Yesterday, I directly asked free subscribers to join as paid. Your response was heartening. But some emails from former subscribers had me thinking about ways to improve.
Paid subscriber here. I don’t read you for your political commentary and person thoughts on Donald Trump. There are other sources for that. I read you for your relentless hunt to uncover the Unreported Truths re: vaccines, CDC, FDA, Fauchi etc. Your area of expertise, having come from a liberal background, is valuable to me since I’m as far right as they get. Please continue to thumb your nose at both sides; we need it. This is a smart audience you have; continue to challenge us!
I completely concur. You get to say all the things I would LOVE to say if I had the platform. We need an epidemic of common sense and logic to cover the US yesterday.
The priceless aspect of this platform is how it creates this kind of dialogue between writers and readers. Actually, I guess there *is* a price you can put on it -- and Substack does. But well done, Substack, for creating this kind of two-way communication, and well done, Alex, for taking the time to listen to your audience!
Personally, I'd prefer to not have any clue as to ANY reporter's politics. Just the facts as you find them, please. And yes, hold everyone's feet to the fire! (kind of what journalism once was?)
On the other hand, being aware of a particular reporter's biases and his/her willingness to recognize them, helps me in assessing the credibility of their work. Transparency and Free Speech!
Absolutely. DJT might not have been a politician prior to 2015 but he has become one. I still think he’s better for the country that crooked uncle Joe but don’t like some of his rhetoric, okay a lot of his rhetoric.
He is now a card carrying member of the “swamp” and is fair game for critique.
I used to love talking about politics. My wife and grown children didn't. One day I realized that I had zero influence on them when it came to politics and that it was actually counterproductive to espouse my views on current events. Now we talk politics not at all, and life is much better.
I can't talk politics at work (University Medical Center), so the only place I have true 'freedom of speech' is at the local Sportsmen's (hunting/fishing) Club. There anyone can say anything about anything. It is refreshing!
I would love if you did more on the topic of psychotic behaviors brought on by marijuana. I think your book Tell Your Children was best book I read this year. I just wish I had read it when my kids were in junior high. This topic should be discussed in depth before one more state decides to decriminalize it.
I think talking politics to your kids is important whether they agree or not--so much is censored that at least they hear the rest and think about it. You SHOULD be nice about it, of course.
Funny, I worried about this part of my relationship with my kids, initially, when the schools they attended starting going down the "save the planet at all costs" path (as just one lefty example). But the schools eventually got around to teaching them about logical fallacies, and they apparently paid attention in those classes. So now we can talk politics all the time without worrying about it. We all hold each other to account by analyzing any assertions, political or not, for any logical fallacies, to see if the assertion holds up. This makes my conversations with my kids both productive and interesting.
Wow! Good for you! I taught argument classes in Freshman English at NMU in Michigan. I wish everybody could or would do this. Straw man arguments, ad hominem attacks, just attacking sources instead of dealing with the facts of an argument, etc. So great you are getting your kids to think about all this. Amazing your schools did get into some logic. Makes me have some hope.
Hope, indeed. Fun fact: it was my kids' school instruction in logical fallacies that put me onto a cool website https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ - also known as "Thou Shalt Not Commit Logical Fallacies." Now my kids can smell a bs'er from a mile away.
I just wish more parents would talk to their kids this way! Of course, it helps that your school district introduced critical thinking since it comes better initially from someone else. Great.
Yeah Brian. Same with me. My kids are much older now and still smoke weed. I’ve given them the book but to no avail. I just pray that their minds aren’t and won’t be affected.
You do not write too often and the length is fine. Greenwald needs an editor to make his great stuffer even better. You are fine
Hard to avoid political commentary about Trump when he is simply the most obvious target of the “ Justice” department. The rest of us from Taibbi to the January 6th people are just watching this destruction of what we thought were our rights.
Back to covid! How did we permit the government to shut churches rather than have bishops and other religious prelates do the same thing voluntarily?
Our rights are under assault. Trump is simply the largest target. They prosecuted the man not the crimes.
The question I continually ask is “why did the churches agree to close?” Why didn’t Christian leaders fight back? I am still disappointed that the Church caved.
The churches (many of them) are not what they pretend to be. For example, do you realize that Catholic Charities is one of the biggest NGOs helping escort the illegal migration into the US?
Follow the money. Before covid migrant/asylum settlement cost us 5 billion a year paid to NGO the biggest amount to catholic charities. Now it's 10x that
Because it seemed the safe and reasonable thing to do. We were united against COVID. Same as after 9/11 and the Patriot Act. We gave up our rights for what we thought was a greater good. We did not recognize the game being played.
I’m sorry but it certainly did not seem reasonable, and what is safe can be left up to the individuals to decide. If you followed this substack since the beginning and also did other non-biased research you knew right away only the elderly or those with significant health issues were at risk. The rest of us: it was just a flu or a cold. We can never let the government decide to restrict our rights regardless of the situation.
But we had daily body counts and a propaganda war that made it seems as if the plague had returned. We panicked and the politicians used the panic to their advantage. It was “ over” when the naval hospital ship left nyc because it was never used. But the politicians loved their power and glory so it continued. Ok to buy shoes in Walmart because they also sold food but not in a shoe store ? WTF
The daily body counts were relatively easy to analyze, especially if you looked at other countries (Non-US) and their data. When the average age of death from Covid was higher than the average age of death in a normal environment, that was the first clue. No children were dying and almost no-one under 50, or even 60. Then, if you looked into co-morbidities, nearly everyone had at least 4 or more who was dying. Basically the Covid19 pulled deaths forward. Unfortunately, the Vax is having a negative impact on deaths, too, so while one would expect deaths to be less after a pull-forward event, I am not sure we are seeing that yet.
I believe the pastor who went to jail was Canadian. Do you know of any American pastors who had the courage to push back against the tyranny of the State?
I have donated to Pastor Artur Pawlowski in Alberta, I live on Ontario but the injustice here in Canada made me sick. Rebel News was the only one that kept us informed, no MSM. My Church Serbian Orthodox did not close during c 19, but they did watch how other churches behaved during that period of time. I am grateful they did not fall for the propaganda. Glory be to God!!
Another reason I don’t care for this pope. I went to hear John Paul speak in WDC back in the 80’s and was impressed in a positive way even though a few years later I left the RCC.
I'm guessing, but possibly fear of losing tax status. Emergency powers covered the IRS threats of removal of their 501c3 protection if they did not obey.
Me too. To date, since returning to Sunday services there has been only one priest, who, while giving his sermon, actually apologized to the congregation for closing the church's doors to us - for failing to provide the basics to the people, the basics for which our Holy Fathers in Rome claim the Church is indispensable to our lives: Baptism, Holy Communioin, Reconciliation/Confession, Confirmation, Annointing of the Sick (the abandonment of that last sacrament was the one that hit hardest for me - all of those faithful Catholics dying in a hospital and the local bishop refusing to send priests to try to give them the sacraments, even in protective gear). Fun fact: the bishop in our diocese gave us all a special dispensation from attending church services during the pandemic, but no one ever came out and told us when it was over, and no one ever came out and said that our Sunday "day of obligation" was now a requirement again. During the church shutdown period, they actually told us to "phone it in" by watching mass from home on the internet. But no one offered to come to our home to distribute Holy Communion, and, for a time, you weren't even allowed to drive up to our local church and receive Holy Communion in a "drive thru lane" - though eventually that was established when they realized they might be losing everyone, permanently.
It was basically what one wise person said to me: "a failure of senior leadership."
A friend of mine asked me during the shutdown, "how can you claim, as a church, to have a worldwide communion, when no one actually congregates with one another?" Good question.
Yup and the medical community who just abdicated their training and authority rather than be their patients advocates. If I can just go on line and learn the truth about not only the origins of COVID but the possible adversities of the vaccines then they should have known it too.
I subscribed! I was testing you out for a while before I committed my money to you, and found that after several months of consistent value, I should show my support. I get the cost argument, but if you think about how much you spend on things that are completely trivial that add no value to your life in the long run...really, $6/month is too much? How much did you just spend at Starbucks?
People are complaining that you write too much...? If they don't want to read every single email, they are FREE to delete when they don't have the time. Honestly, no matter what you do, haters gonna hate. People will ALWAYS find something to complain about. I'm surprised that your subscribers would be the type to complain about something like too much thought...so while you may have lost money through their exiting, maybe you lost the right people.
I for one am extremely grateful for the depth of each of your emails. Everything in our culture is catered to people who have no attention spans and want you to just get to the point right now...but how on earth are you supposed to actually explore a topic without a deep dive? I would personally find that to be irresponsible journalism.
Finally, for the love of GOD, please don't censor yourself or change your ways because that's what your subscribers want (dialogue is healthy, but please don't fall into the people-pleasing trap!). That is exactly why I read your pieces, because you are unafraid to speak your mind and make your case, regardless of what the droves are saying.
Paid sub here. I guess I'm kinda old school (or maybe it's just human) but I don't have to agree with everything someone says to find value in how that someone thinks. Been here since the very beginning and don't plan on going anywhere even though $ is extremely tight in this booming economy and ever increasing greatness that surrounds me all brought forth by Mr Biden (aka Dipshitler) and his administration.
I subscribed early and renewed. Yours was my first paid Substack subscription. You kept me sane during 2 years of madness! I agree re: politics, you never change anyone's mind, you just make them mad.
Millions of people changed their minds about Trump between 2016 and 2020, in his favor, and millions more have done so since then, also in his favor. So opinions do change. If you have something positive or negative to say about Trump that's relevant, or even if you think he would be the better president in the next match-up, you should say it.
I doubt it anymore. That might have been true when they first spouted this ridiculous insurrection narrative, but I think more and more people see what's happening here. This is really not ABOUT Donald Trump, but it IS all political. Alex can't leave Trump out of this political persecution. He should be sympathetic to what's happening to him even if he disagrees with him. He can't seem to see the bigger picture sometimes.
Doubt all you want. There are a whole host of people who believe two things can be true at once. 1) Trump has been politically persecuted and 2) He handled Covid no differently than a progressive would have, imo, by paying people to stay home for months and throwing people who lived in blue states to the wolves by allowing Fauci to set the tone for how Covid should be handled. 15 days to slow the spread was a lie and Trump knew it. There are people who believe he is being persecuted while also being fed up with his name calling and petulant child act. These things are not mutually exclusive.
Oh for God's sake. Nobody blames him for shutting the country for two weeks and he was opening things back up. Do you have any idea how crucified he would have been with those deaths if he hadn't done that initially? And everybody would have done it, too. Trump did not know for sure it was a lie AND he knew nobody would accept the deaths of loved ones if he didn't try it. You are a petulant child. However, I don't like everything he does and I don't care if it's him or DeSantis or Bobby Kennedy or even Nikki Haley who wins as long as we take these people out and you better be ready to back who can best do that. Trump isn't going to shut this country down again, that's clear.
I love how you say "nobody blames him". Broaden your circle. There are people who do blame him. It would be nice to have a conversation without the name-calling, but then again, it's typical. Not sure how I am the petulant child because I believe in individual liberty. Trump is the self-proclaimed "father of the vaccine" and he has said he did nothing wrong during Covid. Dude cannot even muster a, "There are things I would do differently" comment.
Well, I think you are behaving like a petulant child, but I shouldn't have said so you are right. I guess it's ok for you to name call Trump, though, eh? I suppose they are fair game. But yes, he has said he'd do things differently and he's certainly not touting that vaccine anymore. He's making a point that he's not for mandates and never was. He had absolutely no choice. You ought to be able to see that. They were already inflating the death numbers to hurt him and even conservatives would have been frightened. Now we know it doesn't work. But you should also see there is a pretty big chunk of people on both sides who DO think that vaccine is great. Do you want him to alienate those voters? There are unfortunately practical things to take into consideration and Trump had no choice but to close this country and go along with the "health professionals and CDC." I don't think he wanted to, but he had to.
With all due respect, you said you don't care who wins and named the above. I would highly recommend a read at The Conservative Treehouse with Sundance, that may show you who DeSantis, RFK jr and Haley truly are,. what and who they stand for. The above will not take out the current liars, evil doers. PDJT is the only one that can do that, with the help of Divine intervention. The is just my humble opinion. I am not American and please forgive my spelling and punctuation, as I have yet to pick up my new glasses. Cheers from Canada!
We have to vote for whoever can beat this regime because all of those people I mention are far better than these people who plan to take our freedom away. We HAVE to win, it's that simple. Haley worries me some, and some things bother me about Kennedy. But all of them understand freedom. Civil liberties. That's the priority. Trump doesn't articulate that well enough. I'm fine with Trump, though, trust me. IF he's the best one to win, I'm all for it!
Your plan to not comment on politics is probably a good one, although I agree with the guy who said "hold everyone's feet to the fire". I'm a Trump supporter - not because I like him but because I think he's philosophically the best match to me. But I always read your comments about him with trust and appreciate your making me think about the issues. I trust you from your virus and other reporting. Thus I'm more open to your critique of Trump, abortion, etc. I enjoy your articles and miss them when they are a few days apart. You are one of the things I'm subscribed to that I make a point to read. I'm enjoying your fiction books, too!
I don't know if I'm a unicorn or not, but I actually would like to see more articles every week. I don't mind the long stuff because I don't have a mayfly's attention span. I also subscribe, thanks to you, to Eugypius's substack and your stuff is Cliff Notes compared to most of his stuff.
Also, my wife rolls her eyes when I tell her I want to read her something you wrote because she wrote you off as a lefty-loser when you would go snark on Trump as well as your past behavior while on Tucker's show a while back - we came very close to canceling over that. Like many of us, she just had had enough. That being said, I'm going to read her your missive today and see if perhaps she'll come back on board.
So I'm a paid subscriber and have enjoyed most of your content- aside from as you put it, political opinions.
I am conservative politically and didn't vote for Trump in 2016- (didn't vote for Hillary and never would EVER), but did vote for him in 2020.
I get he has major flaws and mean tweets. I also didn't like the way he deferred to fauci, birx, and the cdc in 2020, and I was vocal about it.
I think many of us who don't like your criticism of Trump, see your hated of him similar to the hatred of him from msnbc, and CNN. It seems like Trump broke you.
On one hand, you recognize how biden and the left have ruined our nation, but act like Trump is still the bad guy. You'd rather vote for the destruction of our nation than mean tweets.
It seems like you are a critical thinker and deduce facts except for when it comes to Trump.
I think this is why so many push back on you. It doesn't make sense.
I love that you actually read the comments. Thank you! And thank you for less politics in the future. You are way too valuable to get written off by some due to tribal politics. We need you to keep fighting the good fight.
Paid subscriber here. I don’t read you for your political commentary and person thoughts on Donald Trump. There are other sources for that. I read you for your relentless hunt to uncover the Unreported Truths re: vaccines, CDC, FDA, Fauchi etc. Your area of expertise, having come from a liberal background, is valuable to me since I’m as far right as they get. Please continue to thumb your nose at both sides; we need it. This is a smart audience you have; continue to challenge us!
What Dr Syn said
Hi all Canada here. Same as Dr. Syn and Bootsorouke.
Can't say it better than that.
Onward!
I completely concur. You get to say all the things I would LOVE to say if I had the platform. We need an epidemic of common sense and logic to cover the US yesterday.
Agreed !!
The priceless aspect of this platform is how it creates this kind of dialogue between writers and readers. Actually, I guess there *is* a price you can put on it -- and Substack does. But well done, Substack, for creating this kind of two-way communication, and well done, Alex, for taking the time to listen to your audience!
I too love that aspect of Substack. I enjoy Alex's articles immensely. But I also enjoy reading the comments.
I do too, Phil. People here are consistently thoughtful and interesting. They’re a likable bunch and that makes it pleasant to read.
Yeah it'd be cool if Alex took the time to occasionally interact.
Pretty sure he'd retain more subscribers....and gain some.
Business is business.
[some of you don't like my political commentary, especially my views on Donald Trump.]
So you need to censor yourself? Seems out of alignment.
Personally, I'd prefer you didn't like any politician.
Hold EVERYONE'S feet to the fire.
Personally, I'd prefer to not have any clue as to ANY reporter's politics. Just the facts as you find them, please. And yes, hold everyone's feet to the fire! (kind of what journalism once was?)
On the other hand, being aware of a particular reporter's biases and his/her willingness to recognize them, helps me in assessing the credibility of their work. Transparency and Free Speech!
Yeah, but that doesn't mean he should not speak out about the Lefts march to totalitarianism outside of just c19.
It is so obvious and frankly frightening since they have complete hegemonic control of all the institutions.
I would like to understand how he feels about that. Surely he can do that without being "political".
Isn't that how all of us ended up here, to fight authoritarianism?
Calling a spade a spade.
In fact it would be nice to understand how he squares his support of the Democrat party with what he puts on paper.
That would be objective vs. dancing around the obvious.
More Totalitarianism coming. Making the NYTimes writers proud!
Me thinks Trump would not have this sneaky crap going on!
https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/cdc-makes-big-airport-announcement-facts-matter-5525087
They are coming for us again.
Do Not Comply!
Try to convince others AGAIN ! Not to comply.
Me and mine will never comply.
You would think it would come from the "ground" when it can no longer be "tilled".
But I'm not so sure people don't mind being "plowed"...lol....but serious.
This is the way of history, right? We just happen to live at one of those times in history.
It's on us...and up to us. I pray it's in us.
Completely agree. :)
It's his blog. I'd just as soon know everything he thinks. ALL of this is political.
I hear ya.
Otoh, we were just pretending before. Reporters always had their preferred politicians.
The favoritism was just more subtle before.
I'd prefer reporters just state their preferences openly, and then present the facts as they see them.
No more pretending.
Yes. It was naive to think that journalism was ever unbiased. Better to know the biases upfront.
Absolutely. DJT might not have been a politician prior to 2015 but he has become one. I still think he’s better for the country that crooked uncle Joe but don’t like some of his rhetoric, okay a lot of his rhetoric.
He is now a card carrying member of the “swamp” and is fair game for critique.
I used to love talking about politics. My wife and grown children didn't. One day I realized that I had zero influence on them when it came to politics and that it was actually counterproductive to espouse my views on current events. Now we talk politics not at all, and life is much better.
I can't talk politics at work (University Medical Center), so the only place I have true 'freedom of speech' is at the local Sportsmen's (hunting/fishing) Club. There anyone can say anything about anything. It is refreshing!
I would love if you did more on the topic of psychotic behaviors brought on by marijuana. I think your book Tell Your Children was best book I read this year. I just wish I had read it when my kids were in junior high. This topic should be discussed in depth before one more state decides to decriminalize it.
I think talking politics to your kids is important whether they agree or not--so much is censored that at least they hear the rest and think about it. You SHOULD be nice about it, of course.
Funny, I worried about this part of my relationship with my kids, initially, when the schools they attended starting going down the "save the planet at all costs" path (as just one lefty example). But the schools eventually got around to teaching them about logical fallacies, and they apparently paid attention in those classes. So now we can talk politics all the time without worrying about it. We all hold each other to account by analyzing any assertions, political or not, for any logical fallacies, to see if the assertion holds up. This makes my conversations with my kids both productive and interesting.
Wow! Good for you! I taught argument classes in Freshman English at NMU in Michigan. I wish everybody could or would do this. Straw man arguments, ad hominem attacks, just attacking sources instead of dealing with the facts of an argument, etc. So great you are getting your kids to think about all this. Amazing your schools did get into some logic. Makes me have some hope.
Hope, indeed. Fun fact: it was my kids' school instruction in logical fallacies that put me onto a cool website https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ - also known as "Thou Shalt Not Commit Logical Fallacies." Now my kids can smell a bs'er from a mile away.
I just wish more parents would talk to their kids this way! Of course, it helps that your school district introduced critical thinking since it comes better initially from someone else. Great.
Yeah Brian. Same with me. My kids are much older now and still smoke weed. I’ve given them the book but to no avail. I just pray that their minds aren’t and won’t be affected.
I don’t get anything better for$6/month than this. This is the only media where I read the comments. This community is respectful and intelligent.
I don’t have to agree with someone 💯 of the time on everything to still find their writing or reporting insightful. Alex is one of them.
For sure. That would be boring and disingenuous.
Absolutely
You do not write too often and the length is fine. Greenwald needs an editor to make his great stuffer even better. You are fine
Hard to avoid political commentary about Trump when he is simply the most obvious target of the “ Justice” department. The rest of us from Taibbi to the January 6th people are just watching this destruction of what we thought were our rights.
Back to covid! How did we permit the government to shut churches rather than have bishops and other religious prelates do the same thing voluntarily?
Our rights are under assault. Trump is simply the largest target. They prosecuted the man not the crimes.
The question I continually ask is “why did the churches agree to close?” Why didn’t Christian leaders fight back? I am still disappointed that the Church caved.
The churches (many of them) are not what they pretend to be. For example, do you realize that Catholic Charities is one of the biggest NGOs helping escort the illegal migration into the US?
Truth
Follow the money. Before covid migrant/asylum settlement cost us 5 billion a year paid to NGO the biggest amount to catholic charities. Now it's 10x that
Link to more info. Check out the blue map! https://www.readcontra.com/p/everywhere-is-a-border-state?utm_medium=reader2
No but I’ll look into that. If you have a link or some other vehicle of info where you learned this I’d appreciate the referral.
Totally.
Because it seemed the safe and reasonable thing to do. We were united against COVID. Same as after 9/11 and the Patriot Act. We gave up our rights for what we thought was a greater good. We did not recognize the game being played.
I did not give up my rights! We can never ever again give up our rights for “the common good.”
"For the common good is the most common excuse for uncommon evil."
- Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski
Me neither
I’m sorry but it certainly did not seem reasonable, and what is safe can be left up to the individuals to decide. If you followed this substack since the beginning and also did other non-biased research you knew right away only the elderly or those with significant health issues were at risk. The rest of us: it was just a flu or a cold. We can never let the government decide to restrict our rights regardless of the situation.
But we had daily body counts and a propaganda war that made it seems as if the plague had returned. We panicked and the politicians used the panic to their advantage. It was “ over” when the naval hospital ship left nyc because it was never used. But the politicians loved their power and glory so it continued. Ok to buy shoes in Walmart because they also sold food but not in a shoe store ? WTF
The daily body counts were relatively easy to analyze, especially if you looked at other countries (Non-US) and their data. When the average age of death from Covid was higher than the average age of death in a normal environment, that was the first clue. No children were dying and almost no-one under 50, or even 60. Then, if you looked into co-morbidities, nearly everyone had at least 4 or more who was dying. Basically the Covid19 pulled deaths forward. Unfortunately, the Vax is having a negative impact on deaths, too, so while one would expect deaths to be less after a pull-forward event, I am not sure we are seeing that yet.
Correct but they won't even admit that point now. They are ready to mask up and shut schools down.
But the rules made no sense
And still don’t but hey, let’s re-impose them in case it works this time. And do every other stupid thing again.
No truer words ever written.
Lot's of US knew right away what was happening. Just sayin...
It never sat well with me. Speak for yourself. It didn’t make sense
Yeah. We got played big time.
The ones that did actually went to jail. As for the Catholic Church, this Pope loved that whole thing
I believe the pastor who went to jail was Canadian. Do you know of any American pastors who had the courage to push back against the tyranny of the State?
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pastor+arrested+for+having+services&ia=web
I have donated to Pastor Artur Pawlowski in Alberta, I live on Ontario but the injustice here in Canada made me sick. Rebel News was the only one that kept us informed, no MSM. My Church Serbian Orthodox did not close during c 19, but they did watch how other churches behaved during that period of time. I am grateful they did not fall for the propaganda. Glory be to God!!
How wonderful that your church (meaning all of you!) stood up. Must have been tough.
And the Canadian pastor went back and forth to the US during that time
Another reason I don’t care for this pope. I went to hear John Paul speak in WDC back in the 80’s and was impressed in a positive way even though a few years later I left the RCC.
I'm guessing, but possibly fear of losing tax status. Emergency powers covered the IRS threats of removal of their 501c3 protection if they did not obey.
Me too. To date, since returning to Sunday services there has been only one priest, who, while giving his sermon, actually apologized to the congregation for closing the church's doors to us - for failing to provide the basics to the people, the basics for which our Holy Fathers in Rome claim the Church is indispensable to our lives: Baptism, Holy Communioin, Reconciliation/Confession, Confirmation, Annointing of the Sick (the abandonment of that last sacrament was the one that hit hardest for me - all of those faithful Catholics dying in a hospital and the local bishop refusing to send priests to try to give them the sacraments, even in protective gear). Fun fact: the bishop in our diocese gave us all a special dispensation from attending church services during the pandemic, but no one ever came out and told us when it was over, and no one ever came out and said that our Sunday "day of obligation" was now a requirement again. During the church shutdown period, they actually told us to "phone it in" by watching mass from home on the internet. But no one offered to come to our home to distribute Holy Communion, and, for a time, you weren't even allowed to drive up to our local church and receive Holy Communion in a "drive thru lane" - though eventually that was established when they realized they might be losing everyone, permanently.
It was basically what one wise person said to me: "a failure of senior leadership."
A friend of mine asked me during the shutdown, "how can you claim, as a church, to have a worldwide communion, when no one actually congregates with one another?" Good question.
Yup and the medical community who just abdicated their training and authority rather than be their patients advocates. If I can just go on line and learn the truth about not only the origins of COVID but the possible adversities of the vaccines then they should have known it too.
Bugged the S^7t out of me too the cowering...
No, Trump isn't the target, it's us. They're using lawfare on him to obliterate us.
I subscribed! I was testing you out for a while before I committed my money to you, and found that after several months of consistent value, I should show my support. I get the cost argument, but if you think about how much you spend on things that are completely trivial that add no value to your life in the long run...really, $6/month is too much? How much did you just spend at Starbucks?
People are complaining that you write too much...? If they don't want to read every single email, they are FREE to delete when they don't have the time. Honestly, no matter what you do, haters gonna hate. People will ALWAYS find something to complain about. I'm surprised that your subscribers would be the type to complain about something like too much thought...so while you may have lost money through their exiting, maybe you lost the right people.
I for one am extremely grateful for the depth of each of your emails. Everything in our culture is catered to people who have no attention spans and want you to just get to the point right now...but how on earth are you supposed to actually explore a topic without a deep dive? I would personally find that to be irresponsible journalism.
Finally, for the love of GOD, please don't censor yourself or change your ways because that's what your subscribers want (dialogue is healthy, but please don't fall into the people-pleasing trap!). That is exactly why I read your pieces, because you are unafraid to speak your mind and make your case, regardless of what the droves are saying.
One less coffee...right?
Priorities! :)
I personally would like to see more, not less. Keep up the good work.
Yep, I don't believe Alex floods my inbox, I look forward to his emails.
Paid sub here. I guess I'm kinda old school (or maybe it's just human) but I don't have to agree with everything someone says to find value in how that someone thinks. Been here since the very beginning and don't plan on going anywhere even though $ is extremely tight in this booming economy and ever increasing greatness that surrounds me all brought forth by Mr Biden (aka Dipshitler) and his administration.
Thank you for all you put into this Alex.
I subscribed early and renewed. Yours was my first paid Substack subscription. You kept me sane during 2 years of madness! I agree re: politics, you never change anyone's mind, you just make them mad.
Millions of people changed their minds about Trump between 2016 and 2020, in his favor, and millions more have done so since then, also in his favor. So opinions do change. If you have something positive or negative to say about Trump that's relevant, or even if you think he would be the better president in the next match-up, you should say it.
And there are a crap-ton who have changed their minds - not in his favor.
I doubt it anymore. That might have been true when they first spouted this ridiculous insurrection narrative, but I think more and more people see what's happening here. This is really not ABOUT Donald Trump, but it IS all political. Alex can't leave Trump out of this political persecution. He should be sympathetic to what's happening to him even if he disagrees with him. He can't seem to see the bigger picture sometimes.
Doubt all you want. There are a whole host of people who believe two things can be true at once. 1) Trump has been politically persecuted and 2) He handled Covid no differently than a progressive would have, imo, by paying people to stay home for months and throwing people who lived in blue states to the wolves by allowing Fauci to set the tone for how Covid should be handled. 15 days to slow the spread was a lie and Trump knew it. There are people who believe he is being persecuted while also being fed up with his name calling and petulant child act. These things are not mutually exclusive.
Oh for God's sake. Nobody blames him for shutting the country for two weeks and he was opening things back up. Do you have any idea how crucified he would have been with those deaths if he hadn't done that initially? And everybody would have done it, too. Trump did not know for sure it was a lie AND he knew nobody would accept the deaths of loved ones if he didn't try it. You are a petulant child. However, I don't like everything he does and I don't care if it's him or DeSantis or Bobby Kennedy or even Nikki Haley who wins as long as we take these people out and you better be ready to back who can best do that. Trump isn't going to shut this country down again, that's clear.
I love how you say "nobody blames him". Broaden your circle. There are people who do blame him. It would be nice to have a conversation without the name-calling, but then again, it's typical. Not sure how I am the petulant child because I believe in individual liberty. Trump is the self-proclaimed "father of the vaccine" and he has said he did nothing wrong during Covid. Dude cannot even muster a, "There are things I would do differently" comment.
Well, I think you are behaving like a petulant child, but I shouldn't have said so you are right. I guess it's ok for you to name call Trump, though, eh? I suppose they are fair game. But yes, he has said he'd do things differently and he's certainly not touting that vaccine anymore. He's making a point that he's not for mandates and never was. He had absolutely no choice. You ought to be able to see that. They were already inflating the death numbers to hurt him and even conservatives would have been frightened. Now we know it doesn't work. But you should also see there is a pretty big chunk of people on both sides who DO think that vaccine is great. Do you want him to alienate those voters? There are unfortunately practical things to take into consideration and Trump had no choice but to close this country and go along with the "health professionals and CDC." I don't think he wanted to, but he had to.
With all due respect, you said you don't care who wins and named the above. I would highly recommend a read at The Conservative Treehouse with Sundance, that may show you who DeSantis, RFK jr and Haley truly are,. what and who they stand for. The above will not take out the current liars, evil doers. PDJT is the only one that can do that, with the help of Divine intervention. The is just my humble opinion. I am not American and please forgive my spelling and punctuation, as I have yet to pick up my new glasses. Cheers from Canada!
We have to vote for whoever can beat this regime because all of those people I mention are far better than these people who plan to take our freedom away. We HAVE to win, it's that simple. Haley worries me some, and some things bother me about Kennedy. But all of them understand freedom. Civil liberties. That's the priority. Trump doesn't articulate that well enough. I'm fine with Trump, though, trust me. IF he's the best one to win, I'm all for it!
Your plan to not comment on politics is probably a good one, although I agree with the guy who said "hold everyone's feet to the fire". I'm a Trump supporter - not because I like him but because I think he's philosophically the best match to me. But I always read your comments about him with trust and appreciate your making me think about the issues. I trust you from your virus and other reporting. Thus I'm more open to your critique of Trump, abortion, etc. I enjoy your articles and miss them when they are a few days apart. You are one of the things I'm subscribed to that I make a point to read. I'm enjoying your fiction books, too!
Thank you!
I don't know if I'm a unicorn or not, but I actually would like to see more articles every week. I don't mind the long stuff because I don't have a mayfly's attention span. I also subscribe, thanks to you, to Eugypius's substack and your stuff is Cliff Notes compared to most of his stuff.
Also, my wife rolls her eyes when I tell her I want to read her something you wrote because she wrote you off as a lefty-loser when you would go snark on Trump as well as your past behavior while on Tucker's show a while back - we came very close to canceling over that. Like many of us, she just had had enough. That being said, I'm going to read her your missive today and see if perhaps she'll come back on board.
Let's see how this goes.
So I'm a paid subscriber and have enjoyed most of your content- aside from as you put it, political opinions.
I am conservative politically and didn't vote for Trump in 2016- (didn't vote for Hillary and never would EVER), but did vote for him in 2020.
I get he has major flaws and mean tweets. I also didn't like the way he deferred to fauci, birx, and the cdc in 2020, and I was vocal about it.
I think many of us who don't like your criticism of Trump, see your hated of him similar to the hatred of him from msnbc, and CNN. It seems like Trump broke you.
On one hand, you recognize how biden and the left have ruined our nation, but act like Trump is still the bad guy. You'd rather vote for the destruction of our nation than mean tweets.
It seems like you are a critical thinker and deduce facts except for when it comes to Trump.
I think this is why so many push back on you. It doesn't make sense.
Yeah I don’t get how ppl can think it’s better to destroy the nation than have a guy in the White House who hits back at the media anyway.
That’s why they hate him. He doesn’t just politely sit quietly while they spew toxic lies just because they all want to be the next bob woodward.
I love that you actually read the comments. Thank you! And thank you for less politics in the future. You are way too valuable to get written off by some due to tribal politics. We need you to keep fighting the good fight.