The Democrats Appear Finished

Here’s a nutty thing for me to say: I miss Harry Reid.

Clearly, I was not aligned with Harry Reid’s values and priorities. Protecting the empire and Israel is not my focus. Protecting the powerful over the poor isn’t my thing either. But Harry Reid, a s US Senator from 1987 to 2017, protected his party, his nation, and when there was a chance for a bill to pass the Senate that he wanted passed, he got it passed. He grabbed it, pulled it through and got things done. He didn’t always stand up for his president. He let Mitch McConnel get away with triggering a constitutional crisis that continues to this day. But as the years pass, I somehow miss Harry Reid.

His successor, Chuck Schumer, doesn’t get anything done. He’s one of the weakest Senate leaders the Democrats have ever had. He is not the man you want leading the caucus through a Donald Trump term. Unfortunately, Schumer has done that before, and he will do that again.

Everyone knows the real ranking Democratic Senator for years was Joe Manchin. Nothing happened without him on board. All Chuck Schumer could ever do is ask and plead. And when he lost, which was often, he learned nothing, and proceeded to work on his next defeat. May I never become that man in my old age.

And then we have Nancy Pelosi, the second senior citizen Democrat who should have resigned when she lost the speakership, but instead stepped back to serve as simply the representative for California’s 11th district. Except it wasn’t simple. The Democrats coined a new title for her, Speaker Emerita. Pelosi became the shadow Democratic leader, who went on to undermine future speaker Hakeem Jeffries, and the progressive caucus for the last 2 years and counting. She was both the shadow minority leader and the shadow DNC chair. She called time on the frail Joe Biden a full year after the old man should have taken himself out of the race. And just this week, she torpedoed Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’ justified bid to lead the House Oversight Committee from her hospital bed in Germany. Even after almost dying (and her official demise likely begins now), Pelosi is driving this bus. She is the shadow speaker.

See what happens when you let the olds hang around a run things for extra decades? You get an a dying octogenarian prevent the congresswoman with the most followers on social media from taking the lead in holding Trump accountable. How are young Democrats going to know about Trump’s violations of the annulments clause? The congressman Pelosi chose over AOC is 74 year old Gerry Connolly, who is currently battling cancer of the esophagus, and has no presence on BlueSky nor Instagram. Okay!

But I have saved the very worst for last. And his name is Jim Clyburn, the kingmaker from the deep blue state of South Carolina. He orchestrated Joe Biden’s comeback in the 2020 primary by having candidates not named Bernie Sanders stay in the race and peel votes away from Sanders once Biden expectedly won the South Carolina primary. Clyburn used Biden’s first primary victory -again, South Carolina- as a mechanism to declare the 2020 presidential ticket as settled. We silly loyal Democratic voters had no idea that South Carolina was the most important state in the Democratic primary calendar. Nor did we know that South Carolina overrides whatever California or New York thinks. Clyburn picked up Joe Biden and carried him to the finish line. Then he had audacity to try to make South Carolina the first primary of the campaign going forward, ignoring that New Hampshire has a state law that secures its first position in the calendar. And this was all done to prop up Joe again in 2024.

Democrats don’t listen to their voters. They completely ignore anyone under 50. And they don’t listen to actual influencers out in the wild. While they don’t have the narcissistic cult displayed by Republicans, they do have an insular bubble, run by sycophants and donors who hate the progressive base of the party. The base isn’t centrist. The donors and old elected officials are.

Luigi, So Confusing

Luigi didn’t have to murder anyone. Still, he had an amazing plan up until he left New York state and stalled in Pennsylvania. I’ll explain that there’s a great, less violent way to bring down health insurance companies. But first I have some analysis.

I am shocked it took this long for a radicalized individual to kill an American CEO. I was waiting for an oil company CEO to be attacked in the early 1990s. Then, I thought maybe someone would go for a tobacco company CEO in the late 90s. But of course it eventually happened to the CEO of a private healthcare payment corporation - the behemoth, cruel middle man that destroys both families and hospitals by denying coverage and reimbursement. This company has killed both people and smaller hospitals that are just doing their damn jobs to heal people.

The assassination of United Heathcare CEO Brian Thompson reminded me of cyberpunk literature, in which people have to buy all sorts of supplemental subscriptions to get healthcare, and corporate executives ('Corpos') have their own police forces and hit squads. Oh wait, that's our world now! Chapo Trap House and Trashfuture are going to go wild with this story.

This assassination, to a degree, was a huge victory for the left. Why? Because for a few days, the corporate executive class was scared. That's the very definition of terrorism. Kill one, frighten thousands. Since the rise of Reagan in 1980, have they ever been scared? No. They have been acting like they can do whatever they want to us, and get away with it.

Here’s a young billionaire, NYPD Comissioner, Jessica Tisch, scolding us not to celebrate this radical murder. She starts talking here at 3:10. Try, if you can, to think of her saying this about ‘wanted’ posters for abortion providers, or about any school shooting. But no. This is what she gets furious about. Someone broke one of the biggest rules in our society. You don’t do violence to the oligarch class.

Jessica Tisch -a billionaire who ought to be enjoying her inherited fortune rather than buy her way into senior positions in government- is here to tell us that the murder of a CEO is one of the worst things to possibly happen in our society. If you ever have any doubt over the role of the police, remember this. The police are not here to protect little people. They are to protect property and oligarchs like Jessica Tisch. And that’s why I have never called the police, and will never call them.

Things will settle down. Regular order will be restored. Only little people will be victims of mass shootings. Only abortion providers will be assassinated. But for a few days, we little people had a win.

And to the Democratic leaders who wag their finger at me and say "don't be the joker," or "come on now, we go high and murder is wrong," please shit the fuck up and let the vilified 'far left' enjoy this small moment in history. Of course murder is wrong. But even acknowledging that, this is an assassination for the history books. For a few days, Luigi Mangione was the DB Cooper of corporate terrorism. For a few days, I really thought he had fled to Fiji or some other island nearly 8,000 miles away.

And yeah, about that terrorism charge. I agree that this crime had a key element of terrorism. One was murdered, and thousands rethought their security. But not thousands of little people. Senator Elizabeth Warren seemed to understand this when we said, “people can only be pushed so far.” Does that make her a terrorist? Famed Los Angeles artist Cola Corporation put Mangione’s slogan on a t-shirt. Does that make the artist a terrorist?

And let’s be crystal clear, the charges against Briana Boston should be dropped.

I wish I could have consulted Luigi Mangione on a better plan that didn’t involve phones, bus rides, a hostel, unmasked IP addresses, or even card transactions. He could arrive in the city with a beard, and leave clean shaven on his way to the Mexican or Canadian border, with a fresh phone and alibi in-hand. From there, he’d be a few days away from a ride on a freighter or plane to a nation that has no extradition treaty with with the US. But that would require multiple people to help him. And they would have been caught.

As I think about it, murder was not the tactic to use here. But before I write what I want to see instead, allow me to say that it’s not going to be very easy for District Attorney Bragg’s prosecutors to fill a jury box of New Yorkers willing to convict. If a New York jury let Daniel Penny walk, surely there are those including myself who would return a not guilty verdict for Mangione. Both are clear murderers. If the disgusting boy with a ratty perm and who’s sponsored by the far right can walk, then surely there is a chance for the far more relatable and likable Luigi Mangione to walk. His conviction is in no way assured.

Mangione terrorized corporate America. He didn’t terrorize me or people like me. He and his victim were both visitors to New York City. We New York residents didn’t know them nor really care.

Oh man. Brian Thompson’s family din’t care about him, did they? They have said nothing about what a good father he might have been. They released just one shitty home photo of him. That speaks volumes. Johnson was a fucking ghoul. Maybe good, decent people shouldn’t work for private healthcare companies. He sure as hell wasn’t decent.

But our police commissioner, who doesn’t have any more police and investigatory experience than I do, has spoken, folks. Get back to regular order, or else. We little people will deal with the national firearms crisis, mass shootings, and target assassinations of doctors.

Here’s what I think should happen next. I don’t want a wave or bombings and murders, like this is 1970s Germany or The Troubles. What I want is for activists to use the PETA playbook. Shock and shame. Throw animal blood at CEOs. Splatter them. Shame them. Recruit a few celebrities to speak publicly how awful private health insurance is, and how single payer, presented as vastly expanded Medicare for everyone, is the answer.

I want United Healthcare and companies like it to be put out of business by single payer. No one has to die. People just need to lose their jobs. The healthcare middleman payer industry needs to die. Start throwing blood around. Put blood at their entrances. Connect these evil companies to the pain and suffering they inflict on the majority of Americans.

We hate this paradigm. We hate this industry. We need to shut ‘em down. Do to the healthcare middleman what PETA did to the fur trade and private zoos.

Here’s Hasan Piker to take us home and explain this entire issue, including his take on terrorism, morality, and special classes of citizens, in just 36 minutes:

The End Of The United States And Neoliberalism

This post will lack structure and flow. I don’t care. This nation has a few intelligent people who saw our collapse coming 40 years ago. But as George Carlin often said, garbage in, garbage out. This nation had a tipping point in which the garbage going in became unmanageable long ago.

Kamala Harris put up an impressive hail mary pass. On the night of her one and only debate against Donald Trump, she looked like a clear winner. Had the election been on September 11, she probably would have won. But millions of Americans didn’t even know she had replaced Joe Biden on the Democratic ballot. They just didn’t. In the final two months, she just fizzled out. Trump’s victory, which was assured in June, became assured again. The result was not changed. We didn’t successfully delay GOP autocracy for another 4 years. The autocracy is now coming.

Everyone is about to get crushed. Not just Americans but the whole world.

What a brilliant idea it was to put Donald Trump’s fate in the hands of American men. What a brilliant plan. Nothing could have gone wrong. Men are intelligent, rational adults. They would have simply ended Trump’s career.

Jeesuz Fucking Christ.

Never, ever let the voters decide a damn thing. They are so fucking uneducated and ignorant.

And now, the 32% of eligible voters who cast their vote for Donald Trump deserve every terrible thing that is going to happen to them. Every flood. Every hurricane. Every tornado. Every cancer. Every gunshot. Every accident and mishap. Every disease. Every death. Die soon. All of you.

As I blogged 4 years ago, Joe Biden just felt like a pause in our destruction. In December 2020, I wrote:

The Biden administration is doomed. It hasn’t begun, but it is set for failure.

In November 2020, in a separate post, I wrote:

It would take an effort of colossal proportions to prevent the republic from dying.

But the Biden administration was not a true pause of our GOP minority rule. The Overton window shifted again. The Biden admiration slowly warmed up to the concept of forcibly reducing border crossings. The administration never considered reversing Trump’s toughened stance on Cuba. And most devastatingly, the Biden administration was the first in US history to clearly and explicitly endorse the extermination of Palestinians on occupied lands.

The Democratic party needs to be destroyed, But does fresh progressive talent want to enter politics these days? Nope. We're truly doomed. And you know what, these dark days are going to crush the very people who voted for Trump. The repeal of the ACA, a national abortion ban, and a violent deportation effort is going to crush this nation, its people and its economy. And that's all before a new wave of natural disasters directly related to global heating.

The Democrats have failed us. This nation has drifted left since 2004. Was anyone standing up for trans kids and same sex couples 20 years ago? The Democrats insisted that they drift to the right and market themselves as centrist "adults." That disconnect, and the highly desirable drug of Trump's revenge, sold to millions of men, has put our nation in peril.

It really was that simple. That's all it was. Trump represents a naked attack on the Rule of Law. There was not a single good reason to vote for Donald Trump. He shouldn't be allowed anywhere near political power. He's an old wanna be mob boss from Queens who should be retired, playing golf. But he had to run to prevent going into two Federal trials. To vote for Donald Trump is to support the idea that our republic and society should be burned down.

I am furious, yes. But none of this is surprising. The best analyses of Trump’s triumphant return all draw one inescapable conclusion: neolibralism is indeed dead. Neolibralism had no playbook on how to mitigate the damage caused by a global recession in 2008, or a mildly deadly pandemic in 2020, or the full transformation of the GOP into a autocratic, apocalyptic party in 2021.

Neoliberalism was always a lie, sold to us by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in 1980. A free market regulated by contemporary central bank tools, combined with round after round of tax cuts for the investor class didn’t yield a perfect capitalist world with quality of life gains for all. Worker productivity increased tremendously, but society didn’t become so wealthy that we’d be able to comfortably lower the retirement age, as the most optimistic neoliberals and technology evangelicals claimed in the 1990s. The return of Trump is its final, whimpering death rattle. Now the US empire can end. Now we can become a rotting nation dominated by a single party at the Federal level, like Hungary.

Jack Crosbie over at Discourse Blog summed it up best yesterday. The Democrats offer voters neoliberalism and a vague promise of normalcy. Trump, a household name, offers voters chaos, entertainment, bloodshed and goodies he can’t deliver. They went with the TV guy.

The United States is destabilized. I can’t fully understand an electorate that chose Obama over John McCain just 16 years ago, and then shifted to Trump in 2016 and 2020. What great, shiny object made those same voters switch sides so quickly, with some of them cognizant of what those jarring shifts do to our Federal government and our massive problem of wealth inequality? People don’t know. People don’t care. And now a lot of ignorant people need to die.

Nothing mattered. The weird, violent attempt to stop Biden’s inauguration didn’t matter. Trump’s crimes in and outside of the office of the President didn’t matter. The fascism didn’t matter. Harris’ record-breaking $1 Billion campaign didn’t matter. The changing demographics in the US didn’t matter. And now the United States is dead. It’s finished.

Now that it is over, I can formally begin my second half century of life and pay less attention to this society and failing nation, which is now clearly dying. The United States is sick. It is very ill. There is no curing it in my lifetime. I suspect by the time I die, sometime past the halfway point of this century, the US will be a failed state. I don’t care about the empire. Empires die. I care about my planet, but no one in power wants to save it.

Whatever happens going forward, it’s going to happen to us. Trump is going to make things happen to my family and my city. It’s all happening and there’s almost nothing that can slow or stop it.

I’m giving myself a list of dos and don’ts.

Do:

Disobey. You are going to destroy my nation. I will not assist.

Resist. I will resist the GOP wherever I can. And no, I am not part of the #resistance.

Organize. I re-joined the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for just $2 per month.

Travel. I am going to travel my ass off until my passport is taken away. I’m not sure when I can reach Svalbard, Greenland, Portugal, Japan or Chile. But Egypt and Spain are on my horizon. I’m going out there to see and do on my travels.

Drink. This pandemic made me and my partner better home cocktail makers. I’m going to continue to develop these skills. I am not going to learn 6-string guitar, as I thought I might. Which leads me to -

Rock out. I am going to listen to even more music. I have two Hi-Fi systems at home. I use them hard. I will continue to discover new music and listen the hell out of music.

Walk. I must walk to stay alive. My partner and I are walking every street and alley in Manhattan. That’s over 700 miles. I could take the whole Trump term to mark every meter of pavement. And aside from this colossal project, I intend to just keep walking and avoid becoming bed ridden. But speaking of bed -

Sleep. Soon, I will make my bedroom darker and upgrade my mattress.. I am going to sleep much better no matter how much the world burns. Burn, world. I am getting my 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night.

Blog. I am renewing this blog as long as I’m alive and able to write. This blog turns 20 later this decade. I wish I had a partner author, but people be busy.

Don’t:

Despair. I actually suffered despair during the Biden years. I just knew, for years, that Trump would return. But now that the apocalypse is here, I will not despair. I will fight and live.

Follow socials. I quit commenting platforms. I reluctantly quit Masdoton. The Fediverse is a good place. But posting there is just speaking into a small void. There aren’t many people there. They all went to BlueSky. And if I went there to share my stupid opinions, it would just be yelling into a larger useless room.

Be a jerk. As a New Yorker, this is tough to drop. I yell at cars that run red lights. But now some of those cars (trucks) might be from out of state and full of guns once the Supreme Court has its way with us.

The New Marantz Amplifier And Receiver Lineup Appears Complete

Marantz has released a lot of new amplification products since it introduced its new aesthetic under its new parent company, Sound United LLC.

Beginning in 2022 and seeming to end in 2024, Marantz has remade itself to quite a few awards and accolades. I’m going to try to list them all, first by product class, and then by price. With the exception of the M series, the lower the model number, the more premium the product.

The Flagship Series

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Marantz Model 10 Series

Model 10. This is among the best 2-channel amplifiers on the market today, up there with Arcam, McIntosh and Mark Levinson. It’s ridiculous. Paired with the Link 10n streamer preamp and SACD 10 network CD player, plus a turntable of your choosing, it is the centerpiece of a most serious listening room. You can probably get all three pieces for under $40,000 before you have the agonizing task of choosing two bespoke tower speakers and a couple of subwoofers. Personally, I think you can spend just $4,500 a for an Arcam A25 amplifier, an Arcam CD player an Arcam or Bluesound streamer, and premium bookshelf or tower speakers of your choice, and have the best 2-channel audiophile system for the money.

Bring Your Own Power Amplifier(s)

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Marantz AV10

The AV10 is a $7,000 AV Receiver (AVR), except it is just a premium audio processor and preamp. It dosen’t amplify, but it still belongs on this list because it was introduced since 2022. It’s certainly a better value than the 10 series above. You just need to carefully choose one or two power amps, making sure you finalize how many channels you want (up to 15!). Once that is done, you’re fairly committed to a home theater series of speakers by a major manufacturer, like Focal, B&W, Polk, KEF, etc.

The Networked Hi-Fi Amplifiers

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Marantz Model 40n

Model 40n. Here we go. We’ve seen the $15,000 amplifier. We’ve seen the $7,000 digital audio processor. Now here is the best product in the whole lineup, the $2,500 Model 40n. This is a heavy Class A/B amplifier that delivers warm, musical sound. It has tone controls on the front. It can also do digital audio. It streams music from HEOS, and it can connect to a home music server. It has good phono inputs. It has digital inputs, and a very good internal DAC for third party streamers and a CD player. And the kicker: it has HDMI eARC, so it can be connected to a television. That way you can get a nice display of what music is currently steaming, and it can be used to amplify the shows and movies you watch. It’s not an AV receiver. But it can totally fill the role, while staying music focused. With the 40n, your entertainment is music first, video second. Veteran amplifier, speaker and receiver reviewer Andrew Robinson loves it:

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Marantz Model 60n

The Model 60n is virtually the same, but a less powerful output (60 watts per channel rather than 70). It costs a thousand dollars less, yes. But every reviewer including me is going to strongly recommend the 40n over the 60n. Just save up and get the 40n. That’s the one that can power both large and small rooms. If HDMI eARC and built in music streaming are important to you, then the 40n is the music amplifier to consider first. I wouldn’t be surprised if 10 years from now, the 40n is still a very viable product. It’s a Marantz amplifier that will be remembered for decades. Denon and Marantz just need to strongly support HEOS, which has gotten a lot better in the last few months thanks to this new Marantz lineup.

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Marantz Stereo 70s

But hang on, here is the Stereo 70s. This might be the sweet spot. This is the best value in the whole Marantz lineup. Even though it has a different naming convention, this is the alternative to the 40n that costs $1500 less. The catch is that it’s a receiver rather than an integrated amplifier. But because it is 2-channel amplifier, and it has digital inputs and streaming, it belongs in this networked amplifier category. For just $1000, buyers get an AVR that is dressed like a Hi-Fi amplifier. It has 8 HDMI inputs (half are 4K, half are 8K). It generates 75 watts of 2 channel stereo. On the front, it has tone controls. If you only need 2 channels (plus an optional subwoofer), and you know you won’t need 5, 7 or 9 channels in the future, then this is the AV receiver I recommend. It’s a warm Class A/B Marantz with 75watts per channel, a musical sound, and full support for movies and console video games for $1,000! It actually undercuts all of their other products!

The Analog Hi-Fi Amplifiers

Here is where the Marantz lineup is weak, in my view. Customers should get one of the three networked amplifiers above, with integrated digital inputs and HEOS streaming compatibility. But for analog purists, the Model 30 and Model 50 offer premium Class D amplification and all-analog inputs. The Model 30 is a 100 Watt amp for $3,000, and the Model 50 is a 75 Watt amp for $1,800.

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Marantz Model 30

Marantz Model 50

In my opinion, these two amplifiers don’t have to exist. Most customers would be very happy with the 40n, even if they don’t stream music. But there are more than enough analog purists out there who will appreciate the premium phono amp. Look at that sweet analog panel, fully made in Japan. This is an amplifier for life. There’s no risk it will ever lose HEOS support, because it doesn’t have HEOS. It doesn’t do digital.

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The back panel of the Model 30 and 50. All analog. 2 channels out.

And so, if you want to add digital capability to the Models 30 and 50, Marantz points customers to the $3,000 SACD 30n networked CD player. That would make the Model 30 plus the SACD 30n a $6,000 system. Both are the same size and look like they totally belong together.

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Marantz SACD 30n

The Cinema AVR Series

Here’s what I think is the bulk of Marantz’ business - AVRs. Most people don’t have commercial grade media rooms or professional installations behind walls, or in racks, or in equipment closets. They place an AVR into a media console in their living room, and run a home theater audio setup from there. As far as I know, all Marantz reecivers, including the Stereo 70s, are made in Vietnam. Thankfully, the fit and finish is super close to their top products, which are made in Japan.

Marantz arguably makes the best AVRs in the world, just one step ahead of Onkyo, and, in my opinion, comfortably ahead of Yamaha and Sony, and well ahead of NAD and Rotel. I like all of these brands. I love NAD for Hi-Fi (although the superiority of Arcam cannot be ignored). However, when it comes to AVRs, Marantz has taken the lead since 2022. These are the 3 big AVRs that put them ahead.

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Marantz Cinema 30

The Cinema 30 is the ultimate standalone AVR. 7 8K inputs, 3 8K outputs. 140 watts per channel. 11.4 channels! Yes, that’s support for 4 subwoofers. HEOS. 4 digital inputs. $4,500. Any questions?

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Marantz Cinema 40

The Cinema 40 is a slight step down. In fact it is such a small step, the justification for its existence is questioned. Or maybe it undercuts the Cinema 30! The Cinema 40 is a better value. For $1,000 less ($3,500) the buyer gets 125 watts per channel, 9.4 channels, 7 HDMI inputs and 3 outputs, all 8K. Outstanding.

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Marantz Cinema 50

The Cinema 50 makes a little more sense for those who ‘just’ need 7.2.2 channels. $2,500, 110 watts per channel, 6 HDMI inputs, 3 outputs, all 8K.

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Marantz Cinema 70s

But once again, the unsung hero in the class is the slim model with an s in the model name. This is the $1,200 Cinema 70s. And this is the unit that I proudly own. It’s a slim 7.2 channel AVR that replaces Marantz’ acclaimed NR1711 slim receiver. Like all other Marantz receivers, it supports video inputs and outputs of 8K at 60 frames per second, or 4K at 120 frames per second, and all resolutions and frame rates under 4K. Filmed American and European movies, at 24p and 25p, respectively, look as good as I’ve seen them at home. Global digital cinema, ditto. Games on my PlayStation 5 feel as native and as seamless as they can be. For my small, Manhattan living room that roughly measures roughly 8 square meters (86 square feet), it’s perfect.

I’ll pause here and elaborate on how much I love the Cinema 70s. I have it set to 2 channel mode, so basically it’s a Marantz Stereo 70s, with simpler knobs in the front - one for inputs and one for volume. It delivers slightly warmer than neutral Class A/B amplification, but made for smaller spaces. I have it connected to a pair of Polk R500 floor standing loudspeakers, which are outstanding in my small space. Nothing about my setup is fatiguing on the ears. I’m really noticing the channel separation while watching movies on streaming services and Blu Ray (I have a Panasonic DP-UB820 player which is even better as a DVD player than the famed PlayStation 3). Deezer is my music streaming service of choice, and a recent HEOS update brought FLAC 44.1kHz audio to all networked Denon and Marantz devices. The Cinema 70s is the first AVR I’ve owned that truly brings a cinema experience to my home. And it always brings out the best in the music, games and movies I play.

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The Marantz Cinema 70s just looks good in or on top of a media console.

The Streaming Amplifiers

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Marantz M1

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Marantz M1

M1

This is the bedroom amplifier. The killer of soundbars. Even perhaps a first amplifier for the teenager in your home. Not too long ago, I recommended the $400 NAD C316BEE V2, new or used, as a great first amplifier for a teenager. But all of us music listeners stream our music now. Our first amplifiers need to be streaming digital amps. Here it is. It’s a Class D amplifier. It runs cool and silent. But amazingly, this little box delivers 100 Watts and drives the vast majority of banana plug compatible speakers on the market. Pair it with the Polk R100, Mission LX-1, KEF Q150 or those new Elac Debut 3s. You can’t go wrong. The only other compact streaming amplifier I recommend is the BlueSound POWERNODE. Pick one streaming amp, get a pair of bookshelf speakers, download the companion app, and you have a premium system for your bedroom today and your dorm room tomorrow. It’s seriously good. And it’s made in Japan.

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Marantz M4

And finally, we have the commercial audio streamer. The M4 seems to be an awesome choice for businesses like bars, restaurants, retail stores and gyms. A lot of these businesses could get away with the M1. But the M4 is a full 17-inch wide rack-mountable device that supports up to 4 zones (4 pairs of speakers). I find it unusual that Marantz would offer a product like this, but I’m glad they do. It’s bulletproof. It’s made in Japan and delivers 100 watts to all channels. It is driven by a phone/tablet app, and I think it can be controlled using a web browser as well. For retail, this is a no-brainer.

And that is, I think, all the new Marantz amplifiers that have been introduced since 2022? Did I miss any?

What Are We So Worried About?

All the headlines today paint a picture of a US that is worried, under extreme stress, anxious, and emotionally destroyed. I wonder why is that? Could it be that both candidates are making threats and unleashing dark, violent rhetoric? I think that’s what the New York Times is implying here.

Or it all our stress be due to one of the candidates? Let’s think this one over.

Isn’t is just one side that ruins our mental health? Think. Which party has been fucking with us for most of our lives?

Surely the stress is not being caused by both sides. It’s one side. Since 1980 it has always been one side.

Are we worried what Kamala Harris will do should she win, as the exit polls suggest? Is she going to have her rivals assassinated? Is she going to broadcast social media posts at five in the morning, ranting about how she didn’t look her best in an interview? She will go off on some White House leak that she privately insults Americans, has to be shown pictures rather than words, or has to have two scoops of vanilla ice cream before burrowing into the White House residence for 8 hours a night? And if she has a bad day, would she throw items against the walls, stuff her personal toilet with printed classified materials, and just rant endlessly on X?

Trump once posted 52 times on X in a single 24-hour period. Now tell me where the stress is coming from and what this nation is worried about.

Putting Great Bands To Bed

Throughout most of my life, I have valued studio recordings over live performances when it comes to music. Really good bands will take their time crafting studio recordings as those serve as the reference when discussing an album or song. And given when I was born, this makes sense. The Beatles became a better band when they stopped touring. That is, their albums got a lot better, in my opinion. Some other bands, like Genesis, made great albums with the limited time and resources they had, but were even better live, as they refined their performances and impressed audiences through not just delivering complex compositions, but building and improving upon the studio recordings. And the more I think about it, the best live bands were those that exceeded the expectations of matching the sound of their records. That includes Queen, The Police, King Crimson, Rush, Tool, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Pink Floyd, and for short periods, R.E.M., Living Colour, Fleetwood Mac and U2, among many others.

The commonality here is that these are all bands, an increasingly rare sight on the mainstream pop charts. The world still has a lot of great bands, most of them in indie rock and international rock. Live shows restarted in 2021. I’ll set aside the fact that in 2021 and today, we’re still in a single, active pandemic. The restart of live shows made performance revenue bigger than ever for artists, and the pent-up demand of audiences to see their favorite acts -some for the final time- pushed ticket prices to new highs.

For the most past, I paused going to individual live shows from roughly 2004 to 2007. That was a long time when I was still young. I remember seeing Peter Gabriel’s Up tour at Madison Square Garden in 2002 and then Genesis’ Turn It On Again tour at Hartford in 2007. I sisn’t see another MSG show until George Michael did his last US arena tour in 2008 (the 25 Live tour).

I didn’t realize it at the time but I had put George Michael to bed. That was the start of this project that I’m now documenting.

My next big MSG shows were Prince’s massive greatest hits shows, the Welcome2America tour, in December 2010 and February 2011.

I had put Prince to bed. Again, I didn’t know it

Then I mostly switched from arena and theater shows in favor of festivals. I stopped going to New York City venues like Irving Plaza, Webster Hall and Bowery Ballroom. I started going to the Newport Folk Festival each July. And I would only go to a club or theater show to see artists I had seen at Newport like Glen Hansard, L.A. Salami, Khruangbin, and Yola.

Then I went though another adjustment in my relationship with live music. I started going to small shows again, provided the band or artist was really special and meaningful to me and/or my partner. In May 2018 I saw Editors at Irving Plaza. A year later, I saw Killing Joke at Saint Vitus, which just might be the most special small show I’ll ever see. It is also the last time I’ll ever see Killing Joke, as sounding guitarist Geordie Walker passed away just over 4 years later. So Killing Joke was been put to bed in 2023.

Then the pandemic started. After about 15 months, bands and artists started to tour again. They went into a new landscape of more audience demand, higher ticket prices, and more of a need to make money performing live than ever before. By the end of 2021, I decided to go see some important shows. I had to choose indoor shows carefully, and wear protection to the ones I attended.

First up was Genesis’ penultimate show in the United States, at Boston’s TD Garden. They played on December 15 2021. Delayed by at least a year, it was the most expensive concert ticket I ever bought. And it was somehow worth it. I got to say goodbye to Genesis, and they played Dutchess. I wept. My friend and I were masked.

Just a few weeks later, on February 19 2022, I went back to TD Garden to see Tool. Same friend. Closer seats. And my gawd they were amazing. I know I will see Tool probably one last time. But I’m including this here to show just how many great bands hit the road as soon as they were able. Live music had a boom once venues reopened.

After Tool, my concerts have been almost all outdoors. I transitioned into an outdoor venue concert goer. and since the Summer of 2022, I have gone hard. I was already an occasional festival attendee. But I can see myself going to outdoor shows and festivals very regularly for the next 10 years. Maybe longer.

I kicked off my ‘outdoor era’ of live shows with one that was delayed nearly 2 full years, which was Deftones at Pier 17. It was downright intimate. Just me and 4,000 other fans dressed in black took in a great set that included Royal. Yeah. That was my first Deftones show. My summer of 2022 then took me and my partner to Jones Beach Amphitheater. We saw Garbage, Tears for Fears, Berlin, Howard Jones and Culture Club, with its three primary members. All put to bed! (Well, Tears For Fears might not be finished yet.)

Then it was on to the summer of 2023, and I put Duran Duran to bed at the Minnesota State Fair.

And then this summer, I saw Joan Jett and the Blackhearts for the first and final time, as they opened for Alanis Morrissette. Jane’s Addiction imploded two nights after playing Pier 17, putting themselves to bed. And that in turn ended Love And Rockets, the great band that was opening for them! And I would have put Massive Attack to bed last week, but they canceled all of their US shows!

My next indoor show is another bedtime opportunity. Deftones are going on their very first, and probably last headlining arena tour. Stay tuned. I plan to review their Boston show next spring and compare it to their Pier 17 show from 2022.

Newcastle United: How Is Eddie Howe's System Doing?

Newcastle United have started their third full season with Eddie Howe as manager. I’ve now watched Howe lead the team to victory in over 50 matches. I have seen what works and what needs improvement. And while I am not a good football analyst by any means, Howe’s style, tactics, and his wear and tear on the squad are now apparent. So after 18 months of not writing about Newcastle United, it’s time for me to briefly share what I think about the Eddie Howe era.

Under Eddie Howe’s leadership, Newcastle United is a team that plays HARD. They don’t over-perform. If they truly over-performed, they would advance to the knockout state of the Champions League last season (although they nearly did). Ten years ago, we Newcastle fans were sad, just wishing for a team that tried. Now we have a team that plays very hard. Last season, I think that led to too many injuries.

Now Newcastle find themselves starting a season that demands they finish in the top four, or at least the top six. That’s a tremendous amount of pressure. Oh, and they have to do it with a rotation of defenders and right wingers because their last summer transfer window focused on regulation-mandated sales. They acquired one very good left back / center back in Lloyd Kelly. And that was it.

The results have really been all over the place, as Newcastle have displayed an unsustainable mixture of poor passing. defensive mistakes and an offence essentially led by three players, Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes.

I used to think that Eddie Howe has a system, and he just forces his players to fit into that system. But in most matches this season, I don’t think Howe has been sure of who he wants to start. The system has not been fully enforced. Howe’s system demands speed, intensity and full use of the sidelines up and town the pitch. That’s not possible with a low pass completions rate, as we’ve seen in the first month of this season. It’s also not possible if the squad can’t run as fast as they did in the previous two seasons.

In order for Howe’s system to be enforced, it needs to be sustainable and the players need to be fit. We’re starting to see fitness levels rise in the last two matches against Manchester City and Wimbledon. We need to see a trend. But two objectively solid performances matches is a start.

Goodbye, Eric Adams

Eric Adams is much closer to the end of his time as New York City mayor than he is from the beginning. On day 987 of his term, he lost the lead lawyer he retained, -at taxpayer expense- to defend him from at least 3 legal cases. It was a Saturday night resignation. He’s indefensible.

What triggered this resignation is two-fold. First, a lawyer will fire themselves if they feel they cannot honestly defend their client. Second, what has made defending Adams impossible is the mayor’s refusal to separate himself from his criminal friends and employees. Eric Adams is loyal to the people who are going to get him indicted.

And that indictment appears to be coming soon. Now that the DOJ has multiple devices from multiple top level City Hall officials, including the mayor, the criminal investigations have accelerated. How soon Adams is indicted and with what charges now depend on what data is on his devices as well as the digital devices of 5 other people.

Is Adams an illegal lobbyist for the nation of Türkiye, as I strongly believe he is? Was he involved in any of the bribery and kickback schemes that have been uncovered in the fields of fire code inspection, club and restaurant inspection, COVID testing, migrant sheltering or school lunches?

The DOJ doesn’t apply the brakes when it comes to indicting elected officials at the state or city level. Next year is Adams’ re-election campaign. But he might be indicted well before the June 2025 primary. I think Adams is done. With this many scandals and so many devices seized, it’s just a matter of time before the US Attorney in the busiest DOJ district strikes.

What’s more, no one is defending Eric Adams. No one is falsely claiming that he’s being targeted by President Biden or the DOJ. We’re at the point now that no one will be surprised if he’s indicted. Part of that is due to reckless leaking from the FBI. But part of that is also due to the fact that Adams is the least popular mayor in the post Tammany Hall period. Eric Adams is only the 12th freely elected mayor since the collapse of Tammany Hall. He’s the least liked, the least effective, and soon I think, the second-most criminally charged New York City Mayor since World War 2.

Let This Be The Final Trump August

By my count, we have had 7 Trump Augusts. The criteria is simple. First, it has to be August. Second, he has to be all over the news. He took a break in 2021 and stayed out of the news that August. The last two Trump Augusts while he was president were traumatic - 2019 and 2020. And August 2017 gave us Charlottesville!

August plus Donald Trump equals rally bad news, as he would say. Really bad news.

Trump is having another catastrophic month of August in 2024. He isn’t in office, of course, but the man is a geyser of gasoline again in the public spotlight. And this time, he could set himself on fire.

Trump’s worst Augusts were those as the sitting president: 2017, 2019 and 2020. This time, he is back as the GOP nominee for president for a record third time. His party can’t get enough of him. And for a couple of years, it appeared he was destined to become president again. Biden was so unpopular, Trump was simply leading the polls by default. I mean, look at Biden’s Gallup approval numbers. There was no way Biden was going to surge back to 50% popularity to beat Trump. And any Democrat who tells you otherwise is not worth having as an acquaintance or friend. Burn some bridges this fall. The Democrats who yelled at you for 3 years to vote Biden no matter what were both (1) wrong, and (2) fucking idiots.

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But now it appears the American public has swung back to rejecting Donald Trump for the first time since 2021. Holy shit! All the Democrats really had to do was switch to an opponent younger than Trump. No small feat, but look at Trump’s response. Trump is having such a dramatic meltdown, he just might guarantee the election result from here. Trump can never recover from disasters. He can never “pivot,” or change his tone (ha!). Trump is fucked.

Let’s acknowledge that the near assassination of Donald Trump had no effect on the US public. There was no outpouring of support. There was no show of national unity. People don’t reflect on what happened on July 13 2024. It feels like years ago, doesn’t it? I’ve seen no ‘7/13 Never Forget’ posters or memes. I’ve seen no Democrats reminding each other to go easy on Donald Trump. The days of going easy on this man are well over. And the vast majority of Americans don’t care about Trump’s well being. How do you like that?

I like that. As Robert De Niro might say, fuck this guy.

Donald Trump is hosing gasoline everywhere, and he’s getting himself wet with it. He’s gone a little wild, even by his standards. His campaign can’t control him. He cannot delay his sentencing in his Manhattan financial crime case. It’s only matter of time before he starts calling Kamala Harris a “bitch” in public, as he has long done in private. He’s going to let it loose.

All it takes is a few good writers to land some nationally-televised zingers at Trump at the Democratic National Convention, and the man might go up in flames. It’s past time this happened. There are whispers it finally might.

I don’t mean literally, of course. I mean that Trump would become so enraged, so out of control, that he would lash out at everyone. His campaign staff. His allies in Congress. JD Vance (let’s face it, Trump should have chosen Kristi Noem). Nikki Haley, who won’t shut the fuck up tying to be Trump’s coach (shut the fuck up, Nikki).

Trump is going to show us just how explosive an old man from Queens New York can be for the next 11 weeks. Just 11 weeks! These 11 weeks are going to fly. And they will be hot. Don’t get burned! Just beat this guy one last time.

Harris Takes The Wheel While Trump Breaks Down

A driver change. That’s all it took.

This has made Trump even more miserable. His campaign management in 2024 is the weakest it has ever been in his three campaigns. Not only can they not control their candidate, the stress is destroying them. Good.

Goodbye, Joe

I've been explaining to my fellow Democrats the reasons Biden must resign and/or drop out of the presidential race. It's a hard truth. Biden has to run faster and get his approval numbers up by at least 6 points. He’s at 40%. Trump is at 45%. Biden has to surge, but he can't. His party has been waiting for a surge since his decent State of the Union address. The surge is not coming.

The responses I get range from anger, to allegations that I'm a GOP troll. Do we think oncologists get such angry denials when they break news to patients that their cancer is most likely terminal? Breaking bad news is difficult. Accepting it is difficult. I’m glad giving people live changing, shattering news is not part of my job.

While I am here, I have a few more ways to describe Joe Biden’s chronic low approval rating problem.

Joe Biden is like an under-powered or broken automobile. The car not only has to catch-up to Donald Trump, it has to do so while driving uphill. It just can’t.

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Joe Biden taking the “long stairs” down from Air Force Once, March 28 2023. Look at younger Joe go!

Joe Biden is the starting pitcher who needs to be taken out of the game so the relief pitcher and closer can secure the win. This one came from Congressman Jamie Raskin, who I admire. But I just realized now that it’s not clear what the game represents. Is the game his first term? Is it the rest of our time as a republic? What happens at the end of the game? Maybe that’s not a good one.

A tag team wrestling match. Joe is beat. He needs to tag out. But can he reach the ropes?

Can. He. Make. One. Last. Leap. To. The. Ropes. And. Tag. Harris. In?

Just pass the torch, Joe. Do it tonight!

Multiple Things Can Be True At The Same Time

We're surrounded by idiots who can't get their little brains to comprehend that all of the following are true:

1. Joe Biden clearly didn't have the fuel in the tank to go two terms, let alone mount a media surge, claw back to 50% approval, campaign, get re-elected, and then serve 4 more years. Obama did that! We could see by the fall of 2021 that Biden was losing steam and support as the public saw him less and less often. The story of the Biden term is a president who slowly faded in every measurable way. With the exception of enabling Israel. That surged.

2. Donald Trump and the GOP are evil. The next Republican who takes the White House will rule as an autocrat and not let go of the office.

3. The New York Times is shit.

All of this is true. I don't have tolerance for people who re-post whatever Aaron Rupar or that sponsored influencer BooklynDad says. Over at Mastodon, I can easily tell who not to follow. If they boost Rupar, or whoever the hell GottaLaff is, that's a big NO.

They're Talking Extrajudicial

The Republicans cry that Democrats are prosecuting them illegally. Therefore, the Republicans argue, they must retaliate with illegal prosecutions AND political violence, just to make that response overwhelming. The Democrats are an enemy of the state, they argue, so they must physically attack this threat. I’d call that projection.

I wonder what Federal and State judges think about this.

In normal times, legal revenge wasn't possible without evidence and the actions of judges. Maybe we should adjust our perception and realize that because no judge would allow a lawmaker to be prosecuted for rightly investigating trump, maybe the "revenge" the fascist Republicans are talking about is physical violence. And by that, I mean extrajudicial violence. "Oh, they are just using violent rhetoric to motivate their base," the media will say. I disagree. The GOP has gone so far down this violent path since 2015, that they are unrecognizable as the party of family values and children. This is not the party that recruited Whitney Houston to sing the national anthem in 1991. This is the party of bloodshed, destabilization and possibly murder. Political assassinations. Pinochet knew he could terrorize Chile by just murdering the right influencers. Same with the GOP? So they have a list? You bet they do.

Will A Weak Donald Trump Defeat An Even Weaker Joe Biden?

Over the 17 years I have run this tiny blog, I have been a doomer. It isn’t some outlier opinion. I knew when I started that I would be documenting the hell that is the 21st Century.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump are confirmed for their 2020 rematch. The presidential campaign, now underway, will probably be the worst in US history. This campaign is already the longest. It started in 2022 when Trump announced. Yeah.

In many ways, I wish this was just like the 1956 rematch between Ike and Stevenson. Eisenhower cruised to victory. Stability and conformity prevailed. But these are not stable times. Joe Biden should be leading Trump by 10 points. Instead, he and Trump are tied in most polls.

Biden stuck in a statistical tie with Trump is the result of a lot of poor strategy and performance by his White House. Biden has not interacted with the public. He hasn’t released videos on YouTube. It’s obvious he doesn’t write his own Tweets, although I suspect he approves them.

The refrain of this post is quite simple. Biden and the nation are in grave danger because he’s tied with Trump when he should be 10 points ahead. I will be repeating variations of this a couple of times. I apologize in advance.

As of today, both the BDS movement and abortion are more popular than President Biden. Poll history tells us he can't possibly win with approval numbers this low. I don't buy into 'history repeating itself like poetry' bullshit, with all the Gen-X journalists comparing 1968 to 2024 (I am also a proud Xer, born in '73). But this summer looks like a looming disaster for Joe and the Democrats. They made it clear that the US must prop-up Israel forever, no matter how small the benefits to the American people and no matter how many times young Americans question that policy. The Democrats have also made it clear that while they welcome Republicans and anti-abortionists to their big tent, they have zero tolerance for critics of Israel.

Joe Biden should be leading Donald Trump by 10 points. He’s not. Why?

It’s because Biden has bled too much support. All incumbent presidents lose voters between their election and re-election. We can call that a haircut (the banking term). But Joe Biden has lost significant support among key demographics. We’re talking double-digit drops with Black men, Hispanics, Asians, and voters under the age of 40. All of those drops explain why Joe Biden’s lead in New York State has dropped from 20 points to just 10. Biden will easily win New York State. But a 10 point drop in a Democratic-majority state spells big trouble for states with smaller differences in registered voters.

These drops in support are going to cost Biden key swing states. Take Georgia, for example. Voter suppression and lack of enthusiasm for Biden has swung Georgia firmly back into Trump’s column. In Arizona, Democrats outnumber Republicans, and yet Democratic Senate candidate Reuben Gallego is leading in the polls while Trump is leading Biden in Arizona. Michigan is slipping away. Incredibly, so is Nevada, again, where Democrats outnumber Republicans. My current (and very pessimistic) electoral map looks like this:

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Biden should be the one with 280 electoral votes. Biden should be 10 points up in the polls. But he isn’t.

Sometimes I think Trump is actually weaker than Biden. Trump is unhinged, slower and older than he was in 2016. He is also a big loser. But Trump also has 70 million votes in the bag no matter how bad he is. Joe Biden needs to be great to get votes back. Trump just needs to be alive and he gets 70 million votes. Advantage, Trump.

The GOP autocracy is coming now, folks. Not 2028. It's happening now. Come up with a resistance and/or exile plan.

Joe Biden Constantly Tries To Be Ronald Reagan

In his years as president, Joe Biden has been trying to be like Ronald Reagan. He thinks he can maintain a centrist approach and not make any one side too upset or too happy. He’s trying to appeal to everyone and be likable. But you can’t be appealing if you don’t engage with the public.

Also, Ronald Reagan was not a centrist.

And you certainly can’t be appealing to your base if you making a public effort to court Nikki Haley voters.

I get strange looks from mainstream MSNBC Democrats when I point out that if Joe Biden was just a little more engaged with the 80 million who voted for him in 2020, he wouldn't be so thirsty for the weird, evil, anti-trump Republican vote. That vote is still vehemently anti-woman, anti-trans, anti-queer, and anti-worker.

Chris Murphy, arguably one of the nicest US Senators in the chamber, has tried to spin Joe’s centrist style as disappointing everyone by design. So while Reagan made most people feel good, Joe Biden makes most people feel down, and that was the plan.

You didn't have to make the strategic choice to be Ronald Reagan in the 2020s, Joe. You could have, um, listened to what voters under 40 want. They are the ones inheriting this environmental catastrophe. They are the ones who can't buy a house or apartment. They are the ones who are reporting that they are the saddest US generation since the Great Depression, while Americans over 60 are reporting they are richer and happier than ever before. Oh, but the men in that group are all voting for Trump! Great strategy, Joe.

Joe could have at least done a weekly video on YouTube. A little fireside chat for the kids who care. But Joe didn't even do that!

Look, we were all stressed out, doing drugs and committing suicide when Trump was dropping a dozen tweets a day (we're still committing suicide, see how young people are unhappy above). Joe could have found a happy medium between engaging with us and tweeting us to death. He chose to be the silent type. That doesn't help when you need to retain 80 million votes for the re-election.

Joe Biden might somehow win this election because Trump is so unhinged. But if I had to examine this as an objective outsider for the first time, I’d think Joe Biden is trying to lose. Intentionally.

Joe Biden Just Blew It

With a single, colossally bad statement, Joe Biden just unofficially lost the November election. Winning in November with a historically low approval rating is extremely difficult. It’s never been done! But his unwillingness to listen to anyone under the age of 40 dooms his chances. Young Democrats are asking good questions. They are asking why does the US prop-up Israel if all Israel does is keep Palestinians in ghettos. The answer from almost every elected Democrat is ‘shut the fuck up.’

It’s over for Joe. He knows it. At this point, I have to suspect he is simply throwing the election. He has my vote, of course. But he is going to lose. I can see it now.

I know when a president is finished. I saw it, sadly, with Jimmy Carter in the summer of 1980. I saw it again when George H.W. Bush had no answers for the far more charismatic Bill Clinton. I saw it again with Donald Trump, totally losing control of the world in the spring and summer of 2020. And I see it now happening to Joe Biden. He is not winning in November.

Today was the day that Joe Biden blew it. I cannot see him winning the election if he won't even address the needs of people under 40 years old. The youngs are concerned about the environmental catastrophe and they want a change in our relationship with Israel. Today Joe basically condemned them as if they did things far worse than set up tents and protest peacefully. He remembers Los Angeles 1992. He remembers Charlottesville 2017. But no. He condemned his own base of voters today. Joe -or perhaps I should say Brandon- is done.

Israel Has Lost The American Public

We're witnessing something incredible. Something I haven't seen since 1992 with the Rodney King verdict and the start of the Christopher Columbus reckoning. With each week, these protests feel like a watershed moment. They didn't side with Occupy Wall Street 15 years ago, but regular Democratic voters are choosing the BDS movement over Israel. Choosing to side with Israel by default is no longer the morally good position. That is incredible. To the olds in charge, that is horrifying. Kathy Hochul had better call in the National Guard, or else this movement is going to start steering her government.

The protesters have been called terrorist sympathizers, terrorists, anti-semites, and also manipulated by “outside agitators.” Well, if they are terrorists, then this nation has a serious problem as now millions of American adults support the protesters and the BDS movement. This is a sea change. In just 7 months, Israel has lost it’s moral position, it’s status as the ‘good guys’ in this war, and it has lost a lot of core support from the US public. We will see where this goes, but history tells us that once things turn like this, there is no going back. Israel’s existence as a US-backed colonial power is in question.

I Miss Mike Bloomberg

I miss Mike.

Sure, he turned this city in a dirtier Dubai - a heaven for billionaires. But he defended reproductive rights harder than any US politician since this state legalized abortion in 1970. And he took the damn subway almost daily (when he wasn't piloting his helicopter to Bermuda).

Why is Eric Adams our mayor? Why couldn't he just be a bad landlord or a terrible crypto scammer? He's that elderly boyfriend who fancies himself a new age health food nut who still possesses the fitness of a man in his mid-30s. If he also owned a Corvette, you'd know the type. Maybe some of our parents are dating that guy today.

He's just not a good person. He would be better suited as a former cop who does private security and grift on the side, like all the others. He wears a bracelet on his wrist that reads HUSTLE. That's no mindset for the top elected position in New York City.

Should I run? Or does any smart adult in New York City care to run for this job no one wants?

The Best Beer Breweries In New York State (According To Mister Sterling)

New York State is a lot of things. First off, it is a big, beautiful sate, geographically. Like Massachusetts, it has the ocean and the mountains. Being close to Canada, it potentially has more fresh water. Politically, it is a mess, full of corruption and leaders who undermine their own parties.

But briefly I will discuss something good and fun about New York State - its beer.

In my mind, New York State beer isn’t as elite as California, Colorado or Vermont (and increasingly, Australia, Japan, Iceland and Denmark). But it absolutely goes toe-to-tie with my home state of Massachusetts and its next door neighbors, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. And as you will see from my picks below, some of the beer here in New York is exceptional and significant in craft beer culture.

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Photo by Andpna’s, Ridgefield Connecticut

When discussing New York State breweries, it is best to start with what is arguably the most significant brew, Flower Power by Ithaca. It brought a west coast style IPA to the state. Back then, it seemed dramatically over-hopped. But it is mild compared to the hazy IPAs that followed 10 years later. Before Flower Power, the hoppiest New York beer was Brooklyn East IPA. But on the heels of Flower Power, we saw stronger ales like Bengali by Sixpoint. The race to release the next super-hoppy IPA in the northeast was officially on. And it hasn’t stopped. It needs to be acknowledged, that the contemporary era of northeast IPAs was started by Dogfish Head (from Delaware) in 2001. New York jumped into the game 3 years later with Flower Power.

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Brooklyn has too many breweries. So much that some don’t really good breweries don’t survive, like KelSo, a maker of German and Czech style pilsners. But one has hung on on the northern tip of Greenpoint and bears the neighborhood’s name. While they survived the worst years of the pandemic, their beer selection has shifted more towards lagers and pilsners than the double IPAs and pale ales they used to make. But their quality and expertise comes through both on draft and in their cans. And they still have their kitchen in operation, which serves a great hot chicken sandwich, bratwurst and a massive 8oz burger.

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Sloop Brewing operates in a big concrete factory building where IBM machines and semiconductors used to be made. It’s in the middle of an industrial park in East Fishkill, New York, somewhere between Poughkeepsie.and West Point. Sloop has a simple philosophy: just make hazy juice bomb IPAs. There’s no juice in these ales, though. The juicy flavors come from the genetically-modified hop varieties. They can emulate flavors like kiwi, citrus, peach, grass, and various variations of bitter hops. Whenever I see a Sloop can available at a venue, I know I immediately have a first or second choice. It’s easier to get larger volume brews in my part of Manhattan, like New Belgium. But Sloop is more popular than ever.

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Five Boroughs Brewing Company has a diplomatic name, but they are based in Industry City, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Industry City is one of the nation’s first zoned industrial parks. The brewery is in a big, well ventilated warehouse building on 47th Street. With a wider selection than Greenpoint, I have to give the edge to Five Boroughs. They have summer and winter seasonal brews, as well as four core IPAs. I pledged my allegiance to IPAs in the early 2000s, and Five Boroughs is committed to that craft. I know the market for juicy hazy IPAs has cooled a little. But I’m sticking to the breweries that still develop them. I need to visit this taproom more often.

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And finally, I can’t mention great New York ales without including Other Half, now in it’s 11th year. I didn’t buy into the hype and the brewery’s cult status 10 years ago when white bankers and tech bros were buying these cans by the caseload at about $4 per 16oz can. But I came around in 2017 or so when they started their local home delivery service. The ales they make are close together on the flavor spectrum. Most are New England style IPAs. Some, like All Citra Everything, are a little sweeter. Others, like Green City, are a little creamier (and they are even made with oats). And some of their best ales, like Stacks On Stacks, strike that perfect balance between bitter and juicy. All of them are hazy. All of them represent the best of New York.

What The Hell Is This?

With each week, Michigan looks more and more like a flip for Trump. That's a hole in the Blue Wall. If Biden loses Michigan and Pennsylvania, he loses the election (assuming he doesn't somehow take North Carolina). The lack of Democratic attention to college students and young people might finally cost them everything. It only takes a few upset defeats like this to ruin hundreds of millions of American lives. Assuming Trump squeaks out a victory, this would be the third time in 24 years that the winner of the popular vote -always a Democrat- loses the election. The sadness, despair and anger that we have felt since Trump took over the GOP in 2015 is going to become unbearable. How does everyone feel about the Democrats having a tiny majority in the House while Trump and the Senate pack our Federal courts to strengthen GOP minority rule? Won't it be fun? And all because the elders in the Democratic party thought it wasn't worth their time to listen to the needs to young people. Seriously. Leaders like Pelosi thought that young people would be a little upset about Gaza, but they'd get over it and vote in November. As unpopular as Biden is, I think young people would rescue him in November if there wasn't an invasion of Gaza. For now anyway, it appears Biden's embrace of Netanyahu's war crimes is the red line that causes millions of young people to abstain from voting this November. Biden barely had re-election in the bag! Now I am not sure.