DELIVER WHEN THE SPOTLIGHT IS UPON YOU

Amy Klobuchar went from zero to hero in one debate, with just a couple of lines. Proving that you must ride the tiger until your moment arrives.

The dirty little secret is talent is secondary to perseverance and the ability to shine at the right time. Most people are not made for the stage. Furthermore, you are not born to it. Most people get mic fright, it’s only through repeated experience that you get good at anything.

Turns out it had nothing to do with whether she was a woman or not, what she looked like or not, but what she said. I wasn’t a huge fan, but when she referenced FDR and said she was on our side and would fight for us, it resonated. Yup, she was a middle class woman, without the benefit of riches or stunning looks, who did the work, paid her dues, and was ready when everybody was paying attention.

Oh, there you go again Bob, talking about women’s looks.

But the truth is it’s always about looks. Do you know any of the naturally beautiful? Their lives are completely different from the rest of ours. They get endless opportunities, they can screw up and survive, they’re picked first. And just like Albert Brooks says in “Broadcast News,” looks fade, but very slowly, life is long, high school is not the end of time, if you continue to play you have a chance of winning, when many others have opted out or made excuses or…

At the end of the day, it’s about relatability. And watching Klobuchar I realized she wasn’t that different from me, I could relate to her.

And she was honest when it counted. Standing up to Bernie’s socialism.

This is where the educated and moralistic can emerge victorious, by having principles and hewing to them. This is the opposite of the sausage-makers, the yes-men, the people who view their career as a game, wherein you know enough people and smile and are duplicitous and you move up the food chain. That’s what’s wrong with America. And never forget, America was built on the saga of the rugged individual, the lone wolf, the cowboy, and that ethos still stands.

THE MEDIA IS CLUELESS

Can you say JOE BIDEN?

Just because they say it, just because they wish it to be true, that does not make it so.

Come on, have you followed Joe Biden’s career? His fake smile, the hair plugs, the mistakes he made in previous campaigns to his detriment? Thinking he could win is like thinking the guy on the bench is the key to the World Series.

And he’s from Delaware, the land of the banks and corporations.

As for his vaunted appeal to people of color… Why? Do the math on this for me please.

Not that Biden can’t be a good communicator. I was watching CNN after last Friday’s debate and they showed a clip of Biden wherein he connected to people who had experienced cancer, he pounded morality, said he told his kids they could never criticize someone for something they could not change, like their looks. But Joe could never be this person when everybody was paying attention. He only started to fight when the tables turned, and then he looked desperate.

MOMENTUM IS EVERYTHING

It’s no different with a record. Either it’s hustling its way up the chart or… If it stops climbing, it’s probably over. And momentum begets more momentum. Pete Buttigieg isn’t radically different from how he was before Iowa, it’s just that he did well there, giving himself the imprimatur of electability, which is a flawed concept established by those who want to steer the election to their benefit. Come on, if you win a number of primaries, why is it you cannot win the national election? And there was a statistic in yesterday’s paper, showing more blue people read the “Wall Street Journal” than red. Everything is not cut and dried, everything is murkier than it seems.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE DELUSIONAL

Or, as the justifiably reviled Peter Thiel might say, don’t fight fights you can’t win. All these marginal candidates, what were they thinking?

Marianne Williamson has a long history of employing attention/media to build and embellish her career. She knew she had no chance of being elected, but she got what she wanted out of the experience.

Michael Bennet?

As for Andrew Yang, did you read the exposé on how he ran his company, how he was insensitive to women? He spoke English no one else could, even youngster Mayor Pete, Yang knows technology, it’s just that he was not vetted deeply enough, just like Trump. People bought the b.s. Yang was a guy who believed he was entitled. Who was confident. Who could give up the Ivy League leg-up to go his own way because he deserved it. I buy the ideas, but not the man.

As for Tulsi Gabbard… You were in the military, so? Bush II and Trump were not, and they got elected, military service ain’t what it’s cracked up to be, people don’t care that much, especially in the era of the all volunteer army, where most people with any cash refuse to go. Tillman died. Mayor Pete uses his service as a resume builder. Come on, when you look at Pete, do you believe him? Or do you think his brain is churning before he says anything.

IT’S A LONG RACE

Elizabeth Warren was ahead, she’ll drop out soon because she’ll have no money. You don’t want to peak too soon, and you don’t want to screw up when people are watching. Just like Klobuchar’s one debate performance boosted her campaign, Warren’s killed it, when she was asked directly how she was gonna pay for Medicare-for-all over and over again and refused to answer. It looked like a kid telling his teacher why he didn’t do his homework…and the interesting thing is Warren was a teacher!

MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING

Biden can’t raise it, he’ll soon be gone.

Bloomberg has an unlimited supply, he ain’t goin’ nowhere.

CHARACTER IS EVERYTHING

I know, I know, this doesn’t apply to Trump, but to beat him you’ve got to be the antithesis. There’s a belief that you’ve got to fight the Republicans on their turf their way. And the Republicans have been laughing to victory for decades. The Republicans punch and the Democrats cry. The Republicans say the news is bogus and the Democrats accept the polls saying Trump is stronger after impeachment. Let me see, if the polls were wrong about Biden and Buttigieg, why should they be right about Trump? You run your own race, once you start changing for the game, being impacted by others, you’re toast. This is what happened to Warren, saying she’d delay the implementation of Medicare-for-all.

EVERYTHING’S A JOKE UNTIL THE PEOPLE VOTE

It’s like listening to a record company hype you on an act, or the film industry telling you about the future success of a movie.

Then you wait until it’s released and instantly you know what’s going on, especially in the movie business, you just go to Rotten Tomatoes and look at the numbers. Spotify can tell if an album is a stiff in a matter of hours, based on the skip rates.

Old school thinking is all about spin, say it to the point people will believe it and accept it as true.

New school thinking is launch and refine, start small and win in the end. Like Google, like Amazon.

PEOPLE WILL SURPRISE YOU

We keep hearing about AI, but the truth is people are unpredictable mammals, that’s what makes life interesting.

Bernie Sanders should have been toast, he was too old, had a heart attack and was a Jewish socialist from Vermont. But he resonated with people. This is something that cannot be quantified, it’s a feeling. And elections are more about feelings than facts. It’s just like love…the person who looks good on paper, even in pictures, if there’s no simpatico it’s no-go. We hear about love at first sight, but more often it’s love after a while, suddenly the light turns on.

MEDIA HAS AN AGENDA

We were taught to love and respect the media.

I’m not talking about fake news here, I’m not echoing Trump’s statements, all I’m saying is media is run by people, who are human, with flaws and agendas. Just because you read it in the paper, that does not mean it’s true. Didn’t you learn that in elementary school?

Then again, school is supposed to teach you the power of analysis, which too many Americans lack, they accept what they’re told at face value.

A rich person knows everything is negotiable, even at the department store.

A poor person pays the price.

Success comes to those who can divine the psyche of others. But that does not prevent people from trying to spin.

But we’ve seen that exercise too many times, the spin machine is worn out.

But there’s no national database of facts, so everybody employs their own.

What we know is the election process is way too long, and way too expensive. And the frontrunners often are not. You play the game, do not let the game define you.

What kind of crazy, fucked-up world do we live in where Steve Bannon knows more about the Democratic party than the DNC?

Did you watch Bannon on Bill Maher last Friday?

You should.

Of course there’s a lot of insane drivel, but don’t forget it was Bannon who got Trump elected, somehow he had his finger on the pulse of America more than Hillary Clinton and her minions.

So, let me get this straight, the party of the people, of labor, of the underdog, of the big tent, is gonna nominate a Republican oligarch to be President?

Come on, the Democrats rail incessantly against billionaires, income inequality, they want a seat at the table and now they’re going to get behind a man who represents everything they’re against because they think he can beat Trump?

Bloomberg cannot win enough delegates to secure the nomination on the first vote. The math is against him. If Mike Bloomberg wins thirty percent of the delegates on Super Tuesday, a good number, he has got to win sixty four percent of all delegates thereafter in order to pull himself over the threshold, a near impossibility. That’s math, Nate Silver did it. But the Democrats run on emotions, they tend not to go deep, unlike the right, they just go with what feels right, which is why they often lose the debate and the war.

Bloomberg is the man for African-Americans! Yup, Mayor Pete, who couldn’t even keep peace in his own damn city, is discounted because he can’t appeal to black people. But what about Mr. Stop & Frisk?

Now that Bloomberg has bought his way into the race, proving that billionaires are anathema to the process, the spotlight is finally upon him. Let’s see him wiggle his way out of this one. He flipped for the nomination. Isn’t that why Bernie is surging, since he’s been true to his beliefs, been saying the same damn thing for decades?

And you wonder why people don’t vote. They’ve given up hope!

As for Donald Trump, that was a protest vote, by people who felt the government was not working for them. Sure, he was on TV, sure he was supported by white supremacists, sure he had a lot of billionaires on his side, but there were not enough of the foregoing for him to emerge victorious. Talk to your friends, calmly, you’ll be surprised who voted for the Donald. But you’re so busy hating on them you won’t listen to them. Hillary promised business as usual, more of the same, Trump promised change. Forget the truth, the 2016 election is history, even though Trump and Fox News keep squaring off against Hillary, it’s now 2020, and the concomitant feeling is happening on the left. And what do the DNC and the media want to do? SHUT IT DOWN!

This is why Republicans win. The Democratic elites feel they’re better than the rank and file, they don’t want to know them and they don’t want to hang with them. They want to stand behind the velvet rope before they fly private. So, a group of insurgents is fighting for the heart and soul of the Democratic party and what do these insiders do? MAKE SURE IT CAN’T HAPPEN!

The media has been excoriating Bernie since Iowa. It just can’t be. How can a septuagenarian socialist Jew who just had a heart attack be ahead? This has got to be stopped. Biden faded, so let’s push Mayor Pete, the boy wonder, and if that doesn’t work we’ll let Michael Bloomberg buy the election! Yup, that appeals to college students and laborers. Let’s put all our faith in someone we hate, just to beat someone we hate even more.

But it gets even worse. ANY Democrat can beat Donald Trump. Not only do the polls say this, so does Rachel Bitecofer. Who? The woman who called the 2018 election correctly when no one else did.

There are almost no independents.

I say this all the time. People are afraid to admit they’re Republicans. Just ask them…”When did you last vote for a Democrat?” They’ll be scratching their head, and then they’ll say…”Well, I’d consider one.” But they don’t. Furthermore, the same thing exists on the left, independents who always vote Democratic. So instead of fifteen or twenty percent of the public being swing voters, Bitecofer believes it’s really just six or seven percent. So, it’s not about playing to the middle, trying to pull people over the transom to your side, but rather rallying your party, circling the wagons, getting out the vote.

Look at Bitecofer’s numbers. By turning off the Bernie fans and nominating Hillary third party candidates surged, denying Hillary the Presidency. Do you think it can’t happen again? That’s what the DNC is attempting by trying to trip up Bernie through any means possible.

Oh, there’s that word “socialist.” Truth is America is already socialist, can you say Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security? Trump wants to cut the social safety net, how well do you think that’s gonna resonate with people, especially those on the right who were against Obamacare but wanted the government to keep its hands off their Medicare. Let’s see, you work your whole life knowing there’s a pot of money at the end that will help you survive and now the insiders are gonna take it away from you? Never gonna play.

And it’s sixty five degrees in Antarctica yet climate change is not a big issue?

The economy is burgeoning but you can’t make ends meet on your low-paying service job income?

Bernie is speaking English, that’s why he’s got traction.

Of course Bill Maher is afraid of socialism, he owns a piece of the Mets!

Everybody with money is freaking out, afraid they’re going to lose something, which is why they’re getting behind Bloomberg. Yup, when the going gets tough everybody wants to save themselves and their lifestyles, they’ll sacrifice you in a heartbeat. Which is how we got into this mess.

So if the Democrats rally around their candidate, whomever it might be, according to Bitecofer, they’ll win. But by rewriting the debate rules in midstream, speaking of the bad acts of the “Bernie Bros,” what are the odds these people are gonna rally around Bloomberg?

And let’s say Bloomberg gets elected, do you really think he’s going to undercut his fellow oligarchs, turn against his class, suddenly become a bleeding-heart liberal after stop and frisk? ARE YOU NUTS?

Of course I’d rather elect Bloomberg than Trump. But I don’t believe he’ll fix the endemic problems of this nation, the can will just be kicked further down the road. We need radical change. Isn’t that what the last twenty five years have been all about? Did you miss the memo on mattresses in a box, electric cars, glasses via mail, everything shipped to your home, the internet itself? We’ve been through a wrenching transition, and the truth is some people profited handsomely, and many did not. As for those who did not, the winners keep telling them they’ve got a computer in their pocket, they’ve got the means of creation at their fingertips, if they too just put their nose to the grindstone they could win. Meanwhile, best to let the winners run the table and rule.

HOGWASH!

Steve Bannon on Bill Maher (watch at 6:45 and then wind back to 4:25)

Nate Silver on Bloomberg

“An Unsettling New Theory: There Is no Swing Voter-Rachel Bitecofer’s radical new theory predicted the midterms spot-on. So who’s going to win in 2020?”

Tune in today, Tuesday February 11th, 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: HearLefsetzLive

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

The Purple Disco Machine remix is a hit.

Word was this song was a loser. Most people didn’t even know there was a new song in “Rocket Man.” And even though I was invited to multiple screenings I did not go, because I’m not into fantasy, I’d rather keep my memories intact, the ones I grew when Elton John went from instant hit newcomer to album after album of killer material.

And, of course, Elton burned out after “Blue Moves” and Geffen could never achieve the same success he had on Uni.

Yes, he had hits, he was on MTV, but the songs did not quite resonate the same way until 1989’s “Sleeping With The Past,” with a return to greatness with “Club At The End Of The Street,” which could fit on any early seventies album, and the haunting “Blue Avenue.”

But Elton moved on to the Great White Way and Africa, with great success, but it appeared he was done on the hit parade. 2004’s “Songs From The West Coast” delivered, but it was out of time. Elton was too old, the scene was too pop and hip-hop, and it was mostly ignored.

Like everything else that doesn’t fit the niche.

It’s so hard to get noticed if you’re not pop or hip-hop, especially if you’re over forty, it’s like you don’t even exist.

And here comes “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again.”

Like I said, word was bad. But I was in an Elton mood, so I pulled up the cut on Amazon Music, its ULTRA HD tier is genius, and…

So was the track.

Huh?

This didn’t make sense. Everybody had dismissed this cut as a throwaway, tacked on to the movie, an injection of something new that you did not need to hear.

And if you listen to the original, that’s the truth.

But somehow that’s not what came up on Amazon Music. I searched on “Elton John” and I got the Purple Disco Machine remix of “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again.” I looked at my phone to do research, because this couldn’t be, this track was too good to be dismissed.

That’s when I found out the version I was listening to was not the original.

Which I then pulled up.

It misses. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that you don’t need to hear it again, it doesn’t stick to your bones, there’s no magic enticing you, getting you addicted, it sounds like a track that would play over the credits.

But not the remix.

I went back to it. And I still got it.

It was that guitar sound, the walk, the slurp, it’s hard to listen to the Purple Disco Machine take and not get up and dance, it’s the essence of music, something that immediately grabs you and won’t let go, puts a smile on your face, reinforces the feeling that life is worth living and that when done right music delivers a hit you cannot get anywhere else.

Purple Disco Machine…did I miss a memo? I mean I’d never heard of it, which turned out to be just one guy anyway. He had some success in the electronic music world, but he was no Deadmau5, he was not a household name, but today almost no one is a household name, and if you’re not deep into a scene you’ve got no idea what’s going on.

Now the skinny jean and black leather jacket crowd will scoff that this is disco. Then again, so is Prince’s “Dirty Mind,” his best effort if you ask me. Actually, there’s been more disco since the demolition back in ’79, seems like the disco beat is everywhere, even though this is called “house.”

Music is like pornography, you know it when you hear it. When done right, it’s inexplicable, it just reaches you. A musicologist can analyze it, but the truth is the people who made it don’t have those skills, they’ve just got the music in them.

Now there’s no place on radio for Purple Disco Machine’s remix of “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again,” but it could be a bar mitzvah/wedding staple.

Sure, the song won an Oscar, but I don’t expect any bounce.

Yet I’m bouncing as I listen to Purple Disco Machine’s remix of “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again.” It’s got that same feeling as “Philadelphia Freedom,” and isn’t that what we’re looking for from music, TO BE SET FREE?

P.S. I love tracks that you can play over and over again, for hours. Yup, every once in a while one comes along, it puts me in a mood, I put it on endless repeat and revel in the feeling. I don’t want to turn the Purple Disco Machine remix off, I don’t want to lose that feeling, OH, WHAT A FEELING!

“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again.” Spotify

“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again.” YouTube-

Purple Disco Machine remix

“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again.” Original