I am a low income Senior, I would love to subscribe to more substacks, but I can't. I have approximately three dollars left in my checking account until April, so I won't be buying you a coffee either no matter how much I would love to. You are however next on my list for adding. I had planned on it this month. And then came this idiot war, which I highly suspect was triggered by another criminal leader, trying to stay out of prison. Yes Netanyahu I am blaming you for the trigger. Trump just squeezed. Now I am worse off than before, hoping for a Blue Tsunami to sweep this intemperate President out of office with an Impeachment, conviction, and removal from office.
This made me think of a new term I just heard of a day or two ago: the "E" shaped economy. We've probably become aware of the K shaped, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. What about someone like me? I'm not a billionaire, and I'm not struggling. YET. Hopefully never. But as got up in age I saw plenty of friends either not make it to retirement, or take retirement early because of health issues or job layoffs--and whose gonna hire a 63 year old? It wouldn't take much to drop a 63 y/o without healthcare and without safety nets (THANKS TO YOU DOGE!) into hunger. Poverty. Homelessness.
The "E" in this new financial term is folks like me. I'm doing okay. I'm fairly healthy. But I'm watching my young adult kids unable to attain what I had at their age. So, I shop the grocery stores and pick up things they could use. I treat them to a tank of gas now and then, and an occasional meal out. Just to give a bit of leeway.
I'm not surprised that the majority of folks don't pay for news. I purchase a print newspaper every weekend. I subscribe to several Substacks. But my kids don't, and neither do some of my peers who aren't as fortunate as I am.
The billionaires, like Rupert Murdock, control the media. No wonder Trump comes off as someone more in control of himself when they sanewash everything he says and does.
Noticed early 1980's new hires did not get "retirement" health and dental, raises, vacations. Kept getting less and less. They didn't know what others had before them.
My husband worked for 40 years, he retired 16 years ago.
Because of the timing we were able to by a home, which has increased in value, and put our daughter and myself through college. We have 2 granddaughters, and one is finishing high school, and the other is starting medical school.
My daughter is a nurse, and her husband is an architect. They have been struggling somewhat, but they were right behind us, when people were still being hired, they had degrees and skills that people wanted.
When Covid hit we didn't go anywhere for 4 and 1/2 years. We got used to NOT going out to eat, and NOT taking vacations, which has helped our budget.
So...we are doing okay, but millions aren't because employers kept wanting more and giving less.
College is impossible. They have stopped student loans, and even the ones that got them were no longer able to pay them back. MILLIONS have lost the jobs they had. Government jobs used to be secure, but they have gutted the whole government.
Amazon just had their people spend 8 months putting tons of information into their system and then they fired them all. Thousands of them. Keep seeing info 30,000/20,000 etc lost their jobs. One of the first thing they did was fire 53,000 forest workers. No one to fight fires, work on lands, trails, etc.
So... you can tell how frustrated it is for me to watch it happen. Saw an article, said that is what authoritarians do. They weaken the infrastructure by firing people by layers, until people are unable to protest .
Glad you are doing okay. So few people are.
I don't do pay walls, but subscribe to substack people, and find a lot more info than I ever did with traditional papers.
I spent my 40+ years as a medical technologist. You mention employers "wanting more and giving less". I bet your daughter sees this as a nurse, as even in that field, they want "MORE".
Incredibly, at the last few years of my career, our lab measured our "productivity"!! We were to turn out blood tests faster and faster, and I balked at that because my area of expertise was "reading" blood smears. A single blood cell out of thousands and thousands could make the difference in a patient's outcome. I am not bragging but truthful when I say that over my career, I can recall about a dozen times when I saw something that didn't look quite right, and I ended up being the one who diagnosed the patient.
People are not widgets to be churned out. I do not understand the amassing of obscene amounts of wealth: how many homes, yachts, jets, cars can one person own and enjoy?!?! A reckoning is coming.
I subscribe to news analysis (you and HCR) and to investigative journalism on Substack. I seldom need more than the headlines on the NYT and WSJ because, BECAUSE, so much of what they publish only came out because a scrappy smaller outfit already broke the story. Or it's their breaking story but there isn't much content beyond the headline.
That’s why people like Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Reich, Robert Hubbell and Joyce Vance and so many others offer their news to subscribers to their email for free. Those that can pay and want to can support them. I don’t go to Substack - ever because it is all to much, but I get your newsletter and theirs in my email. I also get the NYTimes and Bloomberg in my email that at least allows me to read through their headlines with their summaries. They usually allow you to read one full article if you click on it.
About a month or two ago, on her YouTube/FB "Politics Chat" HCR told people to NOT do a paid subscription, and instead to support the smaller journalist accounts, like Xplisset!
When reporting the news, war is intensifying & ground troops are headed to Mideast, is a license revoking, unpatriotic crime? Rabid MAGA wolves are rampaging. The constitution & the rule of law are cast aside. Resist MAGA gangster grifter authoritarianism! Vote Sane. #VoteBlue!
Thank you for doing the work and making this argument. Truly in times like the current war it should be the responsibility of all media to provide these important stories to everyone. Imagine if the Vietnam war, Watergate, 911, or the Iraq war for example, were mostly paywalled. How would that have changed the outcome of those events. Public perception is based on readily available reliable information. Otherwise there are plenty of conspiracy theory sources available to fill the void. I pay for a lot of news subscriptions, including this Substack, but I sometimes long for the days of only printed newspapers and the three network channels on TV. People were definitely better informed when those were the sources, IMHO.
I'm not so sure people were better informed back then - IF people WANT to be informed - you can be - just by subscribing to various substacks - unpaid subscriptions! I now have four paid subscriptions - and several unpaid ones (this site is one) There's lots of info out there - you just have to look for it. Back then, all we had to do was turn on the tv/radio!!! Possibly if all of us had been aware & on top of things - the "news" would still be doing its job.
I recommend Civil Discourse - LFAA, of course - Land Desk, The Front Page (local NY) and Climate Colored Goggles. These are only a few.
You have inspired me to visit our prestigious Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago. I will take the elevator to the 9th floor and ask for a copy of The Wall Street Journal. Every morning that paper sends me a personal email message. They are as a shady family member who is angry I haven't kept in touch. I'm allowed to read snipits. But then the hefty subscription price pops up. Next the Murdochs and their disasterous impact on my liberal world. The crowd of Trump supporters arrive, goading me to jump aboard. But like a determined celebate, I resist their advances. and delete. As long as WSJ is tied to Trump, as securely as a garbage can wrapped around a chainlink fence, I'll will repel their advances. I will remain pure.
Super well-written! My Dad used to go to the Public Library every day, to read the WSJ. His grandkids wanted to buy him a Sub, but he said "NO!" He subscribed to our local hometown paper, and watched PBS every evening. Good for YOU!
I’m happy to be a paid subscriber to your Substack, and this post is just one of the reasons why. I don’t really know how to get it seen and read by more people though, because anywhere I would share it would be preaching to the choir. I found you from Letters From An American.
I am retired and fortunately have the time and resources to get in depth reporting. I could gift subscriptions to your and HCR Substack to my son and daughter-in-law (both 27), but they both work full-time and frankly would prefer to ignore “news.” 🤷
As usual - off topic! This post is about the complete lack of coverage on climate change by the top "news" organizations. Actually not a surprise but disturbing to see how it has decreased. Plus some information on EVs.
ALSO... if a person does not have a cell phone, with $ for phone service, they are blocked from things like substack, where there is a variety of reporting, opportunity to see different POV.
And be you all NOT forgetting, that Trump's "admimistration" has DE-funded NPR and PBS, two of the major "go-tos" for independent news! And now, they are OPENLY lamenting that the consolidation of CBS, CCN, and the rest of the news is "not yet" finalized under their good gazilionnaire pal and his gazillionaire family, who will make sure only Trump & Hegseth-leaning news is delivered to the American public.
Robert Reich has been reporting on this.
I'm spending all my "disposable income" (har! As a Starving Senior!) on subscriptions to
Newspapers and Websites like XPlisset, because I've decided Knowledge is Power, and Knowledge can be shared with friends, family, and Facebook. When you've got clinically insane wackos in power, it behooves all of us to maybe skip a meal in order to nourish our understanding of "Current Events"! Literally "Life-or Death"!
💥 “a system that repeatedly asks the public to accept enormous state action with limited direct access to the best documentation.”
While NPR and PBS are defunded. This all is “by design” as misinformation spreads like wildfire. Besides Trump and co had no business aiding Israel in its wars and Congress was illegally bypassed! Congress is inept full of GOP enablers. There is NO logical argument for the US to be there BUT/EXCEPT Israel had dirt on Trump via Epstein files due to their many overlapping leaders who were/ are in the files themselves. It’s another distraction from his prosecution for his crimes and keeps damning evidence behind the Israeli firewall to compromise the US and global security. No paywall can hide these connections. Americans should be furious about the futility of this baseless act of aggression to cover up trumps own crimes.
I am a low income Senior, I would love to subscribe to more substacks, but I can't. I have approximately three dollars left in my checking account until April, so I won't be buying you a coffee either no matter how much I would love to. You are however next on my list for adding. I had planned on it this month. And then came this idiot war, which I highly suspect was triggered by another criminal leader, trying to stay out of prison. Yes Netanyahu I am blaming you for the trigger. Trump just squeezed. Now I am worse off than before, hoping for a Blue Tsunami to sweep this intemperate President out of office with an Impeachment, conviction, and removal from office.
Something we all hope for!
This made me think of a new term I just heard of a day or two ago: the "E" shaped economy. We've probably become aware of the K shaped, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. What about someone like me? I'm not a billionaire, and I'm not struggling. YET. Hopefully never. But as got up in age I saw plenty of friends either not make it to retirement, or take retirement early because of health issues or job layoffs--and whose gonna hire a 63 year old? It wouldn't take much to drop a 63 y/o without healthcare and without safety nets (THANKS TO YOU DOGE!) into hunger. Poverty. Homelessness.
The "E" in this new financial term is folks like me. I'm doing okay. I'm fairly healthy. But I'm watching my young adult kids unable to attain what I had at their age. So, I shop the grocery stores and pick up things they could use. I treat them to a tank of gas now and then, and an occasional meal out. Just to give a bit of leeway.
I'm not surprised that the majority of folks don't pay for news. I purchase a print newspaper every weekend. I subscribe to several Substacks. But my kids don't, and neither do some of my peers who aren't as fortunate as I am.
The billionaires, like Rupert Murdock, control the media. No wonder Trump comes off as someone more in control of himself when they sanewash everything he says and does.
Noticed early 1980's new hires did not get "retirement" health and dental, raises, vacations. Kept getting less and less. They didn't know what others had before them.
My husband worked for 40 years, he retired 16 years ago.
Because of the timing we were able to by a home, which has increased in value, and put our daughter and myself through college. We have 2 granddaughters, and one is finishing high school, and the other is starting medical school.
My daughter is a nurse, and her husband is an architect. They have been struggling somewhat, but they were right behind us, when people were still being hired, they had degrees and skills that people wanted.
When Covid hit we didn't go anywhere for 4 and 1/2 years. We got used to NOT going out to eat, and NOT taking vacations, which has helped our budget.
So...we are doing okay, but millions aren't because employers kept wanting more and giving less.
College is impossible. They have stopped student loans, and even the ones that got them were no longer able to pay them back. MILLIONS have lost the jobs they had. Government jobs used to be secure, but they have gutted the whole government.
Amazon just had their people spend 8 months putting tons of information into their system and then they fired them all. Thousands of them. Keep seeing info 30,000/20,000 etc lost their jobs. One of the first thing they did was fire 53,000 forest workers. No one to fight fires, work on lands, trails, etc.
So... you can tell how frustrated it is for me to watch it happen. Saw an article, said that is what authoritarians do. They weaken the infrastructure by firing people by layers, until people are unable to protest .
Glad you are doing okay. So few people are.
I don't do pay walls, but subscribe to substack people, and find a lot more info than I ever did with traditional papers.
Take care.🗽🇺🇲🇺🇦
Thank you, NK.
I spent my 40+ years as a medical technologist. You mention employers "wanting more and giving less". I bet your daughter sees this as a nurse, as even in that field, they want "MORE".
Incredibly, at the last few years of my career, our lab measured our "productivity"!! We were to turn out blood tests faster and faster, and I balked at that because my area of expertise was "reading" blood smears. A single blood cell out of thousands and thousands could make the difference in a patient's outcome. I am not bragging but truthful when I say that over my career, I can recall about a dozen times when I saw something that didn't look quite right, and I ended up being the one who diagnosed the patient.
People are not widgets to be churned out. I do not understand the amassing of obscene amounts of wealth: how many homes, yachts, jets, cars can one person own and enjoy?!?! A reckoning is coming.
I share your frustration!
I subscribe to news analysis (you and HCR) and to investigative journalism on Substack. I seldom need more than the headlines on the NYT and WSJ because, BECAUSE, so much of what they publish only came out because a scrappy smaller outfit already broke the story. Or it's their breaking story but there isn't much content beyond the headline.
That’s why people like Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Reich, Robert Hubbell and Joyce Vance and so many others offer their news to subscribers to their email for free. Those that can pay and want to can support them. I don’t go to Substack - ever because it is all to much, but I get your newsletter and theirs in my email. I also get the NYTimes and Bloomberg in my email that at least allows me to read through their headlines with their summaries. They usually allow you to read one full article if you click on it.
Here is Joyce Vance’s latest…
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/attacking-the-first-amendment-on?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
About a month or two ago, on her YouTube/FB "Politics Chat" HCR told people to NOT do a paid subscription, and instead to support the smaller journalist accounts, like Xplisset!
So did Joyce a while ago - I stopped the paid subscription on one of them, but read them both every day - LFAA first thing when I turn on my computer!
Substack is more info because I can subscribe for free. I do pay for some just to support them, but almost everyone has a free subscription.
Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, etc. are here.
You can Unsubscribe, so you can control how many, or how few you want to see.
It works by giving your email, so their posts come through as email.
Brilliant concise work. I am grateful.
When reporting the news, war is intensifying & ground troops are headed to Mideast, is a license revoking, unpatriotic crime? Rabid MAGA wolves are rampaging. The constitution & the rule of law are cast aside. Resist MAGA gangster grifter authoritarianism! Vote Sane. #VoteBlue!
https://weissmann.substack.com/p/the-wolf-is-at-the-door?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhcB2X8t43A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYTz7NgRYRI
Thank you for the Weissman substack post. He's someone we all should listen to.
Thank you for doing the work and making this argument. Truly in times like the current war it should be the responsibility of all media to provide these important stories to everyone. Imagine if the Vietnam war, Watergate, 911, or the Iraq war for example, were mostly paywalled. How would that have changed the outcome of those events. Public perception is based on readily available reliable information. Otherwise there are plenty of conspiracy theory sources available to fill the void. I pay for a lot of news subscriptions, including this Substack, but I sometimes long for the days of only printed newspapers and the three network channels on TV. People were definitely better informed when those were the sources, IMHO.
I'm not so sure people were better informed back then - IF people WANT to be informed - you can be - just by subscribing to various substacks - unpaid subscriptions! I now have four paid subscriptions - and several unpaid ones (this site is one) There's lots of info out there - you just have to look for it. Back then, all we had to do was turn on the tv/radio!!! Possibly if all of us had been aware & on top of things - the "news" would still be doing its job.
I recommend Civil Discourse - LFAA, of course - Land Desk, The Front Page (local NY) and Climate Colored Goggles. These are only a few.
You have inspired me to visit our prestigious Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago. I will take the elevator to the 9th floor and ask for a copy of The Wall Street Journal. Every morning that paper sends me a personal email message. They are as a shady family member who is angry I haven't kept in touch. I'm allowed to read snipits. But then the hefty subscription price pops up. Next the Murdochs and their disasterous impact on my liberal world. The crowd of Trump supporters arrive, goading me to jump aboard. But like a determined celebate, I resist their advances. and delete. As long as WSJ is tied to Trump, as securely as a garbage can wrapped around a chainlink fence, I'll will repel their advances. I will remain pure.
Super well-written! My Dad used to go to the Public Library every day, to read the WSJ. His grandkids wanted to buy him a Sub, but he said "NO!" He subscribed to our local hometown paper, and watched PBS every evening. Good for YOU!
I’m happy to be a paid subscriber to your Substack, and this post is just one of the reasons why. I don’t really know how to get it seen and read by more people though, because anywhere I would share it would be preaching to the choir. I found you from Letters From An American.
I am retired and fortunately have the time and resources to get in depth reporting. I could gift subscriptions to your and HCR Substack to my son and daughter-in-law (both 27), but they both work full-time and frankly would prefer to ignore “news.” 🤷
Gift one to Louise P Coak…the first commenter in this thread.
As usual - off topic! This post is about the complete lack of coverage on climate change by the top "news" organizations. Actually not a surprise but disturbing to see how it has decreased. Plus some information on EVs.
https://www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/nbc-climate-seth-meyers
ALSO... if a person does not have a cell phone, with $ for phone service, they are blocked from things like substack, where there is a variety of reporting, opportunity to see different POV.
I seldom use my cell phone at all - my computer keeps me up to date on any substacks I follow.
And be you all NOT forgetting, that Trump's "admimistration" has DE-funded NPR and PBS, two of the major "go-tos" for independent news! And now, they are OPENLY lamenting that the consolidation of CBS, CCN, and the rest of the news is "not yet" finalized under their good gazilionnaire pal and his gazillionaire family, who will make sure only Trump & Hegseth-leaning news is delivered to the American public.
Robert Reich has been reporting on this.
I'm spending all my "disposable income" (har! As a Starving Senior!) on subscriptions to
Newspapers and Websites like XPlisset, because I've decided Knowledge is Power, and Knowledge can be shared with friends, family, and Facebook. When you've got clinically insane wackos in power, it behooves all of us to maybe skip a meal in order to nourish our understanding of "Current Events"! Literally "Life-or Death"!
💥 “a system that repeatedly asks the public to accept enormous state action with limited direct access to the best documentation.”
While NPR and PBS are defunded. This all is “by design” as misinformation spreads like wildfire. Besides Trump and co had no business aiding Israel in its wars and Congress was illegally bypassed! Congress is inept full of GOP enablers. There is NO logical argument for the US to be there BUT/EXCEPT Israel had dirt on Trump via Epstein files due to their many overlapping leaders who were/ are in the files themselves. It’s another distraction from his prosecution for his crimes and keeps damning evidence behind the Israeli firewall to compromise the US and global security. No paywall can hide these connections. Americans should be furious about the futility of this baseless act of aggression to cover up trumps own crimes.