The norms have been shattered to the point that we lie to ourselves, trying to convince ourselves that rescue is just an election away. It's time to find an answer.
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.
“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.”
“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.
Love your style of writing . Your documentation and your research makes your posts solid data and fact driven . I know what you say is truth even if it has opinion included ( but mostly we are on the same wavelength) And I think I love your wife as well ❤️. You are a great inspiration…. I am so happy to have found your work…. And look forward to your next phase of adventures . March onwards and upwards 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 Bravo 👍🏼
You and I have long been on the same page Bonnie, I’m nervous but very excited for the months ahead. Only time will tell if I am too ambitious, but you have to be in it to win it.
Oh and I wanted to pass this on …. For those seeking a higher truth … and who want to know what exactly “ they “ are hiding with those pesky black lines …
I respect and agree with all that you do. However you are now the umpty-umpth person which has done what you are going to do—jump into substack full time, use your talents, skills and voice to expose, further explain, support, reveal, etc. Many of us have gone from one or two subscriptions to major media which sufficed in different times to give us the outline of what was going on and what we needed to give our attention and further personal research to, to being cajoled, assailed, pleaded with, cautioned, and tutored by the MANY MANY substacks of independent writing/news/research/opinion/analysis which y’all are offering. I am SO appreciative of your collective commitment to the moment, your hard work, your difficult decisions, your sacrifice, your passion BUT now we are asked to subscribe to 15 or 20 of you, with more arriving each day. To those of us living on meager retirement fixed incomes, who also feel a responsibility to support all this magnificent stepping up to the moment, it is difficult if not impossible to sustain. So please know that if we do not subscribe, it may be because we applaud your work but need to pay the rent, not because we do not value your point of view, your inner convictions and the need to have all hands on deck in these troubling times. I added up how much in contributions to candidates I gave in 2024 alone and it was a goodly chunk of my non-disposable income—yikes!! And those candidates are upping their pleas in this important midterm year (where we are working hard to make sure we will even HAVE midterms). I have had to cut back, as many have, but do cheer your work on, and pass on your information to others. Thank you for your enterprise, and do Carry On!
Thank you so much for this very valuable and important contribution to this important conversation. I would just like to make one VERY IMPORTANT point.
My work here is not will not and never will be behind a paywall. NOBODY should have to pay to gain access to the truth EVER.
Those that pay to subscribe to this Substack do so are under no obligation to do so, they by their contribution help to keep the content free for everyone.
Producing high quality content unfortunately does come at a cost. Research materials, access to expensive data analysis resources along with the now almost 30 subscription services to verify and cross reference facts and figures is expensive.
To be clear many readers often reach out to me to say they support what I’m doing but can’t afford to subscribe always get the same answer, put subscribing out of your mind, that’s not why I am here.
I am retired so have the time and resources to be able to do this at my own expense which I have done from the day I arrived here. After a year. I am close to but still don’t break even every month and that’s fine, this is not a profit center project, it’s driven by a passion to do what’s right.
The 100k subscribers are here I hope because they enjoy reading my daily assessments. The unsubscribe button is available to every reader every day, and I know readers know how to use it, because when I first wrote about Gaza I lost 2000 of them in a couple of days. However, it never stopped me from writing a further 4 part series on the same subject.
Nothing about what I write is based on telling people what they want to hear, so this is not about anything other than telling the unvarnished truth without fear or favor.
I’m happy to accept criticism of my work, but criticism of my ethical position is painful, because that’s not who I am. I’m a net contributor to my work every month to date. Thanks to the generosity of a small but not insignificant group of paid subscribers, that net contribution is now much smaller and look forward to hitting a break even point soon. Anything above that will be invested in more resources to advocate for what I believe.
The new project is NOT dependent on the substack revenue stream, it is self funded and my bank manager can certainly attest to that over the past couple of weeks.
To launch such a project makes me anxious not because I am shouldering the cost, but because I feel an enormous sense of responsibility. People will either help support my efforts or they won’t, but nobody will be flooded with begging emails because this is ultimately on me, and I made the decision to move forward on that clear understanding.
Of course you might hold a different view which is your right, but I can assure you this is not about making money, it’s about the preservation of democracy and social justice. Call me an old romantic, but I believe I can contribute without a requirement to profit.
I hope you’ll excuse my lengthy response, but I wanted to make my position very clear.
“… makes me anxious not because I am shouldering the cost, but because I feel an enormous sense of responsibility.”
I can relate to that! Occasionally I have received responses to my comments that require substantiating my position … and a couple of times I felt like ‘the dog who caught the wheel’! ie be careful what one (virtually) ‘asks’ for.
You are putting yourself out there, some will ask for more, others less.
But when your goals are truth-seeking that’s half the battle, and it will show.
— “Dinna fesh yerself, Laddie!”
“ To be brief is almost a condition of being inspired"
“The US is the largest consumer-based economy on the planet, and that makes it highly vulnerable to direct action that the government can’t control in any way. If you protest on the streets, they can send in the army to crush the protest. If you go on strike, they can encourage employers to fire you, but there is absolutely NOTHING they can do to make you press the ‘buy now’ or ‘order now’ button. They can’t intimidate you, fire tear gas or pepper balls at you. You are the one with the economic gun in your hand, and those delivering the tyranny are, despite what they may think, at your mercy. You quite literally hold ALL the cards.”
Thank you for your hard work and dedication to truth and justice. Thank you for sharing your beautiful words about your marriage and wife. Not many people share that side of their lives. As an American, I am curious to know why you care to put so much work into writing about our horrible mess. At 78, I have the same passion as you but I am seriously wondering what the future of the US is going to be. I have always been proactive but perhaps I have been naive, like millions of other Americans, about how racist and corrupt this country truly is.
I do it because it matters not just to America, but to a world that is now on fire. It’s always best to fight a fire at its source than wait until it spreads to your back garden.
I believe in the good people of America because I have worked there and know who they are, and are not represented by this regime.
Don’t give up hope because I certainly haven’t. Together we WILL see this through, but I fear it will take a generation to repair the damage.
I'm new to your site, and I really like what I think you are proposing, but I have a few reservations and general comments:
It took a lot of time to read your post relative to what I learned from it. With the flood of sources available to us I'm sensitive to the density of information in a post. I'm a glutton for knowledge and I want to be fully occupied absorbing information or ideas in anything I watch or read. If I expected hundreds of people to read this comment I would have spent some time cutting the fat out of it as a courtesy to the time they are investing in it. I will try to make the rest of my comments more succinct.
When I think of equality of humanity I don't think of accomplishments. That requires a judgment which is too hard to make given the diversity of people's particular abilities and perspectives. I think that one of the main points of Christianity is that God doesn't pick favorites among souls, they are all equally important to him/her. That ineffable quality inherent in each of us justifies our obligation to be fair. (I am realizing that evolution didn't make that many tweaks in our genome to distinguish us from other species. We need to also treat our relatives on this planet with a level of fairness that recognizes their profound similarities to us.)
re: Inheritance -
It seems ironic that so many of us object to welfare, intended to help people survive, because they did nothing to earn it, while simultaneously defending inheritance of fortunes to heirs who did exactly as much to earn this far far larger benevolence.
I thought I had more to say, but I forgot what it was. Besides, I've already used up a lot of of your valuable time.
I'm no authority on anything. If there's something there you can use, I'm happy. If I'm wrong, your critique would be a gift you're not required to give. Life is short.
I am listening to A UK Minister"The president of the USA is an international Gangster" and lots more. I am sorry you all, this is how the USA is viewed in Europe and other countries. Previously USA was respected. I used to travel to some European country, China and Japan, years ago, and as an American we were respected, and well treated. Now we are their enemies. WE MUST PRAY AND FAST FOR THE LEADERS REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS, AND INDEPENDENTS
I look forward to your coming endeavor and wish you success! I am encouraged by the people like you who have taken a big leap because you want to see truth and justice brought back into the forefront again! God bless.
I loved this piece and was touched by your description of your relationship with the love of your life. I look forward to enjoying your content as it evolves and its scope broadens to include the UK scene, of which there seems to be troublingly little serious progressive analysis. Best of luck on your journey.
What would be great is if you could grow your new platform into an independent news platform that encompasses other writers’ work as well, similar to the Bulwark.
I run a full-time web development with 5 full time employees that takes a minimum of 50 hours a week, plus a sheep farm. But research and writing are what I do best, and it would be great if there was another independent news platform that wasn’t as susceptible to shenanigans as Substack has turned out to be. Something more resilient, and focused on the editorial values we hold dear.
I can’t write an article every day, but I would be very interested in joining such a collective and contributing one or two articles a week, and/or providing my research skills in support of other likeminded writers.
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.
ONLY GOD CAN HELP THE USA. WE NEED TO FAST AND PRAY
I think ‘fasting’ is no longer a requirement,
… but if it enhances your commitment, sure.
Best Wishes .. Rev.12:12 & 24:4
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.
You’ll get no pushback from me and I’ve made my position on this very clear.
Yes, and please keep on making your position clear. Pound the table! Spread the Word!
Pound with your good hand.😁
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU. HIT THEM IN THEIR POCKET BOOKS REALLY HURT
I AM READY TO SACRIFICE
Spread the Word!
Love your style of writing . Your documentation and your research makes your posts solid data and fact driven . I know what you say is truth even if it has opinion included ( but mostly we are on the same wavelength) And I think I love your wife as well ❤️. You are a great inspiration…. I am so happy to have found your work…. And look forward to your next phase of adventures . March onwards and upwards 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 Bravo 👍🏼
You and I have long been on the same page Bonnie, I’m nervous but very excited for the months ahead. Only time will tell if I am too ambitious, but you have to be in it to win it.
Oh and I wanted to pass this on …. For those seeking a higher truth … and who want to know what exactly “ they “ are hiding with those pesky black lines …
https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/6ae2575d-84a7-4d50-8e46-797df775b939?utm_source=share
I respect and agree with all that you do. However you are now the umpty-umpth person which has done what you are going to do—jump into substack full time, use your talents, skills and voice to expose, further explain, support, reveal, etc. Many of us have gone from one or two subscriptions to major media which sufficed in different times to give us the outline of what was going on and what we needed to give our attention and further personal research to, to being cajoled, assailed, pleaded with, cautioned, and tutored by the MANY MANY substacks of independent writing/news/research/opinion/analysis which y’all are offering. I am SO appreciative of your collective commitment to the moment, your hard work, your difficult decisions, your sacrifice, your passion BUT now we are asked to subscribe to 15 or 20 of you, with more arriving each day. To those of us living on meager retirement fixed incomes, who also feel a responsibility to support all this magnificent stepping up to the moment, it is difficult if not impossible to sustain. So please know that if we do not subscribe, it may be because we applaud your work but need to pay the rent, not because we do not value your point of view, your inner convictions and the need to have all hands on deck in these troubling times. I added up how much in contributions to candidates I gave in 2024 alone and it was a goodly chunk of my non-disposable income—yikes!! And those candidates are upping their pleas in this important midterm year (where we are working hard to make sure we will even HAVE midterms). I have had to cut back, as many have, but do cheer your work on, and pass on your information to others. Thank you for your enterprise, and do Carry On!
Thank you so much for this very valuable and important contribution to this important conversation. I would just like to make one VERY IMPORTANT point.
My work here is not will not and never will be behind a paywall. NOBODY should have to pay to gain access to the truth EVER.
Those that pay to subscribe to this Substack do so are under no obligation to do so, they by their contribution help to keep the content free for everyone.
Producing high quality content unfortunately does come at a cost. Research materials, access to expensive data analysis resources along with the now almost 30 subscription services to verify and cross reference facts and figures is expensive.
To be clear many readers often reach out to me to say they support what I’m doing but can’t afford to subscribe always get the same answer, put subscribing out of your mind, that’s not why I am here.
I am retired so have the time and resources to be able to do this at my own expense which I have done from the day I arrived here. After a year. I am close to but still don’t break even every month and that’s fine, this is not a profit center project, it’s driven by a passion to do what’s right.
The 100k subscribers are here I hope because they enjoy reading my daily assessments. The unsubscribe button is available to every reader every day, and I know readers know how to use it, because when I first wrote about Gaza I lost 2000 of them in a couple of days. However, it never stopped me from writing a further 4 part series on the same subject.
Nothing about what I write is based on telling people what they want to hear, so this is not about anything other than telling the unvarnished truth without fear or favor.
I’m happy to accept criticism of my work, but criticism of my ethical position is painful, because that’s not who I am. I’m a net contributor to my work every month to date. Thanks to the generosity of a small but not insignificant group of paid subscribers, that net contribution is now much smaller and look forward to hitting a break even point soon. Anything above that will be invested in more resources to advocate for what I believe.
The new project is NOT dependent on the substack revenue stream, it is self funded and my bank manager can certainly attest to that over the past couple of weeks.
To launch such a project makes me anxious not because I am shouldering the cost, but because I feel an enormous sense of responsibility. People will either help support my efforts or they won’t, but nobody will be flooded with begging emails because this is ultimately on me, and I made the decision to move forward on that clear understanding.
Of course you might hold a different view which is your right, but I can assure you this is not about making money, it’s about the preservation of democracy and social justice. Call me an old romantic, but I believe I can contribute without a requirement to profit.
I hope you’ll excuse my lengthy response, but I wanted to make my position very clear.
Martin
“… makes me anxious not because I am shouldering the cost, but because I feel an enormous sense of responsibility.”
I can relate to that! Occasionally I have received responses to my comments that require substantiating my position … and a couple of times I felt like ‘the dog who caught the wheel’! ie be careful what one (virtually) ‘asks’ for.
You are putting yourself out there, some will ask for more, others less.
But when your goals are truth-seeking that’s half the battle, and it will show.
— “Dinna fesh yerself, Laddie!”
“ To be brief is almost a condition of being inspired"
— George Santayana, Philosopher
Thank you from an American for whom truth and justice matters, even though imbalance exists and always will.
You’re welcome Judy
From Truth Matters:
“The US is the largest consumer-based economy on the planet, and that makes it highly vulnerable to direct action that the government can’t control in any way. If you protest on the streets, they can send in the army to crush the protest. If you go on strike, they can encourage employers to fire you, but there is absolutely NOTHING they can do to make you press the ‘buy now’ or ‘order now’ button. They can’t intimidate you, fire tear gas or pepper balls at you. You are the one with the economic gun in your hand, and those delivering the tyranny are, despite what they may think, at your mercy. You quite literally hold ALL the cards.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/politicsusa46/p/thy-symbolism-is-chilling-the-outlook?r=5f62tm&utm_medium=ios
Yes, and Canada is proving that point also … altho I wish we didn’t have to.
That idiot Trump & his ‘zero sum’ game! 🙄
Thank you for your hard work and dedication to truth and justice. Thank you for sharing your beautiful words about your marriage and wife. Not many people share that side of their lives. As an American, I am curious to know why you care to put so much work into writing about our horrible mess. At 78, I have the same passion as you but I am seriously wondering what the future of the US is going to be. I have always been proactive but perhaps I have been naive, like millions of other Americans, about how racist and corrupt this country truly is.
I do it because it matters not just to America, but to a world that is now on fire. It’s always best to fight a fire at its source than wait until it spreads to your back garden.
I believe in the good people of America because I have worked there and know who they are, and are not represented by this regime.
Don’t give up hope because I certainly haven’t. Together we WILL see this through, but I fear it will take a generation to repair the damage.
Martin.
‘Many people are saying …’ estimating time to undo damages.
I wonder what specifics that is based on …
Good luck, Martin, I wish you to build a new CNN free and independent! We will be behind you!
I'm new to your site, and I really like what I think you are proposing, but I have a few reservations and general comments:
It took a lot of time to read your post relative to what I learned from it. With the flood of sources available to us I'm sensitive to the density of information in a post. I'm a glutton for knowledge and I want to be fully occupied absorbing information or ideas in anything I watch or read. If I expected hundreds of people to read this comment I would have spent some time cutting the fat out of it as a courtesy to the time they are investing in it. I will try to make the rest of my comments more succinct.
When I think of equality of humanity I don't think of accomplishments. That requires a judgment which is too hard to make given the diversity of people's particular abilities and perspectives. I think that one of the main points of Christianity is that God doesn't pick favorites among souls, they are all equally important to him/her. That ineffable quality inherent in each of us justifies our obligation to be fair. (I am realizing that evolution didn't make that many tweaks in our genome to distinguish us from other species. We need to also treat our relatives on this planet with a level of fairness that recognizes their profound similarities to us.)
re: Inheritance -
It seems ironic that so many of us object to welfare, intended to help people survive, because they did nothing to earn it, while simultaneously defending inheritance of fortunes to heirs who did exactly as much to earn this far far larger benevolence.
I thought I had more to say, but I forgot what it was. Besides, I've already used up a lot of of your valuable time.
I’ll respond when I’ve had time to digest your contribution Bill - Martin
I'm no authority on anything. If there's something there you can use, I'm happy. If I'm wrong, your critique would be a gift you're not required to give. Life is short.
I am listening to A UK Minister"The president of the USA is an international Gangster" and lots more. I am sorry you all, this is how the USA is viewed in Europe and other countries. Previously USA was respected. I used to travel to some European country, China and Japan, years ago, and as an American we were respected, and well treated. Now we are their enemies. WE MUST PRAY AND FAST FOR THE LEADERS REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS, AND INDEPENDENTS
I look forward to your coming endeavor and wish you success! I am encouraged by the people like you who have taken a big leap because you want to see truth and justice brought back into the forefront again! God bless.
Buckle up, because we’re taking it to the next level and I’m excited.
I loved this piece and was touched by your description of your relationship with the love of your life. I look forward to enjoying your content as it evolves and its scope broadens to include the UK scene, of which there seems to be troublingly little serious progressive analysis. Best of luck on your journey.
Thank you for your very kind words I look forward to circling back in a couple of months for a progress score 🤣🤣
Congratulations on making the commitment to next steps. I look forward to seeing what becomes of your new project
Nervously optimistic Carole, it’s good to have nerves, right?
Hooray! Go for it! Thank you for sharing your vision, the details, and the love of your life.
What would be great is if you could grow your new platform into an independent news platform that encompasses other writers’ work as well, similar to the Bulwark.
I run a full-time web development with 5 full time employees that takes a minimum of 50 hours a week, plus a sheep farm. But research and writing are what I do best, and it would be great if there was another independent news platform that wasn’t as susceptible to shenanigans as Substack has turned out to be. Something more resilient, and focused on the editorial values we hold dear.
I can’t write an article every day, but I would be very interested in joining such a collective and contributing one or two articles a week, and/or providing my research skills in support of other likeminded writers.
"There is a book to be written in each of us," I heard somewhere when I was young.
I am very happy to be here, and wish you well, in your planned endeavours.
I too don't know where I would be without my partners synchronicity, love, respect and understanding. We are very lucky people.