Enjoy your articles even though I'm, at the moment, just a subscriber as I contemplate what and who I read on substack or elsewhere.
Just a thought though on the diet/health side of things. Perhaps you and familia could switch away from Ruffles and Mrs. Stouffer’s stuff.? After heart surgery, I learned just how bad the 'Standard American Diet' really is...if pharma is bad, so is the food industry and their so called regulators.
Good thought. I didn't buy the Ruffles. They are now too expensive ... same with Mrs. Stouffers' lasagna. I do like their Mac and cheese, but we usually now buy the Kraft box version.
To make it perfectly clear, I appreciate ALL subscribers - paid or unpaid. I appreciate all readers. While I have about 3,600 subscribers, my articles (in total) have been read by more than 600,000 people by now. That is stunning to me. With one Substack article, I've reached more people than I ever reached with a story in The Troy Citizen.
"If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago
I was a lobbyist for two decades in state legislatures. Purely and simply there hasn't been enough money to pay for lobbyists who can spend all day, every day of a legislative session and outside of the legislature at events in the community, developing relationships and trust with lawmakers, monitoring and advocating for freedom, individual liberty and rights for as long as I worked in that arena, and for decades before. It was citizen activists, volunteers for freedom and liberty who came down to testify on issues as they could, and the niche areas those volunteers cared most about. But they were handicapped from the start, most votes were already counted and outcomes determined long before the public hearing and testimony portion of a legislative proposal was held. By lobbyists representing special interests that rarely had freedom and individual liberty in mind.
Lobbying this system of government is an investment that a return is expected for. ROI. The return on investment in freedom and individual liberty is assumed, presumed to already exist, assured by the US Constitution. Except it doesn't. Not under a "living, breathing constitution" philosophy that most jurists hold in 2023. Olympic-level gymnastics in linguistics allow for the Constitution to say whatever a skilled linguist wants it to say. Enabling a Gov. Newsom to declare that California is the land of the free, while Florida is ruled by a dictator. Or that Obamacare is constitutional.
Law = Words. Linguistics. There's a reason that a leading Marxist revolutionary, Noam Chomsky, chose linguistics as the most important weapon to succeed in a revolution against a constitution written to protect individual liberty and restrain collectivist authoritarianism, training an army of Marxist linguists to make collectivist authoritarianism constitutional.
Until enough people are informed and engaged in what has happened, is happening and will happen to our system of governance, our Constitution will not mean what they believe the plain language of it says it means. And the current system has no intention of informing citizens otherwise. There's no ROI on that.
We do on Substack what those few volunteer activists who showed up at state capitols when I lobbied did. Who kept trying, no matter what the odds against them were. Every once in a while the lawmakers were persuaded by what they had to say, made amendments to legislative proposals that went against the special interests who were pushing them. Because they are human, too. And care. And soft spots can be found in them to do the right thing. And the more volunteer activists the better. It's really the only path forward that doesn't involve a dangerous escalation by authorities as citizens come to understand what's happening and their voices continue to be ignored through normal channels, as courts remake the US Constitution that the free people in this nation take for granted to embody the content of the Communist Manifesto.
We do what we do to try to help people understand that which we/they were unaware of before. To help them reframe their thoughts and emotional understanding that what is happening is wrong into ideas and concepts that are more tangible and more actionable. More easily communicated to others who we interact with. Those who are good with memes and metaphors that are easily understandable and relatable are the most valuable communicators. Many of us who break down and share complex subjects into lengthy dissertations for others to interpret have our roll. The meme and metaphor makers are best at taking very complex issues that we've broken down into less complex issues into even less complex presentations of them.
We are ants trying to take down an elephant. It can be done. The most important revolutions, or counterrevolutions as you will, have been done that way. Each of us a tiny ant performing our roll. As our numbers grow - and most all of our efforts must be to grow our numbers - we become more and more capable of taking down this elephant that is stomping out the very life force that our nation was founded upon and which made it great.
Only when the incalculable value of freedom and individual liberty is given a value because sufficient people love freedom enough and gain awareness of the real situation will they invest in changing the system of governance we live under. More people volunteering to be activists in state capitols, county seats, city hall's, there regularly, developing relationships with the people who have been given power in them, giving them information like what we share on Substack to help them understand what we understand. They don't know most of us. They know the lobbyists and special interest leaders who are there regularly. And make public policy that helps get them their return on investment they are making with their time and advocacy dollars.
That's reality. The sober reality of it. The challenge of our times. How much do we love freedom? We're aware of the real situation. Not enough are. Will we learn from history? Or will we purely and simply deserve everything that happens in the future?
Even though I said a salesman should not fear “asking for a sale” (if he believes in his product), I still feel slightly awkward writing pieces like my last two which could come across as: “Hey, give me some of your money!”
But the more I think about the big-picture topic, I think these pieces might have been two of my more-important articles. The real goal is to make sure Substack continues to grow, which must happen to have a significant counter-weight to all the false narratives we get from the rest of the corporate press/media.
I’d hate to see what the world looked like today if we did NOT have a growing Substack forum, a platform for “independent” writers that really exploded just when we needed it - in our “New Normal” Covid times.
No Substack - or one only for the “independently-wealthy” writers - is a scary scenario to consider.
I’ve also been thinking a good bit about my readers who added comments noting that many car manufacturers will soon ban A.M. radio from their vehicles.
This will effectively ban “conservative talk radio,” which is one of the few significant forums where “dissidents” can challenge some of the authorized narratives. If this happens, the result will be chilling for “our cause” in this on-going battle.
This would actually make Substack even more important. Substack and a few other “alternative media” websites are really taking on the “Evil Empire” almost by themselves. I don’t need to remind people that Tucker Carlson has now been taken off of primetime TV, which was no accident.
But it’s our “Silent Minority” - the people putting some cash skin into the game - that is really keeping hope alive. These paid subscribers are also making possible important and astute Reader Comments. So even if you don’t start your own Substack or can’t afford to pay for more subscriptions, the thoughts and links of these readers can still reach a lot of people and help frame the conversation going forward. This is very important too.
UPDATE: I’m glad I wrote a follow-up piece to my first fund-raiser as I now have at least 10 more paid subscribers. This means my “telethon” results grew my paid subscriber numbers from 106 to 128. This is a 21-percent spike in just a couple of days!
Also, my "annualized gross revenue" projections have increased by approximately $1,000 ... that is, if my monthly subscribers are able to keep supporting me for a few months. Even if these paid subscribers can't do this, I appreciate the short-term "gratuity" and "show of support."
Thank you to everyone who upgraded to paid. And thank you to everyone who is hanging with me as a free subscriber.
... Okay, now I’m going to finish my in-progress Influenza-Like-Illness story. I think the data in this story will prove conclusively that some kind of respiratory virus (that wasn’t influenza) was spreading widely across America and the world as early as November 2019.
Hopefully, this story will hit your email on Wednesday. And this story will then beget a follow-up story: Did some public health officials KNOW some strange new respiratory virus was infecting millions of people? If they knew this, why have they covered this up? Or: Why haven’t they seriously investigated this possibility? My answer is one of my iron-clad maxims: Never investigate that which you don’t want to “confirm.”
Agreed. I wrote a lot of what I share on Substack on Facebook in 2020. I had written about a lot of great info and research I shared then, but it was largely ignored or shadow-banned, Facebook ended up being lots of image-crafting travel and partying pictures, memes of cats and propaganda-amplifying drivel. I used to kind of like some of the image-crafting travel and partying pictures, never got into the memes of cats and tried countering the propaganda to no avail (some friends would DM me and thank me, but feared the mob.)
Substack is much more my type of reader and format. And thankful it is here to allow what you described and we are using to get this important information and analysis out there. But it's not a broad enough audience yet. We've got to figure out how to increase our reach pretty quickly. Because the powers that be could shut down this platform, too, overnight if they wished. And we need backup plans to get around additional crackdowns on free speech. Chinese dissidents have learned to be nimble and creative, always a game of cat and mouse, trying to stay one step ahead of authorities.
Once an information platform begins to get big enough to challenge the official narrative to effect it gets shut down in China. By the same Big Tech multinational corporations that run our platforms. The infrastructure is built, the experience is there, only lacks the will and directive here in the US. And don't imagine courts will intervene should that happen, they'll either call it a national security issue or private enterprise.
I took note when I signed up to Substack of the corporate administrative address in San Francisco. And it seems to be very close to other Big Tech platforms that do censor,. And the format and font is from a template used on other platforms I've seen that do censor.. Yes, I've seen the pronouncements of its top officials declaring their full support for free speech. But I'm under no illusions that it would comply when faced with orders signed by judges if appeals routes were closed down.
So, it would seem prudent to not place all of our eggs in this one basket. And learn from Chinese dissidents how to be nimble and maintain backup communications channels plans and strategies. Sad, tragic and dangerous reality of our times. Whatever you/we build here on this platform should contemplate redundancy and "bug-out" plans and strategies that inform readers how to follow you/us.
Thank you, Freedom Fox. Substack's founders have pledged to support free speech, but I've also picked up the vibe that they might not actually believe all the writings of its most popular writers (people like Steve Kirsch and Alex Berenson). Berenson recently published an article where he said he's considering moving his writing to another platform (Rumble). In that article, he noted (paraphrasing) that he hadn't gotten a lot of love from the key founders of Substack. That, to me, was an ominous revelation. Of course if Substack goes the route of the rest of Big Tech, there probably won't be a Substack as we now know it in the future. One would think the company's braintrust would know by now who is buttering their proverbial bread.
Speaking for myself, If I can't publish my articles and commentary on Substack, I'm probably done as a writer who can generate significant revenue from my work. I'd be back to sending my freelance submissions to the four or five sites that might actually publish them .... and none of those sites pay for stories.
Bottom line: The fate of Substack is a bigger deal than most people on "our side" probably realize.
And I agree; I guess it's good to have a Plan B or C. I firmly believe our rulers will become MORE BRAZEN in their efforts to censor and block dissenting points of view. They almost HAVE to do this to stay in power and complete the rest of their unfinished agendas. They also have to do this to keep the masses from coming for THEM with those pitchforks.
From one reader's perspective I read news to get information. Your articles on Covid and Covid vaccines are what originally attracted me. I love the comments section as it provides further information from people's real life experience. I was never one for ordinary tales of home life or travel that does not include something helpful for my own life. I think many of your readers will be like me and want information that is helpful to their own lives such as realistic Vaccine information, Central Bank digital currency issue, WEF agenda, what is exceptional in Troy that cannot be found anywhere else, killer recipes that undisputed champions of the dinner table, lean cuisine that actually is filling and tastes good, etc, etc. I used to love the Toronto star surveys. They would take something like car repair garages and take a car with a simple problem to each one and see how much it cost to repair. That one ranged from $0 to $1200 (50 years ago so today the top cost would be like $8000.00)
I paid the subscription to the first of your substacks that I read because it was so informative. I have not been disappointed since. Lately though the hard hitting information isn't there.
You are right Bill. I'm of humble means but I dig in every month to support 4 Substacks, yours since your fundraiser, Steve Kirsch, the Forgotten Side of Medicine by a Midwester Doctor and Utobian by Toby Rogers. All excellent.
I am an unpaid subscriber to another 44. If I could subscribe to them all I would. The journalism is excellent and the content is actually true, nothing like the propoganda produced by the mainstream sources.
I also contribute monthly to Children's Health Defense, the Daily Clout by Naomi Wolf and the Informed Consent Action Network by Del Bigtree. I feel they are important to support because in additional to written news they produce excellent broadcast content that make them accessible to more people and they have teams of attorneys that bring court cases against the parasites and grifters who are living off us.
You are right. This may have at one point been a game but no longer. The overlords don't just want more. They want everything. You, your children, your freedom. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-NG!
We the people might lose but if enough of us fight we can't lose. We are gaining more people every day. We are on the side of right. We will win back our world.
Thanks a lot, Mark. I love all the Stacks and organizations you are supporting. I want to support more of them too and am going to try to do just that. Brownstone Institute is another organization that is fighting the good fight.
On a more serious note, though, congrats on the bump -- but be careful when you're running numbers based on your current subscriber numbers. As I mentioned a couple months ago, for some reason there's a lot of "bot" activity that shows up from time to time --- these accounts are obviously never going to become paid because they've got a different agenda. (This also goes for "losing" followers -- they may just be bots getting deleted from the system.)
Thanks for the pro-tip advice. As someone else told me a while back, you also can't assume your current subscribers will stay with you next year as well.
I've always worked from the premise that if I could get more total subscribers, a certain percent would upgrade to "paid" over time. But, as you point out, some of those "subscribers" may be bots. I'm still upset I can't market my writing to the people who know me best - my local Facebook followers.
Of my (now) 120 paid subscribers, I bet only five are from people who actually knew me before I started this Substack site. As I point out in today's piece, 3,000 of my neighbors subscribed to my weekly newspaper once upon a time. You would think at least 30 of those people would support my writing on Substack .... but I don't think they know I even have a Substack site.
That might be a good thing. My best market of "prospects" hasn't even been asked for a "sale" yet.
Facebook would be the best way, but I'm blocked by the algorithms there. It would be worth the effort to start compiling email addresses from any and all sources and just send people a direct email, asking them to consider subscribing.
Stay tuned. I have another idea to rapidly increase my paid subscribers.
The good ideas are the easy part. Executing them takes a little work though!
Please do. With my local newspaper, our best niche was "local history." With my national (and international) Substack newsletter, my niche is "early spread" evidence and investigations.
I've covered it multiple ways, but have still yet to do a story showing all the "ILI" evidence that more people than normal were becoming sick of "something" in the "flu season" of 2019-2020.
But that's my next story.
After that is a few stories showing that public health agencies and at least some doctors' offices knew this was happening and could have been "early Covid" ... but never investigated or publicized this common-sense possibility.
It seems like I remember there being a lot of "news" about strange lung problems that were occurring that was being blamed (at the time) on vaping (EVALI)--that coincidentally or not occurred in 2019. Food for thought
I need to save this and add it to my "stories to be written" list. This has gotten some attention in the alternative (taboo) media, but not enough. My research partner is also focussed on a flash flood that may have compromised "bio-security" at Ft. Detrick in March 2018. Someone just published a book about these events and Citizen Free Press linked to this author's research. This also bears much-closer scrutiny and I'm sure I'll be posting some stories about this in the future as well. Okay, got to finish my ILI story!
I heard some rumor that EV's and AM radio conflict with each other and I know that is BS.
Or, at a minimum, it is a "false flag" and something easily remedied probably with a part that cost about $2 and add in $20 in labor. I won't purchase an effing EV if it don't provide AM radio, but I wasn't planning on purchasing one anyhow because if you run the numbers on energy usage, EV's automobile vehicles are a net loss versus traditional combustion engines in many if not most circumstances.
Why anybody would want to do away with AM radio is beside me.....as it is I acquired a short-wave radio not too long ago as sort of an insurance policy.
It is still in the box - if I open the box, I will need to figure out how to use it but it didn't cost much - less than 20% of other insurance and probably worth about 10 times more.
We live in interesting times and I appreciate SubStack - that is why I invested in it.
With both my time and my ideas....and some funds come to think of it.
I'm invested in SubStack as well as a monthly subscriber to Bill's place.
Maybe somebody has the patents on Tesla's (like the actual fella whose patents were STOLEN by the FBI!), and if so, maybe there is a better EV for the future, but the ones that run on lithium batteries are NOT environmentally friendly in the least.
Or ride a bicycle. They say once you've learned, you never forget. We just need bigger seats than we remember from our youth.
I talked about the "15-minute city" fad in a recent piece. Once you've surpassed your allotment of "allowed" car trips, Big Brother is going to use his stick to get you to .... walk or ride a bike ... And you won't be able to listen to A.M. talk radio on those bike trips into the nearest large city.
On my "stories to write" list will be a few about this "smart city" scam.
Well - I guess I'll never buy or drive for that matter a Ford again. I already sold the stock I had in it a couple years ago. Eff them for getting rid of AM radio.
Just my .02... I am an unpaid subscriber to about 15 substack writers. We are a 1 income household - we drive older cars, don't eat out, haven't taken a vacation in a few years. I could not possibly pay each individual writer, but might consider one reasonable amount spread over several writers. Not sure that would work in practice. Some podcasts also have a subscription model. If I signed up for all of these, it would be a few hundred per month. Would love an affordable streamlined approach.
I'm with you Christine. There has to be fairly easy solutions that would allow people in your situation to make a few very small donations ... which if enough people did the same thing, would make a huge difference to all the important Substack authors. The "micro payment" option could be a game-changer IMO, if someone can and does launch this.
"Many hands make little work." ... Many very small donations could make a huge difference.
Unfortunately, you didn't follow my previous suggestion to lobby Substack to allow small contributions for individual articles. I still believe this could be a game-changer.
Every now and then, we writers manage to get an excellent story out that many free subscribers like. Unless you do that at least weekly, they won't subscribe because dozens of great riders doing great stories frequently, but not weekly. And often not because of a lack of talent but because they have a day job and family and not really the time to produce something great every week.
Therefore, like me, many readers subscribe for free to dozens of writers and then only pick the good strories and read them and ignore the rest. I would love to donate a small amount to some of them frequently. At the moment, I support 2 to 4 with paid subscriptions, but I move them around a lot. I would rather spend those $20 on 20 individual articles.
It would be interesting to see how free subscribers react if they can donate 50c or $1 for an article they like. If 120 people press like, there is a good chance 60 of them will donate $1. If I get that for three articles a month, that is $180. Not much, but it beats the 0$ I get with the subscription-only model.
I think this will motivate writers to do better work and raises the overall quality of writing. Once again, I copy my article below, which includes more reasons and the poll (which is closed by now) in the hope we get more writers on board before you pitch it to Substack. Yes, you. Because you are good at it. :-)
I didn't ignore it. I just don't know how to get Substack to change their payment option buttons. I still think your idea is fantastic and could be a game-changer for Substack writers.
I also like how you "move around' the writers you support. That allows you to give a little to many writers.
I am a new subscriber. While I appreciate talk of the COVID, there are other writers that are still talking about this, Robert Malone for one, so I am hoping that you will have other stories to tell. Personally I do think there are a lot of people who should be charged with crimes against humanity, but fat chance it will go to actual court. No one is going to say we got it wrong.
I would love to know how others are keeping up with inflation, I mean I stopped buying chips unless there is a coupon and they are under $3. Going the sausage and pasta route, and why is fruit tasting funny now. $9 water melons? Really? Chocolate is getting smaller, sodas are going through the roof, and summer is coming. Brownie mixes are high, but I am buying a premium brand. Generic dog biscuits. If I were to stock up on liquor what should I buy for the long haul?
Another topic is that I had two friends go abroad to Europe and they mentioned that the food there did not given them the stomach problems the American food did. One of my friends said that as they got on the plane to go home she was full out crying she didn’t want to come back. They were investigating her husbands’ family and thought they were from an old wealth family. They were from and old family, but poorer than dirt. Eye opening poverty. Another family said that their daughter ended up reading more, investigating more, because there was a lack of internet in many places. She said she felt like her daughters brain changed during this trip.
Thanks for subscribing. Inflation might be THE story ... all these stories tie into together IMO.
Stomach issues from the food is another great story idea. I have them and so does my wife. I think huge numbers of people now do ... a lot more than in the past .... why is this?
Some substackers link a ko-fi account and just ask readers to buy me a coffee if you liked my writing or some such. I have done that on occasion for writers I don’t pay for but read an outstanding piece. So it must be an allowed option and a way to take an occasional gift.
I need to look into that, Dan. Some Substacker have "founding memberships" - that are a lot more than annual memberships. I guess it's a way for people to show even more support.
Great suggestion.
And, yes, as Ron mentions below, someone could do a "gift subscription" for a friend. I also need to look into adding that option. It would be a great gift for the right person and would help us writers grow our paid subscribers. Thanks for the good ideas and your support!
At my SubStack place I haven't solicited for paid subscribers, but I have enjoyed looking at the data provided....I think it is very interesting and the more transparent this sort of thing can be the better is what I think in general......
Regardless - Congratulations on your first telethon!
~
Now, totally switching gears, the term "telethon" just reminded me about a joke my wife told me yesterday regarding the telethon's of old ("nickels and dimes") that her dad told the family at the time (probably in the 70's).........it was just my wife and me talking (yesterday) and we know each other well and we both burst out laughing when she told the joke......but nobody could tell that joke nowadays because it seems as if folks have been throwing their sense of humor out the window....that is sad in so many ways.
Maybe later in private, maybe I'll tell the joke again, but probably not - it was very inappropriate.....
ha, ha.
Thanks for sharing the numbers - I for one appreciate it.
BK
ps - I've gotten to Chapter 5 in the pee-wee story.....
Hey Bill - now I'm a paid subscriber, one of what 110+, so maybe you can help me with this question I have. Is there a simple way to record a whistle and then upload the recording to SubStack? My guess is yes, and I think I already know a way to record it, and then I can save the audio as an MP3 file or similar, and then maybe upload it to SubStack as a way of sharing my whistling ability?
BK
ps - I'll tell the reason why my wife thought of that inappropriate joke - we were watching the Kentucky Derby and there was one horse went to the gate with odds 3-5. I would never place a bet on a 3-5 horse, being a $2 bet will earn you but $1.20, but of course that horse won.
I can't remember the odds on Mage exact - it might of been 13-1 - regardless, the horses I picked to win, place, and show never even got mentioned during the whole race! I don't know what I was thinking - I must of gone "all Japanese" in a moment of lacking lucidity......
But my neighbor chose "Mage" and I congratulated him on his choice - he said he chose the horse cause the name was easy. That is a good enough reason for me.
You know usually I can pick the winners, but yesterday (and the day before especially) was sort of "off"...something was amiss, but I'm glad Mage won and the name appealed to me as well....
I told my wife I'm sorry I bet the $1000 on the race and she acted like she actually thought I might of done that, but maybe she was just pulling my chain?
Oh well, it was fun with the neighbors and we ate some turkey dinner afterwards and enjoyed each others company and I'm glad nothing worrisome occurred during the Derby race proper because did you hear how many horses perished there in the race preparations....and there were 5 scratches I think in the Derby itself - I think that is out of the norm - I was starting to get a bit worried about potential for more "unusual" sort of occurrences besides a long-shot winning the race, and so I'm relieved none of that foolishness occurred. Still, can't help but wonder about the 11 horses (that was the number I heard) that had to be euphonized - something about that ain't correct. It ain't proper. It is wrong.
I had to work yesterday. I didn't even know who was running until about 45 minutes before the race. I didn't bet on any of them. I was pretty good at picking horses a million years ago when I was, like 5 or 6, but not so much any more.
I didn't hear about all the horses being euthanized or dying. That's horrific! Maybe they gave them the jab and it killed them all.
Well done Bill! You have inspired me to do similar. I wish substack would do subscription 'bundles.' I think that would be really popular. People could sign up to multiple authors for a discount. I would be happy to get together with a couple of other Australian authors in that fashion.
Tip on Facebook: When posting a Substack article link, get a new URL for free and use that (I use TinyURL but there are many). This gets the word “Substack” out of the post and avoids the algorithm Borgs.
Enjoy your articles even though I'm, at the moment, just a subscriber as I contemplate what and who I read on substack or elsewhere.
Just a thought though on the diet/health side of things. Perhaps you and familia could switch away from Ruffles and Mrs. Stouffer’s stuff.? After heart surgery, I learned just how bad the 'Standard American Diet' really is...if pharma is bad, so is the food industry and their so called regulators.
Good thought. I didn't buy the Ruffles. They are now too expensive ... same with Mrs. Stouffers' lasagna. I do like their Mac and cheese, but we usually now buy the Kraft box version.
To make it perfectly clear, I appreciate ALL subscribers - paid or unpaid. I appreciate all readers. While I have about 3,600 subscribers, my articles (in total) have been read by more than 600,000 people by now. That is stunning to me. With one Substack article, I've reached more people than I ever reached with a story in The Troy Citizen.
learn to cook it from scratch, way cheaper, you control the ingredients and it takes about the same time to cook
"If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago
I was a lobbyist for two decades in state legislatures. Purely and simply there hasn't been enough money to pay for lobbyists who can spend all day, every day of a legislative session and outside of the legislature at events in the community, developing relationships and trust with lawmakers, monitoring and advocating for freedom, individual liberty and rights for as long as I worked in that arena, and for decades before. It was citizen activists, volunteers for freedom and liberty who came down to testify on issues as they could, and the niche areas those volunteers cared most about. But they were handicapped from the start, most votes were already counted and outcomes determined long before the public hearing and testimony portion of a legislative proposal was held. By lobbyists representing special interests that rarely had freedom and individual liberty in mind.
Lobbying this system of government is an investment that a return is expected for. ROI. The return on investment in freedom and individual liberty is assumed, presumed to already exist, assured by the US Constitution. Except it doesn't. Not under a "living, breathing constitution" philosophy that most jurists hold in 2023. Olympic-level gymnastics in linguistics allow for the Constitution to say whatever a skilled linguist wants it to say. Enabling a Gov. Newsom to declare that California is the land of the free, while Florida is ruled by a dictator. Or that Obamacare is constitutional.
Law = Words. Linguistics. There's a reason that a leading Marxist revolutionary, Noam Chomsky, chose linguistics as the most important weapon to succeed in a revolution against a constitution written to protect individual liberty and restrain collectivist authoritarianism, training an army of Marxist linguists to make collectivist authoritarianism constitutional.
Until enough people are informed and engaged in what has happened, is happening and will happen to our system of governance, our Constitution will not mean what they believe the plain language of it says it means. And the current system has no intention of informing citizens otherwise. There's no ROI on that.
We do on Substack what those few volunteer activists who showed up at state capitols when I lobbied did. Who kept trying, no matter what the odds against them were. Every once in a while the lawmakers were persuaded by what they had to say, made amendments to legislative proposals that went against the special interests who were pushing them. Because they are human, too. And care. And soft spots can be found in them to do the right thing. And the more volunteer activists the better. It's really the only path forward that doesn't involve a dangerous escalation by authorities as citizens come to understand what's happening and their voices continue to be ignored through normal channels, as courts remake the US Constitution that the free people in this nation take for granted to embody the content of the Communist Manifesto.
We do what we do to try to help people understand that which we/they were unaware of before. To help them reframe their thoughts and emotional understanding that what is happening is wrong into ideas and concepts that are more tangible and more actionable. More easily communicated to others who we interact with. Those who are good with memes and metaphors that are easily understandable and relatable are the most valuable communicators. Many of us who break down and share complex subjects into lengthy dissertations for others to interpret have our roll. The meme and metaphor makers are best at taking very complex issues that we've broken down into less complex issues into even less complex presentations of them.
We are ants trying to take down an elephant. It can be done. The most important revolutions, or counterrevolutions as you will, have been done that way. Each of us a tiny ant performing our roll. As our numbers grow - and most all of our efforts must be to grow our numbers - we become more and more capable of taking down this elephant that is stomping out the very life force that our nation was founded upon and which made it great.
Only when the incalculable value of freedom and individual liberty is given a value because sufficient people love freedom enough and gain awareness of the real situation will they invest in changing the system of governance we live under. More people volunteering to be activists in state capitols, county seats, city hall's, there regularly, developing relationships with the people who have been given power in them, giving them information like what we share on Substack to help them understand what we understand. They don't know most of us. They know the lobbyists and special interest leaders who are there regularly. And make public policy that helps get them their return on investment they are making with their time and advocacy dollars.
That's reality. The sober reality of it. The challenge of our times. How much do we love freedom? We're aware of the real situation. Not enough are. Will we learn from history? Or will we purely and simply deserve everything that happens in the future?
Even though I said a salesman should not fear “asking for a sale” (if he believes in his product), I still feel slightly awkward writing pieces like my last two which could come across as: “Hey, give me some of your money!”
But the more I think about the big-picture topic, I think these pieces might have been two of my more-important articles. The real goal is to make sure Substack continues to grow, which must happen to have a significant counter-weight to all the false narratives we get from the rest of the corporate press/media.
I’d hate to see what the world looked like today if we did NOT have a growing Substack forum, a platform for “independent” writers that really exploded just when we needed it - in our “New Normal” Covid times.
No Substack - or one only for the “independently-wealthy” writers - is a scary scenario to consider.
I’ve also been thinking a good bit about my readers who added comments noting that many car manufacturers will soon ban A.M. radio from their vehicles.
This will effectively ban “conservative talk radio,” which is one of the few significant forums where “dissidents” can challenge some of the authorized narratives. If this happens, the result will be chilling for “our cause” in this on-going battle.
This would actually make Substack even more important. Substack and a few other “alternative media” websites are really taking on the “Evil Empire” almost by themselves. I don’t need to remind people that Tucker Carlson has now been taken off of primetime TV, which was no accident.
But it’s our “Silent Minority” - the people putting some cash skin into the game - that is really keeping hope alive. These paid subscribers are also making possible important and astute Reader Comments. So even if you don’t start your own Substack or can’t afford to pay for more subscriptions, the thoughts and links of these readers can still reach a lot of people and help frame the conversation going forward. This is very important too.
UPDATE: I’m glad I wrote a follow-up piece to my first fund-raiser as I now have at least 10 more paid subscribers. This means my “telethon” results grew my paid subscriber numbers from 106 to 128. This is a 21-percent spike in just a couple of days!
Also, my "annualized gross revenue" projections have increased by approximately $1,000 ... that is, if my monthly subscribers are able to keep supporting me for a few months. Even if these paid subscribers can't do this, I appreciate the short-term "gratuity" and "show of support."
Thank you to everyone who upgraded to paid. And thank you to everyone who is hanging with me as a free subscriber.
... Okay, now I’m going to finish my in-progress Influenza-Like-Illness story. I think the data in this story will prove conclusively that some kind of respiratory virus (that wasn’t influenza) was spreading widely across America and the world as early as November 2019.
Hopefully, this story will hit your email on Wednesday. And this story will then beget a follow-up story: Did some public health officials KNOW some strange new respiratory virus was infecting millions of people? If they knew this, why have they covered this up? Or: Why haven’t they seriously investigated this possibility? My answer is one of my iron-clad maxims: Never investigate that which you don’t want to “confirm.”
Agreed. I wrote a lot of what I share on Substack on Facebook in 2020. I had written about a lot of great info and research I shared then, but it was largely ignored or shadow-banned, Facebook ended up being lots of image-crafting travel and partying pictures, memes of cats and propaganda-amplifying drivel. I used to kind of like some of the image-crafting travel and partying pictures, never got into the memes of cats and tried countering the propaganda to no avail (some friends would DM me and thank me, but feared the mob.)
Substack is much more my type of reader and format. And thankful it is here to allow what you described and we are using to get this important information and analysis out there. But it's not a broad enough audience yet. We've got to figure out how to increase our reach pretty quickly. Because the powers that be could shut down this platform, too, overnight if they wished. And we need backup plans to get around additional crackdowns on free speech. Chinese dissidents have learned to be nimble and creative, always a game of cat and mouse, trying to stay one step ahead of authorities.
Once an information platform begins to get big enough to challenge the official narrative to effect it gets shut down in China. By the same Big Tech multinational corporations that run our platforms. The infrastructure is built, the experience is there, only lacks the will and directive here in the US. And don't imagine courts will intervene should that happen, they'll either call it a national security issue or private enterprise.
I took note when I signed up to Substack of the corporate administrative address in San Francisco. And it seems to be very close to other Big Tech platforms that do censor,. And the format and font is from a template used on other platforms I've seen that do censor.. Yes, I've seen the pronouncements of its top officials declaring their full support for free speech. But I'm under no illusions that it would comply when faced with orders signed by judges if appeals routes were closed down.
So, it would seem prudent to not place all of our eggs in this one basket. And learn from Chinese dissidents how to be nimble and maintain backup communications channels plans and strategies. Sad, tragic and dangerous reality of our times. Whatever you/we build here on this platform should contemplate redundancy and "bug-out" plans and strategies that inform readers how to follow you/us.
Thank you, Freedom Fox. Substack's founders have pledged to support free speech, but I've also picked up the vibe that they might not actually believe all the writings of its most popular writers (people like Steve Kirsch and Alex Berenson). Berenson recently published an article where he said he's considering moving his writing to another platform (Rumble). In that article, he noted (paraphrasing) that he hadn't gotten a lot of love from the key founders of Substack. That, to me, was an ominous revelation. Of course if Substack goes the route of the rest of Big Tech, there probably won't be a Substack as we now know it in the future. One would think the company's braintrust would know by now who is buttering their proverbial bread.
Speaking for myself, If I can't publish my articles and commentary on Substack, I'm probably done as a writer who can generate significant revenue from my work. I'd be back to sending my freelance submissions to the four or five sites that might actually publish them .... and none of those sites pay for stories.
Bottom line: The fate of Substack is a bigger deal than most people on "our side" probably realize.
And I agree; I guess it's good to have a Plan B or C. I firmly believe our rulers will become MORE BRAZEN in their efforts to censor and block dissenting points of view. They almost HAVE to do this to stay in power and complete the rest of their unfinished agendas. They also have to do this to keep the masses from coming for THEM with those pitchforks.
So marvelously well said!
From one reader's perspective I read news to get information. Your articles on Covid and Covid vaccines are what originally attracted me. I love the comments section as it provides further information from people's real life experience. I was never one for ordinary tales of home life or travel that does not include something helpful for my own life. I think many of your readers will be like me and want information that is helpful to their own lives such as realistic Vaccine information, Central Bank digital currency issue, WEF agenda, what is exceptional in Troy that cannot be found anywhere else, killer recipes that undisputed champions of the dinner table, lean cuisine that actually is filling and tastes good, etc, etc. I used to love the Toronto star surveys. They would take something like car repair garages and take a car with a simple problem to each one and see how much it cost to repair. That one ranged from $0 to $1200 (50 years ago so today the top cost would be like $8000.00)
I paid the subscription to the first of your substacks that I read because it was so informative. I have not been disappointed since. Lately though the hard hitting information isn't there.
Keep up the great work!
Hang with me, Fred. You're going to get more of that original, hard-hitting information. Thanks for your support and these suggestions and feedback.
You are right Bill. I'm of humble means but I dig in every month to support 4 Substacks, yours since your fundraiser, Steve Kirsch, the Forgotten Side of Medicine by a Midwester Doctor and Utobian by Toby Rogers. All excellent.
I am an unpaid subscriber to another 44. If I could subscribe to them all I would. The journalism is excellent and the content is actually true, nothing like the propoganda produced by the mainstream sources.
I also contribute monthly to Children's Health Defense, the Daily Clout by Naomi Wolf and the Informed Consent Action Network by Del Bigtree. I feel they are important to support because in additional to written news they produce excellent broadcast content that make them accessible to more people and they have teams of attorneys that bring court cases against the parasites and grifters who are living off us.
You are right. This may have at one point been a game but no longer. The overlords don't just want more. They want everything. You, your children, your freedom. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-NG!
We the people might lose but if enough of us fight we can't lose. We are gaining more people every day. We are on the side of right. We will win back our world.
Thanks a lot, Mark. I love all the Stacks and organizations you are supporting. I want to support more of them too and am going to try to do just that. Brownstone Institute is another organization that is fighting the good fight.
I grossed at least $420 from my “telethon.”
---------
I'll smoke to that!
On a more serious note, though, congrats on the bump -- but be careful when you're running numbers based on your current subscriber numbers. As I mentioned a couple months ago, for some reason there's a lot of "bot" activity that shows up from time to time --- these accounts are obviously never going to become paid because they've got a different agenda. (This also goes for "losing" followers -- they may just be bots getting deleted from the system.)
Thanks for the pro-tip advice. As someone else told me a while back, you also can't assume your current subscribers will stay with you next year as well.
I've always worked from the premise that if I could get more total subscribers, a certain percent would upgrade to "paid" over time. But, as you point out, some of those "subscribers" may be bots. I'm still upset I can't market my writing to the people who know me best - my local Facebook followers.
Of my (now) 120 paid subscribers, I bet only five are from people who actually knew me before I started this Substack site. As I point out in today's piece, 3,000 of my neighbors subscribed to my weekly newspaper once upon a time. You would think at least 30 of those people would support my writing on Substack .... but I don't think they know I even have a Substack site.
That might be a good thing. My best market of "prospects" hasn't even been asked for a "sale" yet.
I agree, they don't even know you have a 'Stack. What's the best way to fix that? Do you still have contact information? Live in the same area?
Facebook would be the best way, but I'm blocked by the algorithms there. It would be worth the effort to start compiling email addresses from any and all sources and just send people a direct email, asking them to consider subscribing.
Stay tuned. I have another idea to rapidly increase my paid subscribers.
The good ideas are the easy part. Executing them takes a little work though!
I can give you some anecdotal stories from NYC back to September and October 2019.
Please do. With my local newspaper, our best niche was "local history." With my national (and international) Substack newsletter, my niche is "early spread" evidence and investigations.
I've covered it multiple ways, but have still yet to do a story showing all the "ILI" evidence that more people than normal were becoming sick of "something" in the "flu season" of 2019-2020.
But that's my next story.
After that is a few stories showing that public health agencies and at least some doctors' offices knew this was happening and could have been "early Covid" ... but never investigated or publicized this common-sense possibility.
It seems like I remember there being a lot of "news" about strange lung problems that were occurring that was being blamed (at the time) on vaping (EVALI)--that coincidentally or not occurred in 2019. Food for thought
I need to save this and add it to my "stories to be written" list. This has gotten some attention in the alternative (taboo) media, but not enough. My research partner is also focussed on a flash flood that may have compromised "bio-security" at Ft. Detrick in March 2018. Someone just published a book about these events and Citizen Free Press linked to this author's research. This also bears much-closer scrutiny and I'm sure I'll be posting some stories about this in the future as well. Okay, got to finish my ILI story!
I saw that too. March on!
Support elimination of AM radio.
Cut out the competition.
The libies hate talk radio.
They for once, can be your usefull idiots.
Full disclosure I do not support the elimination of AM radio.
Good point, David. A.M. Radio is about dead ... and the one thing keeping it alive was Talk Radio, which the Establishment hated.
I still use AM for traffic condition reports.
I heard some rumor that EV's and AM radio conflict with each other and I know that is BS.
Or, at a minimum, it is a "false flag" and something easily remedied probably with a part that cost about $2 and add in $20 in labor. I won't purchase an effing EV if it don't provide AM radio, but I wasn't planning on purchasing one anyhow because if you run the numbers on energy usage, EV's automobile vehicles are a net loss versus traditional combustion engines in many if not most circumstances.
Why anybody would want to do away with AM radio is beside me.....as it is I acquired a short-wave radio not too long ago as sort of an insurance policy.
It is still in the box - if I open the box, I will need to figure out how to use it but it didn't cost much - less than 20% of other insurance and probably worth about 10 times more.
We live in interesting times and I appreciate SubStack - that is why I invested in it.
With both my time and my ideas....and some funds come to think of it.
I'm invested in SubStack as well as a monthly subscriber to Bill's place.
Maybe somebody has the patents on Tesla's (like the actual fella whose patents were STOLEN by the FBI!), and if so, maybe there is a better EV for the future, but the ones that run on lithium batteries are NOT environmentally friendly in the least.
2024 will be last year for all of Ford vehicles.
Better keep your radio in the microwave.
Those that want to be green should walk.
Or ride a bicycle. They say once you've learned, you never forget. We just need bigger seats than we remember from our youth.
I talked about the "15-minute city" fad in a recent piece. Once you've surpassed your allotment of "allowed" car trips, Big Brother is going to use his stick to get you to .... walk or ride a bike ... And you won't be able to listen to A.M. talk radio on those bike trips into the nearest large city.
On my "stories to write" list will be a few about this "smart city" scam.
Did you buy carbon credits to offset the carbon created in the production of your bicycle?
Well - I guess I'll never buy or drive for that matter a Ford again. I already sold the stock I had in it a couple years ago. Eff them for getting rid of AM radio.
I don't think I'm alone in this sentiment.
Just my .02... I am an unpaid subscriber to about 15 substack writers. We are a 1 income household - we drive older cars, don't eat out, haven't taken a vacation in a few years. I could not possibly pay each individual writer, but might consider one reasonable amount spread over several writers. Not sure that would work in practice. Some podcasts also have a subscription model. If I signed up for all of these, it would be a few hundred per month. Would love an affordable streamlined approach.
I'm with you Christine. There has to be fairly easy solutions that would allow people in your situation to make a few very small donations ... which if enough people did the same thing, would make a huge difference to all the important Substack authors. The "micro payment" option could be a game-changer IMO, if someone can and does launch this.
"Many hands make little work." ... Many very small donations could make a huge difference.
I like your transparency around your numbers.
Unfortunately, you didn't follow my previous suggestion to lobby Substack to allow small contributions for individual articles. I still believe this could be a game-changer.
Every now and then, we writers manage to get an excellent story out that many free subscribers like. Unless you do that at least weekly, they won't subscribe because dozens of great riders doing great stories frequently, but not weekly. And often not because of a lack of talent but because they have a day job and family and not really the time to produce something great every week.
Therefore, like me, many readers subscribe for free to dozens of writers and then only pick the good strories and read them and ignore the rest. I would love to donate a small amount to some of them frequently. At the moment, I support 2 to 4 with paid subscriptions, but I move them around a lot. I would rather spend those $20 on 20 individual articles.
It would be interesting to see how free subscribers react if they can donate 50c or $1 for an article they like. If 120 people press like, there is a good chance 60 of them will donate $1. If I get that for three articles a month, that is $180. Not much, but it beats the 0$ I get with the subscription-only model.
I think this will motivate writers to do better work and raises the overall quality of writing. Once again, I copy my article below, which includes more reasons and the poll (which is closed by now) in the hope we get more writers on board before you pitch it to Substack. Yes, you. Because you are good at it. :-)
https://markusmutscheller.substack.com/p/petition-to-substack-to-facilitate
I didn't ignore it. I just don't know how to get Substack to change their payment option buttons. I still think your idea is fantastic and could be a game-changer for Substack writers.
I also like how you "move around' the writers you support. That allows you to give a little to many writers.
Keep pushing this, Ma Nu.
I am a new subscriber. While I appreciate talk of the COVID, there are other writers that are still talking about this, Robert Malone for one, so I am hoping that you will have other stories to tell. Personally I do think there are a lot of people who should be charged with crimes against humanity, but fat chance it will go to actual court. No one is going to say we got it wrong.
I would love to know how others are keeping up with inflation, I mean I stopped buying chips unless there is a coupon and they are under $3. Going the sausage and pasta route, and why is fruit tasting funny now. $9 water melons? Really? Chocolate is getting smaller, sodas are going through the roof, and summer is coming. Brownie mixes are high, but I am buying a premium brand. Generic dog biscuits. If I were to stock up on liquor what should I buy for the long haul?
Another topic is that I had two friends go abroad to Europe and they mentioned that the food there did not given them the stomach problems the American food did. One of my friends said that as they got on the plane to go home she was full out crying she didn’t want to come back. They were investigating her husbands’ family and thought they were from an old wealth family. They were from and old family, but poorer than dirt. Eye opening poverty. Another family said that their daughter ended up reading more, investigating more, because there was a lack of internet in many places. She said she felt like her daughters brain changed during this trip.
Thanks for subscribing. Inflation might be THE story ... all these stories tie into together IMO.
Stomach issues from the food is another great story idea. I have them and so does my wife. I think huge numbers of people now do ... a lot more than in the past .... why is this?
I'll add that story to the list.
Bill- I am a subscriber, but is there a way to also make a donation?
I have the same question as well as how do I buy a gift subscription for a friend.
I need to make this easier to do. I know other Substackers make use of this option. Thanks for encouraging me to do so!
Some substackers link a ko-fi account and just ask readers to buy me a coffee if you liked my writing or some such. I have done that on occasion for writers I don’t pay for but read an outstanding piece. So it must be an allowed option and a way to take an occasional gift.
I need to look into that, Dan. Some Substacker have "founding memberships" - that are a lot more than annual memberships. I guess it's a way for people to show even more support.
Great suggestion.
And, yes, as Ron mentions below, someone could do a "gift subscription" for a friend. I also need to look into adding that option. It would be a great gift for the right person and would help us writers grow our paid subscribers. Thanks for the good ideas and your support!
Thanks for sharing this info on the numbers.
At my SubStack place I haven't solicited for paid subscribers, but I have enjoyed looking at the data provided....I think it is very interesting and the more transparent this sort of thing can be the better is what I think in general......
Regardless - Congratulations on your first telethon!
~
Now, totally switching gears, the term "telethon" just reminded me about a joke my wife told me yesterday regarding the telethon's of old ("nickels and dimes") that her dad told the family at the time (probably in the 70's).........it was just my wife and me talking (yesterday) and we know each other well and we both burst out laughing when she told the joke......but nobody could tell that joke nowadays because it seems as if folks have been throwing their sense of humor out the window....that is sad in so many ways.
Maybe later in private, maybe I'll tell the joke again, but probably not - it was very inappropriate.....
ha, ha.
Thanks for sharing the numbers - I for one appreciate it.
BK
ps - I've gotten to Chapter 5 in the pee-wee story.....
Hey Bill - now I'm a paid subscriber, one of what 110+, so maybe you can help me with this question I have. Is there a simple way to record a whistle and then upload the recording to SubStack? My guess is yes, and I think I already know a way to record it, and then I can save the audio as an MP3 file or similar, and then maybe upload it to SubStack as a way of sharing my whistling ability?
BK
ps - I'll tell the reason why my wife thought of that inappropriate joke - we were watching the Kentucky Derby and there was one horse went to the gate with odds 3-5. I would never place a bet on a 3-5 horse, being a $2 bet will earn you but $1.20, but of course that horse won.
Yesterday's Kentucky Derby winner, Mage, was 15 to 1, according to the tallys they were showing at the end of the race.
I can't remember the odds on Mage exact - it might of been 13-1 - regardless, the horses I picked to win, place, and show never even got mentioned during the whole race! I don't know what I was thinking - I must of gone "all Japanese" in a moment of lacking lucidity......
But my neighbor chose "Mage" and I congratulated him on his choice - he said he chose the horse cause the name was easy. That is a good enough reason for me.
You know usually I can pick the winners, but yesterday (and the day before especially) was sort of "off"...something was amiss, but I'm glad Mage won and the name appealed to me as well....
I told my wife I'm sorry I bet the $1000 on the race and she acted like she actually thought I might of done that, but maybe she was just pulling my chain?
Oh well, it was fun with the neighbors and we ate some turkey dinner afterwards and enjoyed each others company and I'm glad nothing worrisome occurred during the Derby race proper because did you hear how many horses perished there in the race preparations....and there were 5 scratches I think in the Derby itself - I think that is out of the norm - I was starting to get a bit worried about potential for more "unusual" sort of occurrences besides a long-shot winning the race, and so I'm relieved none of that foolishness occurred. Still, can't help but wonder about the 11 horses (that was the number I heard) that had to be euphonized - something about that ain't correct. It ain't proper. It is wrong.
Who did you bet on Bandit?
Ken
I had to work yesterday. I didn't even know who was running until about 45 minutes before the race. I didn't bet on any of them. I was pretty good at picking horses a million years ago when I was, like 5 or 6, but not so much any more.
I didn't hear about all the horses being euthanized or dying. That's horrific! Maybe they gave them the jab and it killed them all.
I think I might of had some of my info incorrect - it was 7 horses euphonized....and you were correct 15-1 on Mage.
Well done Bill! You have inspired me to do similar. I wish substack would do subscription 'bundles.' I think that would be really popular. People could sign up to multiple authors for a discount. I would be happy to get together with a couple of other Australian authors in that fashion.
That’s a great idea!
Tip on Facebook: When posting a Substack article link, get a new URL for free and use that (I use TinyURL but there are many). This gets the word “Substack” out of the post and avoids the algorithm Borgs.
Ooh, good idea! I know how to do this!
Annie made me do it ; I'll have to cut back on my Supper of Champions : Wine and Chips!