You can’t fight your battles alone.

The Donald is making a major mistake making news every day, refusing to cooperate with Congress, he’s hanging it out for everybody to see. In other words, press can work for or against you.

In this case it’s against.

Who is on Trump’s team?

His base.

Fox News.

And Republican Representatives and Senators.

His base does best when it lives in a bubble. But the more Trump drags his issues to the forefront, the more his base is aware of them.

As for Fox News… Shepard Smith resigning did more to cement the viewpoint that the channel is biased than any rantings and ravings by the left.

As for those in Congress… Trump is so busy saving himself, that he’s forgotten about them.

Now most people don’t pay attention to the nitty-gritty of politics, they’d rather live their lives. Ask them who their Representative is, ask them who represents them in state politics and many people will draw a blank. They count on elected officials to do their bidding for them, they’re getting paid, why should I pay attention?

But Trump has made politics the story of the day. He’s trumped not only movies, TV and music, but even tech. No, the story today is all Trump all the time.

To his detriment.

Take this Kurds/Turkey/Syria/Iran/Russia story. Not only is there no way he looks good, acting on impulse without preparation, his own party was against removing U.S. troops. These same Congresspeople who were afraid of Trump. How long until they flip?

It’s going to happen instantly.

The media is always fighting the last war. Yes, 2016 illustrated that there was anger with the elites, against globalization, that the downtrodden and racist wanted to return to what theoretically once was and never will be.

Shocked by the results in 2016, positively shocked I tell you, the media is now bending over backward to pay fealty to these people. Warren is too far left! What they don’t understand is America is looking for LEADERS!

Trump is a leader. Whether he’s going in the right direction is debatable. And over fifty percent of Americans now favor impeachment and removal, and what does the Donald do? Pour gasoline on the fire! Do you think those already convinced to get rid of him like being insulted by the Donald day after day? Furthermore, those people talk to others and the number favoring him gone increases.

And for all of this America First b.s… It’s a conundrum. People on the right don’t want to spend money on others, but they do want America to be perceived as the greatest country in the world. The irony, of course, is that that takes money. There’s no way to look at the Turkey situation other than as a great gift to Putin. Irrelevant of interference in our elections, only Trump is positive about the dictator. People are still scared of Russia, they don’t want the nation to have more power, they don’t want the balance of power to shift from the U.S./Europe to Russia/China/Mideast. So on one hand they want to ignore them, but on the other they don’t want them to have more power than us.

Now other nations don’t believe us, don’t trust us, and everything Trump keeps saying is the reverse. America is not great again, with its tariffs and tax giveaways, and now it’s losing its power. All those people chanting USA!, USA!, used to laugh at other nations, not so much now.

So the media keeps saying the tail is wagging the dog. That every elected official is subservient to the voter. Nothing could be further from the truth. The voters don’t know what they want, they vote against their interests and can be more easily swayed than perceived. An elected official cannot change their mind, but a voter certainly can.

Voters want the impossible. They want all the services, all the safety, and they want it for free. They can see that Trump can’t deliver this. As for the Democrats…only Warren and Sanders can get the messaging right. We want someone to pull us out of this mess so we don’t have to think about it anymore.

That’s the prevailing sentiment in the country…let’s get back to regular business. Kinda like England re Brexit, talk to inhabitants of the U.K., they just don’t want to live in limbo anymore. But they all still have complaints. They want to put the reins in the hands of someone who cannot only fix the mess, but lead into the future. As for “trust me”… No one trusts anyone anymore.

So Trump is making news every damn day. And he supports people until he hangs them out to dry. Giuliani?? If he’s indicted, the Donald will say how bad Rudy is, that he was a rogue actor and Trump had no idea, positively no idea.

Politics was always about the team. But Trump blew that paradigm apart. Because those in charge of the team refused to change. It’s like the MLB sitting by raising prices while the NBA captured hearts and minds.

So the Democrats hamstrung Bernie in 2016. So what does Warren do this time around? SHE SAYS SHE’S GONNA PLAY NICE! She’s gonna work for the party and its candidates. That’s right you co-opt them before they co-opt you.

Donald’s strategy didn’t work. He pointed out the flaws of his competitors in 2016. He employed an internet/Twitter campaign when others were still using fax. Trump is a signpost that the game has changed, but he’s playing it very badly.

This was one of the problems with Obama, he was in the right position but he played the game poorly. He tried to make peace with people who wanted no peace, i.e. the Republicans. He should have negotiated behind closed doors like Johnson, or shamed his opponents, as Trump has done. Instead, Barack was living in a bygone era, that’s how we got into this mess. No one acknowledged the pitfalls of globalization, no one fought back against the rise of Republicans in state legislatures, it was positively kumbaya until Bernie challenged Hillary. End result? The Democrats nominated Hillary and she lost. She campaigned for business as usual when people didn’t want this. And you just couldn’t relate to her, she was neither fish nor fowl. You couldn’t connect with Trump either, but at least he spoke English (however poorly) as opposed to gobbledygook and he said he was rich, and in today’s America, rich people rule.

But now it’s 2019.

People are pissed.

But we keep hearing no one will abandon Trump.

Look at sports. People love a player until he does not deliver in the clutch, then they’re in the doghouse and have to redeem themselves.

What has Trump delivered? Forget those who say he’s on the right path, they just want to make you go crazy, deep down inside they know he’s a buffoon balloon with the gas billowing out. Very few will admit they’re wrong in public, but in private…

So you capture the flag and run with it. That’s what the Democrats should be doing.

As for Trump, he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar and instead of fielding the controversy, he’s stonewalling and attacking, he’s every bully you ever hated caught red-handed.

As for Adam Schiff and his compatriots, they’re afraid of right wing blowback and as a result they don’t say or do anything, allowing the right to define them anyway. We’re looking for strength. Stand up for your opinion, get in their face. This was what was so great about Anthony Weiner before he blew himself up.

So no one wants to get close to the fireworks. They just want to watch the show. And it’s greater than one in any big top.

And Trump is on the wrong side of almost everything and everyone. In the Middle East, with Russia, with farmers…he’s alienating everyone. Sure, he’s got his seconds, blowhards like Hannity, Ingraham and Tucker, but there are mothers who defend children who have raped and killed. Some people are never gonna change.

We’re fighting for the heart and soul of our country. Are we gonna let Trump get away with it?

Of course not!

Which is why the impeachment and removal numbers keep going up. As for Republican Congresspeople… Ever read Shakespeare? Are you aware of plots to bring the king down? Do you think Moscow Mitch and his cronies are gonna sit by and refuse to take action?

When it’s clear that the boss doesn’t care about you, is willing to cut you loose, you look out for yourself. First we had Cohen. Then we had Scaramucci. They played the game and lost, they realized they got screwed, now the knife has turned around.

Gonna happen in Congress too, just you wait.

As for the media?

It’ll be serving false equivalencies, deep down in the weeds until the action happens. Sometimes you can be so busy fighting the battle that you don’t see the war.

Trump is toast. Over. Done. It’s just a matter of when.

It’s going to happen very quickly. He’s stuck in quicksand, and the only way you can get out is with help.

No one wants to help him.

Not enough to keep him in office.

They want to watch him sink and then say how they never supported him to begin with, that he was a liar who pulled the wool over their eyes.

And then they’ll go back to attacking Democrats.

It’ll be business as usual until someone more sane takes charge and leads.

But the Democrats want to shoot their leaders.

But the little girls (and boys!) understand.

There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief…

There’s more bottom, more clarity on Amazon Music HD.

I thought the guy was gonna come and repair/finish the file cabinet today. They shipped me a replacement part, but it turns out he’s coming on Monday.

So I decided to set up my Playbar.

I got one for hosting a panel for Sonos a few years back, about music piracy and the future, remember that? But it sat in a box and when I went to plug it in it wouldn’t update, the software was just too old, even though it was perfectly capable otherwise.

They shipped me a replacement unit and today I hooked it up.

After I recabled my stereo system. Audioquest sent me new cables. The only problem is they’re for either professional or better stereos than the one I have, the cable was too thick. And I spent hours twisting wire, scraping back plastic, wondering if when I was all done whether the stereo would work.

It did. Which stunned me. Truly.

Then I had to hook up the Playbar. It went splendidly until I tried to get rid of the message on the TV, saying the sound was off. I followed the instructions on the Sonos site, but they just wouldn’t work, but then I figured it out. I wasn’t able to control the volume from the remote, but then I was, ah, the feeling of accomplishment! Does anybody do this stuff anymore, or do they just call somebody? Then again, the way the average person lives, there’s no necessity for this stuff. But if you’ve actually got a home stereo…

I want to know how things work. That’s what I loved about computers. I bought my Mac Plus in ’86 to do the “Lefsetz Letter” and I became as intrigued with tech as music. You’d hit a problem and sit in front of the screen, pondering a solution, which would eventually come to you, although sometimes I wasted an entire day and night unable to fix the problem only to call the publisher the following day for them to tell me it was a bug. I mean once I start, I want to finish. I can’t leave things undone.

And Felice was explaining to me how to enter the code for the new zone on the alarm and I couldn’t get it right. I told her I didn’t want to know the steps, that wouldn’t help me, I wanted to know how it WORKED! I guess it’s kinda like that old cliche about giving someone a fish and they can eat for one day, but teach them how to fish and they can eat forever.

Then again, are these skills even necessary anymore? I mean it was the same way a hundred years ago, you had to know how to fix your car, but no one does that anymore unless their car is old or it’s basic maintenance, like changing the oil, everything’s computerized and what’s even better, the cars don’t break regularly like they used to. Try using that excuse sometime, no one will believe it…MY CAR BROKE DOWN! But for decades you heard that, at least in my life.

Now Amazon HD is a sleeper. Spotify and Apple get all the press. And if people think high quality, they think Tidal, maybe Deezer. But Amazon has Alexa. Then again, I find the voice integration works a bit better with Apple Music. Maybe because I don’t have to wake the app up, my iPhone is always ready for Siri, especially in my car, with my new Alpine I call out “Hey Siri!” and she comes alive on screen and I can ask for anything in the pantheon, it’s really cool, really satisfying, makes me smile, you’re not limited to playlists, what you’ve thought of earlier. Sure, I could wake up the Amazon app and click on “Alexa,” but I might have an accident in the process.

But since I’ve got Verizon Unlimited, I’ve been streaming Amazon HD on my hikes, I can hear the difference, but not like on the big rig.

You can take me to paradise
And then again you can be cold as ice

We weren’t expecting much, Fleetwood Mac had been around forever. They’d been through Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer and Bob Welch, they were a blues/rock outfit, part of the firmament, but almost equivalent to Savoy Brown.

But then we heard the above lyrics on the radio.

We were addicted to the radio, FM was part of our DNA like social networks today, only we listened, we did not participate, we knew who the stars were.

And when “Rhiannon” broke from that same LP, Fleetwood Mac became stars. Took quite a while in fact, the better part of six months, but the band went from sideshow to the main stage.

And then came “Rumours.”

Most acts can’t follow up their big hit albums.

But the Eagles did with “Hotel California,” and then Fleetwood Mac did with “Rumours.”

The single was “Go Your Own Way,” which I didn’t come to love until about ten years later, I was looking for the more soulful stuff, the stuff that set your mind free, that allowed you to rattle around inside your own brain.

But I bought “Rumours” the day it came out, I needed it that much, we needed that much.

And the standout track was “Dreams,” you heard it immediately. And sure, Bill Clinton liked “Don’t Stop,” but that was upbeat, and like I said, it’s the mid-tempo stuff that I like, that Fleetwood Mac made its bones on.

Now the first track I had to play over and over again was “Gold Dust Woman.”

But now I’d rather hear “The Chain,” which opens side two. It’s the kind of cut that does not fit the formula, that’s not made for AM radio, it wasn’t until about fifteen years later that people truly acknowledged its specialness and started to talk about it and cover it. Sure, Lindsey’s twinkling, but it’s John McVie’s bass that locks the track down.

Still, if you asked me the best track on “Rumours,” it would be “Gold Dust Woman.” You never heard it on the radio, no one talked about it, but it truly set my mind free, took me away from humdrum life to that place only music can take you, I’m not talking the in-your-face assault which obliterates you, but the kind that expresses humanity.

Did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
And is it over now, do you know how
Pick up the pieces and go home

Oh, it’s so hard to pick up the pieces and go home, you want to stay connected, you’ll work to make it work, like a drug addict who can’t go without, even though after you go cold turkey, you can go someplace better, but it does not feel like that at the time. And some people just cannot be held, they always keep you guessing, are you together or not, are they committed or not, sometimes they’re so troubled by their own challenges that you’re a second class citizen, you can’t fix them.

Now when I used to buy stereo, when I used to evaluate it, decide on which products were superior, my go-to LP was Supertramp’s “Crime Of The Century.” I just pulled it up and I was brought right back, this was long before the band had hits, when you were either part of the club or you weren’t. This was deep and meaningful, this was not about eating kippers and taking the long way home, it was about the indoctrination of young people to their detriment, that’s what people forget about rock music, it was a signpost, a guidebook to an alternative lifestyle, it was different from an AM ditty, it was deeper, the musicians were religious figures, that’s why you had to go to the show, not to hang out with your buds and shoot selfies but to communicate with the gods, to bathe in their wisdom.

I had a half-speed mastered version of “Crime Of The Century,” still do, but now my go-to stereo evaluation track is “Gold Dust Woman,” can the stereo reproduce Mick Fleetwood’s bass drum after the lyrics end, can it pick up John McVie’s descending bass notes? Can it sear my soul?

We wanted to get closer to the music, it just wasn’t sauce, something you worked out to…actually, we didn’t work out and our music wasn’t portable, you bought the best stereo you could afford to luxuriate in the essence, to be taken away.

So it’s kinda funny. If you’re interested in statistics, this essence doesn’t appear, it can’t be quantified and these stellar cuts are not cookie-cutter and don’t fit the hit radio paradigm.

So I’ve got a Sonos box hooked up to my stereo. I can stream from my phone, from my desktop, and after spending hours getting everything connected, that’s what I did.

And I immediately pulled up “Gold Dust Woman.”

It sounds so sweet.

Manager Ron Stone has been involved with everybody from Crosby, Stills & Nash to Joni Mitchell to Bonnie Raitt to Rickie Lee Jones. Listen to hear tales of what it was like in L.A. in the sixties and more!

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This is what happens when you play by the odds.

You pull your starting pitcher and you load the bases and lose.

I remember the dark days of baseball. When they expanded the leagues from eight to ten teams, the season from 154 games to 162. When the season ended in September and the World Series was oftentimes done by now, certainly by October 15th.

Then again, they play hockey in June and basketball too.

It’s very simple, it’s about the money.

That’s what privatization will do. Owners who only care about the buck will do what’s right for them, the fans be damned. Raise ticket prices to the point where it’s better to stay home and watch on TV, extend mid-inning breaks to contain more commercials, such that a game lasts longer than it took you to take your SATs.

And now the game has been ruined by Moneyball.

Sometimes, you’ve got to trust your instincts.

Today it’s all data, it’s all odds, but players are not machines, they’re human, they’re fragile, that’s why we watch sports to begin with, because we don’t really know how it will all turn out.

We know if we click on Chrome it will launch. We’d be stunned if our smartphones didn’t wake up. When cable poops out it’s a crisis. Yup we depend upon our devices, those run by technology, to work, all the time, from the very first time, out of the box.

But not people.

People start as babies. They’re influenced by their parents, their schools, their friends. Some end up winners and some end up losers. Some rich people are pricks and some poor people are saints. It’s a crapshoot, and you do your best to influence the game, but that doesn’t mean you always win.

You work hard to get into a good college. But that does not mean you’ll have a successful career.

But the elites don’t want to go into sports, unless it’s in the front office, doing sabermetrics. As if data could determine the outcome of every game.

So, Walker Buehler is in complete control of the contest, he’s whomping the Nationals.

But the data says he’s got to come out. He’s thrown 117 pitches, he’s got to go!

But Tommy Lasorda did not pull Orel Hershiser. The Dodgers went on to win the World Series. Lasorda is a legend and so is Hershiser, even if his arm broke under the strain.

Which game are we gonna play? And who is in control, the players or the managers/owners?

We’ll never know if Walker Buehler insisted on coming out, but if you know any sports stars, one thing’s for sure, when the going gets tough, the best always say…GIVE ME THE BALL!

So now maybe Walker Buehler will have a longer career.

Or maybe he’ll just be forgotten.

But the strange thing is last year the same thing happened, the Dodgers were winning and the statistics, the data, said to pull the pitcher and they lost.

So, the Dodgers win 106 games and are out of the playoffs. Done. Zip. Over.

How can this be?

Now the season is long, as I pointed out, 162 games, do they not mean anything? Oh, home field advantage, the odds say you’re better off, BUT NOT ALWAYS!

They call them odds. They were in Hillary’s favor. But Trump won anyway. Because they’re just odds, the numbers are not set in concrete, and even though you might only have a 40% chance of winning, even a 1% chance of winning, you still could, win that is.

That’s one of the great things about baseball, unlike football and basketball, it’s never over ’til it’s over, you can always come back.

But after the grand slam it was clear the Dodgers would not. They had no momentum, they’d expended what they had at the beginning of the game.

If you win, you win, right?

Not in today’s sports, losers can triumph. Of course the supporters of said teams cheer, but how about those who did the best during the season?

I can see playing division off against division, but within the division? YOU ALREADY WON!

Oh, no, you’ve got to prove it one more time.

So what have you earned in 106 victories?

Very little.

But football became the national pastime and baseball took a back seat. So what did MLB do? Play more games at night! Because they make more money! But this is like the “Innovators Dilemma”…if you keep raising prices for your usual customers, at some point someone comes along with something cheaper and not as good but it gets better and then, seemingly overnight, it steals you’re thunder, you’re toast. Can you say video games?

So tonight’s game ended after midnight on the east coast. My parents would let me stay up that late for a Yankee or Met playoff game, but not one on the west coast featuring different teams.

Sure, when I grew up the World Series was played during the day, meaning if you were lucky and rode your bike right home from school you might catch an inning or two. But we watched, we believed.

And a game was so cheap your parents took you.

In trying to make the game modern, the major leagues have screwed it all up. Sure, data is helpful, but it’s not EVERYTHING!

Just like Steve Jobs said, the computer is a TOOL! It’s what you do with it that matters. Sure, you can use data to assemble the best team, but sometimes you’ve got to go with your gut.

Data says to load the bases for a force-out at every bag.

But, that goes out the window if a batter gets a hit.

And the chance of runs scoring is increased. A three run lead now becomes a four run lead, nearly insurmountable.

So, the Nationals won fair and square.

But if you’re a Dodger fan…

I’m not even a Dodger fan, I believe in the American League. Sure, I grew up with the ’61 Yankees, but eventually the team turned sour and started to lose, did I still believe? OF COURSE! Otherwise the buildings of losing teams would be completely empty, but they’re not.

But ever since Steinbrenner everybody’s a Yankee fan, because they love a winner, no matter how you win. And winning is nice, but a lot of losers are left behind, and there’s always next year.

But next year, you double-down, you improve, you win 106 games, and then in a short playoff series, the best of five games instead of the subsequent seven, you could lose it all.

Of course I hate Dave Roberts, he pulled the same thing two years in a row, blow him out. As for his predecessors, who can remember them, some were good, but they didn’t win, Lasorda won. That’s the public trust, we invest our time, we root for you, but you’ve got to do your best.

But Roberts didn’t even let Buehler do his best, he hewed to statistics, and he blew the game and the whole damn season.

Our world is screwed up in so many ways. One is in the denigration of the liberal arts in favor of STEM. Liberal arts teach you how to think, and adjust for situations. Which is why your future will not be made up of AI songs or movies, because a computer can beat you at chess, but it cannot create artistic breakthroughs. You can teach a computer about the past, but not the future.

Then again, if you’re not a rich data scientist no one will listen to you anymore.

The Dodgers earned the right to be in the World Series, at least the NLCS. Sure, the Astros might have murdered them, but they deserved a chance.

But now they don’t have one.

As for Kershaw blowing it…his agony on the bench, his self-hatred, that’s humanity, that was almost worth the loss.

We can’t guarantee outcomes, but we can guarantee chances.

I’m not sorry for the Dodgers, but the fans. Life is based on belief. And you cannot believe in machines, you can only believe in people, and when cash supersedes people…

It’s hard to believe.