Rather than focus on a specific topic today, I wanted to share with you what I have learned during the time I have been researching for my work here. I wanted to give you a feel for more about where I am on this journey to share my thoughts, values, and my worldview, because I’m about to step things up, and I’d love for you to join me on what I hope will be a decade-long final contribution to a society which seems hellbent on self-destruction.
My thought is that, at 66, I can likely contribute another decade to this fight and, hopefully, leave behind a body of work that documents one of the most turbulent periods of modern history. When I arrived at Substack a year ago, my aim was simply to use it to journal my thoughts as the world began to unravel. I made it clear from day one that I was not a journalist or a writer; just an average Joe with a bucketful of opinions and a passion for social justice.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that a year on, I would have built an almost 100,000-subscriber list and be reaching so many people, not just in the US but around the world. With now over 400 articles under my belt, I think I can tentatively consider myself a writer, albeit very much still a work in progress. I’m pretty proud to say that not one of those over 400 articles was written from the perspective of writing what I thought people wanted to hear. I’ve remained focused simply on telling what I believe to be the truth through in-depth research and through the lens of my personal values.
It has never been my aim to provide ‘balanced’ commentary, because I feel that the legacy media's attempt to always provide equal time to opposing narratives is how we find ourselves in the situation in the first place. The right’s weaponisation of bias and free speech, sprinkled with scripture and ‘interpretation’, is what led us into the world of ‘alternative facts’ and ‘individual truths’ harvested to create the collective lie.
My position has always been that, if we are realistic, an equal society is beyond our reach as human beings. Our base instincts as humans are to get ahead, even at the expense of others if need be. You can’t unravel centuries of evolution where the strong have survived while the weak have fallen by the wayside. There will always be winners and losers in life, and I have no problem with that in principle. I simply refuse to believe that those unable to keep up should be humiliated, exploited and abused to further the ambitions of those already ahead.
This nonsense that we are all born equal has never been more of a lie than it is today. If you belong to the top 10% of Americans (by net worth), you will inherit an average of around £1.2 million. The higher up the ladder you go, the bigger the inherited start you have in life. Studies suggest that around 60% of billionaires inherit most of their wealth today. That is not to say that, at the beginning, their families had to place them in this position.
It is beyond question that the wealth of the rich has accumulated over the years in an environment where risk has been increasingly mitigated by corporate welfare. It is safe to say they have long regarded their profits as their reward for hard work, while their losses, once they have made it big, become the taxpayer's responsibility. It’s become increasingly clear that the same companies that insist the government step back from regulation, want the same government to bail them out when their reckless behaviour leads to impending economic collapse.
I’m not the guy who lives in a world where I will allow so-called ‘balance’ to detract from right and wrong. This is what has led corporate media to lose credibility. It would not be my job to give voice to Adolf Hitler, to provide ‘balance’ to the holocaust, no more than it is for me to give the likes of Trump or Stephen Miller a voice to defend their unconscionable acts of cruelty. The strength of independent journalism and commentary is in its ability to analyse the facts and use them to arrive at a conclusion based on the truth and not a political narrative. I like to think I have become adept at that since I began my long-form writing journey.
My work is driven by a social justice narrative rather than a political one. While ‘balance’ plays no part, fairness absolutely does define what I do. As a Brit, I’m neither a Democrat nor a Republican, and I carry no political baggage. However, my personal values have always aligned with the core principles of the Democratic Party in the US. That said, my concerns about their positioning, stemming from special interests and poor party leadership, are well-documented. In the UK, I am a longstanding Labour Party voter who is at this very moment extremely concerned about the hold that Trump’s buddy Nigel Farage has accumulated using the Trump playbook and American finance. The cancer of right-wing American politics has well and truly metastasised to the UK.
While my primary focus moving forward will remain on US politics, I will shortly be adding a new Substack publication to my portfolio called ‘The Battle for Britain”. It’s been in the planning for a couple of months now. It will initially be a weekly newsletter, increasing in frequency as we get closer to the next general election. Once the 2028 US elections are over, this will provide me with an opportunity to then shift more focus to the 2029 UK general election, assuming the Labour Party governs for a full term. For avid followers of US politics, I think you will find ‘The Battle for Britain’ Substack really interesting, as there is now a great deal of political crossover.
The love of my life and I have had long, deliberative discussions about the road forward for my work. It was never going to be easy for me to transition from often 15-hour workdays to retirement. She openly admits to having concerns that partners often have about getting on each other’s nerves in the same space each day. In many ways, my work on Substack has helped save her from that fate. It has led me to a new sense of purpose, allowing me to combine my love of writing with my passion for social justice and geopolitics.
After 46 years together, the lucky ones among my female readers will recognise that in an enduring relationship, there is a magical component that allows us to read each other without a word being spoken, and to know when the other is stressed and when to step in. I’ve said before, we were young Labour activists when we met. We were both in search of a life away from home; on reflection, we both doubt it was love that bound us together at the outset, but rather a joint enterprise in search of collective independence.
Ours is a love that has grown and aged like a fine wine over the years as we raised a family and watched each of our children find their way in life. We often joke that there is a whole book to be written about the ups and the downs, the elation and the despair that have punctuated our life together. What I can tell you without fear of contradiction is that I have come to worship everything about her. I love her more now than I ever imagined I could love another human being. Every day I wake up, I know I’m truly blessed to have her in my life, and that is why I can press ahead in the confident knowledge that she believes as much in what I am doing as I do.
The beauty of writing is that technology gives us the freedom to still travel and enjoy walking amongst nature, to enjoy the countryside, architecture, and history, which are shared passions that enrich our lives. I have absolutely no idea if my plans for the decade ahead will deliver the contribution I hope they will, but rest assured, it will not be for lack of effort. They always say there are no guarantees in politics, and where we find ourselves is true evidence of that.
For the best part of five months, I have been working in the background on the Political Truth Portal, a concept I had hoped to have up and running by the end of January, however, circumstances have delayed rolling it out simply because I had to bring so many threads together, not least of which was to understand the level of financial commitment it would take given the only sponsors I have are the paid subscribers to my work here. There was no way I could press ahead without a sign-off from the love of my life on the joint financial investment required. That’s now taken care of, so I don’t have to live on the edge worrying about financing the core infrastructure moving forward, given it’s self-funded.
We’ve spent the last week buying new hardware to streamline the video production workflow. I have to admit, writing every other day rather than every day has helped, too. The aim moving forward is to use Substack as the beating heart of an information-delivery system that extends beyond this platform while remaining firmly anchored here. I want to not just write but also visualise my thoughts, to extend the social justice message into a new, highly polished, but people-centric news website, independent of the threats posed by information suppression tactics in the social media space. However, the aim is to move beyond this to present a unified message across all social media platforms, reaching people where they are. It will be a unified approach to centralise messaging.
I’ve spent my whole working life being a solution provider. I have a deep understanding of technology, AI, database design and development, along with big data analysis, so I can bring all these skills to the table. This was never about whether I could do this, but about how much of our own money it would take to at least prove the concept that truly independent news can deliver. The great thing about Substack is that a paid subscriber receives much the same day-to-day benefit from my work as they would receive from most publications here. However, now a contribution makes those subscribers stakeholders in a much bigger vision for good.
Having ‘backers’ in the traditional sense of the word, I feel, all too often poisons the well, because the original vision becomes diluted by the competing agenda of others. For me, that’s a deal breaker. I have a body of work that includes over 400 articles here, a comprehensive political Ad library on YouTube, and a large, well-respected account on X (which I know some will see as a negative rather than a positive), but it provides me with an opportunity to keep my finger on the pulse of the right-wing agenda. I’ve also learned how to fire them up to generate engagement that can be monetised. There’s no better feeling than knowing they are helping fund the fight against them.
I had a decision to make, and that was about putting my money where my mouth is, and with nervous trepidation, I’ve made the jump. The rest is down to hard work and building on the support I gained in my first year on Substack. My sole focus from here on is to convince people to engage with this 10-year plan to leave this world a better place through the collective work we do to help create the foundations for a better tomorrow. The decision to become a stakeholder through a paid subscription or as a one-off donor to the project isn't in my hands; I’m doing this regardless, but heaven knows it will be less stressful not to do it on my own.
There will be no constant stream of begging emails. I want the work to speak for itself and to draw people into this ambitious plan because they believe in its objectives. There are no guarantees other than that I will be here every day working hard to drive things forward. I want to make The Political Truth Portal the go-to destination for fact-based commentary and political analysis. A refuge for those seeking truth in the fog of deceit and misdirection. Will I be able to do this on my own? Absolutely not. This is not a for-profit operation, so at the outset, the only currency available is a thank you. That said, there will be links for contributors to directly monetise their content, and content creators will be part of that model once it's established. I believe in absolute transparency because too many ideas fail due to a lack of trust. That’s not going to happen here.
I want this to be an eyes-wide-open approach to social engagement, where the true reward comes from changing the minds of readers and viewers. The project will consist of the ongoing Truth Matters Substack publication, which will serve as the gateway to other services and resources within the project. There will be a weekly podcast and a YouTube news magazine show, along with short-form political audiovisual social media content that builds on the meme concept and makes it more engaging (I hope).
The aim is to use the current midterm cycle to develop and refine the messaging and content model. Clearly, this is not something that happens overnight, but the current cycle will allow time to find the right balance and establish the brand as a trusted source of information. It will be a ‘people first’ approach to FREE public information, enabling people to make informed decisions when lending their vote to a candidate. It will also mean that, from the get-go in the 2028 cycle, the model will have been stress-tested and will be ready to go.
I wanted to take this opportunity to share my vision with you because I’ve now finally pressed the go button after three months of nervous soul searching, so there’s no turning back now. I’m all in. Towards the end of next week, I’ll outline the rollout timetable and speak with content creators and writers who have already expressed interest in participating. There is still much work to do and many Zoom sessions ahead, but the breaks are off, and the train is rolling. Thank you for indulging me today. As ever, I appreciate your support. All the secure payment facilities are in place for one-off donations to the project using the same payment processor used to subscribe to Substack. I’ll publish links later in the week.
I’ll be formally back in the saddle tomorrow with my daily pieces, so I’m certainly looking forward to that. Enjoy the Super Bowl today if that’s your thing. I know as much about American football as most Americans do about cricket (which I love by the way), but don’t hold that against me.
They don’t speak for us.They’re dragging our country backward toward the days of Jim Crow.Big money is drowning out the voices of everyday voters.Now a MAGA-led Congress is pushing a bill that would make it harder to vote.
Our democracy works when every voice is heard. Protect the right to vote.
Economic Warfare
From No mercy/No malice
By Professor Scott Galloway
“We frame economic power as a contest between capital and labor, but the real star of the American economy is consumer spending, which accounts for 68% of GDP. The Great Recession saw a 3.4% drop in consumer spending — at the time, the most severe year-over-year decline since World War II. The U.S. economy registered a 9.8% drop in consumer spending during the second quarter of 2020, when Covid shut down the world as we knew it. In both instances the U.S. government responded aggressively, spending hundreds of billions, primarily on bailouts, to pull us out of the Great Recession, and trillions, primarily in direct aid, to get us through the pandemic. The lesson? When consumers stop spending, American leaders start listening. As Geo Hussar explained to his YouTube followers at the end of September, “this is not seizing the means of production, but seizing the means of consumption,” adding that if every American dropped their consumption, on average, by 2%, “that would be the most loud and potent form of protest.”
From Professor Erica Chenoweth:
“The third thing that successful movements do is they innovate new tactics. This is very important because movements that tend to over-rely on a single technique like protests, like demonstrating every Friday, something that becomes very routinized, end up succumbing much more quickly first of all to protester fatigue, but the second thing is they often subject their participants to a higher risk of repression or communal violence from opponents.
So movements that are capable of having the capacity to shift to methods of dispersion, like stay-at-homes or strikes or forms of economic noncooperation, tend to be much more effective because they have the capability of maneuver when the state begins to ramp up violence against them.”
https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/podcast/20201116-protests-perspective-civil-disobedience-activism-erica-chenoweth-deva-woodly
From Professor Paul Krugman
“So how can we make a Trump implosion more likely? The public can help by doing what Target’s customers and Disney’s audience did — make it clear that they will stop paying money to institutions that lend aid and comfort to the authoritarian project.”
From The Peaceful Solution-Part 1
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.