He came out in a mask.

For far too long America has been losing. Targeting minorities. Becoming isolationist. Pursuing strategies that have not only disconnected us from the world at large, but made our country, once the land of hope and freedom, into a laughingstock.

Is our long national nightmare over? I am not sure, but at least we’re finally going in the right direction, with a man known for his empathy, who wants to restore true American values and lift up not only our nation, but its inhabitants, each and every one of them.

He’s old. By old standards. Today people regularly live past 100. And sure, some of them suffer from impairments, but the truth is, the older you get, the wiser you become, you’ve seen so much, you’ve learned so many lessons, for once we’ve got a truly experienced pol as our president. HALLELUJAH!

Yes, that’s where Joe Biden has spent his career, in government. Something that has been denigrated for four decades now, as inefficient and wasteful. For far too long the underclass has been ignored while the upper class has taken the ball and run away with it to the point where they’re not even playing the same game. We need to support those in need. Every person deserves this. Especially those born through no fault of their own, why hold them back when they’re just beginning?

Yes, we need to open doors at the top, for women and minorities and the economically challenged. You must be able to lift your way up in traditional avenues, not only entertainment and athletics, everybody deserves a chance to make it in the American system, as an integral part of what makes our nation work.

Barack Obama promised hope. Little did we know how much hope we needed. As a result of the policies of both parties, many were left behind in the march to globalization. There are so many efficiencies that too many people are out of jobs, and the jobs that are available are low-paying service gigs that pay so little you can’t make rent, never mind put food on the table and support your family. And it’s hard to feel good about yourself when you’ve lost in a game of musical chairs, with no opportunity on the horizon. It can’t be every person for themselves in America, we must come together and lift each other up.

Of course government is imperfect. Of course America is imperfect. But that’s no reason to shut its systems down, put incompetent people in positions they’re in no way qualified for with the end result being the only winners are the corporations who employ lobbyists to get the results they desire. Climate change. Not only is the west coast burning up, but Colorado too. And there are endless storms on the east coast, more intense than ever. Can we stop putting our heads in the sand and think about solutions as opposed to shrugging our shoulders and saying it’s too bad for those afflicted?

And yes, Puerto Rico needs to be made a state. D.C. too. Not for the electoral college votes involved, but because their residents deserve power, a right to vote, there’s no reason we should treat Puerto Ricans as second-class citizens.

Obama gave us hope that we could right the wrongs of the Bush administration. Which kept giving money to the rich which did not trickle down to those who needed it. But Obama was hamstrung by a Republican Congress. His heart was in the right place, but action was hampered. However, we should never forget that it was Obama who put forth the ACA and got it passed. Did you read today’s “New York Times,” about the Covid effects of the Sturgis rally? Attendee Albert Aguirre died, because he didn’t have health insurance and was afraid to go for treatment, because of the expense. Everybody has a right to health insurance. And never forget, we are all linked. If one of us suffers a loss, it impacts all of us. That person can no longer consume, that person can no longer produce, and those two are the basic elements of our nation’s economy. Our nation runs on the spending of the masses, not the billionaires. The masses keep the billionaires in business, because if people stopped buying, there would be no reason for the companies those billionaires built to exist. We must save Main Street as well as Wall Street. We must provide a safety net for our citizens as we strive to eradicate Covid-19 from our nation.

Covid-19. Mark Meadows said it was no longer a priority. Donald Trump said we had turned the corner. Meanwhile, the U.S. is setting new records in infections, it’s the one area in which we truly rule the world.

So, Joe Biden, making the speech of his life, rising to the occasion, thanked those who helped him get here, but he continually hammered points about the coronavirus. It made me smile, truly have hope, for the first time since March. Yes, Covid-19 is gone from Wuhan. Essentially nonexistent in New Zealand, and on the ropes in Australia and South Korea. Why can’t we conquer it here? Elon Musk and Tesla provide electric cars, Apple provides a computer that fits in your hand, but somehow, we’re powerless against this virus. HOGWASH!

Yes, what Meadows and Trump have said is malarkey.

So what if it’s an ancient word. The truth is no one is hip in America anymore. There are so many niches, no one can be up on all of them. So, we must put our heads together for safety and progress as opposed to pulling apart.

I don’t know about you, but the declaration of Biden’s victory this morning did not seem real. Maybe it was the days we waited. Maybe it’s because we’ve been abused for four years and we’re still afraid. But tonight we could not ask for a better effort in bringing us all together. Maybe now people will start revering the experienced. For although old, Joe was sharp tonight, hitting all the right notes, ones that seemed to have been excised from the lexicon.

Hard work? We’ve got to pull up our sleeves and push this country uphill. Take it from down in the pits to level ground, and then build it further up again. There are so many moving parts, which is why you need a leader to deliver context, to get everybody on the same page, all Americans moving to fix what’s wrong and build what we need.

It doesn’t matter how you look. It matters who you are. Character. If you’re not afraid of looking like a dork, then you are inherently compromised, you’re fearful of owning your identity and truly following your heart. For far too long, this nation has been subject to groupspeak. To the point where people are afraid to say the unpopular. But if you’re not willing to push the envelope, to hang it out alone, at best you’re a cog in the wheel. And we need those cogs, but we also need innovators, leaders. Like those electric cars… Do you know why they’re such a big deal? Oh sure, they use electricity produced in fossil fuel power plants. But electric cars are MORE EFFICIENT! With internal combustion engines, most of the energy bleeds off as heat, it does nothing to propel the automobile. So, with electric cars we can reduce our carbon footprint. And just because some other nations are polluters that does not mean we can’t lead. Ever hear of leading by example? That’s what America used to do, this country was the envy of the world.

Unfortunately, too many Americans are sans passports, they haven’t been anywhere else, so they’re uninformed as to the rest of the world. Life in Denmark and Sweden is pretty neat. As it is in Canada. Talk to a Canadian, they love their national health care service, they don’t have to take an unwanted job just for the insurance, and they can leave jobs and even become entrepreneurs while still being covered. And it is these seekers and doers that build the economy.

I’m not going to argue the issues. I’m not going to try and convince you that you’re wrong. I’m just going to say, as Joe did this evening, that there are so many POSSIBILITIES! Our nation used to have a can-do spirit, not a can-not. And it’s been our outside of the box thinkers that have revolutionized not only our nation, but the entire world. That’s the American spirit, the sky’s the limit. It’s built into our character. But you can’t go it alone and just because you’re successful, that does not mean everyone else has to be unsuccessful, there’s no reason it has to be a zero sum game.

I didn’t need so much hope when Obama first got elected. Sure, we were going in the wrong direction, but democracy itself was not at stake.

And truthfully, whenever I start to become elated, I think of all those on the other side and it deflates me. Why they hate us so bad, why they’re so stuck on individualism to the point where safety nets are abhorred, I do not understand. But sometimes by chopping off the head, you kill the whole animal. Without Trump disparaging good Americans, without Trump telling individuals without portfolio to stand up against our government institutions, maybe those on the other side will calm down, maybe they’ll see what Biden has to offer is actually beneficial. As for those afraid of Marxism and the rest of the b.s. spewed by the right wing media, you can relax, it ain’t coming, just pay attention.

My country is not what it used to be. Income inequality is rampant, such that if you apply yourself, put your nose to the grindstone, you still might not get ahead. We need those who work with their hands. They should be able to afford a reasonable lifestyle while they’re providing for us.

This is a reset. I cannot guarantee you everything will be hunky-dory, but we’ve finally got someone experienced trying to lead us down the right path. Once again…HALLELUJAH!

He’s not gonna go.

Let me tell you how this used to work, when the Republicans were actually Democrats by today’s standards. The Senate turned against Nixon, they confronted him, telling him he did not have enough votes to evade conviction at an impeachment trial, and Nixon resigned.

That’s not the way it’s gonna go down here.

Last night, the “New York Post” turned against Trump. If this were still 1974, that would be the first domino. Right wing newspaper stakes a claim and the rest of the media and then elected officials fall in behind. But that’s forgetting that they tried that, back in 2016, and it didn’t work. Let’s not rewrite history here, even Rupert Murdoch himself, came out against Trump. And never forget Trump’s dust-up with Megyn Kelly. She dared, just like Lesley Stahl, to ask him hard questions, the questions expected by any political candidate, and Trump blew back, hard. And the consequences? NONEXISTENT! Megyn Kelly felt uncomfortable at Fox, so she left, only to find out the public wanted to watch Fox, not her, that the anchors are fungible, and Trump broke code and released the “60 Minutes” footage before CBS, getting the advantage of spin and greatly decreasing the impact of the ultimate telecast.

And it wasn’t only Rupert Murdoch who was against Trump, but essentially all of the Republican string-pullers as well as the candidates who were running against the Donald. What happened? Trump became the nominee and fearful of getting their balls cut off, incurring the wrath not only of Trump, but their constituents, they got in line and became 24/7 Trumpers. His way or no way.

In other words, Trump dictated to the media, which fell in line, and the elected officials, who fell in line. So, even if both of them come out against Trump, HE’S NOT GONNA LISTEN TO THEM! Come on, if Fox, a disinformation outlet, dares to criticize Trump he goes nuclear, he starts ranting on Twitter, and his reach is more than theirs.

This is how despots, authoritarians work, they don’t give up power, they cement it.

So, Biden won the election. WHO CARES? Come on, take the presidency from me, I dare you. Meanwhile, I’ve been muddying the water to such an extent that my constituency, proven huge on Tuesday by an unexpectedly large vote, which the media completely missed, believing Biden would win in a landslide, will stand behind me. And furthermore, the ass-kisser-in-chief, Lindsey Graham, donated 500k to Trump’s legal team… Once again, what are the legal issues here?

You’ve got to watch tonight’s Bill Maher.

Oh, you don’t get HBO. I guess that just proves the point of Tristan Harris’s appearance on the show. We’re all now sliced into our own private bubbles by our information systems, which for the vast majority of America are social media outlets. Harris was in the “Social Dilemma.” That was on Netflix, you’ve got that, and it’s only anti-Trump if you decry the manipulation of people into ignorance. Harris lays out the influence of Facebook. The truth is, many of Trump’s minions are living in a completely different universe.

Actually, all you’ve got to do is turn on Fox News during prime time.

Your head will spin, like Regan in the “Exorcist.”

Yes, Laura Ingraham was talking about the integrity of the election process. That Republicans have lost faith in it as a result of nefarious Democratic actions and it must be investigated, otherwise the count can’t count. Whoa… Wasn’t it the right that supported DeJoy’s crippling of the Post Office, wasn’t it the right trying to suppress the vote? The defining element here is Trump and the Republicans want to halt the vote in Pennsylvania but continue it in Arizona. And pissed, Trump is now telling his folk to vote AFTER election day!

And tonight Tucker Carlson talked about the corporatists who will take over the government. Yes, the rich who will keep you down. Huh? Aren’t most of the uber-rich Republicans?

Yes, if you’re watching Fox, you’re getting a completely different spin on reality, there is no reality. But most people get their info from social media, to the point that we will have QAnon believers in the House of Representatives.

So, after Bill Maher’s interview with Tristan Harris, the single best guest appearance on the show this season, there’s a panel consisting of Rosa Brooks and Malcolm Nance. Brooks is the daughter of Barbara Ehrenreich, who has revealed the problems facing the underclass, and Brooks is also a law professor at Georgetown. Malcolm Nance is a security consultant. You know him, he’s all over TV, he worked in intelligence in the military. And Brooks was playing the optimist and Nance was playing the pessimist.

Which are you? I’m a Jew, we’ve been persecuted for millennia. And anti-Semitism is ramping up, along with Holocaust denial. I’m a pessimist, so sue me. Jews have to always be on alert for incoming, I am.

But if you’re a Biden supporter and you’re a pessimist you’re a pariah. You must support the man, and not spoil the party. As for those on the other side of the political fence… You should have seen my inbox, they were convinced Trump was gonna win, CONVINCED! And they were dancing on Biden and my soon to be graves. They had the coffin nails out. Trump was gonna finish the job, bring prosperity to America, right all the wrongs. But now it’s not going their way.

The TV networks are afraid to call the election. Fox called Arizona for Biden on Tuesday night and Trump and the right still haven’t gotten over it. Both Trump and those on the network have continued to excoriate Arnon Mishkin. The networks and cable channels are afraid of calling Pennsylvania, never mind Georgia and Nevada, because they don’t want the blowback. Hell, the other outlets won’t even call Arizona!

So, my inbox has quieted down. The balloon has been deflated. But there’s still some air in there. But if the left insists on continuing to drain it, make the balloon go completely flat…WATCH OUT!

That’s another Fox spin. That conservatives are docile, and it’s the left that always revolts, we’ve got to watch out for Antifa. Like I said, it’s an alternate reality, which tens and tens of millions of Americans eat at the trough of. So, if the media insists on Biden emerging victorious, do you really expect these Trump acolytes to sit at home and accept it?

That’s what Malcolm Nance was talking about. Paramilitary efforts. We’ve seen them already, right wing militias going after protesters, right wing truck caravans, closing roadways, surrounding a Biden campaign bus. And Trump has been egging them on, continuously!

The law doesn’t matter. IT DOES NOT MATTER!

Trump just has to not leave. He’s already not gonna concede. Make him, I dare you. AUTHORITARIANS DON’T LEAVE! They just rewrite the playbook, and stuff the public with misinformation.

Meanwhile, you’ve got those roving paramilitary outfits. It always starts small, it doesn’t start big and fizzle out, it builds. Just when you think you’re safe, BINGO, you’re gone. As for the Supreme Court doing the right thing… Hell, as Nance says, it’s like “Judgment at Nuremberg,” which was about prosecuting the court enablers in Germany!

Forget legal reality. Anybody can sue anybody and bury them in paperwork. And Trump’s an expert on this. Did you watch either of the NXIVM documentaries? Naysayers were buried by the legal efforts of the organization, funded by the Bronfman sisters. Truth only comes at the end of the line in a legal spat.

And speaking of truth, once again, it’s being revealed days after the election. Forgetting our fakokta Electoral College, the public at large voted for Biden in overwhelming numbers. And with two Senate seats up for grabs in Georgia, the Senate might still end up blue.

Of course we’ve got to credit Stacey Abrams for the Georgia miracle. She felt the governorship of the state was stolen from her, so she not only got angry, she did something about it, she got 800,000 new voters added to the rolls. Ergo, the Georgia miracle. Proving the power of one individual, proving the resentment of African-Americans, proving that if you make people believe they’ve got a stake in the outcome, that it will benefit them, truly, they’ll vote.

But, not everything is turning up roses. Democrats lost seats in the House. They did not regain state legislatures, so redistricting is out of their hands, i.e. gerrymandering. And let’s be clear, Biden is a one-termer. He’s just too old. And then where are the Democrats? Never forget that Harris is black, and that’s one of the reasons Trump got elected in the first place, resentment of Obama. And yes, white nationalism has raised its head to a point heretofore unseen in most Americans’ lives. And Trump has endorsed it, after all, there are fine people on both sides.

And the irony is yes, there are fine people on both sides. But, once again, Mark Zuckerberg is the most powerful person in America. Yes, if you want to control the outcome, if you want political power, own a printing press, or the modern-day equivalent. That’s how Murdoch influenced not only American elections, but Brexit! And Zuckerberg was not elected and is beholden to essentially no one.

So, if you’re on the right, you truly believe the election was stolen.

And on the left, it’s all delusional “Happy days are here again!”

And neither is the truth. And it will have consequences.

But first Biden has to be called and then Trump has to go. Turns out, as I stated above, the entire U.S. media apparatus is gun-shy about stating the obvious, Biden’s victory, and no one has come up with a good plan to get rid of Trump, they just keep talking about the law in a lawless society.

Be afraid, be very afraid, no matter which side you are on.

Dan Wilson is a songwriter, perfomer, producer and painter! You know him from Semisonic and “Closing Time” and “Secret Smile” as well as “Someone Like You,” which he cowrote with Adele, and “Not Ready to Make Nice,” which he cowrote with the (Dixie) Chicks, and many more. Listen for personal history, band stories and songwriting tips!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dan-wilson/id1316200737?i=1000497325036

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/The-Bob-Lefsetz-Podcast

It’s not the 1960s anymore. You remember, the era when music drove the culture and impacted young ‘uns philosophies. Musicians were wise gurus. Sure, they were getting wealthy, but concert tickets were three, four and five dollars. Albums were under five bucks and royalty rates were low. There were no tech billionaires, never mind finance bros. In other words, musicians graduated from the middle class to the upper class and they brought their middle class values with them, there was no one-tenth of one percent to sell out to, and in that era, and throughout the seventies and into the eighties, corporations were the enemy, you didn’t do commercials, you both wanted and needed to keep yourself pure, to align you with your audience. Your career was everything. There were no side hustles. No branding of identity to sell perfume and clothing and other dreck. You were what you sang, and your public believed you.

Furthermore, you could reach everybody. That was the power of Top Forty radio. Which transferred over to FM radio in the late sixties and seventies. Everybody was clued-in, there was a dividing line, between youngster and oldster, and although not everybody was hip, they wanted to be, they may have waited years to grow out their hair, years to get into album rock, but they didn’t pooh-pooh the scene, they were oblivious until they were enlightened.

Today the landscape has been complete shattered, Balkanized, even though the industry and the oldsters still believe we are operating under the old paradigm.

The “stars” don’t reach enough people to have influence. Every act is positively cottage industry today. However, believing there’s still one fan to make, they bland out their image so as not to offend anyone, so they can sell them products down the line. Then there are the cartoons, talking about a fantasy life that exists for almost no one, gangsters and dope deals and other stuff straight out of the movies. These tracks are the equivalent of high concept, blockbuster movies, with superheroes and special effects, they bear no resemblance to life here on planet earth, it’s all fun.

And the fun is had by the hoi polloi. The public oftentimes has more power, more of a voice than the stars. Everybody can participate in social media for free, and there’s always someone with traction. Then again, it’s like a glorified high school election, someone is a star and then the next year’s class comes in and the old stars are forgotten.

So, you can’t reach everybody. The key is to go backwards, into your niche, to explore and ultimately reveal your identity and feelings. This has always been the essence of blockbuster music, but interestingly, once again, the regular folk are showing the way. The way you make it on social media is to have an identity, to have edges that can hook people, it’s interesting that pop acts shave those off, ultimately leaving them without influence.

And the audience no longer looks to musicians for messages. Of course, there are the bottom-feeders, but they’re no different from Kellogg or Post advertising cereal on television so kids will force their parents to buy it. There’s no thinking involved. And as soon as someone can think, they want to be an entrepreneur. Business has replaced music as the goal, unless you’re from the lower class, have received a substandard education, or are a minority with few opportunities, then music is an option. And the focus is money. Making a living is more important than getting your message out. Music used to be the domain of the middle class, that’s no longer the case, as the middle class slowly evaporates.

So oldsters, boomers, are still waiting for that twenty first century protest song. But that would require acts to create it and fans to listen to it. Today’s young acts did not grow up with a history of protest songs. Now they aspire to be Mariah Carey, who broke thirty years ago. Or a rapper. And in a world where Whitney Houston is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, how can the institution and the music purveyed be said to have any meaning? Not only was Houston not rock, she was singing fluff. And there’s a place for fluff, but that is not what the Beatles sold, which broke this industry wide open.

So, today’s young ‘uns don’t have the bones to create the protest song. And whatever they create has a limited audience. Ariana Grande has a new album. Have you even heard it, are you even aware of it? The biggest acts in the business are sideshows, with a self-hyping industry little different from the Democratic Party and its media partners, who think they know what’s going on when they patently do not.

Music has power, but you’ve got to use it.

As for Kanye West setting himself on fire, creating a presidential sideshow, it turns out it was a media story and that was it. No one wanted to vote for Kanye, no one took his run seriously other than the press and maybe Kanye himself. Train-wrecks sell ads. And if there’s an ad to be sold, the media is complicit. To the point where non-stories are amplified and real stories go unaddressed. Everything’s about money. And when that’s the case, there’s no soul. Steve Jobs famously said Apple computers were tools. It was up to the user to create something. But for two decades, the public worshipped the creations of the techies, until the game of musical chairs ended, with a handful of technical companies ruling, and software became the game. You’d think the focus would be on software in the music business, i.e. the music itself. But the biggest story in music today is the size of streaming payments, when the truth is if you’re popular, you’re making a ton of money, assuming you don’t have a bad deal with your label/distributor. As for everybody else? Not enough people are listening, sorry. They’re like the nincompoops agitating for manufacturing to come back to America. That is never going to happen. It’s just too expensive. And it’s the customer who won’t bear the freight, the customer that rejects the overpriced local product. I mean who wants to pay a thousand bucks for a mediocre flat screen TV?

But in a world of winners and losers, the major players, i.e. the three major labels, are circling the wagons, putting out less and less material, all of which can potentially be huge right out of the gate. They’re in the moonshot business, whereas this business was always built on singles and doubles, you didn’t hit the grand slam right out of the box. Then again, the home run rules in baseball, it’s all or nothing, and the managers are ruled by data to the point the soul has been eviscerated from the game. But there are rules in baseball, not in art, the sky is the limit in art, but there’s an inherent ceiling, no one in the infrastructure wants disruption, they just want things to continue the way they have been as they spew false figures to make themselves feel good that have no real effect, like trumpeting Springsteen has had a top five album in the last six decades. It’s like watching sports, where the announcers are constantly coming up with irrelevant statistics. Never mind in this case manipulated. Who cares about the social impact of Springsteen’s new album, we’ve quantified it! Isn’t this the opposite of what Springsteen stood for?

As for Springsteen and the rest of the acts taking political sides… Why should anybody listen to them? Where is their gravitas? Springsteen may be a hero to his fans, but he hasn’t had a ubiquitous hit since the eighties, before many voters were even born.

So, the oldsters have no impact upon the political mind-set of their constituencies.

And the youngsters were never selling what Springsteen did, never mind Barry McGuire or Neil Young. There’s no history for this. And why should a youngster believe the words of a musician, adopt their views?

So musicians can have no political impact. None. There’s no framework for it.

Furthermore, the audience may not be receptive to their views. They’re getting their messages elsewhere, the musician has to compete with the gamer, those who rule online, who evidence their personalities. So, you got promoted by the machine, you sang a bland song, you did corporate deals…why exactly should I listen to you again? The artists have sacrificed their cultural power.

As for those complaining they’re doing it right, yet with no traction, I respond that they are not doing it right, because either their music is not good enough, not enough people want to listen to it, or they don’t realize music is a hard game today, where you’re lucky to have an audience at all, and if you do, you superserve it and grow it from the bottom up as opposed to the top down. If you’re complaining about your reach, you’ve missed the plot. The game is to motivate your listeners, instinctively, so they spread the word. And if you try to motivate them falsely, by imploring them to stream on Spotify, and complaining about the game, that you’re not number one on the chart because of a manipulation, you’ve lost the plot. Growth needs to be organic, or you’re done. The faster your ascension, the quicker your descension.

To change this we must start completely over, with a blank slate. The industry operates on the eighties MTV paradigm, one of monoculture. The monoculture is gone, history. As for being truth-seeking and honest, those are anathema today, because you might not get rich and people have no respect for truth and honesty.

Only they do.

Movements start small. Now that we can reach everybody, creators wants to reach everybody at once. That’s a fool’s errand. To disrupt, you start small, with an incredible product that you refine over time. And users/listeners, are more important than cash. You get the audience and then you monetize. Quibi should have realized this from the start, but they didn’t, they were slaves to their business plan, there is no business plan in art, it all depends on hits. And hits are made by the public, not the machine.

So, music has squandered its political influence. And it’s not as easy as going back to the past, because our nation has fractured politically, there’s not a ready-made national audience for an outsider performer, irrelevant of their politics. Until this business flips, and focuses on the music as opposed to the penumbra, the chart statistics, the grosses, all the metrics that have nothing to do with the art, never mind the entrepreneurial ventures, music will continue to be a sideshow of little influence, as it was before the Beatles. Sure, there were stars, there were hits, there was fandom, but it did not impact the soul of our country, it did not move the political views of listeners, never mind the government.

So, to change we’ve got to run in the other direction. Away from the modern construct. We’ve got to focus on the art, the message, sans the hype that is dismissed by most of our nation today. To compete with Trump you must be his opposite, you can’t win playing his game.

And you must know the landscape, both inner and outer. You must draw people to you as a result of the magic you create. And to a great degree magic has gone out the window in the internet world where mystery is history and everybody is fighting for attention.

Yes, not only has the music business changed, but the music itself. And the audience. To expect the game to play out as it did in the past is a joke. You’ve got to first make music believable before you expect people to believe its message. But art is more powerful than business, every day. Art is more powerful than money. But you must use the tools, you must adhere to your inner tuning fork, one devoid of conventional trappings. The business has abdicated that viewpoint, it is far from the garden. There is no new Joni Mitchell. As far as getting back to where we once belonged, JoJo no longer has to leave Arizona to score some California grass. Times have changed, but the business is stuck in the past, to its detriment. It has lost its place in the political firmament.