Hello sir. Longtime fan and longtime runner of a not-for-profit. I have a piece of constructive criticism: YOUR ASK FOR SUPPORT in the email you sent out should be clearer, please. There was no link to subscribing, so I had to go through a lot of rigamarole to get signed up on substack and pay my $40. Can I gently recommend that you send out another email with a super clear link telling people how to subscribe, how much it is? I have been a reluctant arts administrator to fund my art for 25 years now, and asking people for money is no fun for 90% of us. But in not for profit boot camp they beat it into your head - **JUST ASK** ACTUALLY ASK** ASK!!** I really admire your work and I want to see it supported.
Maybe my reading comprehension is bad and you did ask. But these things need to be idiot proofed.
I could not be happier to pay your modest fee to have a sane voice in the mist. And you so clearly outlined how your old industry is now solely a sordid puss dripping business model that is toxic to society. May you succeed in every way. Via con dios.
Matt: Just subscribed. I am a Reaganite (worked 8 years for his administration) so we will not always agree on policy. I taught Economic Regulation as a law professor in the late 1970s when I was a leftist. I used Friedman’s Free to Choose and Mark Green’s (a protégé of Ralph Nader) the Monopoly Makers as alternative views. The startling insight, at least to me, is that they both agreed on the problem: corporate capture of the levers of government to be used against consumers. But they radically disagreed on what to do about it. Green/Nader said hire better regulators. Friedman said take the power away from government so there is nothing to capture. (Friedman famously responded to Nader’s view: “What would you think of someone who said, ‘I would like to have a cat, provided it barked’? Yet your statement that you favor an FDA, provided it behaves as you believe desirable is precisely equivalent. The biological laws that specify the characteristics of cats are no more rigid than the political laws that specify the behavior of governmental agencies once they are established.”) This led to my epiphany and my since 1979 lifelong commitment to pursuing market alternatives to diluting corporate power. (I spent 12 years deregulating natural gas. Today, natural gas is cheaper in real terms than it was under all the Rube Goldberg pricing regulation that existed when I started in 1981.) You are my favorite pundit since I trust your honesty and commitment to facts. I am happy to subscribe and look forward to commenting on your work.
Thanks for engaging in real journalism. If you’ve got a list of people who want access to the content but have to prioritize cash for basic necessities, I’ll be happy to gift a few subscriptions a year.
Wow, good for you. I can't thank you enough for the work that you do and I'm happy to subscribe to this, especially since I cancelled rolling stone (your articles were all that I read). I'm glad you're keeping Useful Idiots going. Good luck!!
I didn’t subscribe when you started on substack because I was broke. Now I’m unemployed due to the virus and this even more broke, and I’m subscribing anyways. Point being - you do good work, and that’s more valuable now than ever.
This is exciting, though it's going to get expensive for those of us who are following numerous independent journalists. Nevertheless, congrats and good luck. I was thinking that you should take advantage of your readers when looking for illustrations of "rich greedy assholes;" we'd love to help.
Matt, THANK YOU. I studied and practiced print journalism up until fall 2000. The growing lack of integrity in the industry helped me decide to go on a different path. Over the years, I searched for journalists who wrote well and did so with integrity and I consider you high on that list. The fact that you take things seriously enough to really dig into a subject, that you have the compassion enough to speak Truth to Power and speak up for the Little Guy and that you have the smarts enough to laugh about the absurdity of it all, well, it makes subscribing to this project of yours a real pleasure for me.
I'm also actually getting back into the game; just quit my day job; and totally feel you are on the right track with independent journalism and this model.
I wish you the best and will be following from my perch in the Riverlands of Japan. And you and Katie are great! LOVE your podcast (and I've been a podcast "addict" since 2006 so I think I know a good podcast when I hear one!). Stay well and keep up the good fight!
That should be "all of A sudden", not "all of THE sudden". 😉 Sorry—unrepentant editorial type.
We need all the independent voices we can manage; I just wish I had the money to support all of them. I want to cringe every time some otherwise intelligent person I know repeats corporate media talking points with no evidence they've even considered there might be an alternative viewpoint. I also find the ongoing descent into total fascism terrifying.
This is awesome. Love this high quality investigative reporting, but also, I hope this gives you the freedom to go after some far out stuff like you were planning with the whole ‘Mass Produced Thomas Friedman Articles’. That stuff was insightful and hilarious.
Matt, when I click the email link to forward an article to a friend, they say they are not allowed to read it until they subscribe. Is that right? Seems a poor way to build a potentially paying audience to make them pay in advance, no? Charlie
Hello sir. Longtime fan and longtime runner of a not-for-profit. I have a piece of constructive criticism: YOUR ASK FOR SUPPORT in the email you sent out should be clearer, please. There was no link to subscribing, so I had to go through a lot of rigamarole to get signed up on substack and pay my $40. Can I gently recommend that you send out another email with a super clear link telling people how to subscribe, how much it is? I have been a reluctant arts administrator to fund my art for 25 years now, and asking people for money is no fun for 90% of us. But in not for profit boot camp they beat it into your head - **JUST ASK** ACTUALLY ASK** ASK!!** I really admire your work and I want to see it supported.
Maybe my reading comprehension is bad and you did ask. But these things need to be idiot proofed.
With you til the end Taibbi
will you reactivate our subs?
glad to support this
I could not be happier to pay your modest fee to have a sane voice in the mist. And you so clearly outlined how your old industry is now solely a sordid puss dripping business model that is toxic to society. May you succeed in every way. Via con dios.
Wonderful 💕 I am excited about your new freedom and like others want to continue the subscription. Let us know how.
I'm all in. Will our current subscription just start up again?
Matt: Just subscribed. I am a Reaganite (worked 8 years for his administration) so we will not always agree on policy. I taught Economic Regulation as a law professor in the late 1970s when I was a leftist. I used Friedman’s Free to Choose and Mark Green’s (a protégé of Ralph Nader) the Monopoly Makers as alternative views. The startling insight, at least to me, is that they both agreed on the problem: corporate capture of the levers of government to be used against consumers. But they radically disagreed on what to do about it. Green/Nader said hire better regulators. Friedman said take the power away from government so there is nothing to capture. (Friedman famously responded to Nader’s view: “What would you think of someone who said, ‘I would like to have a cat, provided it barked’? Yet your statement that you favor an FDA, provided it behaves as you believe desirable is precisely equivalent. The biological laws that specify the characteristics of cats are no more rigid than the political laws that specify the behavior of governmental agencies once they are established.”) This led to my epiphany and my since 1979 lifelong commitment to pursuing market alternatives to diluting corporate power. (I spent 12 years deregulating natural gas. Today, natural gas is cheaper in real terms than it was under all the Rube Goldberg pricing regulation that existed when I started in 1981.) You are my favorite pundit since I trust your honesty and commitment to facts. I am happy to subscribe and look forward to commenting on your work.
Thanks for engaging in real journalism. If you’ve got a list of people who want access to the content but have to prioritize cash for basic necessities, I’ll be happy to gift a few subscriptions a year.
Wow, good for you. I can't thank you enough for the work that you do and I'm happy to subscribe to this, especially since I cancelled rolling stone (your articles were all that I read). I'm glad you're keeping Useful Idiots going. Good luck!!
I didn’t subscribe when you started on substack because I was broke. Now I’m unemployed due to the virus and this even more broke, and I’m subscribing anyways. Point being - you do good work, and that’s more valuable now than ever.
Delighted to support. Reactivate the subscription ASAP
This is exciting, though it's going to get expensive for those of us who are following numerous independent journalists. Nevertheless, congrats and good luck. I was thinking that you should take advantage of your readers when looking for illustrations of "rich greedy assholes;" we'd love to help.
Matt, THANK YOU. I studied and practiced print journalism up until fall 2000. The growing lack of integrity in the industry helped me decide to go on a different path. Over the years, I searched for journalists who wrote well and did so with integrity and I consider you high on that list. The fact that you take things seriously enough to really dig into a subject, that you have the compassion enough to speak Truth to Power and speak up for the Little Guy and that you have the smarts enough to laugh about the absurdity of it all, well, it makes subscribing to this project of yours a real pleasure for me.
I'm also actually getting back into the game; just quit my day job; and totally feel you are on the right track with independent journalism and this model.
I wish you the best and will be following from my perch in the Riverlands of Japan. And you and Katie are great! LOVE your podcast (and I've been a podcast "addict" since 2006 so I think I know a good podcast when I hear one!). Stay well and keep up the good fight!
-Bryan Winchell
That should be "all of A sudden", not "all of THE sudden". 😉 Sorry—unrepentant editorial type.
We need all the independent voices we can manage; I just wish I had the money to support all of them. I want to cringe every time some otherwise intelligent person I know repeats corporate media talking points with no evidence they've even considered there might be an alternative viewpoint. I also find the ongoing descent into total fascism terrifying.
Thank you, and may your subscribers increase.
This is awesome. Love this high quality investigative reporting, but also, I hope this gives you the freedom to go after some far out stuff like you were planning with the whole ‘Mass Produced Thomas Friedman Articles’. That stuff was insightful and hilarious.
Matt, when I click the email link to forward an article to a friend, they say they are not allowed to read it until they subscribe. Is that right? Seems a poor way to build a potentially paying audience to make them pay in advance, no? Charlie