The only Democrat on the right page is Hillary Clinton, and she’s not backing down. She told Joe Biden not to CONCEDE!

At least one person learned the lesson of 2016. That Trump fights dirty and will do anything to win and if he doesn’t win he will still say he won. End of story.

Don’t believe me?

“Appearing on ‘Fox & Friends’ on Tuesday morning, President Trump again told his supporters to believe that if the election doesn’t deliver the result they want, the outcome is inherently illegitimate – that there are no democratically legitimate circumstances under which he and his supporters can lose in a fair election.

By my count, this is the third time he has stated this explicitly in recent weeks. Trump will generally say both that the election is likely to be rigged and fraudulent – say, due to vote-by-mail – and that he can lose only if that happens.”

Trump just repeated his ugliest claim about the election. Why isn’t it bigger news?

Trump is preparing not only himself for victory, but his minions. The Democrats? They’re still debating the issues, defending Joe Biden against all the bogus issues the right throws at him. So when the going gets tough, the Democratic constituency will be completely unprepared.

My friends want to argue the horse race, they want to whip out statistics, talk about Nate Silver, wince over Trump’s behavior, but all of those are completely irrelevant. Trump is gonna declare victory no matter what, then what?

The Democratic insiders are getting prepared. They don’t want to be outplayed like they were in 2000. But those not on the inside? THEY’VE GOT NO CLUE!

Let’s go back to Hillary. The problem is still her e-mails, they caused Covid-19 and global warming, of course. The Democrats played defense in 2016, but you can only win if you play offense. Kinda like the “deplorables.” Hillary and the left were badgered into retreating, taking back their words, and then they were lambasted for them all the way until election day, even after. The truth is Clinton should have doubled-down, isn’t that what Trump has always done? He owns his statements. And the truth is a lot of Trump’s supporters are deplorable, and what difference does it make if you label them so, they’re going to vote for Trump anyway.

There’s this canard that there’s a great swath of undecided voters out there. If not, why do we have this endless election process which takes up the better part of two years? If voters are already aligned, what difference do the articles and the debates make? NONE! We live in a completely tribalized society and yet when it comes to voting for president a great number of people don’t know which side they’re on, they haven’t made up their mind? That’s like the Yankees playing the Red Sox and fans not knowing who to root for, but it’s worse, it’s a matter of life and death, of democracy. As for those friends, if you’ve got any, who say they’re not sure, they just don’t want to endure abuse from their circle. Come on, you know some of these people, if you get them alone and push them a bit they admit it, they voted for Trump and will again, but if they say so they’ll be excommunicated from the group. You know, the ones who are educated but refuse to ever discuss politics. The undecided voter is a myth, I tell you.

So, Trump is playing the long game. He not only took control of the post office and hobbled it, he installed his own judges, who are tilting the playing field his way. Like the Trump judge who ruled the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania’s lockdowns unconstitutional. And don’t tell me to respect the bench, that would assume that no one lies in court and just because you were appointed you’ve got gravitas, when nothing could be further from the truth.

We could pay whac-a-mole here, delineate all of Trump’s offenses, but that’s what the right wants us to do. To get caught up in the minutiae, to debate facts and credibility when those are out the window completely. No, what we need to do is get out of the trenches and focus on the big picture, November 3rd and thereafter, how do Democrats counter Trump’s narrative?

Trump has been telling his acolytes for months that the vote is untrustworthy unless he wins it. Meanwhile, the left keeps talking about the sanctity of the vote, like the election process is inviolate and we’ve just got to let the system work. Yeah, right. No, what the Democrats need is to get their base riled-up for the fight. And they need to do this with sunshine, a slogan. Enough with the hosannas for Michele Obama, when they go low…WE DON’T IGNORE IT!

LEGITIMIZE THE VOTE! Maybe that should be the bumper-sticker. Or MAIL-IN COUNTS! Or, NOVEMBER 3RD IS JUST THE BEGINNING! Yes, everyone agrees that the odds of having a final count on election day are essentially zero. But those in the trenches say Trump will declare victory on November 3rd and then declare all resulting ballots illegal.

Not to mention the problem with mail-in ballots. A lot aren’t counted for numerous reasons. Not mailed in time, not properly signed. Double digit percentages are thrown out, how are the Democrats preparing people for this? Where is the line as to whether a mail-in ballot is valid or not? If the secretary of state in question is a Republican are they going to decide in favor of Democratic mail-in ballots or play the role of a record company, counting royalties in their favor? And yes, you can audit the label, but even if they’re wrong you never ever get a hundred cents on the dollar. You try to solve the problem via the initial contract. But in the case of voting, all these issues are not going to be addressed until the votes come in, and that’s too late.

WE NEED PUSHBACK!

As for the talking heads on TV…forget them, they’ve never experienced this. And they’re so wary of appearing one-sided that they’ll cite the other side’s opinion no matter how inane. But not on Fox! If you’re in the right wing media silo you live in an alternative universe where all Democrats are insane and if Biden wins life in America as we know it will end. There’s no concomitant left wing outlet. Forget the right excoriating MSNBC and CNN, it’s no contest, Fox is way off the rails. But the right keeps working the refs, undermining whatever credibility MSNBC and CNN have, so people won’t pay attention to them.

This is the battle of our lifetimes. This is the battle of the century. This is the ultimate battle for democracy. You’d think the Democrats would play a little harder. But no, they put up an old candidate who can’t even get traction in the news, who barely ever tweets, and close their eyes and hope that it will all work out. Oh, there’s another thing, you can’t say anything bad about Biden or you’re being disloyal. I’d buy that if the DNC and Biden campaign were employing a scorched-earth policy like the Republicans, but instead they’re holed up inside with their polls with their fingers crossed, like a kid praying he got an A on the test. That doesn’t work, but preparation does. And if you ever went to high school you know that the elite were often grade-grubbers, if they did not get the mark they wanted, the one they thought they deserved, they marched right up to the teacher’s desk and implored he or she to change it, to the point where the teacher got wary of giving bad grades to these “achievers.” As for business…it’s all about blurring the lines, if not outright fraud. But somehow, when it comes to the election process everything will be hunky-dory.

This is the message the Democrats must disseminate. That there’s a war on the election process itself and they are going to fight hard and not back down. The Democrats have to alert their voters that voting is just the beginning, and it’s not enough. Sure, vote. But that’s kind of like showing up at the stadium, it’s after you vote that the game begins, truly.

This is unprecedented. So it calls for unprecedented measures. Do you see any from the Democrats with less than two months to go?

This is the narrative that should be established. After all, the Republicans are literally telling their rank and file to take to the street if things don’t go their way. What’s the Democrats’ plan? Hope and prayer? The Republicans are planning a strike in plain sight. It’d be like Japan telegraphing FDR that they were going to bomb Pearl Harbor and Roosevelt doing nothing about it, sitting on his hands and being surprised when the bombs dropped. This isn’t even a sneak attack by the Republicans, they keep telling us if Trump doesn’t win the contest is illegitimate, and if the big bad, i.e. weak, Democrats don’t accept this be ready to fight it out in the streets.

Bite-sized. Hammered over and over again. That’s what the Democrats need. A slogan that everybody in America knows. To prepare them for what’s to come. Oh, don’t talk to me about dividing the country, it’s already divided. As for the Trumpers up in arms…are you gonna always play by their rules, always concede? Rush Limbaugh and his minions get it wrong about Covid-19 but somehow they’re right when it comes to climate change? The Republicans have their voters hoodwinked. They’re all-in. The truth is irrelevant. And their truth is that the Democrats are untrustworthy and Biden is bad for the nation and there’s only one true savior, Donald Trump. Yes, that’s the message, repeated over and over and over again, multiple times each day. And all the Democrats do is drop their jaws open in amazement. As if by pointing at the train-wreck you can prevent it from happening. No, you gain control of the train. It’s too late to rebuild the track or the locomotive. You prepare the passengers. You tell them you’re going to do your best to prevent an incident, but if it comes be prepared, and blame it on the lack of investment in infrastructure. Owning your faults only works if you’re a celebrity going to rehab. You circle the wagons and push back. That’s the nation we’re living in. The fight is not over the vote, but the count. Get that message hammered into people’s heads, and only then will you have a chance of victory.

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Even Springsteen can’t reach us. This was released last week and I just found out today, via a SiriusXM playlist I get from the company each week, of added tracks. I’d heard the Boss had a new album in the works, not that I cared, he seemed to have lost track, this happens when you get caught up in your image, are beholden to your fans’ perception of you, you ultimately become irrelevant to everyone else. Then again, it’s your fans that keep you alive, so… But Springsteen is one of those acts that we all knew and we all might be theoretically open to once again, assuming we knew he had new material.

Then again, Springsteen owns the press, he gets mainstream media hype every time he farts. His album releases are military campaigns. Then again, his story is about played out, with his book and stage show, what else is there to excavate, what story is there to tell?

He had writer’s block.

I did not know this until I started to research “Letter to You” after hearing it.

In the tradition of “Born To Run,” the sound is rough, it’s not crystal clear, and therefore you get that miasma of sound he’s famous for and it’s hard to pay attention and then…suddenly you wake up, your ears stand at attention, has Bruce found the plot again?

He hasn’t had it for a very long time. The overhyped “Rising” was disappointing, at least on an absolute Boss scale, but what came thereafter was even worse, more self-conscious and less appealing, but at least he soldiered on, when everybody else gave up he continued to write and put out new material, kudos for that. But last year’s overbaked “Western Stars” fell flat. I hate to say it, but shut up and play your music, let it stand or not. The backstory, the concept of “Western Stars,” if only the music lived up to the endless hype, we even got a film…it’s not like “Western Stars” was awful, it just wasn’t great.

The problem is Springsteen is competing with himself. And therefore he’s always trying to reach a mark he may not ever be able get to again. Once again, his brethren have solved this problem by not even trying. But somehow, the Boss has connected again with “Letter To You”…it’s close, but no cigar, but maybe a cigarette, it’s got the majesty and the energy of the records that made him famous. It’s nearly anthemic. And not a moment too long, actually its length makes the record better, it allows the band to stretch out, the lead guitar playing at the end is so satisfying.

As for the front cover photo… It’s great, but it’s also part of the hype, if you search online you’ll find a whole story about the creation thereof…talk about eviscerating the mystery.

There’s a generic guitar opening, yet there’s a wild lead guitar way in the background and then it all fades and Bruce starts to sing. But it’s the change that gets you, when Bruce sings “Tried to summon all that my heart finds is true,” that drop down is reminiscent of the hook that makes “Green River” so great, even though that minor Creedence classic (talk about a contradiction in terms…it’s not as great as the greats, but it’s so much better than the competition) is superior.

The band comes in on the second verse, classic Springsteen, and then you get that change once again, adding meaning, gravitas:

Dug deep in my soul and signed my name true
And sent it in my letter to you

Unfortunately, the chorus is not as good as the verse. Except for the last line, “And I sent it in my letter to you.” But in the break the organ in the background gives you everything but the kitchen sink E Street Band sound.

And then…quiet.

I’d quote the lyrics but they’re substandard. This entire song is not up to Bruce’s standard. If someone else wrote the words you’d shrug. And as for “letter,” why not “e-mail” or “text” or “iMessage”? We’re not going back to letters, no way, which is one of the reasons why the post office is floundering financially.

But, there’s that drop in the verse. And the break. And the playing at the end. No one else is doing this. Then again, like I said, most of Bruce’s contemporaries are doing nothing.

But what I immediately thought when I heard “Letter To You” is…WE HAD TO WAIT FOR THIS?

“Letter To You” is not a one listen hit. They’ll play it on AAA but you won’t be closed if you’re not a fan, it can slide right off of you, unlike Bruce’s best work. But, like I said, it’s close, it gives one hope Bruce can recapture the magic.

Bruce went back to basics. As in the band played together, there was not all this tracking, overdubbing, and that aids the song, the performance is cohesive, you can visualize the song being played in a club, where Bruce started.

But Bruce should be putting out this stuff on a regular basis. Instead of worrying about living up to his lofty standards, why not put out new stuff when he writes it, keep the juices flowing, maybe he’ll capture lightning in a bottle. The old paradigm is broken, why is he beholden to it?

And a stiff today does not matter, it doesn’t tarnish your image, it just fades away. And creators know when you throw off the rust and finally get inspired you frequently end up on a roll of creativity, which is why we got “Lucky Town” along with “Human Touch.”

Writer’s block is usually fear about doing something bad, not reaching the level you used to be at, a peak in your mind that you probably never achieved anyway, then again, one of the worst things about making it is you’re saddled with the adulation, it inhibits you. Can you say Alanis Morissette? She became so self-conscious as to become irrelevant.

But Bruce is first and foremost a musician. Who came up on the road. And that’s about playing each and every night, improving, learning what works and what does not along the way. Now he can do the same thing online. And, if he rings the bell, hits the note, word will spread, after all, he’s got his army, although I must admit they’ve turned off disbelievers nearly completely, I’m a fan and they bug me, what I always say about Bruce is I don’t hate him, I hate his FANS! After all, I saw him live at the Bottom Line in ’74, the year before “Born To Run,” most are johnny-come-latelies, like the young ‘uns who lecture you on the Dead even though they weren’t even born when the band cut “Workingman’s Dead.”

So my goal here is to encourage you Bruce. You’ve recaptured something you’ve lost. Sure, “Letter To You” is not an “A,” but it has elements that are so close. Get the band together, write the lyrics in the studio, lay down some tracks, put them on Spotify, the rest of the streaming services. Surprise us. Irregularity works online. Not a track a week, maybe one and then another six weeks later and then three a month after that and then maybe nothing for months and then six all at once. What a fan wants most is more material. And today, when fandom is one of the few ways people can feel like they belong, they’re less critical, they forgive mistakes, they want to send the message they’re there for you, every step of the way, that they’re supportive.

Yes, Bruce is for listeners, not for the media. The people at the “New York Times” didn’t go to shows in the seventies and stay up all night. And neither did Chris Christie. It’s the nobodies who own you, admit it. Nobodies run the planet. In their world you’re a somebody, you make their lives worth living, live alongside them! You don’t have to be on the cover of “Time” and “Newsweek,” you don’t need to be all over MTV, everything is small these days, everything is cottage industry, the biggest of acts is smaller than you ever were.

So, can old rockers have something to say?

Age is respected in country, but not rock, why not? Bruce’s kids are out of the house, music is what he’s got. It’s time to get back to the garden, to go back to the beginning, and to take chances too, to keep it interesting.

Bruce is incomplete. That’s why he does this, make records. He needs you to fill the hole inside him. And you want to, and you want to tell everybody if he does something worthwhile, that’s the joy of being a fan, telling others about what you love, even if Bruce’s fans have overdone it in the past. So, Bruce wants it. The audience wants it. We’re just looking for that one track. Listening to “Letter To You” makes me think he’s still got it inside, ready to come out when he throws off the cloak of respectability, stops worrying about what others think, just starts being the alienated musician with a dream once again.

Right now the AQI is just a bit over 150, in the red zone, labeled “Unhealthy.” As for the beach, down by where I hike, it’s even worse, it’s also in the red zone, i.e. “Unhealthy,” but it’s about 160.

Now the truth of Los Angeles is the further you go east, the worse the smog gets. Normally the coast has the clearer air. But not now.

The fire is out by Azusa, you know, of “The Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review and Timing Association.” That was the b-side of Jan and Dean’s single “Ride the Wild Surf.” I thought they made up the names, I had no idea these places really existed. But they do. And Azusa is right on the borderline, of the Angeles National Forest.

That’s something that non-natives, people who’ve never been to L.A., don’t know. That the wilderness bumps right up against the metropolis. There’s everybody, and then there’s nobody. And where there’s nobody can get very hot during the day and equally cold at night so if you’re stranded there, outside cell range, you might not make it back.

But I’m going nowhere. I’m home. Inside.

You can take the warnings seriously or you can maybe pay the piper later. Then again, even if you can’t quite see the particulates in the air you can certainly smell the smoke and visibility…well, at least there’s some sunshine today, but nothing like the blue skies we’re used to. Oh, that’s another thing about SoCal, no clouds. I know, I know, they’re a feature on the east coast, everywhere else, but we rarely get them here, unless it’s gonna rain. And usually that’s when the rain comes, when the fires begin, that’s the turning point, you watch the news for precipitation but…I’ve been here for eons and I might have seen it rain in September once, maybe twice, so that’s not how the fires are gonna be extinguished.

The rest of the country is laughing at California. Yet, I point them to yesterday’s article about Jerry Brown:

“Jerry Brown on a California Exodus: ‘Tell Me: Where Are You Going to Go?’ – From his ranch, the former California governor is experiencing the same smoky air wafting through much of the state. ‘We are causing this,’ he declared in an interview”

My mother once told me that her mother, my grandmother, would still be voting for Roosevelt if he hadn’t died. That’s how I feel about Jerry Brown if hadn’t termed out. Elected young, he was considered “Governor Moonbeam.” He ran for president too early. And then as an oldster Brown came back, was mayor of Oakland and ended up back as governor, older and wiser. California is a blue state. Once upon a time it had huge red factions, but those are now gone, and everyone likes Arnold, well, except maybe for his ex-wife, but he proved he was not up to the job as governor and there are no Republicans in the pipeline. Unlike Arnold, Brown is a wonk. He not only knows, he can opine for days. And with experience he knew it was about compromise, realism. It was Brown who fought with the Democrats, even though he was one of them, he pulled them back from the brink, he restored California’s finances. But that didn’t keep the rest of the country from laughing about California.

It happens in California first. Always has, still seems to be. Sure, you’ve got nitwits testing the limits in Florida, but that’s more of an ongoing Darwin Awards culture than cutting edge. You see in California we’re three hours from New York. We might as well be living in a different country. Californians get no respect, they’re seen as flighty, and that serves them well, it allows them to jettison judgment and just be who they are, who they want to be. And as a result, innovation happens in the Golden State.

It’s California that has pressed for cleaner air. It’s California that not only engendered smog controls on automobiles, but got the whole car industry to cater to its demands. You see with enough customers, you’ve got leverage. And the truth is many of the cutting edge cars are designed in California anyway.

Don’t talk to me about Texas. It’s a boom and bust state, depending on the energy market. Fracking is a financial disaster. As for tax considerations…that’s how we got into this mess, via low taxes. You can’t have it all and not pay for it. Which brings me to last week’s Nicholas Kristof article:

“‘We’re No. 28! And Dropping!’-A measure of social progress finds that the quality of life has dropped in America over the last decades, even as it has risen almost everywhere else.”

The American Dream is over, and the sooner we wake up to this fact the sooner we can be on the road to recovery. Then again, facts are fungible, there no longer is any truth, but if you look outside my window you can see some.

So, I don’t want to get Covid-19. How will I achieve this? Especially in a country that opens more and more each day. People are burned out, to use a phrase, with staying home so they’re not. I’m just waiting another week for the Labor Day Covid-19 statistics. Seems like people went on road trips, interacted, will there be a negative result? You’d think so. But everybody believes Covid-19 can’t reach and affect them, no way.

So I’m reading and streaming. And working a ton too, I’m busy, I’m not complaining about it.

But at the beginning of lockdown, it was novel, everybody was calling, everybody wanted to Zoom…but that’s died down, everybody’s hunkered down, waiting for it to be over. When will it be over? Fauci says not before the fall of 2021. Other experts say it will be sometime in 2022 that we can live our lives normally. What am I supposed to do in the interim?

Right now my house is not in danger. Although we did have to evacuate a couple of years back. But everybody’s in suspended animation when it comes to their mental health. Staying home takes a toll. Not that you’d get anybody to admit it in our winners rule society. If you evidence just a crack, someone will come along and split you in half and take your spot. We’re lemmings climbing a greased pole.

So, California is burning up, but it’s not like the rest of the country is getting a pass. There’s that new hurricane, Sally, sauntering to the coast, you’d better keep your Mustang in your garage. But those people in Louisiana who lost their homes in the last hurricane, we no longer hear about them, the news cycle can’t keep up with the past. Kind of like everybody no longer getting cash from the government, how are they paying their bills? But in America we ignore those who lose, they soil our image of our nation.

And then there’s the election. There’s tons of news, not that almost any of it is relevant. Except for Caputo talking about fighting in the streets and all the left-leaning publications filing articles about what to do if Trump won’t leave, if he declares unjust victory. There are more questions than answers, and if you believe in the system you’re gonna get your comeuppance in November. As for the Post Office? The L.A. “Times” had a front page story today, turns out mail is much slower, but that’s old news, that ship has sailed, DeJoy is in charge and get over it.

Nothing sticks. At least the left wing prognosticators have realized this. They say out loud that the Woodward book will have no effect. Nothing Trump does will shake his believers free, nothing!

So, we’re watching “Borgen.” We’ve started the third season. I recommend it.

And I’ve been reading books that I can’t quite recommend.

But the truth is almost nothing is as satisfying as it once was. You yearn for time to catch up, and then when you get it each and every day…

So, over the weekend it was like the end of the world, dark outside. Eventually it will return to normal, it always does, but frequently at a cost. But relief doesn’t appear to be on the horizon. Nothing is imminent.

They rescued the auto companies in 2008, it turned out to be the right thing to do. Do we rescue small businesses today? Is there enough money to do this? Yes, I’ve got a ton of questions, you probably do too. But answers are elusive. Seems the country wants to live in darkness. And in California we are right now.

Check your AQI – Enter your city or zip code in the box in the upper righthand corner, click on your town in the resulting list and then click on the red button that says “AQI”:

U.S. Air Quality Index (AQI)

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Tune in today, September 15th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: LefsetzLive