You don't bite back. That's rule number one of the internet. How come the oldsters don't know this?

Because they didn't grow up online.

It's not only Trump, but Gayle King... The dirty little secret is most people don't know most things. We no longer live in a concentrated world. Rather we live in a land of infinity, and if you're surprised by the record that's number one, having not only never heard it, but never heard OF IT, you know this.

But readers hate when I rag on old people.

Everybody can do everything. It's not only the left that are woke. Disillusion and orthodoxy rule the old. Just because you smoked marijuana and grew your hair long that does not mean you're hip today.

And the dirty little secret is NEITHER ARE THE YOUNG!

For a while there was this canard that if your computer was broken a young 'un could fix it. Turned out they didn't know how it worked either. However, computers and smartphones and tablets have improved to the point where they're nearly idiot-proof. Tap away, the device will survive, this is not the nineties where one false move will brick your computer.

So Trump thinks it's still 2016 and his act is new. But that was ten years ago. The left was surprised that he used social media and profanity. But all these years later, it's de rigueur.. Did you see that Bill Maher clip of Democrats employing curse words?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t560SJVHeM

The world changes and you must change with it.

And the truth is Bruce Springsteen was ubiquitous and powerful in the eighties, but now although not marginal, like all old acts he cannot reach the Spotify Top 50, even worse, despite all the clamoring about high prices and platinum ticketing, he does not go clean everywhere in America. Want to see Bruce? Wait until the last minute and show up at the building, you should have no problem buying a ticket. However this is not the case in Europe, in Europe Springsteen is huge, A GOD!

So Bruce ranks out (talk about aged verbiage) Trump at the start of his tour in England and unless you follow music news closely, you're unaware of it. Or even if you see the headline, do you even read the story? I forwarded the video and boomers were completely unaware.

But then Trump barks back.

And no one on his team has the balls, never mind the intelligence, to tell him to cool it.

Now more people know about Springsteen's rant. And why is he attacking Swift? Her tour is over and she's been quiet, letting the land lie fallow so that people will come back next time, unlike Beyoncé.

You have to be able to take a punch.

And you must know who to attack.

Assuming someone cares, people know that Bruce is a Democrat. Trump is not earning points with his acolytes. He's just looking cringey to those who are on Bruce's side.

As for Swift... She's not as big as the press makes her out to be, no one is, but she probably has more hard core fans than Trump himself. And she's been silent. You've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em.

It'd be one thing if Trump were surrounded by smart people. But that was his first term. Now he's got a "Real World" star and someone with a worm in his brain who moments before was a Democrat, and Tulsi Gabbard...whose side is she on anyway? If you think these people are willing to risk their jobs by speaking truth to power, then you think the members of Congress are more interested in doing what is right than keeping their gigs.

As for the Boss... Notice he didn't respond. He's been here before, with the aforementioned ticketing fracas. You can't win against the public, it just can't be done. And denial doesn't work either. Yeah right, Oasis had no idea of the ticket prices in the U.K. They were only doing it for the money! Don't undercut people's fantasy, they want to believe, don't reveal that you have no clothes.

As for Swift... She used to bite back right away, but people turned against her. That's another feature of the modern era, forgetfulness. Don't you remember when everybody was against Swift? She changed her tune. Her skin is not as thin. But she does say something eventually. And Trump better beware.

Oh don't tell me that Swift couldn't get Harris elected. NO ONE could have gotten Harris elected! We had to hear for eons that Biden was in tip-top shape, if you said he was old and out of it you were delusional. And now the Tapper book comes out and what is delineated is what those with eyes and ears knew eons ago...THE MAN WAS COMPROMISED!

And you wonder why people have no faith in the parties, never mind the system.

The Democrats are in disarray, deservedly so. And although a few of them, like Pritzker and Murphy, never mind AOC, are hip to the new reality and fighting back with intensity, the rest are silent, in truth afraid of losing their gigs. They think it's business as usual. But we haven't had that spirit here in years!

So the public is unmoored from the government. Elon Musk thinks he knows what people want, that he's in touch with the hoi polloi, and he finds out otherwise. Notice how you haven't heard Elon's name recently? He thought he was winning, but he was losing. Teslas stopped selling and the value of the stock which he borrows against to live tanked. That's the power of the public.

Taking the temperature of the public is a job. But today, the only way you can win is by spending tons of time online. Whereas the old paradigm was to make phone calls and go to lunch, try to get inside information via your relationships. If you do this today you're out of the loop!

The oldsters excoriate the internet and social media and the youngsters live on it.

Kind of like privacy... If I read one more story about the information we're coughing up online... YOUNG PEOPLE DON'T CARE! We can debate whether they should, but they don't. As for scraping your info from the net... It's essentially impossible, it's a full time job and you can't win. As for those who believe that by not being online they're victorious... They don't know that all their info is out there anyway. I can find out your age, where you live, even pictures of your domicile in map apps.

You've got to get your head out of the sand.

As for the knee-jerk Trump supporters... They're just as bad as the knee-jerk Biden supporters. As for those who still believe in Harris...even the Democratic pols are backing away from her, saying she never would have been the candidate if there was a primary. But if you say that Harris is toxic, that she's inauthentic, that she didn't lose because of racism and sexism, you're beaten down by a left that refuses to face the truth, or lives in a bubble as bad as the right and thinks they know better when they know little.

If only people would wake up to the fact that as much as they know, more than ever in history, they know less than the total.

You're online, getting information. But it's a fraction of the information out there.

As for the big swinging dicks... The brass at Warner Bros. Discovery changed the name from HBO MAX to MAX because they believed that lowbrows would be turned off by the HBO moniker, as if the lowbrows don't all want to drive Ferraris and wear LV and Prada. And the dirty little secret is ALMOST NOBOODY WAS WATCHING THE DISCOVERY CONTENT! All those lowbrow shows on MAX, the reality crap, turns out people don't want to stream them. I've got no belief in Zaslav and his cronies, but at least they were smart enough to realize they were wrong and switch the name back to HBO.

So Putin is not dumb. Nor is Orbán. Putin is manipulative. If he's losing public confidence he'll manufacture a war as a distraction. These men are one step ahead of their detractors, they rule with an iron fist. In order to maintain power as a dictator you must be intelligent and playing the three dimensional chess that acolytes say Trump does, but I'd be stunned if he could play the one-dimensional game.

Now Trump is smart enough to know that you win by controlling the courts. And after that comes the military. And if you have both of them under your thumb you can breathe a sigh of relief, but not forever, the landscape is continually changing.

This is the path that Trump is on. Hell, ignoring court orders and having a military parade? Never mind the chilling of action and speech. But will he be able to execute, maintain power?

I wouldn't bet against him, but if he keeps evidencing this level of insanity, he's going to make those who are not dyed-in-the-wool MAGA question their belief in him.

You want people on your side. When you attack Springsteen and Swift what are you achieving? You're just showing how small you are.

The public is not with him on this.

I'd expect further faux pas in the future.


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