Trump’s afraid to tweet back.

That’s the power of entertainment, that’s the power of Hollywood, that’s the power of Detroit, that’s the power of art.

My inbox is filled up with right wing denizens decrying the work of Marshall Mathers. Saying he sucks, that it doesn’t matter, that we must respect the President. They’re no different from the older generation that hated the Beatles and supported the Vietnam War. They were on the wrong side of history, and Perry Como’s been long forgotten.

You’ve got to be on the front lines. That’s what the liberal elite just doesn’t get, the faceless reporters for the “New York Times,” the highly educated who know no one who voted for Trump. Then how did he win? Put your name on the line and you’ll be subject to blowback, I get it every damn day.

I knew of Trump’s power because when I denigrated him they came out in force, always with the same message, screw the poor, I worked hard for my money and Obama and Hillary are criminals, oftentimes with poor spelling, always writing “your” instead of “you’re.” And you can laugh at them, but they’re ruling. Check out the landscape, it’s not only Trump, Republicans rule D.C. and most states. Because the Democrats weren’t working for them, or they just want to keep their money and they’ve been misinformed by the right wing media.

You’ve got to watch Fox News. I listen on Sirius. It’s like a totally different country. I flip between MSNBC, CNN and Fox on the satellite. Oftentimes big stories don’t make it to Fox. And the hosts interrupt naysayers. And you’d think they had it so right if you didn’t know they had it so wrong.

That’s right, Fox, et al, have won hearts and minds. Almost no different from the Vietcong, it’s hard to defeat indoctrinated people.

Kinda like this Harvey Weinstein thing.

As soon as I wrote about it my inbox overflowed with right wingers wondering if he was gonna get the same treatment as O’Reilly and Ailes, saying that there was a double standard. Talking about donations to Hillary and Obama.

But Paul Krugman had it right:

“The Weinstein affair is giving us an object lesson in right-wing projection. I keep seeing outraged demands for liberal condemnation 1/

‘Will liberals condemn Weinstein the way they condemned Ailes and O’Reilly?’ they ask, presuming that the answer is no. But actually … 2/

Everywhere I look the answer is, in fact, yes. What we should ask is: ‘Did cons condemn Ailes/O’Reilly the way they condemn Weinstein?’ 3/

And the answer, mainly, is no. Excusing evil behavior by people on your side is what THEY do; they’re just projecting it onto libs 4/

And they’re outraged in advance over the false assumption that liberals are just like them 5/”

Those tweets were on Friday (@paulkrugman), and the truth is everyone on the left is excoriating Weinstein, he’s done, how many on the right came out against O’Reilly and Ailes?

Very few.

So hip-hop is the most powerful force in America. Rock is a joke and movies are too. Television is superior, but the biggest show, “Game of Thrones,” is fantasy, hip-hop is real life.

And Eminem is hip-hop royalty.

It doesn’t matter what Killer Mike says. Young Thug either. I applaud their efforts, but the America we live in is one wherein only those at the tippity-top have power. So the fact that nobodies, people far down the food chain, with a fraction of the traction of Mike or Thug, warbled songs against Trump is irrelevant, as a matter of fact, many were just looking for attention, but someone at the top, who is listened to, who has a broad audience, takes a stand and…

He or she can move mountains.

No one else has done this during the Trump Presidency.

Never forget, you can get away with anything as long as it’s the truth.

And Eminem’s screed was such.

And it doesn’t matter that the cognoscenti watching television hate rap, the younger generation lives for it, it’s a whole culture, absent from any other genre of music. People don’t go from hit to hit, they’re INVESTED in the sound.

And rap has been around for decades. So not only do you get the thirty and fortysomethings, you get the young ‘uns, and they are the future.

And you’ve got to start somewhere. Kinda like with the Vietnam War. So many were for it before they were against it. What turned them around? The culture, the music, the same music being listened to by the younger generation today. You may be pro-Trump but when your hero comes out and says the President’s a doofus directing us towards danger you evaluate what he has to say in a way you don’t evaluate the opposite viewpoint in TV or film. You believe in Eminem, you believe in the sound. And he’s so passionate and pulling no punches.

So Donald Trump can attack NBC. Elected officials. But he doesn’t dare mess with Eminem. Kinda like you can mess with the NFL but not the NBA. Because the slaves have taken over the plantation in the NBA, the players realize without their participation there is no game, and they utilized this leverage.

Whereas most musicians leave their leverage on the table. Believing they can accumulate the wealth of a techie or a banker they play it safe and whore themselves out with the result that no one believes them.

But they believe Eminem.

That’s the power of hip-hop.

That’s the power of music.

Who’s next?

“What kind of crazy fucked-up world do we live in where the best golfer is black and the best rapper is white?”

One in which Eminem drew a line in the sand tonight, if you’re not with me, FUCK YOU!

This is everything today’s “musicians” are against. They don’t want to alienate a single potential audience member. Meanwhile, Marshall even takes the side of Kaepernick when Jerry Jones and the NFL want to keep teams down on the plantation.

But homey don’t play that no more.

This was unexpected.

We had an unjust war in Iraq.

We had a “moron” elected President.

And nobody in music said a word.

But those days are done.

What the music industry won’t admit is what it’s selling pales in comparison to what’s happening in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, label heads, touring honchos, all they want to talk about is politics, you can get nary a peep out of them re music. Because they’re both fascinated and afraid.

But now Eminem broke the barrier down. Tonight he spoke the truth. Our truth. Isn’t that what artists are supposed to do, speak their truth beholden to no one?

Expect the floodgates to open, just like women came out of the woodwork after Cosby got caught, after Weinstein got caught, we’re a nation afraid of consequences until one person stands up, and no one’s got as much power as a musician, but they don’t use it, they’re afraid of alienating sponsors, they want to make nice.

But Eminem did not make nice tonight, he put it all on the line, he’s a beacon.

I lived through the sixties.

This is worse.

I was worried about getting my ass shot off in Vietnam.

Now I’m worried about being blown up by North Korea, latest news is their missiles can hit the west coast, but in a country where Puerto Rico can be devastated and no one cares, where Northern California can burn and no one cares, if you live in the Midwest or East you’re far less worried, you’re most concerned about terrorism, even though your chance of being killed by a stray bullet is much higher, and if you think the terrorists are coming first to Dubuque…

You probably voted for Trump.

Every damn day MSNBC beats up Trump. The NYT and the WaPo too.

And it makes no difference.

Every week Trump commits a faux pas, but nothing changes.

Except this weekend, when one of his team stood up and gave it to him, said the White House was a reality show and he was worried about World War III.

The world is changed by individuals. One person can change the course of history. Especially when they speak the truth.

So everyone’s got their heels dug in. We live in a tribal nation. You’re on one team or the other. Country acts can’t even come out for gun control after their fans are shot to death.

But then one artist who crosses lines spoke up.

Artists are not politicians. They exist in their own rarefied atmosphere. Eminem speaks to both right and left, both adore him. So when he speaks…

Taylor Swift is fighting Kanye, Marshall Mathers is fighting for equal rights and world peace.

So now everybody’s gonna see this, the entire younger generation, because hip-hop rules the country and Eminem is royalty. But instead of worrying about his bank account, tonight Marshall stood up for what’s right.

And maybe you already agree with him.

But if you don’t…

Are you gonna burn his CDs? Or delete his MP3s?

No, his video, his streams, are gonna live online, where you can’t kill them, looking you in the face every damn day.

Tonight Eminem broke the logjam. One artist eclipsed the entire debate. Called foul on Trump and his cronies agitating for a return to the past, where the little guy without a voice is screwed.

The only person with a voice as big as Trump’s is a rapper.

And tonight the king of rappers called him out.

Just start a tweet war with Eminem, Trump won’t be able to block followers fast enough, that’s the power of a musician.

And Eminem exercised that power tonight.

It’s been a long time coming.

P.S. That quote at the top is from Chris Rock, ever wonder where I got it from?

I got gas in the tank
I got money in the bank
I got news for you baby, you’re looking at the man
I got skin in the game
I got a household name
I got news for you baby, you’re looking at the man

David Krebs thinks rock died because of sexism. The acts he managed, Aerosmith, Nugent and AC/DC, could they say those things today? Sure, they’re all still touring, doing well, albeit with aged material, could the bad boys from Boston release “Lord Of The Thighs” from 1974’s “Get Your Wings” today?

I don’t think so, they’d be excoriated.

And the Killers have gone on record that “The Man” is parody, a look back to who they once were and are no more, but one thing’s for sure it’s CATCHY!

I got the memo but never spent any time with the band. But the endless tsunami of hype finally got to me, I decided to give a listen to their new album “Wonderful Wonderful.”

It doesn’t sound good.

As in the SOUND!

Once upon a time the goal was to get a big rig, a stereo with huge speakers and enough power to render the tunes in full fidelity. And to tell you the truth, vinyl was always compromised. But I come from the school that it sounded better, and acts competed for superior sound, Steely Dan being famous for this, so many other acts strived to transmit the studio to the listener, but something’s been lost in the digital era.

Most albums are recorded on computers. And reproduced on lame little speakers, with the sound oftentimes being transmitted via the range-decimating Bluetooth. In other words, the reproduction systems of today have impacted what we’re listening to. Rock just doesn’t sound good on today’s listening systems. Bass-heavy hip-hop does.

But in this case is it the recording or the mastering?

The album is tinny and lacks punch. I’ve experimented with different services, CD quality on Deezer, thousand dollar headphones via an amplifier, and still…the sound is thin, it doesn’t embrace you, it doesn’t punch you in the gut.

But “The Man” is great. If you were a fan of mid-period Queen you’d love it.

I was stunned to find out it was released to radio back in May. Even went to #1 on Adult Alternative, making the top five of Alternative, but I didn’t hear it, because I don’t listen to those formats.

Oh, I occasionally bump between them on Sirius, when Howard Stern doesn’t entrance me. But terrestrial radio is a no-go, life is too short for all those commercials, my life is ruled by Spotify’s Top Fifty, that’s how I know what is happening, and it’s rarely rock, but “The Man” does have 20 million streams on Spotify, nothing to sneeze at, but Post Malone’s ironically-titled “Rockstar,” currently #1 in the U.S. on Spotify, has 159 million streams, averaging 2,348,714 a day. Hell, the #50 song on Spotify, Liam Payne’s “Strip That Down,” has 356 million streams and is still averaging 406,277 a day. Sam Smith’s “Too Good At Goodbyes,” which certainly isn’t hip-hop and has only been out a month, has 126 million streams. Why is rock such a backwater?

So I decided to play “Wonderful Wonderful” like I owned it. You remember purchasing music, don’t you? You broke the shrinkwrap and played the LP through and one or two tracks stuck out, and then you played it over and over and over again until you got the rest, until you memorized them. But no matter how many times I played the title track, which opens the album, it didn’t reach me, it’s just not a hit. I mean the Stones established this paradigm decades ago, you open with a killer, but the Killers did not.

But you get “The Man” the first time through. But between the lyrics and the sound it comes across as neutered, even though the band is close to the best we’ve got, in the rock world anyway. The lead singer can actually sing, the songs are compact and digestible, but they’re interwoven with these modern sounds, is that the problem? The music doesn’t sound like a breakthrough, just a band trying to appear hip and modern.

But that first time through I found one other killer, “Some Kind Of Love.”

Now most rockers won’t attempt this sound anymore, you won’t hear it on Active Rock, where the bands are afraid to get close to the dreaded hair band sound of the late eighties, but “Some Kind Of Love” is not wimpy, but airy, it’s not made for a market, it sounds genuine, it’s what Coldplay does, only the Killers do it better. You’ll be nodding your head as it emanates from your listening device of choice.

So “Wonderful Wonderful” has two extremely good tracks. I know, I know, this is coming across somewhat negative, but I wouldn’t be writing it at all if it weren’t for these two tracks, and the fact that the more I listen to the rest of “Wonderful Wonderful” the more it appeals to me.

But has anyone got the time? Especially in this genre?

You can’t tell from the hype. Every week there’s a new SoundScan #1. Insiders ignore it, unless their act is atop that perch. And then most are forgotten. Unless you’re hip-hop, there’s little cross-pollination, everything’s its own vertical, unless you make a specific effort chances are you’ll never hear it.

But in the early seventies, before FM was codified, you’d hear stuff like “Some Kind Of Love” all the time, it was the essence of the format, before a hit was defined as something that was catchy and could play on AM Top Forty.

So what I’d like to hear is a remastered version of “Wonderful Wonderful,” one that sounded more human. Especially now that streaming services make everything the same level shouldn’t the loudness wars be over?

I’m not saying the Killers are the only act on the bleeding edge, but with these two tracks they show they’ve got gas in the tank, that there still is hope left in rock, but this sound never crosses over anymore, it’s a ghetto.

And that’s sad.

the Killers – Spotify

YouTube: “The Man”

YouTube: “Some Kind Of Love”

How to listen to the ‘Dirty John’ podcast

Have you ever regretted your choices? Wondered how life would have turned out if you’d taken the other path?

I have.

Now I’m not sure whether this podcast is a triumph, or a low-level genre piece akin to cable TV exposes of crime. But the difference is TV is lowbrow, all about the facts and drama, whereas this is nuanced and told from a reporter’s perspective and you get hooked, maybe because it’s a podcast, what do they say about radio, it’s “theatre of the mind”? Believe me, listening to “Dirty John” will spook you. Because the truth is no one’s immune, anyone can be dragged down, I know, it happened to me.

You see you grow up in a family, with a limited world view. And although your horizons are broadened in college, it’s when you leave the world of education and start figuring things out for yourself that you get in trouble. Maybe you never really left home, maybe you’re still in the cocoon. And maybe that’s good. But if you go to the big city to make it you run into charlatans, people with different backgrounds and different moral values, and if you’re unlucky, you’re gonna make a wrong choice and then…

That’s why I believe in arranged marriage. You’re best off marrying someone from the same background, someone who’s known, because that good-looking person you found at the bar, the one you bumped into at the grocery store, even the one you met at the party…

You’ve got no idea who they really are.

So you’re listening to this podcast thinking this woman is an idiot. And that may be true. But you’ll also be envious of her financial success. Made from scratch in the design business. The truth is everyone is not good at everything. And some of the best business people are bad at relationships.

And she wants to believe, she wants to be optimistic. That’s another characteristic of entrepreneurs, because if you’re pessimistic it’s hard to get ahead.

And you’ll wince when you hear she’s been married four times previously.

But this is not uncommon with baby boomers. I know completely reasonable people who’ve been married three times. This is not today, with its huge divide between haves and have-nots, where the haves marry people from their same social stratum and stay together and the have-nots have children out of wedlock. And don’t shoot the messenger, these facts are based upon statistics, published seemingly everywhere.

So her family smells a rat, almost instantly. But when you’re in love, with the sex and attention, you believe it’s the two of you against the world, and love is hard to find, so you ignore them. And I can quote chapter and verse of families nixing relationships and the couple never getting over the breakup, happened in my family, so…

Liars are good at it. They’re convincing. And the legal system is no help. You think you’ve got the strong arm of the law on your side, but the truth is you’re on your own baby, especially when it comes to domestic disputes.

So you’ll be sucked in, I guarantee it.

This is not “Serial,’ with a unique premise, where you wonder about the facts.

This is cold-hearted crime. A bad actor on parade.

But there are bad actors everywhere.

The L.A. “Times’ is a joke. It’s gotten so thin there’s little news in it. Is this how they save the brand, with investigative journalism and attendant podcasts? That’s right, concomitant with the podcast the story has been printed in the newspaper, so you know what’s going to happen, but that’s not why you’re listening, you’re listening for the human condition. And last time I checked that’s what we are, all of us, humans, frail, imperfect, prone to mistakes…

Just don’t make the biggest mistake of your life.

PART 1: THE REAL THING – Dirty John