In your Dec. 7 letter about Obama's speech, you highlighted his statement, a "media landscape that would shatter into a million disparate voices." You noted "Media companies have played to extremes." Many have written how mainstream media is not covering each "side" fairly. With corporations' consolidated owners…
In your Dec. 7 letter about Obama's speech, you highlighted his statement, a "media landscape that would shatter into a million disparate voices." You noted "Media companies have played to extremes." Many have written how mainstream media is not covering each "side" fairly. With corporations' consolidated ownership of visual media and hedge funds buying and destroying newspapers, the American people have not been getting a straight or balanced story for decades. This didn't just start with Bezos and Wall Street Journal deciding not to endorse Harris. Nate Cohn of NYTimes was predicting all along that Trump would win and in parallel would "support" that prediction with a photo of Biden with glassy eyes and droopy mouth alongside a smug smiling Trump. The owners want the Republican ideology to win.
So, back to the shattered media. Many of us are reading you, Joyce Vance, Marc Elias, Politico, Aaron Rupar, Robert Reich, Timothy Snyder... the list goes on and on and on. I joined your letters early on because you were one of the first to put what was happening into perspective. I am a small business person who believes in paying for things that deliver value and the $50/year I paid to you, I felt was worth it. I have commented on occasion. I wanted to comment one night on Joyce Vance and that is when I learned that one must pay to comment. I paid $6 to do it, then cancelled my subscription. We cannot afford to pay individually for each Substack subscription and each of the shattered media.
I feel helpless. I suspect I could have said "we feel helpless." We need those of you with some power to work together and DO SOMETHING, not just write about all the problems and ideas how to solve them. HELP! SOLVE THEM. Marc Elias wants $120/year. Timothy Snyder wants us to read “Handmaid’s Tale;” I will pass and trust that we already know enough about it from you valued journalists. I understand you are now making over $500,000 per year on your letters. I'm sure Obama is much richer now having been president. You have a lot of older readership, but many of us still work. Those of us "working class" cannot afford to go to Washington to march. We elect leaders so they can be our voices and advocates. Look how that has turned out. Money is running everything.
Another good example, right after the Citizens United decision, David Cobb formed Move to Amend to work towards fixing that wrong. Then Bernie Sanders got his own idea of how to do it. There was a third prominent player that I don't recall, maybe Indivisible. But none of them worked together. Do these leaders, do our leaders need the power and control to be "the boss" and to the point where nothing is accomplished?
How is it that we are ready to turn our government over to an administration led by a felon that openly admits all the ways they want to break our democracy and our country – install an authoritarian, be guided by billionaires, rob and pillage our Treasury, give more tax cuts to the rich, take away the rights of the marginalized. They have been waiting decades to cut social security, Medicare, Medicaid – that we ARE entitled to – that we have paid into all our lives – a long-term, separately funded program. When will the Democrats decide enough is enough? If there was ever a time to not have a peaceful transfer of power, this is it. I advocate for NOT allowing the transition of government to an administration that is UNQUALIFIED to run it. The majority of the people that elected Trump were brainwashed and lied to by fragmented, disparate "media," and marketing. They did not intend to elect what Trump stands for. They did not intend to elect Project 2025. The election was stolen from us. Those in red states who have been helped by the Biden administration do not understand because their politicians are lying to them as well.
I agree with those that think Harris should not have shifted to the middle, and that "Obama's 'centrist liberalism' [is] inadequate to address the real problems of inequality." Everything that progressives advocate for will help the ignorant right, if the message could get through to them.
The two basic things that need to be solved that will benefit all sides of America are truth in media and closing the wealth gap. If people have more security, it will be much easier for them to talk to each other to solve secondary problems and special interests.
It feels like our lives are being wished away in two- and four-year buckets. Everything depends on the next election. Many of the "writers" note that "wrongs" eventually get "righted." We don't have time to wait twenty years for social security to be re-established after it is taken away from us because we will be prematurely dead by then. We will never get back the decades of lost wealth and security that could allow us a more comfortable life and more meaningful retirement – or a retirement at all. Many of us have already been waiting forty+ years for the changes enacted during the Reagan years to be rectified, and Biden is the first to make any progress, despite what might have looked promising about an Obama presidency. Thankfully we got the ACA from Obama.
There, I just took an hour and a half off work to write this, without pay. And I waited up, Eastern time, to be one of the first to comment so that I might be read. As Joyce says, we may all be in this together, but it doesn't feel that way when it is so hard and costly in time or money to be heard. I guess I could add that I feel bitter, too.
I feel your pain too Darlene, I can only afford to subscribe to HCR. I read the other Substacks I enjoy for free, but know I have to pay to comment. I feel that this is a much better system than paywalls that most of the legacy media have in place - apart from the Guardian - bless them. I'm not sure that it's Heather's job though to 'fix the problem'. She is doing her bit and we all need to do ours, in whatever way. Maybe you could start your own Substack? You write knowledgeably and well. That may be the platform you need to have a voice, feel heard, and reach others who need to hear your message. All the best, you are in good company here.
Heather had an interview with Biden. I’m sure she has pull with other important people. If all the journalists would get together with Democratic leaders, reps, senators, maybe solutions could be found. How not to have the Republicans in Congress cave. Marc Elias is focusing on opposition rather than resistance.
Can’t yet spend time writing along with all the reading and working full time. May someday.
Hey nice expression and thank you. As a writer with a blog here, I allow anyone to post and I reduced my monthly and yearly rates. But I have a day job ( self employed like you) so I don’t depend on my meager few paying readers although I’m humbled by their generosity. Heather does serious research and she might even have staff. I don’t begrudge her the request to pay for posting. Hang in there.
I don't begrudge her at all. I just wish there were an umbrella plan that allowed readers to subscribe to some greater number of newsletters from various authors.
Just what I was thinking. I read Marc Elias and read Robert Hubbell’s letter just before this one today. I simply can’t afford to pay for every one I read, whom I depend on, and I’m grateful they have a free version (although Democracy Docket takes one only so far and the rest is for paying subscribers.) I realize writers have to make a living but I just can’t afford all of them. And yet, they seem to be the Dems’ only voice …
I read Joyce Vance and Robert Hubbell for free and just don’t comment. I pay for Heather, Jessica Craven and Timothy Snyder, but although I love Marc Elias and believe in his righteous cause, $120 per year is what I paid for the Washington Post, which I cancelled in protest in November. It irritates me that I can only read 1/2 of his newsletter without paying. BTW, Margaret Sullivan’s American Crisis substack is offering free comments for all who subscribe, even for free versions. I love her, but she only posts once a week, and I’m on a partial news blackout, so I need more frequent posts! I can’t support them all, even if I wanted to. I agree that a combo subscription would be super helpful.
It would be lovely to have an umbrella plan and I'm sure I'd sign up for it. I do find that, however much interest I have in reading Heather (and the rest of the voices that speak truth) and could spend endless hours doing so, I am only willing to spend just so much time each day on it. I still need my small pleasures for survival and I try to focus some energy on those as well. I totally agree we need not stand for what's coming 01/20/25, that it should never have gotten this far, but I lack the knowledge of what avenues are open to us to right our ship BEFORE it goes under. THAT is the voice I most want to hear - the one with a legal, non-violent plan.
And P.S. I do feel it's unfair to ask Heather to do anything more. She has traveled the country to educate and inform and writes well into the night to make sure she keeps us in the"truth loop." Without her gargantuan efforts far, far fewer people would be educated as to the reality of our situation. I fully respect and honor her efforts.
Ooooh, like that idea, Laurie, a sort of SubStack “cheaper by the dozen”! I don’t begrudge folks being compensated for their hard work creating content & all the research involved. Being retired & on a fixed income, there is no way I could afford all those I would like to support & that goes for orgs/causes I believe in as well.
Okay, hungry cats just got me out of bed, but by my sleepy t-yet-caffeinated brain's calculations, I think each Letter costs me 16 cents? And I read a lot of comments from intelligent, well informed people here, so I guess I get about an hour of "entertainment value" from it. That's a pretty darn good value, methinks.
Darlene, I don't know your financial situation and please don't take this as me insulting your viewpoints. No doubt much of it is fueled by the same frustrations that we all feel! That being said, the cost of a year of this Letter with comment ability is about equivalent to one/two visits for my husband and I going to the small business Mom & Pop restaurant that we like.
Yesterday, also newsworthy, Juan Soto scored a 15 year contract making $765 MILLION. Obviously, his skills and talents are valued at that enormous amount. I'm sure there are those (like me) incredulous at that salary, but then, how many in the C-suite earn that much in half the time? What do THEY do to earn that money?
It seems that for every Taylor Swift earning a billion, there is probably a million singers/songwriters who will never earn enough to live on, much less support a family. For JK Rowling, there are millions of writers struggling (including me!) to finally get published. And for HCR's daily letter, look how many on here who comment have their own Substack.
My point being (as frequent commenter here, Phil Balla, says) the humanities just don't seem to be valued by the masses.
Print newspapers are going the way of the horse-and-buggy. Since I personally only purchase the Sunday edition, I can't tell you what the price of a mid-week copy is, but I know it's much less than 16 cents. We all make our choices on how we spend our discretionary funds.
Oh… I already fed my kitties all 7 of them. I don’t know how many you have for if several, it might be wise to make your own cat food. It’s not hard to do once you get into the routine. And it’s cheaper than factory food. I source chicken thighs from Costco or BJS. And I make up to 30 pounds at a time then freez them in bell jars. If interested, search catnutrition.org or Dr. Lisa Pierson — either or both. I once compared ounce prices and mine was less than the cheapest crap that is sold in stores.
Just thinking why couldn’t I open for Taylor Swift. I could handle the crowds. Size doesn’t intimidate me. I’m a singer/songwriter Indie/folk. My lyrics are as good as the best but I missed my opportunity in youth. So I’ll just pretend that there are Taylor Swift crowds listening as I walk up to an open mic.
Miselle, I am a humanities person and I know their value, but many don't because everything is about making money in a very narrow way. History major, then you can only teach. I had a go around with someone on a meme about student debt (which I think is totally out of control because of usurious interest rates) where he thought going to college was worthless and chose majors in beer brewing and Greco-Roman literature as his examples. Incidentally, he was a math major and claimed it was worthless, so I think more was going on with him. Sports has become a money swamp reaching now into the college and high school ranks with NIL and the transfer portal. And we do love celebrity in this country. At least Swift donates a lot of her money to good causes.
I pay for six and they are worth it. However, Hate is much cheaper, and currently, it was taken on a religious fervor that lures in the prosperity gospel nuts, as well as the fearful and gullible. Religion has many stripes and they are hiding a mobster within, while looking so harmless…
I am really enjoying black humor these days. I liked the comment "Trump ran to keep out of jail and doesn't care about the rest." I never thought of that. It's the best statement about Trump, who confounds me, that I have heard in a long time. I can laugh because I am beginning to believe that MAGA is going to self-destruct. How is Trump going to lead here, on anything? He doesn't think well. He has too many tantrums. I live in Trump country, and the MAGA-looking people I see seem to be in a bad mood. Maybe the euphoria of the win has worn off. If it's a cult, which I believe, they may have some depression to deal with.
The price of "Hate" is actually free and facts are expensive Jerri. That does matter. Add that to the MSM absence / partisanship, and it's all looking like insurmountable problems that will touch everyone in the country eventually, no matter how well insulated one might be.
As a small business owner you should understand the need to monetize ones labor - most of the subtracts allow you to read the entire article for free ( notably the conservative FreePress - a rabid far right Bari Weiss screed that likes to appear unbiased - but is a junior Murdoch style blog - will only allow reading the first paragraph or two on most post - I refuse to fund her ), which at least to me - is the most important feature - to read these folks. Commenting is fun but not necessary.
I agree it would be great if there was an umbrella price for X number of subtracts, but not sure how that would work.
By the way - how much HCR makes from her subscribers is irrelevant to the value she provides. I am glad she makes 500K as you say - allowing her to post at 1 or 2 AM EST nearly every day. Good for her. Good for us. First thing I read in the morning.
The woman works hard for whatever she receives in compensation. And I don’t think she is motivated by that at all - she is an information warrior in a righteous cause, and how thankful we are that she has found her true calling.
Touche and amen sonny. I've no idea what our good Dr. earns or loses, nor is it any of my business. I do wish for her to do well and I'm well satisfied with my subscription, what I learn from her, and from the community herein. All that said, I do feel and understand Darlene's dilemma; I would so love to be able to afford full privileges at many more substack columns, but alas - that's not to be.
I totally understand your comment and frustration. I have taken another look at this from a different perspective. I dropped my subscriptions to NYT and WAPO in March and redirected that money to authors on Substack, in addition I spent over $4000 before the election with Act Blue supporting candidates across the country in tight races and while my party had some success here in my district and the state overall, most of the money I spent got you and myself nothing. I am now redirecting some of that money to different authors. I should do a better job of keeping track of them, but it's probably 10 or 15. I don't begrudge what anyone spends as we all have a budget to live with-in and I am grateful that I have those funds to spend, because as Bob Woodward says, "Democracy Dies in Darkness."
I don't do Facebook so I can't address Heather's newsletter there. But my sister reads and comments to Heather's newsletter on Facebook. I never see her comments and she never sees mine.
My sister mentioned that Heather actually responds to Facebook readers on occasion.
Can anyone write to how the Facebook experience works regarding HCR's newsletter?
Looking at Facebook right now - 7:15 a.m. Eastern time, four hours after it was posted - this column of Heather's has 1,700 comments and 8,500 shares. So it gets a good response. And one can comment for free. Whether one's comments get read, given the volume, is a separate question. Probably comments have a better chance of being read here, but by smaller numbers. (I don't know how many readers this substack has. I hope a LOT!)
On FB, the column is part of my daily feed - since I subscribe to/follow it - so it comes up every morning. And if it doesn't, I can search for it (as I just did. Once you see something on FB, it tends to disappear in favour of newer posts.)
Interesting. I depend on Axios for Utah news, and I'm hardly a part of their target audience. What I like is their adherence to conventions such as direct reporting and listing of sources. At least you know who's feeding you information.
My somewhat scattered perusal is that the Professor will comment on her FB posts in the first 10-20 minutes it is up; often it is to catch typos or other editorial stuff, but she is there almost every time.
I follow her on Facebook, but primarily read here; 300 comments are easier to read and reply to then are 1200 or more.
Gary, I post Heather's letter every am on Facebook. A lot of my friends read it and comment and/or pass it on. I also post Timothy Snyder and others that I may see. I am not among Heather's Facebook friends, so I can't comment on that.
Thanks Michele. I have never been on Facebook in spite of ribbing from some of my friends. I'm going to retire from my programming job in the next month or so, and didn't want anyone I work with to see anything about my private life. Maybe I'll start Facebooking or whatever it's called next year. 😎
Tho, I appreciate your succinct comments, Darlene. I also understand and share your frustration of current events. My concern is where would Heather find the time to be a “fixer”. I am a very early subscriber to Heather’s letters. While I choose to pay a fee so that I might be part of the “comments” community, it is Heather’s letter itself that is important. Her diligence in research is well-known and admired. She is a well respected BC College Professor as well. I own and have read every one of her books. I do not see her in a role as “fixer”, but more importantly I honestly pray for her to find the energy daily to provide us with truth.
Darlene Heather is doing her best to inform us with facts and honesty. She is the only Substack newsletter I subscribe to now and is exactly what we need in this age of extreme capitalists buying up the mainstream media. FOX News ( which is categorically entertainment not news) has been around over 30 years now which is an entire generation of indoctrination. Now here we are, a country fed lies of which millions believe. I don’t know what the answer is but we also don’t know if any of project 2025 will actually be implemented. This is a party of do nothings, despite the chaotic noise making. There are the elected few who will stand up to much of their insanity. It has been out of our control for a long time; we vote and hope for reasonable leadership. Biden was our reasonable reprieve and now we are back to insanity. The bottom line is we are living in uncertain times. Take care of yourself, live for the moment and vote your conscience, and help those who will be hurt the most.
Darlene, this is a pattern I often see. When someone puts the effort into, as you have done, enlightening the rest of us, we “enlightened “ don’t take up action to make change. Instead we place more responsibility onto the person who has gone through the effort of enlightening us. So thank you again.
I choose to pay for Dr Cox Richardson's, Dr Bandy Lee's, and Counsellor Vance's sub-stacks. I am older and live alone, edging every day toward poverty. Yet these news-letters nourish me intellectually. The yearly rates total out to a fraction of food costs or a month's rent. These sub-stacks remind me to think.
My story is like yours, Ned. Plus, I am bedridden. I spend every day reading on my tablet, mornings on Substack and afternoons/evenings on kindle. I spend almost all of my small amount of Social Security income - that isn't needed for essentials - on reading material. It's worth it. I quit my cable TV subscriptions several years ago, and don't go out for anything except medical visits. I am never bored and I feel like I'm learning more than at any other time in my life, except for the years I spent at schools and university. It might be nice to save a few bucks for some future emergency, but my adult children won't abandon me....I hope! 🤞😉
Thank you, Paula, for a truly inspiring answer! It rings with gratitude and being able to count one's blessings. You are a rich woman, in fact and indeed.
Thank YOU, Ned - for your very kind response. I worry that I'll sound like I'm whining or complaining, but I'm really not. I feel extraordinarily blessed. How many people wish they could lie in bed reading all day?! I also have The World's Greatest Cat for company! My cup runneth over...
Not at all. Self-pity is NOT acknowledgeing one's suffering. You do that and then remember what you have to be grateful for. Sounds very balanced to me.
Permit this clever though off-topic vid. from Jimmy Kimmel last night, s.v.p. Though I am not fond of Mrs Trump, I wish people would leave her be . . . except when she turns her position into a merchant's stall. 🤬
Mr Kimmel invented or repeated a new term: "Whack-pack". The hawking og petty goods as a President-elect and incoming First Lady makes the Clintons' old ploy of the Lincoln bedroom for five hundred bucks almost elegant.🤢
I gladly pay for HCR and Dan Rather's Steady...no more than those two. I find that reading the comments for both provides a lot of perspectives I enjoy.
Barbara said the same thing. When I get the chance, I like to tune into 'Washington Journal' on C-Span (7-10 a.m., Eastern time, every day). It gives me a chance to hear what other people are saying. Keeps my faith in the American people. Most of the Trump voters who call in are simply voters. Only a minority spew trumper tantrums.
This I think gets to the flaw that SCOTUS has used in a great many 1st amendment cases. They have pretty consistently argued that the antidote to offensive speech is more speech. Of course, that only works if all speech is uniformly available, or at the very least, is subject to a random distribution process, and neither of those conditions have ever been true.
With content targeting in order to maximize advertising click-through rates, which raises the cost of advertising (advertisers pay more for more effective distribution), effectively, the concept of more speech as an antidote is rendered moot, since it is no longer possible. Expensive subscriptions simply exacerbate an already bad situation.
There are some good aggregators such as Ground News, but they never carry local news, which is critical to local democratic processes. I think the only proven approach that works a small tad better is to make it next to impossible to target ads so precisely. That forces more of a shotgun approach, which benefits things like local news media. There is still the bias that in inherent in almost any editorial board which almost always reflects the biases of the channel's owner, at least a little.
Probably the best period we had for relatively low bias media was during the first 50 years or so of radio and TV broadcast news. The FCC had a mandate to require a news segment as a public service. Then stations and networks did not see their news services as content competing for consumers for the sake of ad revenue. I'm usually skeptical of references to "the good old days" as that phrase almost always requires one to overlook a lot of once more common violence and bigotry. but in the case of broadcast news before it was redesigned to drive ad revenue, I think the phase might actually be justified. And except for the cost of the radio or TV, those channels really were free.
With the libertarian philosophy in mind, they think that every one will just be responsible. A great thought but has no basis in reality. Free speech without responsibility and enforceable legal remedies, is just chaos and a might is right method of "freedom". Kind of like the unregulated free markets where the might is with the business owners and shareholders.
Yes, I think that the best local news these days often comes from the college kids working at their NPR station. Unfortunately, that leaves vast portions of the country without that sort of service.
The Univ (northern most Univ in CA…recently renamed Cal Poly Humboldt) I retired from (on staff for 40 years) at one time had a fabulous college station beloved by our rural county-wide community—then the Univ admin (back when it was HSU) basically gutted it. Boy did that PO the students & locals!!!! Now they get their news feed (as I understand it) from out of the area. I stopped listening not long after it imploded—mind blowing it was done purposely! I now listen to Jefferson Public Radio broadcasting from Southern Oregon University in Ashland. I do like it, but miss the quirky and unique community-based programs (plus the NPR stuff) of the KHSU of yore. Sad.
As Margaret Sullivan, the former public editor of the NYT wrote in her newsletter (which she makes free), facts and truth can be got at a price but disinformation is free for all.
I don't think that how one pays for content matters. All content, regardless of the media type, has a pull element to it. The problem is that we tend to associate with various herds, and then are influenced by the better communicators in our herds. That leads to a strong tendency to pull on things that sound or feel like they will be compatible with our herd. The solution is to nudge our herding tendencies toward being more diverse and tolerant. That will cause us to pull on more diverse sources of information. This is why housing density has such a huge impact on our behavior.
When the tech companies such as Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and others assemble profiles on us that contain tens of thousands of attributes, and then suggest content we might like, they are dramatically amplifying our herding tendencies. They do it in order increase the amount of time we spend on their channels, which directly translates to higher click through rates. The antidote is simple - treat that metadata (the tens of thousands of attribute elements) as the threat to society that it is. The media channels have to be made dramatically more blind to our pull tendencies so they are forced to take a more random approach to content suggestions, of highlights. As soon as they are allowed to keep track of what we pull on, the game is lost.
Metadata that is associated with human identifiers is a much bigger threat than heroine or fentanyl ever thought of being. An alternative would be to outlaw content suggestions or nudges altogether, but I don't see how that could be enforced, and I don't think it would survive a court challenge. But, the courts have never interfered with the regulation of the most dangerous of substances other than ignoring the first 19 words of the second amendment.
A South African friend, who is himself an Indian immigrant to South Africa--his parents took him there when he was very young, over forty five years ago, so they have lived through a lot--told me as we discussed the election results that he and others overseas watching this are concluding Democracy is too fragile a system, because it is easily manipulated by mob mentality that is not healthy.
Our 24 year old feels the same way.
We're losing them, due to utter failure to make leaders, and not just their minions, pay dearly for insurrections and anti-democratic actions. They see us calmly allowing American Oligarchs get away with paying no taxes. That money is used to undermine the Fourth Estate and riddle it with self-serving lies, instead of establishing a reasonable system of healthcare and building affordable housing for everyone else.
Many of us are not calmly allowing this. As I said over on Joyce Vance's Substack, I'm really not interested in the latest trump/maga/republican atrocity. I'm interested in hearing ideas about what we can and are going to do to fight and win against these criminals.
I agree. We can't afford to send money to every good platform but I send money to Heather, Joyce and Meidas as they seem to have large followings and get the word out effectively (Meidas had more likes than Fox). Fortunately there are many more resisters in Substack now and increasing every day. More people telling the truth is good.
I would not support starting a new Substack. We, the readers of this letter, should build on Professor's daily letters. Her writings are founded on historical evidence. There are not many who have such training. Professor Krugman has announced retiring from NYT after this year. Many qualified columnists will leave major medias. I am thinking of cancelling them because they can no longer be independent of the government pressurre. As Trump comes in, we lose freedom of speech in public.
That's my concern as well. I've never seen any explicit description of the Substack platform—who owns and facilitates it. It's difficult to imagine how the incoming administration could tolerate what is published here.
Hi Darlene. Heather first posts her Letter on Facebook, where on occasion she replies to a few comments. Then she posts her Letter here on Substack, where she appears to have stopped "liking" or commenting years ago. I doubt she will see your comment here, even if the algorithm keeps it at the top with likes and replies. You would have better luck emailing her directly: heather.richardson@bc.edu
Also note that Heather periodically reminds us (usually in her Politics Chat) that she is not a journalist, but a historian documenting current events for historians to read 50-100 years from now.
Heather's service to us and to democracy includes her weekly Politics Chat in addition to these Letters from an American. ICYMI she does her Politics Chat on Facebook, and then posts them to her YouTube channel:
Heather's service also included spending 13 months prior to the election crisscrossing the country to make appearances to support Democrats and democracy, even though she does not label herself as a Democrat and certainly not as a politician.
Thank you so much Ellie. Gosh, I hope her email doesn’t get overwhelmed. I did not know about the Facebook posting first, but another good example of fragmentation and too many platforms to read. Facebook can suck us in for longer than we want.
In no way do I want Heather or anyone to think I am not greatly appreciative of all she does, and was aware of her election-supporting activities. It is her pull that is needed, as Joe Banta also said above, now that we are in this horrible situation.
I agree that the fragmentation we experience is frustrating. However, I believe this is what makes us different from the Republican mindset. We do not speak with one voice (authoritarian!) but, rather, several voices with different points of view. Very expensive, for sure, though.
Morning, Lynell, and thank you for supporting me! We had our first concert under our new director, and I got to introduce a piece that allowed me to tie together my college band director who, in all ways, is responsible for me being a musician as an adult, and our new director. They are father and son. If I can, I'll send you a concert link when it is published.
Would love to get that link, Ally! I received a Thank You card signed by Scott McKee (new director?) with a picture of the entire band on the back of the card. I'm guessing that's you over on the right, second from the end, Viewing from the Back Row! (Now I get it...teehee!)
In the wake of Trump’s first election, Heather created a role for herself that didn’t even exist before. And many others have followed in her footsteps on Substack. Jessica Craven is an activist who writes a free Substack that gives actions to do that day with scripts, and links to do so. Look her up and just do what’s in her newsletter. She is a mighty force. She helps you take action. Look up Indivisible and see if there is a group near you and join it
Joy, I receive a text daily from Jessica & feel it’s a very easy way to “do something” simply by texting back “Yes” to her proposal. The responses get forwarded to the powers that be. Thank you Jessica!
I feel your emotional and financial pain. I pray that the Media landscape sorts itself out … with my dream result being that legacy news organizations become marginal players and voices for truth such as the ones you mentioned and the one I just pointed to in my new comment - Five Minute News hosted by Anthony Davis - eventually come under an umbrella organization that allows us to pay one fee to read them all.
Thank you Steve for your kind reply. I have never heard of Anthony Davis and, with all due respect, have too many things to read and listen to. At this point, we need people to work on solutions. I agree with the umbrella concept; it would be good if we could pay one fee to Substack. It would be like subscribing to the Times or Post and frankly I wish the mainstream news could be fixed.
Just as to these LFAs from Heather...you can always comment on her Facebook posts for free, and she does often answer or reply to a few in the first ones to drop. Otherwise, yes, it can get expensive, but at least Heather covers some of the same info..and her cite-links do not lead to pay walls.
It would be great to see HCR insights and truths posted on social media in the way that is most successful, like Facebook, IG and FNC. Short burst of info.
I'm sure she'd love to find time for that! I don't have a problem with her existing posts on FB....and she does have over 2 million followers there. I sometimes post - and see others posting - shorter clips from her LFA's on Facebook....
I know of one local lady on FB who does just that, citing excerpts to boot, in a little province in eastern Canada. Some locals though also like to hang the Confederacy flag in their bedroom windows, a bit of "red neck" country here.
HCR posts her thoughtful, research cited essays on Facebook and Substack. She uses her Instagram for more personal snippets and links to interviews. She recently started using BlueSky like she used Twitter—for breaking news and reposting short commentary.
Unfortunately not everyone in the world is on fecebook. I left that frustration & twit 4 years ago. Artificial Idiocy was just taking it over & I found complaining to a brick wall more productive.
Excellent solution suggestions and commentary , thank you all …and Darlene for a ball getting rolled so well. Heather has done an amazing job as well as many others and the mounting cost I too have ..the point well made -for me , has merit, action needs to follow.
I am going to go to my local (very red county) newspaper and see what the parameters are for publishing Heathers , seeking first her permission ie ‘if …’ ,perhaps 1-2 more randomly chosen. I have no idea what the costs could be .Opinion welcome. I have shared on FB regularly as have several other ‘friends’…though I’m on a brief ‘sabbatical’.
I double down on needing to get the truth out AND finding the clever way by/but not lying…why the American public is SO gullible has been dissected 40 diff ways and most on point. No blanket cures..but action is needed.
A busy day ahead as prep for incoming crew requires self preservation modes…takes time too..I thoroughly agree we must stop buying from the major corporate strangler(S). I’m not against the NAFTA idea that all countries can benefits from consumer needs *it’s part of the vast playing field leveling-we are ALL neighbors.*
Patricia, Please keep us posted on your effort to get Heather published.I also live in a very red county. Our local newspaper is Gannett owned and a while back I made a (weak) attempt to get Heather published via a familiar Op Editor. On a + note, another Gannett paper in Fl has published Heather, The Palm Beach Post, home to you-know-who.
Maybe time to take in Civil War, and see how the population divvies up as the two sides take each other on... fiction, can't say "close", but interesting.
This would be like Medium for Substack. But I think Substack offers more money to authors. But I won't! It is up to the author how much they charge to subscribe.
Medium doesn't have LaTex math, so anything I care about regarding physics or math will be posted on my new substack account.
Could Jack Smith leek and release the evidence? Sure he can. He might have to flee the country but he would do the nation and posterity a favor. A huge favor.
Yes Darlene, you have assessed the situation precisely! I agree with everything you say here. Democrats are wimpy, don't fight back, hell they don't even tell the country all the good stuff Biden has done these last four years. I was so excited for Harris to win, and so distraught when the felon / rapist and his pet muskrat stole it from us. And of course the dems have their typical circular firing squad going on... Stay strong and we will continue to hold the best possible vision of our future that we can, and work for it, cause we have to.
I agree that the Democrats are wimpy. I have voted for Democrats my whole long adult life but I have finally reached the end of my rope. The circular firing squad finally did me in. I’m not really convinced that the election was legitimate, but I have seen no evidence that anyone is looking into that. Anyway, the point here is to say that I have disaffiliated from the Democratic Party.
I questioned the legitimacy, too, and was hoping "someone" was looking into that behind the scenes. I described it a being stolen from us and another commenter said the Dems just didn't show up. How do we know that? I had thought that Harris would win for sure and we would have to fight all the challenges and prevent it from being stolen. As amazing as she is and was during the campaign, I do believe being a woman of color worked against us more than we might have anticipated.
You don't need to read them all. Find sources you trust and support them. Stop thinking the M$M is going to self correct. They are corporations with shareholders, their only job is to to pay them dividends. Reporting takes a back seat, always.
I haven't read corporate media for a year or so. I am still searching for sources that I can learn from. I have a few, but still looking for more. Thanks.
You're a classic example of the "shards of glass" thesis Axios is pushing right now. I do read some msm, even pay a little, and take in the various "national news" and commentary shows, i find considerable consistency is what's considered factual, opinion is biased but always interesting.
I still have a sub with WaPo because I renewed for a year back in Jun. I notice the further away they get from Bezos' BooBoo the more they are getting a bit more agressive with the news. The OpEd page is still a decent mix of two viewpoints.
I like The Guardian and The Independent for papers also.
There's no need for FOMO even if you can't pay for anything other than LFAA. Use her reference links to dig deeper. Some may require payment, some will have no restrictions and some will just want to you sign up for a free account so they can bug you with email (That you can unsubscribe from.)
It's fruitless to try and block out everything MAGA/Trump. Don't throw away the good news for something you don't agree with.
Just because you don't read MSM Hannah doesn't mean the people you do read don't follow it. Be sure all of them do. My best advice is to sign up with Bluesky and follow their breaking and regular news threads.
Sadly, Substack's structure is "winner take all" where a few make millions while most Substack writers are not adequately compensated at even a minimum wage. In general, 5% or 10% of readers pay. That works well if you have a million readers, but a writer needs at least 10,000 readers to get 500 or max 1,000 paying subscribers. To create a new publishing industry, we have to support less prominent writers.
Let's consider that a main point in this thread is fragmented media. Do we need more Substack writers? We all have many writers we already like and who provide truth. We want to be heard by those who might be able to do something about our mess. Reading all these comments has been enlightening, although time consuming. I am coming away from this thinking I just want the journalists, historians, activists, writers to spend more time reading our responses and doing something with the aggregate feedback.
Unfortunately elections are being played out on Facebook IG and FNC. I wish we could take HCR info and put it in the short burst of info like these medias use.
I really appreciate your point about shattered media and the many disparate voices on Substack that we have to pay individually for - while they don’t lift their voices in unison to bring us together and as you said do something or guide us do something. We need unity and an action plan more than ever. Thank you for your essay here tonight - it is right on point for these tough and trying times.
I also pick and choose which Substacks to paid subscribe to, and donate to the Guardian and some independent publications like ProPublica. I also subscribe to "free" publications that I do not donate to like the AP, and Carnegie Foundation for Peace, and Counterterrorism News, and a few on nuclear, as well as European publications, my local city paper in the US, and my neighborhood news in the US. So, in addition to specific Substack writers, and donating to the Guardian, I am also subscribing to many things for which I do not pay. I also buy books and read them, because these are some of the things that give me pleasure in life. I feel that I get my monies worth.
Darlene. I, too subscribe to several of the media people you mentioned. And I took the time this morning to read what you wrote. Yes, I am frustrated, too. I, too, feel helpless. I don't think I need to "understand" the lunacy. I got that. What I want is an action plan. As Michelle Obama said, "DO something." Joyce Vance is putting together a plan. Let's see what she come up with. We have a group of strong woman here that are going to come up with a local plan. I attended a meeting the other day with NM State legislators and they do have plans. I want to hitch my star to some firm plans of action. That's what I am going to spend my time on. At 82 I have limited time. And having been in education all my waking life, I understand 'brainwashing'. With all that said, I want to spend my time going forward. As our small group comes up with some action plans, I will share what we are doing.
Penny, we all need to take whatever small individual actions we can. Personally, I am going to arm myself with information and have talking points at the ready to push back on MAGA propaganda when I hear it. Also keep getting on the streets and protesting. I'm under no pretense that any of my pitiful little actions will make a difference, but I can't stop trying. We have been in this struggle for a long time. I'm resigned to the thought that it will most likely continue for the rest of my remaining time on earth, and beyond. Stay balanced. As one writer recently put it, "moderate your outrage". Put one foot in front of the other and keep on keeping on. My feeling is that the pendulum is nearing the end of its rightward arc and soon start moving back towards the left ("soon" being a very relative term). That's my action plan.
There is plenty to do and plenty of groups and people providing guidance and the opportunity to take action. Indivisible. Red Wine and Blue. Your local Democratic party. Number one step: subscribe to Jessica Craven’s FREE Substack and pay the money to subscribe to Simon Rosenberg. Worth every penny. Hop on board and get to work. Jessica Craven provides a daily to-do list and links to opportunities to get involved with all kinds of groups and actions. It’s all out there and we all need to pitch in.
Bravo!We are all feeling the pain of living in 2 to 4 year increments and time is running out for many of us seniors.I agree with you that now is the time to stop the peaceful transition of power.As I stated yesterday in simplistic terms-Will Joe and Jill just inanely hand out the keys to the White House and our government to a man and group who are clearly out to destroy our Constitution, rule of law and everything we hold dear.Are they on January 20 going to say”Best wishes” and walk off into the sunset?I am beyond appreciative for these Substack writers,Heather being one of my favorites, but I cannot$ afford$ to be a paying subscriber to all of them.We The People are being destroyed by a cult and have not enough time or money to stop them.
If ever there existed a time in this nation that resistance to a transfer of power to a dangerous dumbass and fascist administration, it is now. Those of us here in our 50’s, 60”s and 70’s have been robbed of wealth, security and affordable healthcare. I was 21 when Reagan was elected, opportunity after opportunity dried up before my eyes. The rise of right wing hate, the corporate raiders that tore apart good, solid businesses stole pensions and sold off the rest for scrap. My father was an engineer for US Steel. Everyone blamed the unions for its failure, but USS didn’t shut down any of its mills long enough for necessary maintenance, repairs or safety. Improvement designs were buried and mills fell into such disrepair they became obsolete. Corporate greed. 40+ years of this crap.
The lies and manipulation has only grown 100 fold. Why can’t we get these monkeys off our backs? The middle class has been hollowed out. The fact that Trump fooled people, again, into electing him POTUS only goes to show what gullible fools we’ve become. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Darlene, you have written a version of what many of us here have probably written and cancelled many times! Part of me thinks we can merge resources ($) and out-fox FNC and dominate the media…but I know that is not how a functional democracy works either. We need leadership from the grassroots level to Washington, D.C. to figure this out!
Substack is helping, especially those writers that do not put up a paywall.
We must be the light! I’m hoping groups like Indivisible will grow and help us shine that light from the local level around our suffering world. I like the idea of a second Age of Enlightenment…
I’d like to see the dem party leadership do a better job of communicating or at least facilitating communication. It feels to me like the repubs have a megaphone and we are whispering into the wind.
The money needed to be elected in our democracy is controlled by a small minority of people who are not necessarily citizens of the Republic. I thank my lucky stars for LFAA. I cannot afford to not support LFAA.
Darlene, I totally feel your frustration. But here are my thoughts.
First, how many comments and comment locations does a person need? Just a suggestion. Pick 2 substacks and pay $100 a year. Make yourself known there. Chances are many of the same people reading LFAA and Today's Edition and Civil Discourse and Robert Reich, etc, - we are all the same crew. You will be heard. More please.
Second, what to do about the apparent hopelessness of a fascist about to take office? My campaign is about ECONOMIC JUSTICE. A majority of people are hurting financially and the fascists are threatening to make it worse. Except for themselves. Join me in making noise about the oligarchs owning the country, running the country, betraying our country.
Money = Power = Domination = Intimidation = Power = Money
We need an economic revolution that rearranges the money so nobody goes hungry, homeless or hopeless. So nobody is denied healthcare - EVER. So every kid gets a good education right through to employment.
Earth to "conservatives": Healthy, well educated people have good jobs and they PAY TAXES - unlike the oligarchs.
The answer to this whole mess is to appeal to people's most basic needs that are not being met. People need more money. And there is $50 TRILLION that went to just a few people over the last 40 years of "Trickle Down" economics bulwarked by "Neoliberalism".
Time for a clawback. Social justice can't exist without ECONOMIC justice.
I expect the real problem is not the plethora of folks posting blogs and charging for them - the best ones require a level of knowledge and experience that justifies their rather meagre yearly charge. The problem is that the people who most need to read and to understand what folks like these are saying just don’t. Preaching to the choir is not going to resolve the situation we’re in.
One of my favorite old adages is. “If you think knowledge is expensive, you ought to try ignorance”. We do need to understand what’s going, but the solution does not lie with us. It lies in the ignorance and denial at the dark heart of MAGAland. Only when Trump’s supporters realize the danger he poses to them is anything really going to change. Fortunately his own hubris and his belief that he’s now invincible are the most likely things working against him.
Don't expect the media to self-correct. They are corporations with shareholders and their primary function is to pay them dividends, reporting comes a distant second.
You don't have to read every Substack nor do you need to. HCR, as wall as the independent journalists do access all the news that matters and filter it down. Find the accounts you like and can afford.
More is not better. Good journalism requires quality, not quantity.
The model you suggest will not work. You might not get want you want but you can certainly get what you need. These people left good paying jobs because they want to report the truth. Pick one, or none as HCR will tell you what you need to know.
Fear serves no one well, courage always does. Trump is counting on your fear, don't give it to him. Stand up, don't give up the fight to quote the song.
If you are a subscriber you have already paid and can comment. I joined Joyce Vance at the $6/month rather than yearly rate, commented, then cancelled. Other Substacks note that you have to subscribe to comment.
I agree. I would like to subscribe to more, but at 76 years old, I’m not going to go to work so I can read the news. I often feel bad when I want to read something but can’t because I need to pay a fee to do so. Consolidating seems to make sense but then the individual writers would not earn as much money, I suppose. Isn’t it a shame that everything in our lives comes down to how much money one has?
The important thing NOW is that our collective voices are heard and action is taken. For example, as much as I like Joyce Vance's writing, and she has broadened her scope from the original trial reporting to more general reporting on democracy, there is a standard plea for money on every post. It gets old. I am advocating for the people with power and pull to make viewership and commenting available and subscriptions optional, especially if they are already raking it in. As one commenter said some are already making a ton of money. I advocate for those with power and pull to think more of the collective good at this important time than their own pocketbooks.
Albert I’m mistaken but I believe anyone can read for free but if you want to post, you need to suscribe and pay in some instances. Not all. Example Dan Rather is optional. I’m optional, lol.
Thanks for that thoughtful, though painful essay, Darlene. I only subscribe to Heather, for much the same reason. What to say about half million, i can't say. For less than $5/month, this is pretty cheap fare individually. What Heather does with the half mil, i can't say either. She may have put a good chunk into Dem and related social causes. She certainly puts time and effort into her work. What converts from "merely talking" to "actually doing" is moot, but I suspect Heather's newsletter is a stimulus, one way or another. As for all the other, usually more expensive paywall options, I've often wondered if a consolidated group rate might not be more effective for all concerned. But the press, like most of the rest of America, worships competitive private enterprise. On the side, i suspect far more of Heather's subscribers are non-paying. Anyway, try to take care of yourself psychologically. Some here i think could use a bit of a vacation, Trump et al are now on a sustained warpath footing, and it's not about to stop. Take good care of yourself.
HEATHER, PLEASE READ THIS.
In your Dec. 7 letter about Obama's speech, you highlighted his statement, a "media landscape that would shatter into a million disparate voices." You noted "Media companies have played to extremes." Many have written how mainstream media is not covering each "side" fairly. With corporations' consolidated ownership of visual media and hedge funds buying and destroying newspapers, the American people have not been getting a straight or balanced story for decades. This didn't just start with Bezos and Wall Street Journal deciding not to endorse Harris. Nate Cohn of NYTimes was predicting all along that Trump would win and in parallel would "support" that prediction with a photo of Biden with glassy eyes and droopy mouth alongside a smug smiling Trump. The owners want the Republican ideology to win.
So, back to the shattered media. Many of us are reading you, Joyce Vance, Marc Elias, Politico, Aaron Rupar, Robert Reich, Timothy Snyder... the list goes on and on and on. I joined your letters early on because you were one of the first to put what was happening into perspective. I am a small business person who believes in paying for things that deliver value and the $50/year I paid to you, I felt was worth it. I have commented on occasion. I wanted to comment one night on Joyce Vance and that is when I learned that one must pay to comment. I paid $6 to do it, then cancelled my subscription. We cannot afford to pay individually for each Substack subscription and each of the shattered media.
I feel helpless. I suspect I could have said "we feel helpless." We need those of you with some power to work together and DO SOMETHING, not just write about all the problems and ideas how to solve them. HELP! SOLVE THEM. Marc Elias wants $120/year. Timothy Snyder wants us to read “Handmaid’s Tale;” I will pass and trust that we already know enough about it from you valued journalists. I understand you are now making over $500,000 per year on your letters. I'm sure Obama is much richer now having been president. You have a lot of older readership, but many of us still work. Those of us "working class" cannot afford to go to Washington to march. We elect leaders so they can be our voices and advocates. Look how that has turned out. Money is running everything.
Another good example, right after the Citizens United decision, David Cobb formed Move to Amend to work towards fixing that wrong. Then Bernie Sanders got his own idea of how to do it. There was a third prominent player that I don't recall, maybe Indivisible. But none of them worked together. Do these leaders, do our leaders need the power and control to be "the boss" and to the point where nothing is accomplished?
How is it that we are ready to turn our government over to an administration led by a felon that openly admits all the ways they want to break our democracy and our country – install an authoritarian, be guided by billionaires, rob and pillage our Treasury, give more tax cuts to the rich, take away the rights of the marginalized. They have been waiting decades to cut social security, Medicare, Medicaid – that we ARE entitled to – that we have paid into all our lives – a long-term, separately funded program. When will the Democrats decide enough is enough? If there was ever a time to not have a peaceful transfer of power, this is it. I advocate for NOT allowing the transition of government to an administration that is UNQUALIFIED to run it. The majority of the people that elected Trump were brainwashed and lied to by fragmented, disparate "media," and marketing. They did not intend to elect what Trump stands for. They did not intend to elect Project 2025. The election was stolen from us. Those in red states who have been helped by the Biden administration do not understand because their politicians are lying to them as well.
I agree with those that think Harris should not have shifted to the middle, and that "Obama's 'centrist liberalism' [is] inadequate to address the real problems of inequality." Everything that progressives advocate for will help the ignorant right, if the message could get through to them.
The two basic things that need to be solved that will benefit all sides of America are truth in media and closing the wealth gap. If people have more security, it will be much easier for them to talk to each other to solve secondary problems and special interests.
It feels like our lives are being wished away in two- and four-year buckets. Everything depends on the next election. Many of the "writers" note that "wrongs" eventually get "righted." We don't have time to wait twenty years for social security to be re-established after it is taken away from us because we will be prematurely dead by then. We will never get back the decades of lost wealth and security that could allow us a more comfortable life and more meaningful retirement – or a retirement at all. Many of us have already been waiting forty+ years for the changes enacted during the Reagan years to be rectified, and Biden is the first to make any progress, despite what might have looked promising about an Obama presidency. Thankfully we got the ACA from Obama.
There, I just took an hour and a half off work to write this, without pay. And I waited up, Eastern time, to be one of the first to comment so that I might be read. As Joyce says, we may all be in this together, but it doesn't feel that way when it is so hard and costly in time or money to be heard. I guess I could add that I feel bitter, too.
I feel your pain too Darlene, I can only afford to subscribe to HCR. I read the other Substacks I enjoy for free, but know I have to pay to comment. I feel that this is a much better system than paywalls that most of the legacy media have in place - apart from the Guardian - bless them. I'm not sure that it's Heather's job though to 'fix the problem'. She is doing her bit and we all need to do ours, in whatever way. Maybe you could start your own Substack? You write knowledgeably and well. That may be the platform you need to have a voice, feel heard, and reach others who need to hear your message. All the best, you are in good company here.
Heather had an interview with Biden. I’m sure she has pull with other important people. If all the journalists would get together with Democratic leaders, reps, senators, maybe solutions could be found. How not to have the Republicans in Congress cave. Marc Elias is focusing on opposition rather than resistance.
Can’t yet spend time writing along with all the reading and working full time. May someday.
Hey nice expression and thank you. As a writer with a blog here, I allow anyone to post and I reduced my monthly and yearly rates. But I have a day job ( self employed like you) so I don’t depend on my meager few paying readers although I’m humbled by their generosity. Heather does serious research and she might even have staff. I don’t begrudge her the request to pay for posting. Hang in there.
I don't begrudge her at all. I just wish there were an umbrella plan that allowed readers to subscribe to some greater number of newsletters from various authors.
Just what I was thinking. I read Marc Elias and read Robert Hubbell’s letter just before this one today. I simply can’t afford to pay for every one I read, whom I depend on, and I’m grateful they have a free version (although Democracy Docket takes one only so far and the rest is for paying subscribers.) I realize writers have to make a living but I just can’t afford all of them. And yet, they seem to be the Dems’ only voice …
I read Joyce Vance and Robert Hubbell for free and just don’t comment. I pay for Heather, Jessica Craven and Timothy Snyder, but although I love Marc Elias and believe in his righteous cause, $120 per year is what I paid for the Washington Post, which I cancelled in protest in November. It irritates me that I can only read 1/2 of his newsletter without paying. BTW, Margaret Sullivan’s American Crisis substack is offering free comments for all who subscribe, even for free versions. I love her, but she only posts once a week, and I’m on a partial news blackout, so I need more frequent posts! I can’t support them all, even if I wanted to. I agree that a combo subscription would be super helpful.
There is a Substack Inc. way to make free subscription gifts.
If anybody has the set-up, lease post.🙏
It would be lovely to have an umbrella plan and I'm sure I'd sign up for it. I do find that, however much interest I have in reading Heather (and the rest of the voices that speak truth) and could spend endless hours doing so, I am only willing to spend just so much time each day on it. I still need my small pleasures for survival and I try to focus some energy on those as well. I totally agree we need not stand for what's coming 01/20/25, that it should never have gotten this far, but I lack the knowledge of what avenues are open to us to right our ship BEFORE it goes under. THAT is the voice I most want to hear - the one with a legal, non-violent plan.
And P.S. I do feel it's unfair to ask Heather to do anything more. She has traveled the country to educate and inform and writes well into the night to make sure she keeps us in the"truth loop." Without her gargantuan efforts far, far fewer people would be educated as to the reality of our situation. I fully respect and honor her efforts.
Greg Olear - no paywall - offers solutions...
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/dark-brandon-godfather-moves?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=g2ipj&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Ooooh, like that idea, Laurie, a sort of SubStack “cheaper by the dozen”! I don’t begrudge folks being compensated for their hard work creating content & all the research involved. Being retired & on a fixed income, there is no way I could afford all those I would like to support & that goes for orgs/causes I believe in as well.
*Or, like a "Substack Newspaper" *
lauriemcf, great idea. I read as many as I can, but do not subscribe except to Heather.
I noted I’ve subscribed to Heather for many years. My comment was about having to pay to post on each Substack.
Okay, hungry cats just got me out of bed, but by my sleepy t-yet-caffeinated brain's calculations, I think each Letter costs me 16 cents? And I read a lot of comments from intelligent, well informed people here, so I guess I get about an hour of "entertainment value" from it. That's a pretty darn good value, methinks.
Darlene, I don't know your financial situation and please don't take this as me insulting your viewpoints. No doubt much of it is fueled by the same frustrations that we all feel! That being said, the cost of a year of this Letter with comment ability is about equivalent to one/two visits for my husband and I going to the small business Mom & Pop restaurant that we like.
Yesterday, also newsworthy, Juan Soto scored a 15 year contract making $765 MILLION. Obviously, his skills and talents are valued at that enormous amount. I'm sure there are those (like me) incredulous at that salary, but then, how many in the C-suite earn that much in half the time? What do THEY do to earn that money?
It seems that for every Taylor Swift earning a billion, there is probably a million singers/songwriters who will never earn enough to live on, much less support a family. For JK Rowling, there are millions of writers struggling (including me!) to finally get published. And for HCR's daily letter, look how many on here who comment have their own Substack.
My point being (as frequent commenter here, Phil Balla, says) the humanities just don't seem to be valued by the masses.
Print newspapers are going the way of the horse-and-buggy. Since I personally only purchase the Sunday edition, I can't tell you what the price of a mid-week copy is, but I know it's much less than 16 cents. We all make our choices on how we spend our discretionary funds.
Re Taylor Swift, Miselle, she “pays it forward” and has done so w/o fanfare for quite awhile (note that I am not a “Swiftie”, but became a fan of sorts when I discovered this about her). Here is a link I found that lists some of her largesse: https://www.billboard.com/lists/taylor-swifts-charity-donations-gifts-timeline/october-2011-she-donates-70000-in-books-to-her-hometown-library/
Oh… I already fed my kitties all 7 of them. I don’t know how many you have for if several, it might be wise to make your own cat food. It’s not hard to do once you get into the routine. And it’s cheaper than factory food. I source chicken thighs from Costco or BJS. And I make up to 30 pounds at a time then freez them in bell jars. If interested, search catnutrition.org or Dr. Lisa Pierson — either or both. I once compared ounce prices and mine was less than the cheapest crap that is sold in stores.
Just thinking why couldn’t I open for Taylor Swift. I could handle the crowds. Size doesn’t intimidate me. I’m a singer/songwriter Indie/folk. My lyrics are as good as the best but I missed my opportunity in youth. So I’ll just pretend that there are Taylor Swift crowds listening as I walk up to an open mic.
Miselle, I am a humanities person and I know their value, but many don't because everything is about making money in a very narrow way. History major, then you can only teach. I had a go around with someone on a meme about student debt (which I think is totally out of control because of usurious interest rates) where he thought going to college was worthless and chose majors in beer brewing and Greco-Roman literature as his examples. Incidentally, he was a math major and claimed it was worthless, so I think more was going on with him. Sports has become a money swamp reaching now into the college and high school ranks with NIL and the transfer portal. And we do love celebrity in this country. At least Swift donates a lot of her money to good causes.
I pay for six and they are worth it. However, Hate is much cheaper, and currently, it was taken on a religious fervor that lures in the prosperity gospel nuts, as well as the fearful and gullible. Religion has many stripes and they are hiding a mobster within, while looking so harmless…
"Hate is much cheaper" - HaHa!
I am really enjoying black humor these days. I liked the comment "Trump ran to keep out of jail and doesn't care about the rest." I never thought of that. It's the best statement about Trump, who confounds me, that I have heard in a long time. I can laugh because I am beginning to believe that MAGA is going to self-destruct. How is Trump going to lead here, on anything? He doesn't think well. He has too many tantrums. I live in Trump country, and the MAGA-looking people I see seem to be in a bad mood. Maybe the euphoria of the win has worn off. If it's a cult, which I believe, they may have some depression to deal with.
The price of "Hate" is actually free and facts are expensive Jerri. That does matter. Add that to the MSM absence / partisanship, and it's all looking like insurmountable problems that will touch everyone in the country eventually, no matter how well insulated one might be.
As a small business owner you should understand the need to monetize ones labor - most of the subtracts allow you to read the entire article for free ( notably the conservative FreePress - a rabid far right Bari Weiss screed that likes to appear unbiased - but is a junior Murdoch style blog - will only allow reading the first paragraph or two on most post - I refuse to fund her ), which at least to me - is the most important feature - to read these folks. Commenting is fun but not necessary.
I agree it would be great if there was an umbrella price for X number of subtracts, but not sure how that would work.
By the way - how much HCR makes from her subscribers is irrelevant to the value she provides. I am glad she makes 500K as you say - allowing her to post at 1 or 2 AM EST nearly every day. Good for her. Good for us. First thing I read in the morning.
The woman works hard for whatever she receives in compensation. And I don’t think she is motivated by that at all - she is an information warrior in a righteous cause, and how thankful we are that she has found her true calling.
Amen, Sonny 👍
Touche and amen sonny. I've no idea what our good Dr. earns or loses, nor is it any of my business. I do wish for her to do well and I'm well satisfied with my subscription, what I learn from her, and from the community herein. All that said, I do feel and understand Darlene's dilemma; I would so love to be able to afford full privileges at many more substack columns, but alas - that's not to be.
I totally understand your comment and frustration. I have taken another look at this from a different perspective. I dropped my subscriptions to NYT and WAPO in March and redirected that money to authors on Substack, in addition I spent over $4000 before the election with Act Blue supporting candidates across the country in tight races and while my party had some success here in my district and the state overall, most of the money I spent got you and myself nothing. I am now redirecting some of that money to different authors. I should do a better job of keeping track of them, but it's probably 10 or 15. I don't begrudge what anyone spends as we all have a budget to live with-in and I am grateful that I have those funds to spend, because as Bob Woodward says, "Democracy Dies in Darkness."
I don't do Facebook so I can't address Heather's newsletter there. But my sister reads and comments to Heather's newsletter on Facebook. I never see her comments and she never sees mine.
My sister mentioned that Heather actually responds to Facebook readers on occasion.
Can anyone write to how the Facebook experience works regarding HCR's newsletter?
Facebook is a jam of ads, but if there is ONE redeeming piece I seek out and listen to it is Heather’s “Tuesday talks”..
Same here, Berry. I almost never get to listen "live" but often listen to it while I fix dinner at 4:30 PST.
Looking at Facebook right now - 7:15 a.m. Eastern time, four hours after it was posted - this column of Heather's has 1,700 comments and 8,500 shares. So it gets a good response. And one can comment for free. Whether one's comments get read, given the volume, is a separate question. Probably comments have a better chance of being read here, but by smaller numbers. (I don't know how many readers this substack has. I hope a LOT!)
My understanding John is that Heather has over 1.1 Million Subscribers to real-time history always set in accurate historical context.
On FB, the column is part of my daily feed - since I subscribe to/follow it - so it comes up every morning. And if it doesn't, I can search for it (as I just did. Once you see something on FB, it tends to disappear in favour of newer posts.)
i have to pay to read comments and comment in turn, John. Should you edit ?
Here's a summary of the shattered social and news media. The author of the book involved was interviewed on MSNBC the other night.
https://www.axios.com/2024/03/25/news-media-filter-bubble-different-realities
Interesting. I depend on Axios for Utah news, and I'm hardly a part of their target audience. What I like is their adherence to conventions such as direct reporting and listing of sources. At least you know who's feeding you information.
Good one Frank.
My somewhat scattered perusal is that the Professor will comment on her FB posts in the first 10-20 minutes it is up; often it is to catch typos or other editorial stuff, but she is there almost every time.
I follow her on Facebook, but primarily read here; 300 comments are easier to read and reply to then are 1200 or more.
The responses here are much longer than the comments on Facebook, generally.
Gary, I post Heather's letter every am on Facebook. A lot of my friends read it and comment and/or pass it on. I also post Timothy Snyder and others that I may see. I am not among Heather's Facebook friends, so I can't comment on that.
Thanks Michele. I have never been on Facebook in spite of ribbing from some of my friends. I'm going to retire from my programming job in the next month or so, and didn't want anyone I work with to see anything about my private life. Maybe I'll start Facebooking or whatever it's called next year. 😎
Tho, I appreciate your succinct comments, Darlene. I also understand and share your frustration of current events. My concern is where would Heather find the time to be a “fixer”. I am a very early subscriber to Heather’s letters. While I choose to pay a fee so that I might be part of the “comments” community, it is Heather’s letter itself that is important. Her diligence in research is well-known and admired. She is a well respected BC College Professor as well. I own and have read every one of her books. I do not see her in a role as “fixer”, but more importantly I honestly pray for her to find the energy daily to provide us with truth.
👍
Ditto Pam. I will never ask her to wear multiple hats; I’m quite satisfied that she wears the one hat extremely well, if you take my meaning.
I fear we’re playing Whack A Mole. And losing.
Here is MARC ELIAS who "starting today 12/9/24" has done the following:
+ I [Marc] have shifted my tone & approach to the challenges facing our democracy".
+ " ... I [ Marc] have grown impatient with those urging caution, compromise & conciliation."
+ I [Marc] am more willing "to go it alone."
I subscribe to Democracy Docket & set up my "donorbox". See, Donorbox.org.
Darlene Heather is doing her best to inform us with facts and honesty. She is the only Substack newsletter I subscribe to now and is exactly what we need in this age of extreme capitalists buying up the mainstream media. FOX News ( which is categorically entertainment not news) has been around over 30 years now which is an entire generation of indoctrination. Now here we are, a country fed lies of which millions believe. I don’t know what the answer is but we also don’t know if any of project 2025 will actually be implemented. This is a party of do nothings, despite the chaotic noise making. There are the elected few who will stand up to much of their insanity. It has been out of our control for a long time; we vote and hope for reasonable leadership. Biden was our reasonable reprieve and now we are back to insanity. The bottom line is we are living in uncertain times. Take care of yourself, live for the moment and vote your conscience, and help those who will be hurt the most.
Darlene, this is a pattern I often see. When someone puts the effort into, as you have done, enlightening the rest of us, we “enlightened “ don’t take up action to make change. Instead we place more responsibility onto the person who has gone through the effort of enlightening us. So thank you again.
I choose to pay for Dr Cox Richardson's, Dr Bandy Lee's, and Counsellor Vance's sub-stacks. I am older and live alone, edging every day toward poverty. Yet these news-letters nourish me intellectually. The yearly rates total out to a fraction of food costs or a month's rent. These sub-stacks remind me to think.
My story is like yours, Ned. Plus, I am bedridden. I spend every day reading on my tablet, mornings on Substack and afternoons/evenings on kindle. I spend almost all of my small amount of Social Security income - that isn't needed for essentials - on reading material. It's worth it. I quit my cable TV subscriptions several years ago, and don't go out for anything except medical visits. I am never bored and I feel like I'm learning more than at any other time in my life, except for the years I spent at schools and university. It might be nice to save a few bucks for some future emergency, but my adult children won't abandon me....I hope! 🤞😉
Thank you, Paula, for a truly inspiring answer! It rings with gratitude and being able to count one's blessings. You are a rich woman, in fact and indeed.
Thank YOU, Ned - for your very kind response. I worry that I'll sound like I'm whining or complaining, but I'm really not. I feel extraordinarily blessed. How many people wish they could lie in bed reading all day?! I also have The World's Greatest Cat for company! My cup runneth over...
Not at all. Self-pity is NOT acknowledgeing one's suffering. You do that and then remember what you have to be grateful for. Sounds very balanced to me.
P.S., Paula, I wish I could be more like you. ❤️
I'm in a similar boat, Ned. Not just remind me to think, but encourage me to think.
And think you do, Ally. I always look forward to what you have to say.
Agree, Ned, reading the comments here is, IMHO, part of the educational experience!
¡BINGO! Well stated, Barbara.
Thank you, Ned.
Me too Ed (look forward to what Ally has to say.) And there are several others as well including you.
Gary, that one goes both ways in this case. 🤝 Dr Cox Richardson gives a reality check; 🔍 y'all give me a sanity check. 🤭
Right on Ned! I pay for five and feel left out sometimes because a retirement budget does not stretch for a longer view.
Thank you for your gracious answer, Carol.
Ladies, 🤝
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kiv_gdDfckg
Permit this clever though off-topic vid. from Jimmy Kimmel last night, s.v.p. Though I am not fond of Mrs Trump, I wish people would leave her be . . . except when she turns her position into a merchant's stall. 🤬
Mr Kimmel invented or repeated a new term: "Whack-pack". The hawking og petty goods as a President-elect and incoming First Lady makes the Clintons' old ploy of the Lincoln bedroom for five hundred bucks almost elegant.🤢
I gladly pay for HCR and Dan Rather's Steady...no more than those two. I find that reading the comments for both provides a lot of perspectives I enjoy.
Barbara said the same thing. When I get the chance, I like to tune into 'Washington Journal' on C-Span (7-10 a.m., Eastern time, every day). It gives me a chance to hear what other people are saying. Keeps my faith in the American people. Most of the Trump voters who call in are simply voters. Only a minority spew trumper tantrums.
This I think gets to the flaw that SCOTUS has used in a great many 1st amendment cases. They have pretty consistently argued that the antidote to offensive speech is more speech. Of course, that only works if all speech is uniformly available, or at the very least, is subject to a random distribution process, and neither of those conditions have ever been true.
With content targeting in order to maximize advertising click-through rates, which raises the cost of advertising (advertisers pay more for more effective distribution), effectively, the concept of more speech as an antidote is rendered moot, since it is no longer possible. Expensive subscriptions simply exacerbate an already bad situation.
There are some good aggregators such as Ground News, but they never carry local news, which is critical to local democratic processes. I think the only proven approach that works a small tad better is to make it next to impossible to target ads so precisely. That forces more of a shotgun approach, which benefits things like local news media. There is still the bias that in inherent in almost any editorial board which almost always reflects the biases of the channel's owner, at least a little.
Probably the best period we had for relatively low bias media was during the first 50 years or so of radio and TV broadcast news. The FCC had a mandate to require a news segment as a public service. Then stations and networks did not see their news services as content competing for consumers for the sake of ad revenue. I'm usually skeptical of references to "the good old days" as that phrase almost always requires one to overlook a lot of once more common violence and bigotry. but in the case of broadcast news before it was redesigned to drive ad revenue, I think the phase might actually be justified. And except for the cost of the radio or TV, those channels really were free.
With the libertarian philosophy in mind, they think that every one will just be responsible. A great thought but has no basis in reality. Free speech without responsibility and enforceable legal remedies, is just chaos and a might is right method of "freedom". Kind of like the unregulated free markets where the might is with the business owners and shareholders.
'Zackly!
Re “local news”, sadly in my rural region, most print and local TV news outlets have been acquired by right-of-center companies (ie; Sinclair).
Yes, I think that the best local news these days often comes from the college kids working at their NPR station. Unfortunately, that leaves vast portions of the country without that sort of service.
The Univ (northern most Univ in CA…recently renamed Cal Poly Humboldt) I retired from (on staff for 40 years) at one time had a fabulous college station beloved by our rural county-wide community—then the Univ admin (back when it was HSU) basically gutted it. Boy did that PO the students & locals!!!! Now they get their news feed (as I understand it) from out of the area. I stopped listening not long after it imploded—mind blowing it was done purposely! I now listen to Jefferson Public Radio broadcasting from Southern Oregon University in Ashland. I do like it, but miss the quirky and unique community-based programs (plus the NPR stuff) of the KHSU of yore. Sad.
Unless people pay for content, ie journalism, the only source of revenue would be advertising. Which will further skew content.
As Margaret Sullivan, the former public editor of the NYT wrote in her newsletter (which she makes free), facts and truth can be got at a price but disinformation is free for all.
She nailed it!
I don't think that how one pays for content matters. All content, regardless of the media type, has a pull element to it. The problem is that we tend to associate with various herds, and then are influenced by the better communicators in our herds. That leads to a strong tendency to pull on things that sound or feel like they will be compatible with our herd. The solution is to nudge our herding tendencies toward being more diverse and tolerant. That will cause us to pull on more diverse sources of information. This is why housing density has such a huge impact on our behavior.
When the tech companies such as Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and others assemble profiles on us that contain tens of thousands of attributes, and then suggest content we might like, they are dramatically amplifying our herding tendencies. They do it in order increase the amount of time we spend on their channels, which directly translates to higher click through rates. The antidote is simple - treat that metadata (the tens of thousands of attribute elements) as the threat to society that it is. The media channels have to be made dramatically more blind to our pull tendencies so they are forced to take a more random approach to content suggestions, of highlights. As soon as they are allowed to keep track of what we pull on, the game is lost.
Metadata that is associated with human identifiers is a much bigger threat than heroine or fentanyl ever thought of being. An alternative would be to outlaw content suggestions or nudges altogether, but I don't see how that could be enforced, and I don't think it would survive a court challenge. But, the courts have never interfered with the regulation of the most dangerous of substances other than ignoring the first 19 words of the second amendment.
A South African friend, who is himself an Indian immigrant to South Africa--his parents took him there when he was very young, over forty five years ago, so they have lived through a lot--told me as we discussed the election results that he and others overseas watching this are concluding Democracy is too fragile a system, because it is easily manipulated by mob mentality that is not healthy.
Our 24 year old feels the same way.
We're losing them, due to utter failure to make leaders, and not just their minions, pay dearly for insurrections and anti-democratic actions. They see us calmly allowing American Oligarchs get away with paying no taxes. That money is used to undermine the Fourth Estate and riddle it with self-serving lies, instead of establishing a reasonable system of healthcare and building affordable housing for everyone else.
Many of us are not calmly allowing this. As I said over on Joyce Vance's Substack, I'm really not interested in the latest trump/maga/republican atrocity. I'm interested in hearing ideas about what we can and are going to do to fight and win against these criminals.
Sad commentary and hard to like, but very accurate.
I agree. We can't afford to send money to every good platform but I send money to Heather, Joyce and Meidas as they seem to have large followings and get the word out effectively (Meidas had more likes than Fox). Fortunately there are many more resisters in Substack now and increasing every day. More people telling the truth is good.
Yes,on Medias Touch !! Another easy action is to subscribe (for free) and share Media Touch .This made my day along with Rupert Murdoch news !!
“MeidasTouch Network is now beating Fox once again in the latest Playboard chart. We also lead CNN and MSNBC—and it’s not even close.”
https://www.meidasplus.com/p/fox-interns-crying-over-meidasglorious?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I would not support starting a new Substack. We, the readers of this letter, should build on Professor's daily letters. Her writings are founded on historical evidence. There are not many who have such training. Professor Krugman has announced retiring from NYT after this year. Many qualified columnists will leave major medias. I am thinking of cancelling them because they can no longer be independent of the government pressurre. As Trump comes in, we lose freedom of speech in public.
That's my concern as well. I've never seen any explicit description of the Substack platform—who owns and facilitates it. It's difficult to imagine how the incoming administration could tolerate what is published here.
Hi Darlene. Heather first posts her Letter on Facebook, where on occasion she replies to a few comments. Then she posts her Letter here on Substack, where she appears to have stopped "liking" or commenting years ago. I doubt she will see your comment here, even if the algorithm keeps it at the top with likes and replies. You would have better luck emailing her directly: heather.richardson@bc.edu
Also note that Heather periodically reminds us (usually in her Politics Chat) that she is not a journalist, but a historian documenting current events for historians to read 50-100 years from now.
Heather's service to us and to democracy includes her weekly Politics Chat in addition to these Letters from an American. ICYMI she does her Politics Chat on Facebook, and then posts them to her YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson8891
Heather's service also included spending 13 months prior to the election crisscrossing the country to make appearances to support Democrats and democracy, even though she does not label herself as a Democrat and certainly not as a politician.
Thank you so much Ellie. Gosh, I hope her email doesn’t get overwhelmed. I did not know about the Facebook posting first, but another good example of fragmentation and too many platforms to read. Facebook can suck us in for longer than we want.
In no way do I want Heather or anyone to think I am not greatly appreciative of all she does, and was aware of her election-supporting activities. It is her pull that is needed, as Joe Banta also said above, now that we are in this horrible situation.
I agree that the fragmentation we experience is frustrating. However, I believe this is what makes us different from the Republican mindset. We do not speak with one voice (authoritarian!) but, rather, several voices with different points of view. Very expensive, for sure, though.
Republicans have used “Divide & Conquer” to great effect.
We need to say the magic mantra -- THE RUSSIANS did it.
Morning, Lynell, and thank you for supporting me! We had our first concert under our new director, and I got to introduce a piece that allowed me to tie together my college band director who, in all ways, is responsible for me being a musician as an adult, and our new director. They are father and son. If I can, I'll send you a concert link when it is published.
Would love to get that link, Ally! I received a Thank You card signed by Scott McKee (new director?) with a picture of the entire band on the back of the card. I'm guessing that's you over on the right, second from the end, Viewing from the Back Row! (Now I get it...teehee!)
Indeed it is me!! Yes, Scott’s the new director. His dad was my college band director.
Has been our downfall in many ways
In the wake of Trump’s first election, Heather created a role for herself that didn’t even exist before. And many others have followed in her footsteps on Substack. Jessica Craven is an activist who writes a free Substack that gives actions to do that day with scripts, and links to do so. Look her up and just do what’s in her newsletter. She is a mighty force. She helps you take action. Look up Indivisible and see if there is a group near you and join it
Joy, I receive a text daily from Jessica & feel it’s a very easy way to “do something” simply by texting back “Yes” to her proposal. The responses get forwarded to the powers that be. Thank you Jessica!
I watched her Fb session last night, though 6 hours late, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I read somewhere today that she once labelled herself a "Lincoln republican".
If so, a Lincoln republican, these days is called a liberal Democrat.
Not too relevant to repubs today. Go back a few centuries…
She has, several times.
Wow! Thank you for this helpful HCR info on other writing she publishes. I’ll find someone to help me navigate Facebook…
I feel your emotional and financial pain. I pray that the Media landscape sorts itself out … with my dream result being that legacy news organizations become marginal players and voices for truth such as the ones you mentioned and the one I just pointed to in my new comment - Five Minute News hosted by Anthony Davis - eventually come under an umbrella organization that allows us to pay one fee to read them all.
Thank you Steve for your kind reply. I have never heard of Anthony Davis and, with all due respect, have too many things to read and listen to. At this point, we need people to work on solutions. I agree with the umbrella concept; it would be good if we could pay one fee to Substack. It would be like subscribing to the Times or Post and frankly I wish the mainstream news could be fixed.
Just as to these LFAs from Heather...you can always comment on her Facebook posts for free, and she does often answer or reply to a few in the first ones to drop. Otherwise, yes, it can get expensive, but at least Heather covers some of the same info..and her cite-links do not lead to pay walls.
It would be great to see HCR insights and truths posted on social media in the way that is most successful, like Facebook, IG and FNC. Short burst of info.
She has talked of that very thing on her Tuesday FB chats.
I'm sure she'd love to find time for that! I don't have a problem with her existing posts on FB....and she does have over 2 million followers there. I sometimes post - and see others posting - shorter clips from her LFA's on Facebook....
I know of one local lady on FB who does just that, citing excerpts to boot, in a little province in eastern Canada. Some locals though also like to hang the Confederacy flag in their bedroom windows, a bit of "red neck" country here.
HCR posts her thoughtful, research cited essays on Facebook and Substack. She uses her Instagram for more personal snippets and links to interviews. She recently started using BlueSky like she used Twitter—for breaking news and reposting short commentary.
@heathercoxrichardson
Unfortunately not everyone in the world is on fecebook. I left that frustration & twit 4 years ago. Artificial Idiocy was just taking it over & I found complaining to a brick wall more productive.
Rob, a person could just go on FB to read these Letters, and have access to comments for free, which the person who started this thread seems to want.
ain't that the truth! A Canadian newscaster does exactly that. I unsubscribed from him the other day.
What, now? The Canadian newscaster does what? (sometimes I can't tell who people are responding to on Substack!)
make references to news stories behind paywalls. eg NYT. a few too many for my taste.
I’ve read 10 or so of the first bunch.
Excellent solution suggestions and commentary , thank you all …and Darlene for a ball getting rolled so well. Heather has done an amazing job as well as many others and the mounting cost I too have ..the point well made -for me , has merit, action needs to follow.
I am going to go to my local (very red county) newspaper and see what the parameters are for publishing Heathers , seeking first her permission ie ‘if …’ ,perhaps 1-2 more randomly chosen. I have no idea what the costs could be .Opinion welcome. I have shared on FB regularly as have several other ‘friends’…though I’m on a brief ‘sabbatical’.
I double down on needing to get the truth out AND finding the clever way by/but not lying…why the American public is SO gullible has been dissected 40 diff ways and most on point. No blanket cures..but action is needed.
A busy day ahead as prep for incoming crew requires self preservation modes…takes time too..I thoroughly agree we must stop buying from the major corporate strangler(S). I’m not against the NAFTA idea that all countries can benefits from consumer needs *it’s part of the vast playing field leveling-we are ALL neighbors.*
Ta-Ta for Today 🫶
Patricia, Please keep us posted on your effort to get Heather published.I also live in a very red county. Our local newspaper is Gannett owned and a while back I made a (weak) attempt to get Heather published via a familiar Op Editor. On a + note, another Gannett paper in Fl has published Heather, The Palm Beach Post, home to you-know-who.
Sadly, my Gannett rag quit publishing an editorial page, citing their justification as "it's the main reason people stop taking the paper".
I share your bitterness, but it is with my fellow americans who "aren't political" and "don't want to talk about it".
Maybe time to take in Civil War, and see how the population divvies up as the two sides take each other on... fiction, can't say "close", but interesting.
This would be like Medium for Substack. But I think Substack offers more money to authors. But I won't! It is up to the author how much they charge to subscribe.
Medium doesn't have LaTex math, so anything I care about regarding physics or math will be posted on my new substack account.
totally agree on group subscription idea. Reminds me a bit of cable news packages i used to subscribe to.
Could Jack Smith leek and release the evidence? Sure he can. He might have to flee the country but he would do the nation and posterity a favor. A huge favor.
Poor Jack Smith. All that work and now he's stuck, holding a rotten fish and having mud thrown at him.
Why didn't the DOJ change the venue on the stolen secrets case? Merrick appears to be the useful idiot!
He was old when he was nominated by Obama to be a Justice. Why don’t democrats understand to nominate younger candidates? Cheeses.
So why doesn't he throw the rotten fish back at them? The way I see it, he's screwed no matter what he does. Better to go down fighting.
Too little too late. That commute had years to bring their case forward.
Maybe jail time
The NY AG state case has not been dismissed with prejudice nor have the 8 J6 civil case which are alive & proceeding now.
Yes Darlene, you have assessed the situation precisely! I agree with everything you say here. Democrats are wimpy, don't fight back, hell they don't even tell the country all the good stuff Biden has done these last four years. I was so excited for Harris to win, and so distraught when the felon / rapist and his pet muskrat stole it from us. And of course the dems have their typical circular firing squad going on... Stay strong and we will continue to hold the best possible vision of our future that we can, and work for it, cause we have to.
I agree that the Democrats are wimpy. I have voted for Democrats my whole long adult life but I have finally reached the end of my rope. The circular firing squad finally did me in. I’m not really convinced that the election was legitimate, but I have seen no evidence that anyone is looking into that. Anyway, the point here is to say that I have disaffiliated from the Democratic Party.
What's the alternative?
Not sure. We’ll see.
I questioned the legitimacy, too, and was hoping "someone" was looking into that behind the scenes. I described it a being stolen from us and another commenter said the Dems just didn't show up. How do we know that? I had thought that Harris would win for sure and we would have to fight all the challenges and prevent it from being stolen. As amazing as she is and was during the campaign, I do believe being a woman of color worked against us more than we might have anticipated.
Sadly, I agree.
The dems have long had a tradition of self-criticism, isn't likely about to change. It is a broad coalition mind you.
Agree with you on the Substack payments. Seems like an umbrella fee would be reasonable. You can't even read some unless you pay first.
Actually I agree with everything you wrote.
You don't need to read them all. Find sources you trust and support them. Stop thinking the M$M is going to self correct. They are corporations with shareholders, their only job is to to pay them dividends. Reporting takes a back seat, always.
I haven't read corporate media for a year or so. I am still searching for sources that I can learn from. I have a few, but still looking for more. Thanks.
You're a classic example of the "shards of glass" thesis Axios is pushing right now. I do read some msm, even pay a little, and take in the various "national news" and commentary shows, i find considerable consistency is what's considered factual, opinion is biased but always interesting.
I still have a sub with WaPo because I renewed for a year back in Jun. I notice the further away they get from Bezos' BooBoo the more they are getting a bit more agressive with the news. The OpEd page is still a decent mix of two viewpoints.
I like The Guardian and The Independent for papers also.
There's no need for FOMO even if you can't pay for anything other than LFAA. Use her reference links to dig deeper. Some may require payment, some will have no restrictions and some will just want to you sign up for a free account so they can bug you with email (That you can unsubscribe from.)
It's fruitless to try and block out everything MAGA/Trump. Don't throw away the good news for something you don't agree with.
Just because you don't read MSM Hannah doesn't mean the people you do read don't follow it. Be sure all of them do. My best advice is to sign up with Bluesky and follow their breaking and regular news threads.
I'm hoping you're overstating that. I don't quite get that impression.
Me? Not overstating.
I keep hoping for an Umbrella fee. So many good writers - but to subscribe to them all is simply not affordable for most of us.
Sadly, Substack's structure is "winner take all" where a few make millions while most Substack writers are not adequately compensated at even a minimum wage. In general, 5% or 10% of readers pay. That works well if you have a million readers, but a writer needs at least 10,000 readers to get 500 or max 1,000 paying subscribers. To create a new publishing industry, we have to support less prominent writers.
Let's consider that a main point in this thread is fragmented media. Do we need more Substack writers? We all have many writers we already like and who provide truth. We want to be heard by those who might be able to do something about our mess. Reading all these comments has been enlightening, although time consuming. I am coming away from this thinking I just want the journalists, historians, activists, writers to spend more time reading our responses and doing something with the aggregate feedback.
Unfortunately elections are being played out on Facebook IG and FNC. I wish we could take HCR info and put it in the short burst of info like these medias use.
I really appreciate your point about shattered media and the many disparate voices on Substack that we have to pay individually for - while they don’t lift their voices in unison to bring us together and as you said do something or guide us do something. We need unity and an action plan more than ever. Thank you for your essay here tonight - it is right on point for these tough and trying times.
Exactly. Thank you, too.
I also pick and choose which Substacks to paid subscribe to, and donate to the Guardian and some independent publications like ProPublica. I also subscribe to "free" publications that I do not donate to like the AP, and Carnegie Foundation for Peace, and Counterterrorism News, and a few on nuclear, as well as European publications, my local city paper in the US, and my neighborhood news in the US. So, in addition to specific Substack writers, and donating to the Guardian, I am also subscribing to many things for which I do not pay. I also buy books and read them, because these are some of the things that give me pleasure in life. I feel that I get my monies worth.
Darlene. I, too subscribe to several of the media people you mentioned. And I took the time this morning to read what you wrote. Yes, I am frustrated, too. I, too, feel helpless. I don't think I need to "understand" the lunacy. I got that. What I want is an action plan. As Michelle Obama said, "DO something." Joyce Vance is putting together a plan. Let's see what she come up with. We have a group of strong woman here that are going to come up with a local plan. I attended a meeting the other day with NM State legislators and they do have plans. I want to hitch my star to some firm plans of action. That's what I am going to spend my time on. At 82 I have limited time. And having been in education all my waking life, I understand 'brainwashing'. With all that said, I want to spend my time going forward. As our small group comes up with some action plans, I will share what we are doing.
Penny, we all need to take whatever small individual actions we can. Personally, I am going to arm myself with information and have talking points at the ready to push back on MAGA propaganda when I hear it. Also keep getting on the streets and protesting. I'm under no pretense that any of my pitiful little actions will make a difference, but I can't stop trying. We have been in this struggle for a long time. I'm resigned to the thought that it will most likely continue for the rest of my remaining time on earth, and beyond. Stay balanced. As one writer recently put it, "moderate your outrage". Put one foot in front of the other and keep on keeping on. My feeling is that the pendulum is nearing the end of its rightward arc and soon start moving back towards the left ("soon" being a very relative term). That's my action plan.
There is plenty to do and plenty of groups and people providing guidance and the opportunity to take action. Indivisible. Red Wine and Blue. Your local Democratic party. Number one step: subscribe to Jessica Craven’s FREE Substack and pay the money to subscribe to Simon Rosenberg. Worth every penny. Hop on board and get to work. Jessica Craven provides a daily to-do list and links to opportunities to get involved with all kinds of groups and actions. It’s all out there and we all need to pitch in.
Bravo!We are all feeling the pain of living in 2 to 4 year increments and time is running out for many of us seniors.I agree with you that now is the time to stop the peaceful transition of power.As I stated yesterday in simplistic terms-Will Joe and Jill just inanely hand out the keys to the White House and our government to a man and group who are clearly out to destroy our Constitution, rule of law and everything we hold dear.Are they on January 20 going to say”Best wishes” and walk off into the sunset?I am beyond appreciative for these Substack writers,Heather being one of my favorites, but I cannot$ afford$ to be a paying subscriber to all of them.We The People are being destroyed by a cult and have not enough time or money to stop them.
They will hand over the keys because they still believe in the system. Republicans don’t.
If ever there existed a time in this nation that resistance to a transfer of power to a dangerous dumbass and fascist administration, it is now. Those of us here in our 50’s, 60”s and 70’s have been robbed of wealth, security and affordable healthcare. I was 21 when Reagan was elected, opportunity after opportunity dried up before my eyes. The rise of right wing hate, the corporate raiders that tore apart good, solid businesses stole pensions and sold off the rest for scrap. My father was an engineer for US Steel. Everyone blamed the unions for its failure, but USS didn’t shut down any of its mills long enough for necessary maintenance, repairs or safety. Improvement designs were buried and mills fell into such disrepair they became obsolete. Corporate greed. 40+ years of this crap.
The lies and manipulation has only grown 100 fold. Why can’t we get these monkeys off our backs? The middle class has been hollowed out. The fact that Trump fooled people, again, into electing him POTUS only goes to show what gullible fools we’ve become. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Sadly, well said. Accurate.
Darlene, you have written a version of what many of us here have probably written and cancelled many times! Part of me thinks we can merge resources ($) and out-fox FNC and dominate the media…but I know that is not how a functional democracy works either. We need leadership from the grassroots level to Washington, D.C. to figure this out!
Substack is helping, especially those writers that do not put up a paywall.
We must be the light! I’m hoping groups like Indivisible will grow and help us shine that light from the local level around our suffering world. I like the idea of a second Age of Enlightenment…
I’d like to see the dem party leadership do a better job of communicating or at least facilitating communication. It feels to me like the repubs have a megaphone and we are whispering into the wind.
MLM,Perhaps this will help…
“Senator Cory Booker has a new title: chair of the Senate Democrats’ Strategic Communications Committee.
The position, which did not exist before today, means that Booker will now be the fourth-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate.”
https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/booker-elevated-to-4-position-in-senate-democratic-leadership/
The Message Box
Why Republicans are Winning the Message War
A new poll shows that swing voters are not hearing what we have to say.
Dan Pfeiffer
Dec 10, 2024
This is on Substack
Exactly
Amen, Jane. Don't give up.
The money needed to be elected in our democracy is controlled by a small minority of people who are not necessarily citizens of the Republic. I thank my lucky stars for LFAA. I cannot afford to not support LFAA.
Darlene, I totally feel your frustration. But here are my thoughts.
First, how many comments and comment locations does a person need? Just a suggestion. Pick 2 substacks and pay $100 a year. Make yourself known there. Chances are many of the same people reading LFAA and Today's Edition and Civil Discourse and Robert Reich, etc, - we are all the same crew. You will be heard. More please.
Second, what to do about the apparent hopelessness of a fascist about to take office? My campaign is about ECONOMIC JUSTICE. A majority of people are hurting financially and the fascists are threatening to make it worse. Except for themselves. Join me in making noise about the oligarchs owning the country, running the country, betraying our country.
Money = Power = Domination = Intimidation = Power = Money
We need an economic revolution that rearranges the money so nobody goes hungry, homeless or hopeless. So nobody is denied healthcare - EVER. So every kid gets a good education right through to employment.
Earth to "conservatives": Healthy, well educated people have good jobs and they PAY TAXES - unlike the oligarchs.
The answer to this whole mess is to appeal to people's most basic needs that are not being met. People need more money. And there is $50 TRILLION that went to just a few people over the last 40 years of "Trickle Down" economics bulwarked by "Neoliberalism".
Time for a clawback. Social justice can't exist without ECONOMIC justice.
I expect the real problem is not the plethora of folks posting blogs and charging for them - the best ones require a level of knowledge and experience that justifies their rather meagre yearly charge. The problem is that the people who most need to read and to understand what folks like these are saying just don’t. Preaching to the choir is not going to resolve the situation we’re in.
One of my favorite old adages is. “If you think knowledge is expensive, you ought to try ignorance”. We do need to understand what’s going, but the solution does not lie with us. It lies in the ignorance and denial at the dark heart of MAGAland. Only when Trump’s supporters realize the danger he poses to them is anything really going to change. Fortunately his own hubris and his belief that he’s now invincible are the most likely things working against him.
Don't expect the media to self-correct. They are corporations with shareholders and their primary function is to pay them dividends, reporting comes a distant second.
You don't have to read every Substack nor do you need to. HCR, as wall as the independent journalists do access all the news that matters and filter it down. Find the accounts you like and can afford.
More is not better. Good journalism requires quality, not quantity.
The model you suggest will not work. You might not get want you want but you can certainly get what you need. These people left good paying jobs because they want to report the truth. Pick one, or none as HCR will tell you what you need to know.
Fear serves no one well, courage always does. Trump is counting on your fear, don't give it to him. Stand up, don't give up the fight to quote the song.
I have never had to pay a $6 fee to comment!
If you are a subscriber you have already paid and can comment. I joined Joyce Vance at the $6/month rather than yearly rate, commented, then cancelled. Other Substacks note that you have to subscribe to comment.
Nor I. I wouldn't be commenting if that were the case.
As far as I know, one must pay to comment here.
As Darlene says above (or below??) if you subscribe, you can comment.
If you pay you can comment.
Yes. You're right.
It depends on the Substack.
I agree. I would like to subscribe to more, but at 76 years old, I’m not going to go to work so I can read the news. I often feel bad when I want to read something but can’t because I need to pay a fee to do so. Consolidating seems to make sense but then the individual writers would not earn as much money, I suppose. Isn’t it a shame that everything in our lives comes down to how much money one has?
The important thing NOW is that our collective voices are heard and action is taken. For example, as much as I like Joyce Vance's writing, and she has broadened her scope from the original trial reporting to more general reporting on democracy, there is a standard plea for money on every post. It gets old. I am advocating for the people with power and pull to make viewership and commenting available and subscriptions optional, especially if they are already raking it in. As one commenter said some are already making a ton of money. I advocate for those with power and pull to think more of the collective good at this important time than their own pocketbooks.
Albert I’m mistaken but I believe anyone can read for free but if you want to post, you need to suscribe and pay in some instances. Not all. Example Dan Rather is optional. I’m optional, lol.
Thanks for that thoughtful, though painful essay, Darlene. I only subscribe to Heather, for much the same reason. What to say about half million, i can't say. For less than $5/month, this is pretty cheap fare individually. What Heather does with the half mil, i can't say either. She may have put a good chunk into Dem and related social causes. She certainly puts time and effort into her work. What converts from "merely talking" to "actually doing" is moot, but I suspect Heather's newsletter is a stimulus, one way or another. As for all the other, usually more expensive paywall options, I've often wondered if a consolidated group rate might not be more effective for all concerned. But the press, like most of the rest of America, worships competitive private enterprise. On the side, i suspect far more of Heather's subscribers are non-paying. Anyway, try to take care of yourself psychologically. Some here i think could use a bit of a vacation, Trump et al are now on a sustained warpath footing, and it's not about to stop. Take good care of yourself.