turned into the honor of currently representing the estate.

I think the movie is great and I am sure  it will make the kind of impact that will help reawaken interest in Leon’s music. We have many hours of unreleased material and what You realize is if it was happening,  Leon was there, and his songs stand the test of time. You will be hearing a lot more Leon in the years to come.

Bill Siddons

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Hi Bob. Thank you for taking the time to watch and wax at length on my film Learning To Live Together: The Return of Mad Dogs & Englishmen. I’m honored by your reaction and touched that you connected so profoundly to it. I know a lot of that has to do with your fundamental relationship to this music- you actually got to experience the original Mad Dogs tour (at the Capitol Theatre no less, which makes a cameo in the film)! Not a lot of people can say that… You’re in a special class, along with Jon Landau, Steve Earle, Bob Dylan…

But I think ultimately what your letter hits upon is the very reason Tedeschi Trucks needed to organize the only-ever reunion of the Mad Dogs (and why I needed to make a film about it… and I certainly was not alive when the original took place)- the music of Mad Dogs & Englishmen is some of the most sacred in the history of rock’n’roll. You say it yourself, “You’ll ponder your own life path.” “The music is bigger than the players.” Amen, amen…

There was a piece I left out of the film, where Leon tells me a few hours before showtime that he hoped the audience that night would receive “the holy ghost.” That they did (I’ve heard the trope “greatest concert I’ve ever been to” from many in reference to the reunion concert), and I’m fairly confident that “spirit” is captured in the film. You certainly hear it in the performances (I’ve watched/heard these edits/mixes hundreds, if not thousands, of times over and I’m still not tired of it).  As much as I still mourn his loss, I really wasn’t surprised that Leon passed so soon after the reunion. The Master of Space & Time himself needed to have this one last communion with this all-powerful music he dreamt up, this time with Derek at the helm. Sure the spirit has moved on to Susan, Derek, Chris Robinson (“superstars” in their own rite),  but my hope is that some teenage singer or college-band sees my film and the spirit of Joe and Leon and Tedeschi Trucks passes on to them (like when the lead singer of my college band played me Mad Dogs for the first time), and they go on to create inspired music or art that has some impact on someone, not matter how big or small. Mission accomplished if that happens, because that’s what it’s all about…

As you note, it was a long-time coming for us- six years in the making actually (with a couple pauses and a pandemic thrown in), but I couldn’t be more thrilled that the film will finally see the light of day. Major gratitude to Wayne Forte, Blake Budney, Derek and Susan for their tireless support and efforts, and the countless others who invested creative energy, finances or simply opened doors, made connections etc. It was a herculean task to get this film cleared (simply look at the Mad Dogs repertoire), but we got it done, and now the greater public can enjoy it soon, like you have.

Thanks again for watching and I think I would be remiss if I didn’t mention we have our world premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival this Thursday September 30, will be in theatres nationwide later in October (you can follow @maddogsdoc on any social platform for updates), and will make our international premiere at the Raindance Film Festival in London on Halloween! We hope that reactions like yours will get it on a streaming platform in the near future, and that the film doesn’t suffer the same fate as the original Mad Dogs documentary, which I own on LaserDisc…

Jesse Lauter
Director/Producer, Learning To Live Together: The Return of the Mad Dogs & Englishmen

Tune in today, September 28th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive

1

The cinematography is a 10.

Billy Bob Thornton may be an anorexic weirdo, but he’s one of America’s best actors.

Nina Arianda is about as good as Billy Bob, she deserves to be hired ad infinitum in Hollywood, she proves that being in the gossip columns has got nothing to do with talent.

But the script sucks!

The last season of “Goliath” was so bad, I figured this one had to be better, especially since it was billed as the last one. But there are dream sequences so long and obscure you don’t feel inferior for not understanding them, but angry at the producers for including these bogus episodes that contain so little.

Yes, I’m watching for the plot. And there’s nothing worse in streaming television than doing this.

You see in 1999 we had a revolution, it was called “The Sopranos,” it shifted the needle on visual entertainment completely. “The Sopranos” was better than any film in the theatre. And it focused on what the studios did not, character study, real people, human interaction. It showed life as it is today, kids manipulating parents, clergy who are schnorrers, it took a while to gain traction, but it was irresistible. Don’t let people tell you it’s not the best TV series ever, if you haven’t watched it, do, it still holds up, it still resonates.

Sure, “Larry Sanders” came before. Even “Sex and the City.” But they did not revolutionize a whole medium. It only takes one.

It’s about shooting high. Lowbrow hits don’t take you very far. The more intellectual, the more the reward, that’s what you want in a flagship. It doesn’t even matter how many people watch it, it’s how many people TALK ABOUT IT! When you dumb down entertainment the joke is on you. Kind of like new music production amongst the three major labels. They’re playing to an ever smaller audience as the rest reject music completely or listen to catalog. Imagine if Universal was actually releasing hit music, not something that plays to a minority, but everybody, its stock price would climb even higher! You’ve got something like Adele’s “21,” an LP that did TEN TIMES the business of its contemporaries. But have we gotten any more “21”s? No. Just more of the same dreck we’re told is good even though the public is rejecting it. If 70% of the listeners would rather stream oldies, how addictive can the new music be?

So HBO used “The Sopranos” as a stepping stone, to build its platform with other unique, limit testing shows, like “Six Feet Under.” It kept pushing the envelope. And then Sunday night became about HBO, at least in the days before streaming. And in the heyday of premium cable you only needed ONE HIT! One show would keep people subscribing. But now you need a plethora of product, because streaming television is the hottest artistic medium and the public’s appetite is insatiable.

2

So Amazon thinks since Video is free with Prime, that’s good enough. Free is no longer a big enough enticement, not in a world where there’s endless product, endless diversions. You’ve got to pull the audience in, push was only for the three network world of fifty years ago.

So what does Amazon do? Release endless mediocre product that inhabits a world somewhere between network and pay cable. Is there a huge demand for this? No, people want something different, they want you to capture the zeitgeist!

And then Amazon has one hit show and they cancel it.

“Bosch” took a long time to gain traction, because of the crummy interface at Amazon with its plethora of pay product. The service’s homepage resembles Amazon itself, where you can’t find what you want for the ads, where you can see the company trying to steer you off course as you search for the product you want to buy. Amazon is beholden to its advertisers, its stockholders, whereas Netflix is not.

Netflix has the best interface, has first mover advantage and is the biggest producer of new product. And what built Netflix’s reputation? HOUSE OF CARDS! A brilliant show that like “Bosch” took a while to gain traction but was an irresistible watch, educational and informative as well as thrilling. That’s how you do it.

Oh, you tell me Amazon has commissioned an extravaganza, a remake of “Lord of the Rings.” Talk about insurance, then again it’s hard to strike gold twice, how many films can you count the second, never mind the ones thereafter, better than the first in a franchise series? I can think of one, “Godfather II.” Some say “French Connection II,” but I disagree. We learned this from great musicians, repeating yourself is death, you can never measure up and the audience abandons you. So first the Amazon “Lord of the Rings” must be as great as the movies, which is highly doubtful, then it’s got to convince people to watch it, good luck!

But it’s worse, even if the new “Lord of the Rings” is great, it won’t have much of a halo effect on the service. “Game of Thrones” was a phenomenon, but it seems many of those who watched it canceled HBO right thereafter. HBO specializes in family drama, not spectaculars, that’s for the big screen, and like popular music, only a slice of the public.

“Goliath” is a David Kelley show, he was retired for a while, he should have stayed that way. He’s a middlebrow hack, the only great thing he ever did was marry Michelle Pfeiffer, he’s network, he certainly isn’t cable, never mind streaming. Hulu put its eggs in Kelley’s basket with “Nine Perfect Strangers.” It was better than his usual fare because he didn’t write the underling material, but the reviews have been positively mediocre, no one is signing up for Hulu just to watch it, there is no word of mouth, and in the streaming world word of mouth is everything, you can’t deliver a hit via publicity or advertising.

So Amazon is buying MGM. The volleyball of movie studios. Sure, it’ll get whatever catalog is left, the great stuff was sold long ago, but unless it turns over the reins to the brass of the storied company, don’t expect much, and the truth is after getting their check executives in Hollywood move on, they want to find another deep pocket to squeeze.

The most talked about show on streaming television is “Ted Lasso.” But that’s all Apple TV+ has got. Most people are watching for free. If anyone’s paying, they’re going to stop after the series ends. And Netflix has proven you need a broad swath of product, you finish “Ted Lasso” and then what…it’s not like Apple TV+ has got a deep catalog, it’s got essentially nothing at all.

And it’s not like the paradigm wasn’t already established. Netflix had plowed the way, you just had to imitate Netflix. But Amazon was and still is oblivious, needing to reinvent the wheel itself, poorly, because it’s not learning from history.

As for Disney… It had children’s content no one else possessed and it then pulled a masterstroke, pricing way below people’s expectations.

HBO Max? The exclusive shows on the service, even when great, and there are a couple, like “Love Life,” get no traction. Now there’s “Hacks,” but then what? People watch HBO Max to stream the product from the pay channel. As far as people who subscribe directly to HBO Max, the number is de minimis, there’s not enough new product, never mind the price being outrageously high.

As for the other streaming competitors? Dead in the water. They just don’t have the shows, they need to merge and create an alternative, try to gain an audience while people are still willing to check things out, when the excitement still revolves around streaming television, and it won’t be forever.

Now don’t count Prime Video out, because of all the subscribers who get it for free, with the membership they’ve got for quick delivery. But first, there needs to be an interface overhaul. Feature free product, as in included with Prime, at the top. And then, below a very clear line of demarcation, just the icons of pay services you can subscribe to through Amazon. Don’t mix the product people can access with no further payment with that they have to pay an additional fee for.

But even more, do your best to create halo product, which despite “Ted Lasso,” is usually highbrow, nearly intellectual. Then again, “Ted Lasso” works because it’s actually the opposite, Ted is akin to Forrest Gump, someone brain damaged and unique, sunny all the time, that’s something we don’t see on a regular basis.

Amazon has a long history of launching products and improving them over time. But it also has a long history of launching products and killing them, especially when the company is not breaking new ground, when it is competing with others.

I watch streaming television because it represents the zeitgeist of today. I don’t need entertainment, I don’t want to watch just to see the ending of the story, I want to connect with real life, get a reflection of myself and my society. It’s visceral. Something music specialized in which has been abdicated. As for the wannabes asking for a chance, the truth is it’s a very high bar, creating top-notch entertainment product, and while we’re looking for newbies, experience counts, at least in streaming television we don’t have the ridiculous ageism of music.

Streaming television is a professional business.

Amazon Prime Video is run by amateurs

Nothing can convince them to get the shot.

The most important article you can read this week is this:

“Our constitutional crisis is already here”: https://wapo.st/3zQXgtI

It’s no longer behind a paywall, but it wasn’t really written for non-subscribers. In this essay neoconservative Robert Kagan tells us to be afraid, very afraid. That the train has already left the station, that democracy is on its way to extinction as we fiddle while the wildfires burn.

It was written for those inside the Beltway, those that subscribe to “The Washington Post.” Influencers. Newsmakers. Not those on social media, but the old guard, in the government, elected officials, you have the D.C. paper of record publishing what everybody knows but what everybody is afraid to say, the Republicans are leading us into autocracy.

Doesn’t matter if you agree. Like I said, this heads-up was not for the Covid deniers, the Trump enthusiasts, but the somnambulant believing it’s business as usual, when it definitely is not.

The best story I read today is how Liz Cheney’s Wyoming Senate challenger went from Trump hater to Trump lover, a complete 180: 

“How an Anti-Trump Plotter in 2016 Became His Champion Against Liz Cheney – Harriet Hageman, a Wyoming Republican, is the former president’s choice to take on his leading G.O.P. critic. But five years ago, she tried to overturn his victory in the party’s primary race”: https://nyti.ms/3uiFsq7

Not that you’ll find this on Fox News. The big news last week was how the White House already knew there was no issue with the Dominion voting machines, how the election results were secure, yet Giuliani and Sidney Powell still went out and testified to the opposite. I scrolled the Fox site for days, I couldn’t find a reference to it.

That’s the big story in a just posted article in the “Washington Post”: 

“How badly unvaccinated Republicans are misinformed, in one stat – The median unvaccinated Republican believes the vaccines have effectively zero efficacy in preventing hospitalizations. This is not the case with unvaccinated Democrats”: https://wapo.st/3AUueeg

The median unvaccinated Republican believes the unvaccinated population requires hospitalization at the same rate as the vaccinated, whereas in Los Angeles County, for example, the unvaccinated were “29.2 times more likely to require hospitalization.”

Bottom line? The hard core unvaccinated Republicans are not refusing vaccines because of their freedom, because they don’t want to get shot up, BUT BECAUSE THEY’RE CONVINCED THEY DON’T WORK!

And why are they so convinced? It’s the media they’re exposed to, that’s what this article says.

Now the world runs on gossip. Always has, always will. But it used to be gossip was inherently limited. To those in your social circle, to those in your school or at your workplace. Gossip couldn’t travel from east to west very easily. Someone would have to get on the phone, or travel, and it was a one to one proposition, whereas with social media it’s one to many.

And the truth is prior to the internet the average person didn’t know much news. Most people did not subscribe to a newspaper and most people did not watch TV news broadcasts. They were uninformed and happy with that. They’d tune in around election time, maybe, then again vast swaths of Americans didn’t vote. Some felt powerless, others felt it didn’t make any difference, their life wouldn’t change no matter who was in power.

But then the internet came along and it was gossip on steroids. As a matter of fact, it’s all gossip all the time. And you know gossip, unless it’s juicy, it doesn’t spread. When someone tells us something boring, or something we already know, it ends there, we don’t pass it on. But if it’s a salacious rumor we can’t wait to tell others, we’re itching to tell others. And that is what is now happening.

So the truth is there is no authoritative source. And as a result, as William Falk, Editor-in-chief of “The Week,” posited, there is a lack of trust. In Denmark, 90% of Danes trust the health service and the politicians, as a result 86% of them are vaccinated and deaths over the course of the pandemic are only 22% of those in the U.S. Today Denmark is wide open, today you integrate with other Americans, especially in red states, at your peril.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

“How France Overcame Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy – The French have long been wary of vaccines, but a mixture of mandates and inducements encouraged millions to get the shot as the Delta variant spread”: https://on.wsj.com/39GBGO7

This is behind a paywall. Like good food, you have to pay more for good news. Fast food is cheap, fruits and vegetables are not. Fast food makes you unhealthy and sick. Therefore only the wealthy and informed can AFFORD to eat well, never mind be aware of food facts. As for news, gossip online, on Facebook, on social media, it’s free. And it’s a free-for-all. Anybody can post anything, and Facebook bumps that which gets a reaction, the aforementioned juicy gossip. If you want to get the truth, you’ve got to pay for it. And except for “The Wall Street Journal”‘s opinion pages, you’d be shocked how aligned the paper is with “The New York Times” and “The Washington Post.” Facts are facts. But if you’re never exposed to them…

So in France you need a health pass, i.e. vaccine passport, to go almost anywhere. That’s right, to eat out, go to clubs and attend sporting events. Talk about a mandate… And at the beginning of the Covid crisis, France “had one of the highest rates of (vaccine) hesitancy in the world.”

“A poll in 2018 gave France the lowest levels of trust in vaccines out of 144 countries surveyed. In December, an Ipsos poll conducted found that France ranked at the bottom of 15 countries on willingness to take a Covid-19 vaccine, with only 40% of the public saying they wanted the shot.”

“Some 88% of people over 12 years old in France have received at least one shot of vaccine, more than the U.S., U.K. or Germany. Its infection rate is now below 61 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 241 cases per 100,000 in the U.S. as of Sept. 24. The French figure is declining by more than one-quarter each week, with deaths and hospitalizations falling, too.”

Whew! See how fast you can turn things around? Assuming you’ve got the balls to lay down the law, assuming people are not ignorant, assuming they have trust in institutions.

But that’s the point of the Kagan article, Trump and Fox and other outlets are undermining trust 24/7, and it’s been happening for years, so what are the odds we can convince all Americans to get vaccinated? ZILCH!

Then again, how many people are on the Trump train anyway?

“America is not facing a civil war – only loudmouthed extremists”: https://lat.ms/3uiIuL1

As a result of gerrymandering and the Electoral College and loud angry voices we have the impression that the two sides are equal in numbers, when this is patently untrue. Most Americans want abortion rights, most Americans want gun control, but good luck getting any laws passed.

Furthermore, Michael Hiltzik, the author of the above column, has absolutely no impact, because his words appear in “The Los Angeles Times,” and now with the big three newspapers available 24/7 all over the world the L.A. “Times” has been marginalized. Keep cutting the budget and eventually people stop reading and no one pays attention.

But they do read “The New York Times.” And last week Paul Krugman wrote this article:

“Are Centrists in the Thrall of Right-Wing Propaganda?”: https://nyti.ms/3igp8S3

Bottom line, the infrastructure bill is $3.5 trillion over TEN YEARS! And the centrist Democrats have bought into the Republican mantra, fearful of looking like they’re taxing and spending. So there’s no there there in government, never mind Mitch McConnell, who single-handedly fixed the Supreme Court in his party’s favor, not only admitting he wants no bills passed, he doesn’t even want to pay for those that were already passed upon which the money has been spent. That’s what raising the debt limit is all about, not about new spending, but the money that already left the coffers. Try telling someone you bought their goods but refuse to pay for them, let me know how that works out, it won’t be good.

So, being in “The New York Times,” Krugman’s words have an effect, since he wrote this the Democrats have started to emphasize the ten year period of spending. 

As for Robert Kagan’s article? Bill Maher was all over it last week, as well as Rachel Maddow. You see it’s a club, you can join, but it takes effort and oftentimes you have to pay for the information. And everybody in the club knows the truth, but plenty are banking on your not knowing it, keeping you in your backwater where they can manipulate you. And you can die.

The best website I was turned on to this week was:

https://www.sorryantivaxxer.com

You’ve got to go here. Please click through. These are people who believed the Covid misinformation and spread it far and wide and then died of the virus.

And what the gossip will tell you is if you’re not over 65 and obese, if you’re sans comorbidities, you’re immune. But that is patently untrue. Really, read these people’s stories. Totally healthy forty year olds. Twenty year olds. They thought they were immune, but they weren’t. They’re DYING! Do you really want to take the risk of dying when there’s a vaccine?

OF COURSE YOU DO!

That’s the astonishing element of these stories. So many left behind ARE STILL ANTIVAXXERS!

As William Falk said in “The Week”: 

“People shun a simple shot largely because they see it as a form of surrender.”

So you can’t convince the unvaccinated to get the shot, the only thing you can do is force them to, make it so they can’t go into public places without being vaccinated. Is there enough political will in the U.S?

I don’t think so. Which is just plain sad.

Umair Haque wrote last week:

“Brexit is Destroying Britain – And Britain Still Can’t Face It – Where Can’t You Get Gas, Milk, Bread, and Beer? Welcome to Soviet Britain”: https://bit.ly/3CRBtE5

There are no truck drivers to deliver goods. They just broke their own rules, they’re allowing foreigners to come in and do this job, those they wanted gone. But the irony is it’s still not enough, and most foreigners won’t come, the pay is too low. And you can’t get beer because the CO2 to make it comes from the Continent!

But what really got my attention in the Haque article was the put-downs of America.

“She was right. Britain’s turning Soviet. Even America – for all its folly and self-inflicted ruin, guns and theocracy and whole nine yards – isn’t as badly off as Britain.”

But the conclusion is even worse, you don’t want to turn into AMERICA!

“Eventually, Britain will probably find ways to get a little more bread and beer and so on. But they won’t be European. They’ll come from America, probably, and if you like American beer and bread, my friend, I feel a little sorry for you. Britain will eventually end up something like America’s 51st state – it’s NHS and BBC owned by American hedge funds, its people eating American diets, their minds poisoned by American junk culture.

America’s a vastly poorer society than Europe. Americans live worse lives in every possible way — from health to wealth to trust to intimacy to stability and safety to basic decency and thoughtfulness. Britain’s only real destiny left at this point is to be Americanized. That was always the endgame of Brexit – to sell Britain off to American capital. But American capital has made paupers – literally, they’re lifelong debtors, without a penny to their names, most of them – of Americans.”

The problem is this all rings true. The hedge funds buy the parking meters and therefore you’ve got to pay to park 24/7, there are no holidays. And the hedge fund buys the trailer park upon which your rust bucket sits and raises the price of rent on your little square of property, after all their investors have to see a return, and you lose your POS residence, forget YOUR investment, it’s history.

I mean we have no national health care, no mandated vacations, no government funds for child care…we’re working like dogs to try and keep our heads afloat. Is this really the best we can do?

America is no longer the country I grew up in. It slid while I wasn’t even realizing it. In the rest of the world our status has fallen to the level of…theirs. Haque posits the EU is more powerful than America, it fights bad actors like the tech companies while the FTC is paralyzed, if member countries get out of hand they stop sending them money, they freeze them out. But we’re supposed to believe the federal government has no power over Texas and Florida.

Now the truth is Britain got Brexit because a lot of sentimental oldsters and rural folk wanted to return to a country that no longer squares with the modern world, just like those on the right in America want to go back to an era totally out of date with today’s trade and mores, it’s a fantasy. The Britons with money, the educated, they understood what was at risk, they overwhelmingly voted to stay in the EU, but they were defeated by the votes of the idiots told falsehoods. It’s no different in the U.S. Mexico was gonna pay for the wall. China was going to pay the tariffs. Say it enough and people believe it, after all they’re not exposed to the truth, and they wouldn’t believe it if they saw it.

But you can…discover the truth and be informed. Unlike the right winger who sent me an antivax article from a PARODY website! He didn’t even realize it was a joke!

We are in a crisis. Whether you admit it or not. Never mind politics, there’s that pesky climate too. And there’s no way we can convince those on the other side, the deniers, the ignorant, we must FORCE THEM to do what’s right, like France. Yes, that’s how far we’ve fallen, we need to model ourselves after the French. But they have it right. Because contrary to what Kellyanne Conway said there are facts, unassailable, and once we make people aware of them, get them to believe in them, we can make progress. But that day seems to be far away.