For this article, I’m going to channel my inner Joe Biden and tap into the magical, mystical powers of my mind to pull off something to start with, so please bear with me.

You know, one of those homespun stories meant to impart wisdom, like that time Biden was arrested for protesting for civil rights to look brave (never happened) or something that a grandparent told him growing up to help him get through some issue we all have later in life. Biden is FAMOUS for these quotes from his Dad or Mom, grandparents, or aliens from space that once abducted him — and he uses them to fill a gap in his mind, and the story he is telling, and it is absolutely precious.

Who can forget that “Cornpop” is a bad dude and hung out at a pool?

Love that story.

So, here I go.

Both of my grandfathers told me when I was just a toddler that, one day, I would find a way to use this nugget of wisdom to look for the greater good in something, and to find that silver lining. I never believed it would happen, but here we are in 2022, and I’m finding out through the Joe Rogan and Spotify story that Neil Young and Joni Mitchell are still converting oxygen into carbon.

For some odd reason, I thought they stopped being oxygen thieves years ago.

Now, the reason I did not realize they were still around to collect royalty checks was that I used their albums as Frisbees during my rare breaks back in my time fighting the Contras on the faraway shores of Antarctica. We had lots of albums to choose from, and we only chose the ones that we would not listen to — because they attracted mating penguins and made them suicidal. Our selections were few of course, and the discs that drove the penguins bonkers were Young and Mitchell. Possibly that Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young experiment, but it was a long time ago and my memory has faded.

My lord, this is fun. No wonder Biden has done this his whole career.

Now, why am I bringing up this piece of wisdom about always looking for a silver lining that neither of my grandfathers gave me? Simply because, if it were not for this story of Neil Young whining about his much-ballyhooed catalog being played on Spotify where Joe Rogan hosts his show, I might not ever have found out this.

A.) Young and Mitchell are alive.

B.)   I learned from others here at RedState that some of these artists threatening the same thing don’t even earn a dime from plays on Spotify.

This made me ask additional questions.

From my colleague Brad Slager, with his piece entitled Some Much Overlooked Facts Unravel the Emotional Neil Young/Spotify Squabble…

Now understand, Young was peacocking in his outrage–nothing more. He was not receiving much, if anything, in the way of royalties from Spotify. Most of the streaming rights for music were struck with the labels, who receive the royalties. You see this in Neil’s own words, regarding the desire to move from the outlet; “I was reminded by my own legal forces that contractually I did not have control of my music to do that.”

I didn’t know that Neal had “legal forces” (how authoritarian), but he was just peacocking, as Brad states, being he does not own his own songs.

Brad’s article was followed up with one from my other fabulous colleague, Jennifer Oliver O’Connell, with her piece entitled Like Lemmings off a Cliff, Joni Mitchell Follows Neil Young, Peter Frampton to Demand Spotify Remove Her Music. I learned there that Joni released a statement that, in part, says…

“I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”

Whew, we all know how the track record so far has gone in the scientific and medical communities. If it were a batting average, they would be right around .100 with about three-fourths of the season over. Not a major league contract coming anytime soon for the Fauci’s Ouchies crew, but we always expect less from government.

Yet, when I was snooping around, I found the answer that was bouncing around in the back of my mind about why I have read about all these “artists” recently selling off their glorious catalogs that they spent years building. Most music fans have heard about early blues and rock-n-roll artists getting screwed with their royalties, and now their property is jealously protected and rightly so.

Well, the answer (in at least Young’s case here) shows what a flaming pile of excrement some of these folks are.

Lower. Taxes.

According to the CBC, dopesters like Young want to keep on rocking with lower taxes, before Joe Biden’s tax increase kicks in.

Why are corporations willing to spend so much to acquire these musicians’ catalogues? And why are some of the biggest superstars of the past 50 years parting with the bodies of work they spent a lifetime building?

CBC News explains why catalogue sales have become a defining part of today’s music industry.

“The reason why you’re hearing about this right now, and why it seems to be happening quickly is a U.S. tax situation,” said Patrick Rogers, CEO of Music Canada. “The opportunity to do this at the best financial time is right now.”

Due to what many call a “loophole” in American tax law, musicians making a large sale right now pay less than half as much as they might a few years from now, when that loophole is closed.

When United States President Joe Biden was elected, he pledged to alter the country’s capital gains tax law so that it would fall in line with income tax for high-earners. Or in other words, it would ask — as stated on his website — “those making more than $1 million to pay the same rate on investment income that they do on their wages.”

That means the taxes musicians pay on their catalogue sales could jump to around 37 per cent from roughly 20. For sales in the hundreds-of-millions, that represents a huge amount of money, Rogers said, and it’s pushing musicians who are considering the move to get it done.

How about that, dammit. They have gone from fighting the man, to paying the man fewer taxes while licking his boot.

Neil Young sold off his beloved songs so he could keep more of his loot before he gets put six feet under. Frauds like this old hipster wrote songs about sticking it to the government, but actually love getting ‘jabbed’ by the authority and strut around as though they actually care about some larger “thing” in a goofy cosmic sense.

Joe Rogan has spent his life building himself up, and those frauds like Young want to take some cheap shots with one foot in the grave to seem relevant still, which is just the greatest thing that could happen to him and his career.

No matter how all this #woke nonsense turns out.

If it were not for “The Joe Rogan Experience” and the press he has gotten for doing nothing other than putting on an informative and entertaining show, I and many others would not know that Neil Young and Joni Mitchell were alive, and that Young just dodged a proposed Biden tax increase. I now won’t look dumbfounded when these vapid super-rich dufuses finally assume room temperature.

Now, back to making up crazy stories, Joe Biden-style, and being delusional in a (still) free world (thanks to Canada).