Elizabeth Holmes said she was too pretty to go to jail.

Needless to say, Holmes is on trial as we speak, blaming her heinous behavior on her old boyfriend Sunny Balwani, claiming abuse and ultimately PTSD as she attends Burning Man and galivants around San Francisco as if she had not a care in the world.

If you think you know everything about this story, you probably don’t.

Start by reading John Carreyrou’s book “Bad Blood”: https://amzn.to/39aYp4E The most memorable part of the book for me is when attorney David Boies, who heretofore had an impeccable image, comes in with a team to threaten Carreyrou at the “Wall Street Journal.” But Carreyrou and the WSJ stand their ground.

And now the WSJ is investigating Facebook. You’ve probably seen the headlines.

Carreyrou single-handedly brought down Theranos, will the WSJ series have an impact on Facebook? Definitely, although how much is yet to be seen.

So if you’re into nonfiction, after reading “Bad Blood” be sure to read “Red Notice”: https://amzn.to/2Xw3VfR an account of finance in Russia and so much more. As a matter of fact the Magnitsky Act, which Bill Browder, author of “Red Notice,” fomented, is in the news seemingly every day.

Both of these books are easily read. As a matter of fact, you’ll have a hard time putting them down. If this were a class, they’d be assigned reading.

But before you read those books I would first make you listen to Roger McNamee on Kurt Andersen’s podcast: https://apple.co/2XfFwKZ 

I know Roger, I’ve even done a podcast with him myself, but in this hour he details the history and landscape of Silicon Valley, as well as the history of government intervention against bad actors and monopolies so well it’s like a master class.

Bottom line… Roger thought tech was a tool for good. Isn’t that what Steve Jobs famously claimed, that he was just making tools?

And McNamee was the first to blow the whistle on Facebook in the last election cycle, 2016, and he even wrote a book about Facebook, “Zucked,” but his message still has not gotten traction outside a small coterie of thinkers. That’s where the WSJ comes in.

But start with McNamee first.

When Roger puts it all in context, talks about how the government regulated meat to the benefit of the public, broke up the phone company, you’ll start to see a way through this mess.

Bottom line… Facebook and Google are on both sides of the transaction, they both host and sell, and he says they must do only one or the other.

And they colluded to control online advertising. This has been well documented in the news, but it’s not flashy enough to gain ubiquity , despite state attorneys general suing the company. But there is one smoking gun after another, evidence, it’s not just a theory.

But wait, there’s more! McNamee delineates the difference between the boomers and the millennials. The boomers grew up in an era where it was about the common good. The millennials grew up in an era where it was all about the individual, every person for him or herself, the common good be damned. Think about this, the Reagan revolution has paid dividends, and so many are not positive, the culture was changed, and too many people bought in. So Roger posits when Mark Zuckerberg makes heinous choices to benefit Facebook he thinks he’s doing a good thing, he doesn’t know any better. And now the details are coming out in the WSJ.

But staying with McNamee… Roger says how when they broke up the phone company, it stimulated advancement. That if you break up Google you’ll end up with fifty new companies. If you break up Facebook you’ll end up with a hundred. As for innovation, these evil twins are only trying to maintain their audience/customers, there’s no real advancement being made, it’s like a case study for the dearly departed Clayton Christensen, the old companies waiting to be disrupted.

So McNamee lays out a blueprint to go forward. And acknowledges that government is always behind, but that does not mean government shouldn’t flex its muscles.

But going back to the WSJ series on Facebook, the quote in today’s paper is priceless:

“A now-former executive questioned the idea of overhauling Instagram to avoid social comparison. ‘People use Instagram because it’s a competition,’ the former executive said. ‘That’s the fun part.'”

I’d provide a link but either you subscribe to the WSJ or you don’t, you’re either in the loop or you’re not. You can gather misinformation on social media, most especially Facebook, or you can go to the source, but the source costs money and Americans are cheap, even worse, they oftentimes can’t even understand what is proffered. I posit a significant segment of the population won’t even follow and grasp what McNamee says, even though it’s far from boring, they just don’t have the education to be able to analyze, to comprehend, many just believe a man in the sky will save them.

So the above quote is from the second WSJ installment on Facebook. Turns out the Facebook owned company Instagram is wreaking havoc on the self-image of today’s young women. They just can’t live up to the images online. Almost nobody can, unless it’s your full time job and you’re willing to starve yourself and get plastic surgery. Instagram is for bragging, and too many end up feeling like a loser.

But that’s not as bad as tomorrow’s segment, which went live on the WSJ site this morning:

“Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead. – Internal memos show how a big 2018 change rewarded outrage and that CEO Mark Zuckerberg resisted proposed fixes.”

Turns out the execs are not in the control of the platform, they keep saying they’re putting on band-aids when they’re not, or they do so with unintended negative results. The goal is just to keep people on the platform, that can’t be sacrificed, that metric is king. So despite having studies detailing the deleterious results of Facebook’s platforms the company ignores them. Even worse, it says they’re taking action when they’re not. It’s obfuscation all the time. Zuck testifies in Congress, he keeps saying he’ll provide backup and then does not. And then he just goes on wrecking the world. You see Zuck is the most powerful person in the world, but this doesn’t sit right with elected officials and titans of old school industry. Rupert Murdoch has taught us the power is in the ink, the press. And in truth, Zuckerberg has got a stranglehold on the press, his sites are where people go for information, and his goal is to raise your emotions so you’ll stay connected and participate. Like, respond, forward, it’s gold to Facebook but lead for our society.

In the first WSJ installment on Facebook it is revealed that the company has a whitelist. That if you’re famous, in the public eye, have enough followers, they give you a pass, no matter what you post. Because they’re scared you’ll fight back and the company might not look good. And the truth is they don’t have enough people to police behavior and the algorithm is far from perfect, which is why the hoi polloi are constantly complaining that they post innocuous stuff on Facebook and Instagram and it gets taken down and they might even get blocked while a whole tier of society gets a free pass. Once again, Zuck was confronted with this, what did he do? HE LIED!

Newsom won yesterday. You’ll see all these learned lessons in the media today. I’m not sure I believe all of them. Bottom line, California is a Democratic state, and the only reason Schwarzenegger won was because he was famous, a celebrity, a movie star, and in the last fifteen plus years the state has moved even further left. So is California a harbinger for the 2022 elections? I would certainly hope so, but I don’t believe it, look at how many votes Trump actually got last November, they far exceeded what all the pundits prognosticated.

And where is this cult’s word spread? Online. ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM!

An for TikTok, the WSJ says there’s a distinct difference:

“‘Social comparison is worse on Instagram,’ states Facebook’s deep dive into teen girl body-image issues in 2020, noting that TikTok, a short-video app, is grounded in performance, while users on Snapchat, a rival photo and video-sharing app, are sheltered by jokey filters that ‘keep the focus on the face.’ In contrast, Instagram focuses heavily on the body and lifestyle.”

So what is going to happen? Roger McNamee posits a way out, so maybe we can have hope, but Zuckerberg has so much power…

As for Theranos, I highly recommend the podcast “The Dropout, Elizabeth Holmes on trial”: https://apple.co/3ziDNlk

You can ignore the previous season. Just start with the August 31st episode “Where Have You Been, Elizabeth Holmes.”

But listen to Roger McNamee first.

And know this is the story of our day. I mean who is going to listen to musicians when superstar Nicky Minaj says she heard from a cousin in Trinidad that his friend got the covid vaccine and his testicles swelled and he ended up impotent. Of course Fauci and every reputable outlet denied this could possibly happen, but none of them have the reach of Ms. Minaj, who has 22.6 million followers on Twitter and 157 million on Instagram, talk about the power of the image over the written word… Used to be the titans of the “Billboard” chart were educated and smart, no longer, which is why they can only move the uneducated rearguard, anybody with a brain ignores them.

But don’t ignore the news. And get it from the source, not handed down via a game of telephone like Nicki Minaj, like so many do on Facebook. In the eighties celebrity gossip culture and top-tier culture merged, this has been the story of the past few decades, but it’s no longer the truth, if for no other reason than we’re no longer sure who the stars are anymore. The movie stars have been revealed to be two-dimensional and out of touch and everybody at home believes they’re a star so you end up with an elite running the world and…those following music and gossip aren’t even members, they have no impact. Hell, look at the music business in Britain. They believed Boris Johnson was in their corner, but not only did Brexit make touring the Continent light years more difficult, time-consuming and expensive, despite this now coming to light the government still hasn’t negotiated a reasonable settlement. And why would the government listen to the music business anyway, when oldsters like Eric Clapton are issuing falsehoods and the stars of the chart are mostly television nitwits?

We are in a fight for democracy. But even more we’re in a fight for society, for culture, for state of mind. Turns out these social media outlets are killing our world, they’re beyond the control of our elected officials.

And why should they take action, when a healthy part of the population won’t get the vaccine and keep talking about it on social media platforms, raining down coin for their owners?

Think about it.

Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3zflA8v

At this point Al Kooper is most famous for playing the organ on “Like a Rolling Stone.” The tale has been retold countless times, it’s become part of rock lore, overshadowing all the rest of Al’s musical contributions, which are formidable in number and scale.

You start with cowriting “This Diamond Ring,” a huge hit for Gary Lewis & the Playboys, despite being played in a completely different arrangement than Al imagined, he saw it as a soul number.

And then there was the almost forgotten tenure with the Blues Project which morphed into Blood, Sweat & Tears which ultimately broke through to gigantic success with Al’s blueprint on the second LP after he was kicked out of the band, but history has now been properly written, it’s the first BS&T LP that is memorable, that is the one, that still holds up today.

And then Al started the jam band record paradigm with “Super Session”…ultimately we ended up with Moby Grape’s bonus record “Grape Jam” and the third LP of George Harrison’s opus “All Things Must Pass,” entitled “Apple Jam.” One can even say that Al pushed the envelope with extended numbers, with the “Super Session” remake of Donovan’s “Season of the Witch.”

And then Al cut his first solo album “I Stand Alone,” an unrecognized triumph that never generated a hit record, that has been forgotten to the sands of time, but is one of my absolute favorites, I play it all the time.

The original, the title track, “I Stand Alone,” is marvelous, in the league of Al’s previous peaks. But then the album took a turn, Al went on an adventure, he covered Harry Nilsson’s “One” before Three Dog Night turned it into a regional hit and long before Nilsson’s own career gained traction.

Following that you got a cover of “Coloured Rain.” Superior to the original on the initial Traffic LP. Which Al also boosted by covering “Dear Mr. Fantasy” on his double live album with Mike Bloomfield. And at this point if you were paying attention you knew the original from FM radio, but it was these covers along with the aforementioned Three Dog Night’s rendition of “Heaven Is In Your Mind” that got me to buy Traffic’s album in its U.S. form, different from the original U.K. iteration. But I was disappointed, the songs were there, but not the production. Traffic peaked with its second LP, when Dave Mason was a full time member of the band. And Three Dog Night’s take of “Heaven Is In Your Mind” is more full-bodied with more energy than Traffic’s original recording. And Traffic’s take on “Coloured Rain” features an incredible full-throated vocal by Steve Winwood, but Al threw in horns, everything including the kitchen sink, along with raindrops, and turned the song into a tour-de-force. As for “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” no one could ever compete with Traffic’s original version, a stone cold classic that Steve renders accurately to this day, you’ll be stunned his voice is still intact, but even more you’ll be wowed by his playing, he’s not known as a gunslinger but after you see him picking the notes you’ll be re-evaluating.

And on the second side of “I Stand Alone” there’s a cover of Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” which became iconic when done by Elvis Presley, although in this case it’s almost an imitation, an homage, it’s fun, nearly a throwaway, then again when I first heard it on Al’s album I knew no previous recording, being nine years younger than Al, from almost an entirely different generation.

And then came “Toe Hold.”

But the piece-de-resistance was the second to last song on Al’s album, “Hey, Western Union Man.” It was the horn section flourish, the rich background vocals and the telegraph sound, sending a message throughout. “Hey, Western Union Man” is one of my go-to tracks, played constantly. That return of the horn flourish two-thirds of the way through…I wait for it, and then I want it to return when it won’t so I just play the track over and over again.

And then I was pushing the SiriusXM buttons one night and lo and behold I came across the original!

Jerry Butler’s take went to number 16 on the “Billboard” chart but in this era the chart didn’t necessarily square with local radio. Then again, by ’68 I was already dedicated to FM, I didn’t know it. But I was stunned when I heard it. It’s the same arrangement, the same song, but a different production. Butler’s take is soul, not rock, there’s a slower dreamy groove, and Al’s horns are strings, Jerry’s take is for making out, Al’s take is for sex, Jerry’s is a warm-up, Al’s is the main event, it’s pure action, it’s not deep, it’s all on the surface, it’s in-your-face, it’s undeniable, not that many people have heard it.

But even fewer have heard “Toe Hold.”

Now in the old days it was all about albums, you dropped the needle on a side and let it play through, so I know “Toe Hold” as well as “Hey, Western Union Man,” and after playing the entire LP the other night, “Toe Hold” got stuck in my mind, you know, you’re walking through your house and suddenly you burst out with the chorus and those in the vicinity think you’re nuts but you’re elated, entranced by the music.

And I needed to know more. Obviously it was a cover. But who did the original?

Well, depending on who you listen to you might be confused, Allmusic credits Sam & Dave, but that’s not true. The original was done by Johnnie Taylor. But Sam & Dave did do a version, but so did Wilson Pickett, so did Carla Thomas, even Ellen McIlwaine took a swing at “Toe Hold.” Imagine the songs of today being covered tomorrow… IMPOSSIBLE! First and foremost most are just beats. And as far as iconic pop numbers…they’re few and far between. But acts kept taking a swing at “Toe Hold,” and not one version ever broke through, became ubiquitous.

“All my life I been a po’ boy

It’s been hard to get a dime

Everythin’ I got, umm

I had to pay for it on time, but that’s all right”

Now wait just a minute, Johnnie’s singing from down there, not up here, he’s not talking down to us, he’s not drenched in jewelry, parading in his Benz on the way to the club to make it rain, he’s a nobody trying to survive, but he’s not depressed:

“Long as I got a toehold

As long as I got a piece of you

As long as I got a toehold

I can make it through”

That’s what gets you through, hope. If you have a little traction you feel you’re on your way, if they’re giving you the time of day, paying attention to what you have to say, you’re halfway there.

And I learned this wasn’t written by Johnnie Taylor but David Porter and Isaac Hayes, members of the Memphis Mafia, STAX bedrock. Nashville gets all the attention, Memphis is too often overlooked. but Nashville is country and Memphis is soul, it’s more southern, a stone’s throw from both Mississippi and Arkansas.

Porter and Hayes wrote the Sam & Dave hits. And ultimately Isaac Hayes went on to become Black Moses, a paragon of soul, and ultimately Chef on “South Park,” a role he ultimately ankled in a kerfuffle over the creators parodying his Scientology faith. And it’s funny how it’s the last thing people remember while what came before is plowed under, and the truth is Porter and Hayes didn’t only start with hits with Sam & Dave, actually their first big crossover number was “B-A-B-Y” by Carla Thomas, which was ultimately covered a decade later and made into a ubiquitous new wave number for a whole new generation of fans by Rachel Sweet, an American who recorded for the English company Stiff.

“Now listen

I said I went to my doctor

First thing he talked about is malnutrition

I’m not tryin’ to be a fat man

I’ve got to look after my ambition”

Doctors used to be a regular feature of songs, before the performers believed themselves invincible. And once again, Taylor is not looking for everything, just something, somebody, the object of his affection, who he is not observing from afar, but upon whom he’s got a toehold.

“So baby if you’re with me

I’ll let the whole world be against me

I don’t expect to ever get rich

You may find me diggin’ in a ditch”

It’s you and me baby, against the world. We don’t need everything, just each other. This is not an aspirational tale for the masses, but a situation, a vision they can identify with.

“Oh give it to me baby

A little little little little little little little little little toehold

A little little little little little little little little little toehold”

And now they’re together, participating in monkey business, intimacy, at first he’s singing the song from afar, but now they’re conjoined, having fun. Because he’s got a TOEHOLD!

That’s all we’re looking for.

And now I’m old enough for living history to rear its head, for me to go back and mine the past, and it’s easy to do as a result of the internet and streaming services, you can discover the roots. This music is ready to be found, as fresh as ever. And the provenance of them is there too. Who wrote them, who played on them, these giants.

And it all started with Al Kooper’s covers, he gave me a toehold!

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3nCgG30

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2021/

It played like a commercial.

Actually, the product introduction was not the biggest Apple news today, no, that was the security update, to deal with an Israeli snooping program that infiltrated your device without any clicks, without you doing anything. It could listen and see you and… The best account of what transpired is here: 

“Apple Issues Emergency Security Updates to Close a Spyware Flaw – Researchers at Citizen Lab found that the NSO Group, an Israeli spyware company, had infected Apple products without so much as a click”: https://nyti.ms/3hyeoyh

Bottom line, update your Apple products IMMEDIATELY! Your iPhone, iPad, Mac… And if the update wasn’t automatically pushed to you yet, go into Settings and click on “Software Update,” on the iPhone and iPad it’s under the heading “General.”

So Steve Jobs staged a show. Then again, he was a showman. A natural born seller of products. Didn’t matter what he was offering, you were interested in the spiel. Today? You could have skipped it no problem. But if you watched it…

It began with a commercial for California that was so rich you’d want to fly out here or if you already live here get in your car and go for a drive. With all this focus on government, all the put-downs of the Golden State, one forgets what a cornucopia of attractions, of landscapes, of cities California is. However, the song that played during the montage…who came up with this? Talk about a track not being a hit.

So then Tim Cook comes on and tells us about Apple TV+.

Now that’s a flawed streaming network. It’s simple, THEY NEED MORE PRODUCT! The nature of making TV is you don’t know what you’ve got till you’re done. You can hire the best people and have the best script and still end up with a turkey, which is why you have to make more product to get more hits. Apple’s got a lot of flashy shows that aren’t worth watching. As for “Ted Lasso”… Believe me, when Apple gets rid of the free subscriptions no one is going to wait for week to week for the episodes, they’re gonna wait for the series to play and then binge it for one low monthly fee. Tim Cook babbled on about satisfying the company’s customers, how they’re number one, but nothing could be further from the truth with Apple TV+.

As for the Apple TV…

Apple was way ahead of the game. And then it blew it. The iPod was expensive upon launch but when competitors jumped into the game they kept improving the product and lowering the price and no one could compete. Apple’s TV hardware is still too expensive. Especially when you can get a competing streaming stick for fifty bucks. It doesn’t matter how good the interface is, the price point is insane.

But Apple is killing it with the Watch.

Actually, the Watch is akin to a Microsoft product. Released half-baked and then improved over time. The Watch still has a power problem, it has to be charged every eighteen hours, but if you don’t have a Watch you will, it’s just a matter of time. The Swiss timepieces are now jewelry. They weathered the initial launch of the Apple Watch, but youngsters are never going to lay down four figures, never mind five, for the icons of horology. And like Tesla, Apple is so far ahead of the competition that no one can effectively compete. And Apple has lowered the price to the point where it makes no sense to buy a cheap competitor, you can get a Series 3 for $199. But really, you want the new one, the Series 7, BECAUSE IT’S BIGGER! Not too big, but they shrunk the borders and increased the screen size just enough to make a huge difference. As for applications…

Seems like the Watch now interfaces with every sport. And it’s a direct line to your health.

And speaking of health/exercising… Apple Fitness+ finally looks mature. It could put a big dent in Peleton. Like the Watch, it will take time for it to burgeon.

As for the iPad…

The basic iPad, at $329, is a vast improvement. However, never forget you’re getting the A13 Bionic chip when the state of the art is the A15. In other words, you’re already two generations behind, which means you’ll have to replace it sooner.

As for the iPad Mini… A breakthrough, but vastly overpriced. It’s dead in the water at this cost.

As for buying an iPad…you either need one or you don’t. And if you already have one the only reason to replace it is if yours is too slow. And it eventually will be. The chips get faster, the software asks more of them and your old iPad is left in the dust. So, only buy cheap if you’re getting it for a kid or you’re going to replace it soon or you only watch movies. Otherwise, buy as much machine as you can afford. I’ve got one of the iPad Pros with the M1 chip and…it’s stupendous. Assuming you want an iPad.

As for the new iPhone?

You don’t need it, you don’t need to upgrade. Remember when you had product envy, when you needed the new thing, the latest iteration? Those days are through with the iPhone. If you’ve got a 12, you do not need a 13, no way.

The sales pitch was bogus. They kept comparing the speed of the new A15 Bionic chip to…other smartphones, the competition, whereas they used to compare the new chip to the old one. Can’t be much of an improvement if they didn’t say so.

And buy the most you can afford. I’ll tell you to buy an iPhone Pro Max hands down, it’s the one. You want that screen real estate, your smartphone is now you’re number one device, this is where you should not skimp. And since you’re going to keep it for a while, when you amortize the price over years, it’s worth it.

As for storage? Always bump up from the minimum amount. Sure, so much is in the cloud these days, files are in many cases history, but if you want to load up your iPhone or iPad with movies for an intercontinental flight, you want to have enough storage. Trust me on this. And unless you know you need the most, don’t even bother, it’s way overkill.

Going deeper…

You know whether you need a new iPhone or not.

If you still have an iPhone with a button, you can probably go one more cycle, one more year, but this might be a good time to upgrade.

As for 5G? The speed increase is imperceptible unless you have Verizon Ultra Wideband or the equivalent. But that speed is almost nowhere. Verizon has installed it in stadiums, so if you’ve got a 5G iPhone that’s great, but… Furthermore, the iPhone with 5G defaults to LTE to save battery life. At some point you’ll get a 5G phone, but you don’t need to rush to do so today.

However, one big caveat, if you’ve got an old iPhone and use it a lot, I heartily recommend going to a 13, because of the chip speed. You’ve got no idea how slow your old iPhone is until you’re on a new one. Ditto with the iPads with faster chips. It’s like going from a dial phone to a push button one.

As for the Wall Street perspective?

People will replace their devices, but there won’t be a rush to the store for iPhones. Sure, at first there will be demand, but we know it always falls off after Christmas. Unless the carriers offer incentives.

This time, Apple got out ahead. Instead of waiting for the carriers to blow out the iPhone, they made the providers part of the pitch. Trade in your iPhone, get up to $700! Yeah, if you trade in last year’s top of the line iPhone. Go into the fine print. The monthly price looks low, but it’s over thirty months! You’re essentially paying retail. Then again, after years of prices holding firm, last year AT&T started blowing out the new iPhone and T-Mobile and Verizon got on board too. So, if you’re looking for a deal, wait, up to two months. But I wouldn’t count on getting a big discount this year. Then again, you can never underestimate T-Mobile in its dash for market share.

So you’ve got a mature company with a great product line trying to expand into services. And if you’re locked into the Apple ecosystem, maybe, but if you’re not… Never forget, the United States is an outlier, in the rest of the world Android rules. And as smartphones become ever more mature and fungible Apple becomes Sony in the seventies and eighties, selling a premium product to a specialized audience for more money. Then there’s a product revolution and the advantage collapses. TVs went from tubes to flat screens and Sony has never recovered. So how does Apple plan to stay ahead? Well, it’s the ecosystem, and they’re doing a good job of it, but someone else could compete, if they cared, but they don’t seem to. Then again, imagine this spyware crisis on Android. Everybody’s on a different version of the operating system, many without a direct upgrade path. But it’s been learned that people will sacrifice their privacy for price, it’s no competition.

So this was maybe the worst Apple Keynote ever. It had no sizzle, no buzz. It had a rainbow of diversity on display, but in many cases that’s what you saw, the woman or the person of color more than the product. The woman who talked about the chip was the best. She looked like she knew what she was talking about, not just a talking head. She looked like she worked in the lab. She looked like she knew more than we could comprehend. And she wasn’t Hollywood beautiful, she was just a person. She couldn’t be replaced, but everybody else on screen could have been.

So Microsoft may overtake Apple as the world’s most valuable company.

But I’m still a member of the ecosystem.

Yet the truth is the biggest star in today’s presentation was California itself. Look at the landscape, check out the locations, you’ll want to go.

“Oh California, I’m coming home.”