Entitlement

Bob Lefsetz’s original post – Entitlement

Maybe this is the problem with America.

Gosh, Bob, you’re SO close to enlightenment, and then you always take a sharp left turn into the weeds.

Don’t tell me entitlement is only about the left. It’s everybody in America today. Everybody believes they can do whatever they want and the rules do not apply to them.

This is one of those rare moments when we are in agreement!

 On the right the excuse is FREEDOM! Freedom from society, freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want. How does that work?

So FREEDOM is simply an “excuse”? I thought it was a fundamental principle behind our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution! So how do YOU define “freedom from society”? What does that silliness even mean? Conservatives want to go live in the mountains, alone in the wilderness?

“Freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want”! Seriously? Who supports and endorses no cash bail, legalizing controlled substances, aborting babies, crossing the border illegally to receive free medical care, subsidized housing, free education, cash grants for food and free cell phones, gender surgery on minors, sanctuary cities, paying off college loans using tax money paid by others who could never afford to go – it’s a long list of “do whatever you want whenever you want” promoted by your fanboys on the left. 

Maybe it’s not about political issues at all. Maybe it’s about us, Americans.

Whoa! You’re back on the road again and have a good point; now, stay with it!

Now if you’re a youngster, you probably don’t remember the sixties, when we were all supposed to get together and love one another.

That was the idea behind the whole “Age of Aquarius” vibe back then.

It was also in the midst of a 21-year war in Vietnam that killed more than 55,000 Americans and more than a million Vietnamese and cost U.S. taxpayers more than $139,000,000,000 dollars. 

Today I’ve got a gun and if you knock on my door, beware.

Don’t worry, I won’t be knocking on your door – I can’t afford to live in your left coast Los Angeles neighborhood. But I’d worry a lot less about someone knocking on my door if I had a gun! Still, your old buddy Uncle Joe Biden told us:

“Biden said that he owned two shotguns and had advised his wife, Jill Biden, to use one of them to “fire two blasts” should she feel threatened by someone or something.”

And if I’ve got more money than you I don’t want anything to do with you. There’s a whole slice of life that is only accessible to the rich. Private jets, hotels… I thought we were all one country, I guess not.

You sure have more money than I do – that explains why you never post my emails in your “mailbag” newsletters or respond to my efforts to have a dialogue with you. You’re far too busy hobnobbing with wealthy record company executives, flying first class to five-star hotels around the world to opine before music industry big shots at conferences and conventions, in between the 57 days every year you go skiing at expensive Colorado mountain resorts. That kind of lifestyle is only accessible to Bob Lefsetz and his corporate big whigs…

And we’ve got all these business wizards telling us that to get ahead we’ve got to be aggressive, use people (er, networking), as long as it pays no one can criticize.

There’s always the option to start a music blog and siphon off money from rich recording industry executives…

As for the spending bill… Elon Musk came along and got rid of research for pediatric cancer, and legislation to attack the inequities of pharmacy benefit managers! You’ve got to cut, cut, cut, after all the government wastes money and they’re taking your tax dollars.

And exactly where and how did Elon Musk get rid of research for pediatric cancer? You’re off the road and back in the ditch again. Are you talking about the Omnibus spending bill that was 1,547 pages long and would have cost 1.8 billion dollars? Are you aware that the United States has a national debt of $35.46 TRILLION dollars? The interest alone on this debt was $1.16 trillion dollars in 2024. Are you telling us there is no waste in the federal budget, no room for cutting, and we should just continue to spend, spend, spend?

What kind of bizarre world do we live in where people believe they don’t have to pay their fair share of taxes, and they alone should be able to decide how the taxes they do pay are spent?

NOBODY believes they shouldn’t pay their fair share of taxes. Please tell us – what do YOU think is a “fair share” we should pay?

CBS News has reported:

“Altogether, the top 50 percent of filers earned 90 percent of all income and were responsible for 98 percent of all income taxes paid in 2021. The other half of earners with incomes below $46,637 collectively paid 2.3 percent of all income taxes in 2021.”

How much more than 98% should these people pay? How much do YOU pay? We have a progressive tax system, established by a democratic vote of the people of this great nation. Precisely, what are you whining about?

Once again, if we’re all in it together, we’ve got to take care of each other, pave the roads, provide disaster relief…BUT NOT IF I HAVE TO PAY FOR IT! And if it happens to me, I’m entitled to reimbursement, forget what I said previously.

We DO take care of each other:

“Each year, American taxpayers spend nearly $1 trillion trying to help the poor, according to a recent study by the Cato Institute.”

The Wrong Way to Help the Poor

What if you couldn’t afford to go to college and instead worked a blue-collar job most of your life, only to be told that your taxes would now be going to pay off college loans for kids who studied “Entertainment engineering & design” or “Egyptology” or an eight-year medical degree that would earn that student hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in their career? In what way is it anyway fair to expect other people to pay off the loans students agreed to take to get a higher education so many of us could never afford?

CEOs are entitled to their fat salaries. Why? Because every other CEO is handsomely compensated. They’re ENTITLED to that money.

CEOs are entitled to the salaries established by the individual shareholders and management of their companies.

But if you’re looking for welfare…you’re not entitled to that, you’re going to abuse the system, you lazy f*ck, go out and work!

NOBODY has EVER said that, except for Bob Lefsetz. You criticize those who think we should be more careful about spending taxpayer money, and now you criticize those who believe that welfare is essential and helpful. Still, perhaps there should be some oversight and standards for receiving that assistance.

No one really cares about anyone else, no one is compassionate. And when caught in bad behavior, they don’t accept criticism, they just point to the other guy!

Sounds a lot like your Democrat pals who assured us the old Joe Biden was sharp as a tack and Kamala Harris was presidential material. LOL! Why don’t you just step outside and tell everyone to, “Get off my lawn”, you old fart?

And if you’re a member of the hoi polloi…why should you obey the rules, the rich don’t, isn’t that how they got rich, aren’t they always jamming it in front of our face?

Boy, you’re just a fountain of inspirational wisdom and good vibes today, aren’t you?

We don’t need a political revolution, we need a cultural revolution. We need our leaders to be beacons of compassion, not rip-off artists who sell multiple versions of the same damn album to fans caught up in the excitement.

And exactly who would those leaders be? Bob Lefsetz? Any other suggestions? A majority of Americans rejected your left-wing vision of America last month. Get over it – deal with it – you’ve got four years to acclimate to the reality of the current political landscape. More women, more blacks, more Latinos, more everybody voted for Trump and rejected the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris/Bob Lefsetz vision for America.

Giving back?

Maybe I’ll write a check for this or that, it’ll burnish my image. But on  a regular basis? Screw that, I’m entitled to everything I’ve got and I want more.

Now that sounds like the Bob Lefsetz I’ve gotten to know in your almost daily political rants!

What is end game here?

And everybody lies with impunity. Why not, our president-to-be does. And Fox News makes fun of the people on the other side… It’s no longer about the issues, but character attack.

Fair question, Bob. What is YOUR end game? There is no need to bring up President Trump here – look at your Democratic administration for examples:

“Now, it has come to the fore White House aides covered up Biden’s apparent mental decline from Day 1 of his presidency, protecting the aging commander-in-chief from the public and even rearranging his schedule after scatterbrained performances, an explosive report has revealed on Thursday.”

Biden’s apparent mental decline hidden by White House from the start

For nearly four years, your liberal pals, Democrats, and the mainstream media have been lying about Joe Biden’s mental decline during his term as the most powerful man in the world, with his finger on the nuclear button.

We’ve got a rotten society, and we’ve ended up with Trump. 

Democrats lied about Biden for four years and all you worry about is Trump. You know what you’ve got, Bobby – a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Then again, people don’t want their kids to go to “government schools,” what we used to call “public schools.” As for homeschooling…you go to school with others for socialization, to learn how to make friends and get along with other people. But, from the get-go, there are parents who want to shield their progeny from the rest of society. You don’t learn everything in books.

Only 11.8% of kids attend private schools, but if you knew more about contemporary public education, you’d understand why! Parents don’t want to “shield their progeny from the rest of society” – what a goof! They want their kids to get a good education!

Instead of making fun and hating on everybody who is not on his side, maybe Elon Musk could show a little courtesy, tell his minions that you don’t ultimately succeed by demonizing the other, but by embracing and understanding the other.

Oh, sure – Elon Musk and his “minions” are the only ones making fun of some people they may disagree with. You and your pals spent more than the last four years calling Donald Trump “Hitler,” “Stalin,” “an existential threat to democracy,” a racist, a dictator, and all the rest, while calling those who support him “deplorable” and “garbage.” Meanwhile Elon Musk was creating PayPal, Tesla, Starlink, and SpaceX, accomplishing things that no government programs or politicians have been able to do in the last 40 years.

You can have Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, and Kamala “Unburden the Burden” Harris. These are YOUR people, and you’re welcome to them. Now get off your laptop, go outside, and chase those kids off your lawn…