My 3rd book mentioned in #1 best-selling author's 2018 book!

My 3rd book mentioned in #1 best-selling author's 2018 book!

Former Secret Service officer Gary Byrne, author of the massive 2016 #1 best-seller CRISIS OF CHARACTER, quotes from my third book THE NOT SO SECRET SERVICE in his latest book SECRETS OF THE SECRET SERVICE (2018). Gary and his co-author are fans of my book!

WHO'S WHO IN THE SECRET SERVICE coming September 2018

WHO'S WHO IN THE SECRET SERVICE coming September 2018

(another rare off-topic post) The State of the NFL...is just fine, thank you very much.

(another rare off-topic post) The State of the NFL...is just fine, thank you very much.

Yep, the NFL is in trouble---NOT! I KNEW IT: I religiously follow the Nielsen ratings (especially week-in-review wraps ups)...stats don't lie: EVERY SINGLE WEEK, THE NFL IS NOT ONLY #1 BY A HUGE MARGIN, IT IS ALSO FREQUENTLY #2 AT THE SAME TIME AND #4 (THE FRICKIN' PRE-GAME SHOW!!!). Democrat or Republican, no matter if you like it or not, it is what it is. A TV critic said the NFL's average television audience is STILL 30-40 times larger than THE BIG BANG THEORY or NCIS or any other "big" show:

click on image to enlarge

2017 highest rated NFL games- oh, the NFL is in trouble...NOT! Is all that stuff about ratings being down equivalent to this: "the world's richest man WAS worth 210 billion dollars...now, he is "only" worth 208 billion"?

click on image to enlarge

NFL attendance was outstanding (as usual) for the 2017 season:

http://www.espn.com/nfl/attendance

From a recent article, typically lost amid the headline (a frequent trait I see lately)

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/21960086/nfl-television-ratings-97-percent-2017-regular-season

"The NFL isn't in a vacuum, as the viewership drop is indicative of the general environment as less television is being watched and cable subscriptions have declined. Despite the drop in NFL ratings, Nielsen data shows that the 20 of the 30 highest-rated shows on television in 2017 were football games. Both NBC and ESPN had the most-watched shows every single week, in terms of audience and in all key male demographics, for Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football games this season.
NBC's Sunday Night Football finished first in prime time this fall for the seventh consecutive year, besting "American Idol" (2005-06 through 2010-11) for the longest hold on the top prime-time spot since 1950. Its 18.2 million viewers beat the second-best prime-time show, Thursday Night Football on CBS, by 29 percent -- its largest margin ever.
ESPN officials reported earlier in the week that the network grew its total day viewership in 2017 by 1 percent, while prime time was up 7 percent."

Number of viewers for each NFL team in 2017:

https://247sports.com/nfl/dallas-cowboys/Bolt/Dallas-Cowboys-absence-in-playoffs-spells-big-trouble-for-NFL-ratings-113381871

see also:

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2018/01/top-sports-audiences-2017-nfl/

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nfl-tv-ratings-viewership-nbc-cbs-fox-espn-nfln-regular-season-playoffs/

see especially this one:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nfl-not-dying-may-plateauing-161457955.html

"All that being said, it’s important to remember that NFL games still dominate other live programming. 44 of the best-rated primetime TV programs of 2017 were NFL games. So think of it this way: primetime NFL games, for years and years, delivered outstanding ratings; now they deliver just very good ratings. As Wasserman advertising executive Elizabeth Lindsey told Yahoo Finance this year, “Football is football.” To big advertisers, the NFL is still the best game in town for reaching lots of eyeballs.

So don’t believe screaming headlines that declare the death of the NFL. The NFL is hardly dead or even dying—but it may have already hit its zenith of popularity. And the truth no one wants to acknowledge is that the NFL could afford to take a small haircut in viewership, and maybe even revenue, and still remain a major force in American pro sports."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Bowl_TV_ratings

The super bowl AFTER the 2016 elections: the highest viewership ever-

172,000,000

At the Cold Shoulder of History: the chilling story of a 21 year old Navy hospital corpsman who stood at the shoulder of JFK during the Bethesda autopsy by William Matson Law coming late 2018/ early 2019

At the Cold Shoulder of History: the chilling story of a 21 year old Navy hospital corpsman who stood at the shoulder of JFK during the Bethesda autopsy by William Matson Law coming late 2018/ early 2019

Esteemed author and friend William Matson Law wrote: "Vince, I have a piece of info for you concerning Jim Jenkins and my new book do out next year. It will be called At the Cold Shoulder of History: the chilling story of a 21 year old Navy hospital corpsman who stood at the shoulder of JFK during the Bethesda autopsy

Tidbit from the book: the Secret Service stood right there while Kennedy's tissue slides were being made and processed and took every scrap that was not used on a slide and took it away. Seems like something small, but the Secret Service made damn sure that everything concerning Kennedy, Dennis David typed memo, Etc were taken. This comes from an independent source that was working at Bethesda at the time."

JFK's agents deny that President Kennedy ordered them off the limo

(rare off-topic post) THE STATE OF THE (ROCK) MUSIC WORLD TODAY

Mike Spitzer, guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen's old manager, wrote the following: "My own view is the music industry is tougher than ever before.
The hardest time in history to be a musician as a career.
Why ?
(1) Music sales revenue are only 60% what they were in the 80s

(2) Due to the internet and so many other forms of entertainment and distractions today, people comment in surveys that music is less important in their lives than what people felt 40 -50 years ago.

(3) Many younger people comment that music is more a secondary background activity to them and not a primary source of entertainment

(4) Music equipment sales reflect this changing cultural changes.
Companies like Gibson, Guitar Center and other music companies are in deep debt or even bankruptcy reorganization.
Electric guitar sales are down 40% compared to 30 years ago alone.

(5) With such scattered audiences today, stardom means less than decades ago.
A musician or actor can be on a hit show -or- have a platinum record today and still be unknown to 95% of the general public.
Far different than back in the days of Hendrix, Beatles, Zeppelin, etc..

With these challenges in mind, I don't feel an artist or band can afford any weak links. Everybody involved must be top notch at what they do .....
Great guitar + great singer + great drummer + bass + clean production, etc..etc...

As they say ... a chain is only as strong as the weakest link.

I think this also helps explain the enduring success of bands like Iron Maiden and Megadeth who still fill 60,000 seat arenas around the world today just like they did 25 years ago."

It's a sad world we live in- gone are the days of kids playing actual musical instruments and GARAGE BANDS. I think the average kid just listens with the ear buds to whatever is on Spotify on their iPhones and doesn't give a rat's ass about musical virtuoso playing and talent. Country, rap-crap and pure shit seems to rule the day. That said, thank God for the Orient/ Asia, Germany and the cult following a lot of bands still receive in the U.S. (albeit on a club or small theater level). In fact, in Japan and Germany, CD SALES STILL ECLIPSE DOWNLOADS!

TWO BIG OBSERVATIONS]): 1) just as the classical music people enjoy is essentially Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, etc. (many years/ centuries ago; finite and over), are we NOW at a point where, cult bands aside, is the golden age of ROCK MUSIC over (1960's-1980's)? Grunge may have "killed the hair bands" but the hair bands came back (at least to play to rib fests, small clubs, etc.)- Grunge and Alternative came and died in the 1990's...what do we have SINCE then? Briefly Nu-Metal shit like Korn and Slipknot, the boy bands, tons of rap-crap, "country" that isn't even country (I hate that stuff, but I digress), and "pop" music a la Taylor Swift and Katy Perry and their ilk...GONE ARE THE DAYS OF KIDS PLAYING IN GARAGE BANDS! To follow-up on this point: 2) Did you ever notice that, when you enter a store or restaurant or anywhere else they play music these days, with a few exceptions, it is as if music began in 1960 and died in 1990! I HEAR NO NIRVANA, GRUNGE, OR ANY OF THE SHIT POST-EIGHTIES...is it because the music of those decades (1960's-1980's) was the CLASSICAL MUSIC OF ROCK, so to speak? It had MELODY AND TALENT...you could hum it, etc.? Imagine trying to eat a meal to Nirvana's Rape Me or Pearl Jam or that rap crud LOL...SAD. The average kid listens to Spotify with their ear buds on their iPhones and doesn't give a rat's ass about talent. Pity.
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to add insult to injury, nowadays, even the winners of AMERICAN IDOL, the Voice, and Rising Star (cancelled after one season LOL) are almost dead-on-arrival after "winning it all"...people just don't care like they used to. That said, thank God for the older generations of people (40 and up) and ALL ages overseas: THEY still go to concerts and actually buy cds (in Japan and Germany, CDS STILL SELL VERY WELL). It is heartening yet sad to see classic bands come to town- they are usually relegated to small clubs and theaters and almost no young (under 30) people are there.
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Who's Who in the Secret Service coming in 2018

Who's Who in the Secret Service coming in 2018