Eli Lake reviews ‘Vultures 1’ and toasts to ‘the asshole,’ Kat Rosenfield on books as status symbols, Beyoncé goes country, and more Free Press Lonely Hearts.
My name is Kevin. I live in Georgia and I hate whites. I am trying to find a girl who works for the government who has the authority to hire outside contractors. I’m looking for approximately $700,000 and some sex.
My name is Jose Antonio. I also live in Georgia and illegally immigrated here from Venezuela. I found a girl running by a lake and murdered her. MSM, Biden, Mayorkas, and the Dems won’t talk about any of the crimes me or other illegals are committing. Please call me undocumented future engineer instead.
There's only one girl I know who works for the government and can hook you up with contractors (probably not the kind of contractors you want to know) Her name is Hillary and her husband Bill can get you fixed up with the sex you're looking for.
Marjorie Taylor Greene meets nearly all your requirements and has heard your siren call. In deference to your tastes, she will be coming in black face.
I do wish they didn't choose to write about Kanye though. So sick of him and his antics. And he and his wife forcing the public to be audience to their BDSM fetish. Please go back to their bedroom. What they're doing is not even good porn. They're just gross.
I agree that Kanye is not a subject I'm interested in. Nor is Taylor Swift. But some people are, and I'm not going to bitch that TFP is writing about people who are big pop culture just because I'm not interested in them.
Can we love Kanye west? Can we love a drug addled dingbat? That's what Kanye is. Too much MDMA and psychedelics surrounded by sycophants. Let's rephrase this. Can we love Khalil Gibran?
The Ayatollah Khomeini wrote poetry you couldn't differentiate from Khalil Gibran.
That cured me of any ideas I had that the feelings invoked in me by poetry had anything at all to do with WTF was going on in HIS head!
Yes, I have been saying for a while that you can take Bari out of the NYT, but not the NYT out of Bari. Same for Suzy and Nellie - even though they lack the NYT roots, they've got the oeuvre imbedded in their genes. And maybe their jeans, too.
Geez, what are we paying? $5/mo? I pay $28/mo to get the local newspaper that's full of liberal national garbage just to get news about our community that's also reported by left leaning reporters. This seems like a bargain to me.
I don't care about Kanye. I don't care about Taylor Swift. But I'm not going to bitch because TPF is covering people who are big in popular culture on Saturdays.
There's a difference between simply complaining and offering constructive criticism. In a response to QX, I made a constructive comment about what I would rather see in TFP's pop culture coverage.
Everyone who threatens to unsubscribe because they dislike some aspect of TFP should just do it. I have no more patience for them that I have for the people who threatened to leave the U.S. if Trump was elected.
I’m not sure why you can’t just skip the stuff that doesn’t interest you.
Bari did not launch this project as a conservative space for conservative views only - some commenters on here seem to forget that - or to focus only on leading political news of each day. Although for a small publication, they offer PLENTY. FP is still small and growing and I think it’s great they are trying different ways to reach audiences looking for different perspectives or things not accurately or covered fairly in the MSM press. Besides, in this case - Kanye’s statements are very topical considering what’s going on.
In principle, I'm with you. I saw today's lead and asked myself, what the F? I can go to YouTube and get Taylor Swift and Beyoncé for free, but I've never bothered, because I DON'T CARE. Also, her criticism of Tucker for talking to Putin was very disappointing. Remember the purpose of journalism, Bari? Free speech and all that?
Still, I stick with her because her content is very diverse. As a Jew I appreciate her coverage of Israel. I've been introduced to some excellent journalism here on topics I would have missed without her spotlighting them.
I'm pretty sure that user stats by article are available to Bari. If people don't read and comment on certain articles, that's probably the best way to signal what we customers are here for.
I emailed this week to Bari’s attention the following:
“Hi Bari,
As a subscriber, I noticed very interesting comments that lead me to authors on substack. Many of them write well and are looking for subscribers. But the current model is getting expensive to subscribe to multiple, deserving contributors to free speech. Here’s a million $ idea that will costs you 0.
How about you offer to your subscribers for additional low $, to subscribe to additional x authors, and for additional low $$, to subscribe to x+n authors. You revenue share with authors (keep small %) that choose to participate. This model version is being used in business for a win-win relationship.
What prompted the above is the disappointment with your daily, staff writers.”
When she first started Common Sense I thought that what you are describing was very similar to what she was selling. She would scour the internet so I wouldn’t have to and then she would publish the most interesting, informative and thought provoking ones. Occasionally she does that now but most of the time it’s her hired staff…not sure they are up for the task recently.
The topics in TFP are not conservative topics. They are today's realities and we all know that the left hates reality. Are the articles about PC/Woke conservative. No! They are today's reality!
Conservatives post here because they hate what the left is doing to this country by having PC/Woke, DEI and racism shoved down our throats by universities, politicians and the press.
The left doesn't post here because they can't stand that light is being shined on their destructive madness.
I have the opposite perspective. The content here is interesting and varied and I appreciate most of it. If I didn’t, I would cancel my subscription and move on with my life as I’ve done with many other publications before. The Debbie Downer commenters who come here every single morning threatening to cancel their subscription are the only real downside of this place that I can see.
I’m so glad that FP occasionally riles up the comment section who supposedly fled here to escape woke echo chambers but who seem determined to create an echo chamber of their own.
Bari went on Bill Maher's show and said she was done with Covid, which in liberal circles was pretty radical at the time. Suddenly, she became a conservative darling. She's a raging lib cashing in by feigning neutrality.
Bari is a Democrat, so this fawning over a rapper is to be expected. Her redeeming quality is that she is one of the few leftists who believes in free speech so much that she provides this site where conservatives express themselves.
What I love about TFP is how it draws a huge swath of people together, both Left & Right of Center. I believe it is still where the Majority of Americans are.
I don't object to reading (or skipping over) content that doesn't interest me, tho that is a rarity here.
What does pull me in and I’m most interested in are the articles / opinion pieces that I disagree with. I want to know what the other side is thinking (Wiesman definitely pisses me offf on occassion!)!
Bari provides a platform where I can FREELY voice my thoughts & opinions WITHOUT fear of “being cancelled”. A place where we can STILL openly agree to disagree.
The ONLY requirement, which I gleaned early on when I subscribed to a then very small Common Sense platform, IS USE COMMON SENSE when commenting. And, except for a few people who always find fault, the majority adheres.
Bari also at least attempts to get back to some level of integrity that used to happen in journalism - regardless of left or right. The group think repetitive talking points on so much MSM (and hysterical opining, insulting and completely shallow ignt takes on many topics) left a lot of us feeling like “can I just have a normal experience taking in news and not be told what to think?” “ Can I just find out what happened without “a narrative”?
Technically everybody who believes in the Constitution is a liberal, a classical liberal. Many of those who are classified as modern liberals are misclassified. One more example of corruption of language.
As I just wrote - I am a leftist Liberal and post here occasionally for exactly the reasons you mention in your other comment. I don’t insult or debate conservatives on their conservative views on here - they are free to have them and many are intelligent comments that give me insight. But don’t assume there are no leftists on here - some of us see the madness and destruction and you will find us in agreement on a few things!
Thanks MindyF. The few leftist I have debate, I found to be woefully ignorant about a variety of topic such as current affairs and history.
You will notice that I do not use the term "liberal" to describe the left. A year ago I wrote a rather splendid essay on Common Sense why liberals are not liberal. (I use splendid, tongue in cheek.) I do not think liberals are liberal nor are they progressive.
The short version is, the founder of the liberal movement in the 19th century England,, John Stuart Mill was a strong (strong doesn't adequately express is his feelings) advocate of free speech.
Today's left does not believe in free speech. PC/Woke and the use of pronouns bear out my premise. People get canceled and fired for not using the "proper speech" according to the tyrants on the left. So, I refuse to call them liberals.
I'm going to try to suggest something productive for once instead of complaining (insane, I know. And note I'm not talking about you and others, I'm talking about myself). How about let's give Bari and Suzi some feedback on what we want to read if they're going to do a Saturday pop culture section?
Hey Suzi, I really really don't want to read about Kanye. Even without his mental illness related politics, he's just really gross now as is his "wife".
First. May I recommend TFP connect with Ted Gioia over at The Honest Broker Substack. The guy has REALLY interesting and much deeper and insightful things to say about current pup/music/entertainment culture. A guest article by him will enhance TFP. https://substack.com/@tedgioia?r=erajp&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile
Everyone else, please comment on what you would like to see.
I'll start. I for one would like more honest TV/movie reviews that don't fawn all over something just because the show's got all the right virtue signaling points.
And Pardon me Maureen but I'm going to divert here and use this space to rant about the Netflix series "One Day" which all the usual suspect liberal news media are FAWNING over. I swear to God, reading the raving reviews, all saying literally the same things, is like deja vu reading liberal MSM telling me Biden has perfectly sound mind and can reign for another 4 years. I feel so gaslit. I feel like I'm in Invasion of the Pod People again. How is it I'm the only one who think it's meh? And the unspoken reason why MSM are praising the series to the tee? They made the female main character a "POC".
That's right. This virtue signal point made it so the only thing these reviewers can do is sing high praises. Now, there's nothing in David Nicholl's novel (on which the series is based) that says the character couldn't be half Indian. Honestly I'm open to that, if they had casted the right actress who did the role justice. But Ambika Bod absolutely is not and does not IMO.
First, NO! Despite that every MSM review insist it is so, she and the other lead Leo Woodhall have absolutely NO chemistry.
2. This is a story about a GenX couple. I'm GenX. I remember what things were like for us in 1988. Bod's Emma is just another iteration of the woke "girl boss" "kick-ass girl" prototype, wrinkling her nose at everything around her and with a holier-than-thou social justice streak to boot. That simply wasn't how we were. She got it all wrong. We did want to make the world better, but we were generally optimistic and really think we could make things better. Not because we despised everything around us. Her character was so off-putting. She softens up a little as she grew into the role, but that's hardly what the MSM is saying, that she's so AMAZING in her role. No she's not.
The reviewers shit on the 2011 movie version with Anne Hathaway, mostly dumping on her for the bad accent. Well I'm not Brit and can't tell the accents, but IMO Anne Hathaway did a much much better job as Emma. She wasn't perfect either, too good looking and never quite convincingly British, but her Emma was much more accurate as a young woman coming of age in the 80s-90s era.
Leo Woodhall is actually quite well-casted, and does a much better job as Dex. But he's not more outstanding than Jim Strugess in the movie. Looks wise both are pretty interchangeable and captured Dex well/ But even Woodhall lacked the "live big and devil may care" attitude of a GenX guy of that time. Jim Sturgess portrayed that subtle difference effectively in a way that Woodhall doesn't.
This TV series is such a let down after all the glowing reviews. I'm 3 episodes in and mostly want to fast-forward all the Ambika Mod scenes without Woodhall. Even the scenes with him, I found myself watching reluctantly just to see what he'll do.
But my main point is, our pop culture MSM is exactly like our political MSM. They're gaslighting us. They don't say anything different. Even they are propaganda. How else can it be that they seem to read from the same script in their reviews? And when there's DEI casting, they all toe the line. It's Claudine Gay in One Day and we must all pretend this is the right hire.
I would love this. I recently read “The New Puritans” by Andrew Doyle which had a really great chapter on this. Here is a quote I had highlighted:
“Identity politics has turned contemporary film critics into prissy, sermonising bores, determined to see artists as moral educators for those poor, suggestible plebeians who might be exposed to dangerous work.”
100%. This culture shift to racial didacticism has been going on, to some extent, since the Obama presidency; obviously it hit fever pitch after Saint Floyd. Twenty years ago, if I wanted to find a good movie, I would look at what the critics liked, and generally would agree with them. Now, the critics’ opinions provide “negative guidance” — if the critics love it, it’s probably woke as hell and poorly written. So, culturally, I’ve gone from being an elitist to a small-D-democrat.
This one has just about pushed me over the edge! First, country music has not been country music since Kenny Rodgers and Dolly Parton recorded together in the 80's. Beyonce is over-rated as a singer, and Kanye (Ye) is irrelevant to real music. And as for books, I read what I feel like reading, and I read for escape, not caring one bit what others think. Since I have been married for 44 years, I care almost NOTHING about lonely hearts! What a freaking waste of digital publishing! If this is Suzy's column now, then I am GONE!
It’s certainly looking more and more like the FP is running out of gas. Bari has made a pile of cash and that’s great as long as she doesn’t become complacent and mediocre, which seems to be coming on fast. The FP had a nice run for a while there, but I’m also considering redirecting my subscription budget to one of the smaller, up and coming Substacks. And the startup ‘Stacks really need the cash to keep going, just like any new small business.
Mindy stop the passive aggressiveness. You don’t have to tell every negative commenter “well don’t read”. Just keep scrolling- I was going to do the same but you keep popping up telling people “don’t read, free will”. Stop telling people they don’t belong bc they have a different opinion. No one is going to get hurt, trust me.
Thanks for the lecture. If you notice, I only did it with a few but thanks for the hall monitoring - never did I say you don’t belong? Varied opinions - we are all allowed to have them in the same way we are free to comment or not as often as we like. I pay for this, too. I never tell people they can’t comment. Please read more carefully.
Dear Rachael… if you guys can come here every single day passive aggressively threatening to cancel your subscription (it’s getting to be more predictable than my toddlers’ 6am wakeup), we can also reply to those comments saying ok then, move on already!. Welcome to the Internet.
Note: I edited this to correct a mistake I made, which was completely wrong in one sense, but very revealing in another. I appended a more accurate commentary at the end.
The largest story in a generation is the CIA led manipulation of our elections, as described in some detail by Mike Benz in his recent interview with Tucker Carlson. I was wondering if the Free Press would cover it. Given the name of this site, a large bombshell about centralized management of the press would seem to be an obvious story, but I have reluctantly concluded that this site is basically managed mild opposition. To complete batshit crazy, it creates the alternative of mostly not crazy in the obvious ways. It's sad. Disappointing.
The core takeaway from the Benz interview--which is on Tucker's site, and which everyone should read or listen to-- is that whether or not actual voter fraud happened in 2020, that agents of our own government used techniques honed in many decades of Cold War--that were used to overthrow hostile regimes and install our own puppet regimes--in effect to overthrow Donald Trump.
Add to this a propaganda operation run in large measure by six former CIA Directors called the Atlantic Counsel, and what you have is fascism. Our democracy may already be gone, and will certainly be gone by the next election, if members of our government do not start exercising some basic ethical behavior, righting blatant wrongs (and illegalities, but someone with no moral compass will reliably lack any concerns about legality in a system they control), and if the American public does not begin waking up on a larger scale.
Things certainly can get MUCH worse, but my God what does it take to wake people up, that their government is not protecting them, even if it does take their money from them every paycheck?
On NATO:
I am going to lay a line or two of facts on you, then a very interesting piece of logic.
NATO was created specifically to counter the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact nations. Neither have been a threat since 1991 or so, when the whole thing fell apart. No war or threats of wars have occured since. One could count the stuff down in the Balkans, but those were very small scale operations that didn’t require a standing military.
Russia has been not been a threat for a very long time, and given the huge losses they have already taken in the Ukraine, it is obscenely stupid to think Putin could calculate ANY advantage whatever in doing something that would mobilize the whole of Western AND Eastern Europe against him.
A key element in the North Atlantic Treaty, apparently, is that each nation allocate a certain percentage of their GDP to military expenses. America has promised 3.49% I think it was, Germany something like 2%, France something like 2% or whatever, etc. Put another way, the 3.5% of 25 trillion, which was our GDP in I think 2022—works out to a national Defense Budget of $875 billion, and this BY TREATY. It’s required of us, in principle, by NATO.
So what we have is a binding international treaty which requires all signatory nations to commit to minimum annual “defense” expenditures, even though there is no common enemy against whom a strong defense is likely ever to be needed.
Conclusion: could we not plausibly claim NATO exists to defend DEFENSE CONTRACTORS and their allies? What could be more congenial to an industry than an international treaty dictating a percent of the economy be allocated to weapons of war, in perpetuity? And with a such a deal, would it not make sense to scare up some conflict somewhere from time to time to keep people from asking too many questions?
But if you think about it, HAS NATO served any purpose since 1991, and the end of the Cold War? That was THIRTY THREE YEARS AGO.
Could it not even be argued that NATO was a continuation of the Cold War by other means? That NATO become important to military contractors in lobbying their own national legislatures for more money, by locating the demand outside the national borders?
I strongly recommend fellow subscribers watch the hour-long Mike Benz interview by Tucker Carlson. It is highly informative and hits like a slap in the face.
This is a real news story that FP should pursue. Invite Mike Benz to write an article or do an interview. This and the story covering the negotiations of the World Health Organization's treaty on health emergencies, which may remove our civil liberties are the dimly lit stories that need a strong spotlight from an ethical news agency, such as FP.
The overall silence is deafening and speaks volumes, doesn't it?
How is it possible a senile old man who was not Presidential in his prime may be RE-elected, after all this? Well, now we know. They could destroy him in five minutes if they chose, but they can also keep even the walking dead alive.
The biggest trick is not telling people WHAT to think but NOT to think. Once you have done that, any lie is possible, even the most preposterous, absurd ones.
True. I have always striven to live my life with integrity and honesty, and I guess I understand on some level why people feel the need to compromise their integrity at times. I have been subjected to those pressures, as I suppose we all have. I have simply responded by structuring my life in such a way that those pressures are almost entirely absent. There has been a cost, but the benefit has been worth it for me.
What I would say, though, that in this particular context, Bari would gain a lot of trust and credibility by covering these stories. She would gain with most of her paying audience. Where she would lose is with her peer and friend group, and perhaps with those who fronted the money to put her in business in the first place.
But in the end, people who need you to be disingenuous and to restrict yourself are not really friends. They are not really allies. They are not people who will help you on your own life path.
Now, if the CIA--obviously as a front group--put up the money for The Free Press, which is the sort of irony that is their bread and butter, then obviously Bari has made a deal with the Devil, and you can't get out of deals made with violent gangsters.
But I don't know. I am left wondering and guessing every day on dozens of different issues. To be awake in this strange world is to be forced to admit confusion and ignorance at every turn.
YeahButt, however November turns out, I suspect it's going to be a hellova scene the months following. O maybe a whimper? I hope I'm still here for it. I was here for Pearl Harbor.
We can't fear civil unrest and violence. The alternative is a creeping totalitarianism made perfect by perfect control and perfect surveillance.
The left has weaponized street mobs just the way Hitler used the SA. And it worked for him. He got what he wanted, and it took a global war and millions of deaths to reverse what he did with his nation.
Taibbi does report on this. He is must read for me. Always short, sweet and to the point. (I mean his written format. I am not much of a video/podcast format person. ) He had one about Democrats "wargaming" where they raised the possibility of a color revolution here. Now I knew we had been at least incidentally involved in more than one of yhose but I was disgusted to learn that our own (faux) leadership has so little regard for the US citizen.
As I hear the story, what happened was that the people running the whole thing came up with a STORY, the story that Russia was interfering with our elections, and used that as a pretext to involve people who would not otherwise, one hopes, have wanted both to break our laws and to betray the trust we gave them, to undermine our democracy.
I think it is plausible to believe that even now, even in 2024, basically decent and well meaning people are being tricked into doing nasty things. I personally believe most members of the CIA, FBI, NSA etc. are mostly honest. But they are naive, prone to coerced participation in engineered delusions, and largely unable to band together because of the very, very close surveillance most or all of them are subject to.
I can't come up with a solution to this from the outside, and from the outside I can't do anything to encourage anyone else to come up with a solution, other than by means of what I am doing here, which is speak the full truth to the best of my ability, as I see it.
I mostly agree with that. But my instinct is that the agencies have been infiltrated by those with interests that conflict with traditional American interests. The Vicky Nuland's and Alexander Vindman's, etc. Sometimes I think it is a globalist agenda, sometimes I think it is just exploitation of our system to procure benefits for a foreign country to which they owe allegiance. I don't think the latter should have a role at all. I support candidates for office who do not espouse a globalist agenda. But I cannot kid myself that our system cannot be readily exploited. But the thing I referenced about the color revolution here was done by Democrat strategists, not active government officials. As for the solution I think it imperative that foreign intelligence and domestic law enforcement be separated. When the pre-cursor to the CIA was created it was very controversial because of the fear that US citizens would be surveilled. So it was not allowed. That held until 9/11 and the passage of the Patriot Act and creation of the Department of Homeland Security. We did what Franklin warned about - we surrendered liberty to secure safety. Now we have less of both. And as to manipulation of the vote election laws need to be revamped at the state level, campaign finance laws need to be revamped at the state and federal.level and Citizen's United needs to be revisited - corporations are not people, they should not be in a position superior to humans when it comes to votes and we all know they are buying votes.
It's impossible to know who runs our agencies, so I won't guess. I simply say it is possible there are many honest people remaining.
And what Mike Benz described may have not technically been direct government involvement, but it was all people who spent most or all of their careers in government, and who were at most on the other side of a revolving door.
And yes, firm limits of what our agencies are allowed to do need to be enforced, and most of the Patriot Act retired. I have read multiple interviews with professionals and all they really need is a few degrees of separation from people they can identify easily enough. To prevent attacks that is enough.
What we have is Total Information Awareness, in which the STATED GOAL is capturing EVERYTHING that happens in any electronic medium. All emails, all phone calls, all texts, all social media posts: everything you can think of, and probably some you can't or wouldn't, like the totality of your movements for the last ten years, as tracked by your phone, and if they wanted, a satellite.
A better set up for a totalitarian state could not be imagined. Beating such a system would take superhuman effort, and probably connections on the inside. So I see it.
As far as Citizens United, I think anybody who pays taxs should get a voice in how those taxes are spent. Corporations pay taxes, as corporations. So too do most or all of those who work for them, or are invested in them.
Interestingly, Unions do not pay taxes, but they are still allowed to lobby.
My personal solution for this is simple: reduce the corporate tax rate to zero, then prohibit them, and Unions, from lobbying.
I like the phrase "Moderate totalitarians". It makes me think of the line in Brazil I have thought of often "don't hold out too long: it may affect your credit score".
You may be right. I hope you are wrong. Neither of us really knows. I'm writing this, so some freedom remains, but most Americans are not capable of hearing what I am saying.
Would a compromise be that "the decision to listen is over?" And what could be the value of free speech when a substantial and consequential segment of the populace is putting their fingers in their ears and shouting "I'M NOT LISTENING. I'M NOT LISTENING".
Life can be scary. Truth about life can thus be scary. And it would seem truths about life are much too scary for many of us.
I have long said that as a dystopia it got closest to what I actually see. He was apparently both satirizing the 80's, as he saw them, and forecasting our Collectivist future. In our dystopia, you can get any sort of milk you like with your overpriced Latte. But you can't get on the wrong side of the System, or who knows what may happen to you? It's a bunch of billboards concealing a dismal reality.
So rather than worry about the violence of Muslim bullies, as in Britain, we worry in this country about the even scarier legally sanctioned violence of our own criminally complicit "law enforcement"/crime enabling apparatus? Maybe.
I have said for some time that it never gets easier to speak up, only harder. The time is now. Yesterday would have been even better, but tomorrow is worse.
Our tyrants may be benign. Certainly in the earliest stages that is the smartest strategy. Lenin, in his early days, signalled moderation and peace. But he was just wrapping things up, and once that was done, the gloves came off.
I will just say to anyone reading this: you cannot comply yourself to true safety. The wolves may leave you alone for a long while, but they can come for you any time they like, for any reason they like, and that applies to the Bluest of the Blue Democrat out there. As one obvious example, just being white and not a high ranking member of the power structure is likely enough for substantial harassment and even ruin.
Totally agree with you UF. Those who dismiss the analysis and warning given by Mike Benz (imo, a patriot reminiscent of Paul Revere), do so at the peril of the entire nation. I used to try my best to persuade those around me. It has been an exhausting effort. They are truly blind fools. When the unraveling begins in their own lives and businesses, the panic will ensue. There will be no more just courts to hear their grievances and their welfare will be expendable by a government who never cared about the Constitution in the first place. You are correct that eventually they will be eyeball to eyeball with the totalitarians they once worshipped.
I have some mild hope that there remain relevant people close to positions of power who may resist all of this. The System has its own logic, but internally they have long found the need, I think, to lie to their "troops", and it may be that at some point the troops realize they are part of a malignant cancer, that is pushing against all the things they thought they were fighting for, like freedom, human rights, and democracy.
Members of our military, FBI, CIA, NSA and other such entities need to start making up their minds, and deciding if they are going to be the good Nazis, who followed orders they knew to be radically wrong, or if they are individually, and perhaps eventually collectively, going to fight for the ideals which made America great.
It's obviously possible to build a much, much better society, but not under the direction of amoral psychopaths working solely for their own personal interests, and under the thrall of profoundly bad ideas.
You are of course technically correct, but ours is a Republic resting on a Democratic basis. The People do in principle elect all of our representatives. If our votes don't matter, then it isn't a Republic either. It's an oligarchy of clever and hidden gansters.
Can anyone love Kanye? He's a traveling road show of obscenities. If our "culture" is going to survive, we need the broken windows theory applied to public decency. The Dutch do anything goes better- it stays in one place. The U.S. can't handle it. Very large prostitutes slither around in broad daylight in Oakland parking lots, in front of little kids. If you're not grossed out, you're robbed. Award shows, in behavior and dress, are in the toilet. Fashion is confused with freakishness. We need standards. We're confusing liberty with license. Increasingly, I see this current storm as rooted in the abandonment of integrity.
I’d never heard that quote… I was inspired to look it up, and the full quote is:
“Freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”
Damn, surprised to read the hostility and loathing of today's articles from TFP- I really don't give a rat's ass about Kanye, Beyond, Taylor either but have to admit it's nice to have some "fluff" every once in a while.
Not sure what I pay now for Netflix, Amazon Prime, the Indy Pods I subscribe to. I really have to SIFT through what i want to hear, watch , read. And for $8/ month for TFP, I can easily tolerate pieces like these. AND, I really liked reading the letters from 3 young, smart, articulate peeps, brave enough to write about who they are and what they're looking for. Keep those emails coming Suzi- maybe one of us has a son, daughter, neighbor, niece/ nephew, co-worker.....that would be the PERFECT MATCH !!!
Exactly how I feel! Bari did a courageous thing and I get frustrated with commenters who assume Bari started this as a conservative-perspective niche project for that audience only, on only news topics (of which we get plenty). There are non- conservatives on here who just really enjoy some quality pieces that are not being covered accurately or at all in the MSM. I skip plenty of articles - like any news consumption - but glad she took this on and want her to continue trying to grow. Bari is one of the few who has the courage and initiative to make something happen in a culture drowning in group think group speak news. Let’s see where it goes. The beauty is you can drop off anytime.
Conservatives WELCOME opposing views which we never get from the MSM. We debate to test our beliefs which is impossible if we only have similar, supportive opinions.
Catherine Herridge was fired from CBS this week because she dared to write a piece on the Hunter Biden laptop coverup. A total slap in the face to freedom of the press.
This is right in Bari's wheelhouse. Tell me why she takes a pass on commenting.
What? Sorry I don’t understand your comment at all. Not sure what point I’m missing. It’s Saturday morning - for what I pay, I get a lot to read or not read this weekend and that’s enough.
I think 234 is pointing out that conservatives are here because Bari publishes a different POV that can then be debated in the comments. Most of the conservatives I know do not want to live in an echo chamber. They want straight news. Propaganda will never cut it.
I get that - 100 percent. That’s why I’m here, too though (not a conservative). Some of us on the left are starved for the same thing and I appreciate not being moderated, insulted, etc. in the comments (although I don’t debate conservatives on their views here, I generally comment when I am calling out much of the new irrational madness of the left (my camp). I think 234 want Bari to have covered soecific topical issues and that’s fine - but FP is growing - I don’t think saying FP is dedicated to fluff crap is at all accurate or fair.
Bari is providing space for propaganda - free content for different audiences and does deliver on that. Anyway - my POV.
I look forward to reading more of your comments. I am not conservative either. Right-leaning to be sure but totally sick of both political parties. I think another thing that “right-leaners” are completely aware of is that the left has a monopoly on the press- on all platforms- which leaves us with very few places to get real news. I am just hoping TFP will continue to deliver the news. I think her point about Catherine Herridge, who is a serious journalist, was just fired from CBS for covering the Hunter Biden story in-depth AND then CBS confiscated all her computers etc which contained her confidential sources. It does seem as if that would be a story that the TFP would want to report on considering they want the Press to be free to report what they find. Anyway, I appreciate your response.
Yes, it’s economics. Social engineering redistribution of wealth. The oxymoron is that Beyoncé and JayZ must maintain billionaire status to do so. Country music is extremely profitable, hence the foray into the genre. And…I’m sure they’re having a laugh at the irony of profiting off country music base. Don’t listen don’t buy.
Sorry Kevin you're wrong on this one. Soros didn't give Swift $200 million. The money went to Scooter Braun, who had a huge spat with Taylor Swift because he held all the rights to her earlier recordings through the company she signed with. She rerecorded because she never had the rights to her own music and Scooter wouldn't give/sell it back to her.
No she never got them back. She did the only thing she could, which was to say screw you to Scooter Braun and rerecord it to redirect the royalties to the same songs to her rerecord instead. Her fans are rabid so they're listening to her rerecords. The copyrights to her old backlist, which Soros bought, became basically worthless.
Yes this is the exact concept I am referring to with more details included.
I absolutely am not going to discuss copyright law, but Taylor Swift finding an amazing loophole that’s super obvious combined with Soros losing nine figures almost immediately in an industry he’s not involved with looks like he paid for her to get her rights back for free.
She’s not the only person with loyal fans. Was there a Napster-level music industry apocalypse of people re-recording to subvert copyright law?
Sorry Kevin, I don't follow. How did Soros paying help her? She could rerecord even if Scooter still held the copyright. She had that right in her original contract with the production company. In fact, her rerecording has resulted in studios now including contract terms to prevent musicians from rerecording in the future.
Napster was a different issue. It was about unauthorized use by listeners. Rerecording wouldn't change anything as the listeners could upload the rerecorded versions too. It had nothing to do with contractual agreements as to authorized use.
You are telling me the details that have been reported.
I am telling you that if George Soros spends nine figures to buy an asset and there’s a loophole that makes it immediately worthless, which he didn’t notice, I’m very suspicious.
Re-recording would take a month or so and boom she has nine figures of IP in her possession. If she always could have done that she never would have had a feud with Scooter. She just would have done it immediately to burn him.
It’s kinda amazing how dumb some of these comments are. If you don’t like the fluff, skip the read. I doubt Bari and team are spiking a in-depth expose of Hamas in favor of publishing this.
Not sure why you want to advertise in the comments section that you’re a humorless scold.
I remember when I first started my subscription, the FP was publishing maybe one or two articles a week. Now we sometimes get multiple articles in a day. And to top it off I get some light-hearted cultural pieces to start my Saturday with? Awesome!
I tried to block someone. You press on their name and the next window that pops up gives you the option to block. But if I recall, it only blocked them for that thread. The next day they were back.
You might try the blocking again using the Substack website (via a browser) rather than using the app. Some Substack functions ONLY work via the website, like editing one’s comments. I have no idea why…
I am really enjoying reading the Lonely Hearts. I am not actually looking for love, but the mini- essays are actually funny and interesting. Keep publishing them!
Eli's ranting about Kanye being an "anti-Semitic edgelord" peppered with childish name calling is disgusting. Kanye's comments are awful, but they often sound more like the rantings of a person having a manic episode due to Bipolar disorder, for which it's well documented that Kanye suffers from. Him saying that "The Rothschild's are out to get him" sounds more like a person suffering from psychosis, which is a symptom of bipolar mania, rather than true anti-Semitism. Eli leaves this important context out of his article, all to whine about he feels personally victimized as a Jew. Shame on him, and shame on TFP for printing an article that trashes a clearly mentally ill person.
When from the depths of their unfiltered psychotic souls people rant about Jews, and claim the Jews are after them, or a specific Jew is out to get them, then they are probably antagonistic towards same. I call that antisemitism even if they're crazy.
Anyway, I have never put much store in the insanity plea.
It's fine to criticize his comments, but not even bringing up his Bipolar disorder as a contributing part of his bizzare commentary is leaving out a massive part of this story.
On the contrary, I responded by saying that what burbles up from the mouths of those with bipolar disease, undergoing psychotic episodes, tells us what they're really thinking.
Sometimes, that is correct. Often, they are literally out of their minds or in some form of psychosis and will say and do things that have nothing to do with their underlying beliefs. Don’t know about Kanye - but if it is bipolar mania/schizoaffective, it may or may NOT reflect his real views.
This is a good point but the problem is that the truth about his condition/state is not fully known, either. And although I agree that his disorder MAY explain some of his paranoia, etc., those who suffer from the disorder will tell you that a manic state sometimes is the explanation for some behaviours, beliefs, they will also tell you that sometimes a manic episode simply amplifies a believe or position (in other words, the lack of inhibition experienced emboldens them to simply say things that are reflective of who they are or what they believe, without restraint). So I think you make a great point, but it’s also risky to assume it is ALL due to his condition (if it is verified). I think a professional who has experience with many patients with this disorder could shed a lot of light on the point you bring up. It’s not wise to just assume things about any disorder he may be suffering from (we don’t know exactly) and attribute it to that only. If he does live with that disorder, it is a complex one to say the least.
I personally would have at least mentioned it, I agree, but the writer doesn’t have the authority to know for sure so may not want to allege or assume anything without verification (after all it was Kanye’s ex wife Kim who berated people on Twitter for pointing out Kayne’s possible mental disorder/struggles). I sort of see a similarity with the whole “Free Britney” campaign where her supporters relentlessly demonized and attacked her father, family for conservatorship arrangement without ever acknowledging their reasons for doing so and how much they may have actually helped her. The statements made were so damning against her family, in so much detail and so wild (how could they possibly know all these things that are sealed records of her situation)?
Again, to me it seems VERY clear she suffers from a similar disorder and much of her behaviour since being in her own is bizarre and concerning - but since we don’t know exactly what the situation is, it is really to difficult to know how to assess how she’s doing. It’s just obvious she’s not doing very well and I feel empathy for her. Maybe she is happier or in a better situation but it doesn’t seem that way.
Anyway, I’m not a professional in MH or the disorder you mention -
but with respect to Kanye I just think we should be careful in assuming too many things - even if it does seem clear he is living with SOME kind of specific condition(s) and could explain some of his behaviour.
Thank you. I agree completely. I thought made it clear that his comments are anti-Semitic and awful, but likely amplified by Bipolar disorder. The way he speaks and rants are consistent with someone having a manic episode. I have a family member with the disorder, and have learned it's best not to engage with this behavior at all. The Free Press was great because Bari and some of the writers are thoughtful about forming their opinions and reporting with nuance and context. Lately, there have been more opinion pieces lacking in context from leftist writers that are better suited for the NYT and Rolling Stone.
You are right we shouldn't assume, but Eli is assuming there is nothing more to Kanye's comments than anti-Semitism, where there is very relevant context he's leaving out. He shouldn't have written this at all, and TFP should have higher standards.
Yes, I know someone close to me with this disorder and it’s unbelievably challenging to say the least.
Let’s see where Bari and her team take this - I’m a leftist and enjoy her site - mostly because it produces quality pieces that strive for accuracy and not hysteria and it was bold and courageous of her to attempt to get back to some journalism with integrity and at least offer perspective that is missing in the MSM which is just group speak and group think but loud.
If anyone knew how hard it it is to produce good content while trying to grow - they may be a little kinder to Bari and the FP. But hopefully they read comments (they do) and take that in as part of their little engine that could vision.
As for Kanye - I agree he needs help of some kind - if he’s getting it, it’s sadly not working - a personal opinion only.
I consider myself a traditional liberal, which is why the complete disregard for mental illness bothers me so much in this article. It's an awful illness for the sufferer and sometimes even worse for their families, particularly when the person refuses treatment, which is common. Kanye himself said that he has Bipolar disorder, but doesn't use any medications. It's sad.
I hear you - personally, I think he may have more than just one thing going on, just an opinion. Mentioning the possibility of his MI should have been written in for context, I agree - carefully - because then you get the hysterical crazy leftists in our camp screaming that how do we know, are we professional, are we just racist and assume he can’t have his own views, etc. It’s so exhausting dealing with that, too. Anyway, I think it’s good feedback, hopefully they will take it in.
Agree. The only reason the MSM reported incessantly on his anti-Semitic tweets is because he was a Trump supporter, and it served the Trump = Nazi narrative. Had he been anti-Trump, it would have been as you described. I think this could have been a good article if Eli would have highlighted the double standard, the impact of mental illness in general, along with the potential damage of his Tweets while reviewing his new album and creative talent. Oh well.
When someone rants as an antisemite, or anti-anything, for no reason other than their own hatred, they should be shot in the kneecaps (ok, maybe not), but at least boycotted. Not praised. Fuck Kanye West.
I appreciated seeing the friendship ads in the "lonely hearts" section--I'm not looking to date, but I understand that platonic relationships are very important in life, and it can be hard to make new friends as an adult, especially in a polarized culture. So if TFP is able to foster RL connections among like-minded people, I'm all for it!
The world of caring what others think of me left me long ago, but in certain parts of the country, it defines people. I can't fathom what the life of a Poser is like.
As a young man reading a biography of James Madison, I saw he had a closet of blue and back suits. He was consistent, and I modeled my fashion on being conservative and not caring what others thought. Books are an exercise of the brain, and I have over 500 of them. I drink richly of history, business, and philosophy. In my twenties, I also discovered the Teaching company and learned about various subjects.
Learning is fun, but sadly, Posers seek the affirmation of others and remain intellectually as deep as puddles. They need Kanye or TikTok to inform them how to think. What a pathetic life. Bari, it would help if you had Kat or Suzi interview Brian Johnson and his Heroic platform to help save some of these Posers from an unfulfilling life. People can get saved, but it will take some work. Thanks for sharing different cultural outlooks; they fascinate me.
Country generally sings about love not sex. Beyoncé doesn’t get that plus the profanity is just ridiculous. Pat Moynihan would call this defining deviancy down.
My name is Kevin. I live in Georgia and I hate whites. I am trying to find a girl who works for the government who has the authority to hire outside contractors. I’m looking for approximately $700,000 and some sex.
fultoncountyblackpanthers@gmail.gov
My name is Jose Antonio. I also live in Georgia and illegally immigrated here from Venezuela. I found a girl running by a lake and murdered her. MSM, Biden, Mayorkas, and the Dems won’t talk about any of the crimes me or other illegals are committing. Please call me undocumented future engineer instead.
Openbordervibrancy@dhs.gov
So you were just seeking a better life by the lake and she was trampling all over stolen land??
If it had been in NYC, you might even have ended up with a share of $40 million.
There's only one girl I know who works for the government and can hook you up with contractors (probably not the kind of contractors you want to know) Her name is Hillary and her husband Bill can get you fixed up with the sex you're looking for.
Hello, my name is Aunt Teefa. I live in Portland, but enjoy visiting Atlanta, burning cars and protesting.
https://stopcop.city/
Chili! That first sentence had me going ... Then I saw Portland and, bingo! Good one.
I found today's topic falls under, who gives a shit.
Of all of my over one and about a halve years subscribing to TFP and Comon Sense this is by far the most worthless topics I have ever seen.
Sorry Suzi. You usually have more depth than this.
Marjorie Taylor Greene meets nearly all your requirements and has heard your siren call. In deference to your tastes, she will be coming in black face.
What does this have to do with the article?
TFP wastes an issue pretending to be People magazine.
I’m trying to hang in there, Bari, but….
Saturday is pop culture day at TPF. If you don't like that, don't read TPF on Saturdays.
I do wish they didn't choose to write about Kanye though. So sick of him and his antics. And he and his wife forcing the public to be audience to their BDSM fetish. Please go back to their bedroom. What they're doing is not even good porn. They're just gross.
I agree that Kanye is not a subject I'm interested in. Nor is Taylor Swift. But some people are, and I'm not going to bitch that TFP is writing about people who are big pop culture just because I'm not interested in them.
THEY LOVE SICK TWISTED MINDS, it sells!!
Hmm. Love-sick twisted minds....
Sounds like a band.
Ok, good observation and point. There you go using logic on me and Maureen.
Can we love Kanye west? Can we love a drug addled dingbat? That's what Kanye is. Too much MDMA and psychedelics surrounded by sycophants. Let's rephrase this. Can we love Khalil Gibran?
The Ayatollah Khomeini wrote poetry you couldn't differentiate from Khalil Gibran.
That cured me of any ideas I had that the feelings invoked in me by poetry had anything at all to do with WTF was going on in HIS head!
Paging Douglas Murray.
The poetry of Imam Khomeni
https://www.al-islam.org/wine-love-mystical-poetry-imam-khomeini/ghazal-poetry#wine-love
Ground Controlled!
Right. Don’t believe in paying for what you can get on Yahoo News.
TPF is seeking to become a newspaper, and newspapers have sections. Don't read the sports page and then bitch that you can find the scores online.
But it is NOT as has been advertised! This is NOT what it started out to be, it is morphing into the NYT all over again.`
Right. I paid for serious content. Getting fluff.
fluff.(er) LOL. has many meanings.
No it’s not - bad example!
"morphing into the NYT all over again".
Yes, I have been saying for a while that you can take Bari out of the NYT, but not the NYT out of Bari. Same for Suzy and Nellie - even though they lack the NYT roots, they've got the oeuvre imbedded in their genes. And maybe their jeans, too.
Geez, what are we paying? $5/mo? I pay $28/mo to get the local newspaper that's full of liberal national garbage just to get news about our community that's also reported by left leaning reporters. This seems like a bargain to me.
No one said it's not a bargain. They're just saying it's not what was advertised.
I didn't know I subscribed to Tiger Beat.
I don't care. Today's topics sucked.
I don't care about Kanye. I don't care about Taylor Swift. But I'm not going to bitch because TPF is covering people who are big in popular culture on Saturdays.
As I have posted many times before, I have a very low opinion of people in the entertainment business, the glitterati.
If you don't make your opinions known, nothing changes.
There's a difference between simply complaining and offering constructive criticism. In a response to QX, I made a constructive comment about what I would rather see in TFP's pop culture coverage.
Everyone who threatens to unsubscribe because they dislike some aspect of TFP should just do it. I have no more patience for them that I have for the people who threatened to leave the U.S. if Trump was elected.
I agree. I m not canceling my subscription. I look forward every day to new topics and not just the topics I like.
TFP should focus on actual news, not celebrity pandering. Is that constructive enough?
Also, who is threatening to unsubscribe? Most of us prefer the comments to the content anyway.
I’m not sure why you can’t just skip the stuff that doesn’t interest you.
Bari did not launch this project as a conservative space for conservative views only - some commenters on here seem to forget that - or to focus only on leading political news of each day. Although for a small publication, they offer PLENTY. FP is still small and growing and I think it’s great they are trying different ways to reach audiences looking for different perspectives or things not accurately or covered fairly in the MSM press. Besides, in this case - Kanye’s statements are very topical considering what’s going on.
I could, but I am paying for content. And there are so many other interesting substacks I could direct my Bari dollars to with non-fluffy content.
Businesses need to know whether their customers like their product. If enough of them don’t, they change the product or take the consequences.
I am signaling my disappointment. Others seem to agree. Let’s see if Bari takes note.
Let’s see. Many disagree, too. It’s her baby.
In principle, I'm with you. I saw today's lead and asked myself, what the F? I can go to YouTube and get Taylor Swift and Beyoncé for free, but I've never bothered, because I DON'T CARE. Also, her criticism of Tucker for talking to Putin was very disappointing. Remember the purpose of journalism, Bari? Free speech and all that?
Still, I stick with her because her content is very diverse. As a Jew I appreciate her coverage of Israel. I've been introduced to some excellent journalism here on topics I would have missed without her spotlighting them.
I'm pretty sure that user stats by article are available to Bari. If people don't read and comment on certain articles, that's probably the best way to signal what we customers are here for.
I emailed this week to Bari’s attention the following:
“Hi Bari,
As a subscriber, I noticed very interesting comments that lead me to authors on substack. Many of them write well and are looking for subscribers. But the current model is getting expensive to subscribe to multiple, deserving contributors to free speech. Here’s a million $ idea that will costs you 0.
How about you offer to your subscribers for additional low $, to subscribe to additional x authors, and for additional low $$, to subscribe to x+n authors. You revenue share with authors (keep small %) that choose to participate. This model version is being used in business for a win-win relationship.
What prompted the above is the disappointment with your daily, staff writers.”
When she first started Common Sense I thought that what you are describing was very similar to what she was selling. She would scour the internet so I wouldn’t have to and then she would publish the most interesting, informative and thought provoking ones. Occasionally she does that now but most of the time it’s her hired staff…not sure they are up for the task recently.
Here, here!
There, there!
Where, where?
We have just performed a Firesign Theatre bit💫
The topics in TFP are not conservative topics. They are today's realities and we all know that the left hates reality. Are the articles about PC/Woke conservative. No! They are today's reality!
Conservatives post here because they hate what the left is doing to this country by having PC/Woke, DEI and racism shoved down our throats by universities, politicians and the press.
The left doesn't post here because they can't stand that light is being shined on their destructive madness.
I’m left leaning but not woke and I read here to triangulate.
My daily newspaper provides content I am not interested in and I skip it.
If all they gave me was this garbage and nothing more of substance, topical, and newsworthy, I'd cancel my subscription.
The comments are what's keeping TFP alive. Her model will not survive on comments alone.
I have the opposite perspective. The content here is interesting and varied and I appreciate most of it. If I didn’t, I would cancel my subscription and move on with my life as I’ve done with many other publications before. The Debbie Downer commenters who come here every single morning threatening to cancel their subscription are the only real downside of this place that I can see.
1) you have to act to get to the comments - they are not foisted on you. 2) you are being a Debbie Downer complaining about Debbie Downers.
1) Thank you for informing me. 2) and you are now being a Debbie Downer about my Debbie Downing the Debbie Downers.
Your welcome.
Well, you probably find the content in the National Enquirer interesting as well.
Wow , you sure got me there!!
How do you get internet in a damp cavern underneath a mountain, precious? Must be cable…
I subscribe here because itis not a newspaper. I want substance not fluff.
I’ve read plenty of pieces on FP that are topical, substantive and very newsworthy.
I’m so glad that FP occasionally riles up the comment section who supposedly fled here to escape woke echo chambers but who seem determined to create an echo chamber of their own.
Bari went on Bill Maher's show and said she was done with Covid, which in liberal circles was pretty radical at the time. Suddenly, she became a conservative darling. She's a raging lib cashing in by feigning neutrality.
NC
Bari is a Democrat, so this fawning over a rapper is to be expected. Her redeeming quality is that she is one of the few leftists who believes in free speech so much that she provides this site where conservatives express themselves.
Why must we insist on labeling Left Right Democrats Republican or anything else? Are we really that two-dimensional?
Unfortunately, RMac, it seems so!
What I love about TFP is how it draws a huge swath of people together, both Left & Right of Center. I believe it is still where the Majority of Americans are.
I don't object to reading (or skipping over) content that doesn't interest me, tho that is a rarity here.
What does pull me in and I’m most interested in are the articles / opinion pieces that I disagree with. I want to know what the other side is thinking (Wiesman definitely pisses me offf on occassion!)!
Bari provides a platform where I can FREELY voice my thoughts & opinions WITHOUT fear of “being cancelled”. A place where we can STILL openly agree to disagree.
The ONLY requirement, which I gleaned early on when I subscribed to a then very small Common Sense platform, IS USE COMMON SENSE when commenting. And, except for a few people who always find fault, the majority adheres.
I like your post but I strongly dislike today's topics.
I view Bari as a centrist. How many Democrats have taken the time to do respectful interviews with Mike Pompeo, William Barr and Condoleezza Rice?
Bari also at least attempts to get back to some level of integrity that used to happen in journalism - regardless of left or right. The group think repetitive talking points on so much MSM (and hysterical opining, insulting and completely shallow ignt takes on many topics) left a lot of us feeling like “can I just have a normal experience taking in news and not be told what to think?” “ Can I just find out what happened without “a narrative”?
I'm hoping Bari is not a Leftist, but a Classic Liberal, like most Republicans have been, since Ronald Reagan.
Technically everybody who believes in the Constitution is a liberal, a classical liberal. Many of those who are classified as modern liberals are misclassified. One more example of corruption of language.
Bari's experiences at the NYT caused her to reconsider Leftism. I think she *leans* Classical Liberal, but old habits of thought die hard.
TFP is not a conservative web site and the left could join the debate but they don't because they cannot face reality.
If this was a rainbow, unicorn , butterfly site, they would be all over it.
As I just wrote - I am a leftist Liberal and post here occasionally for exactly the reasons you mention in your other comment. I don’t insult or debate conservatives on their conservative views on here - they are free to have them and many are intelligent comments that give me insight. But don’t assume there are no leftists on here - some of us see the madness and destruction and you will find us in agreement on a few things!
Thanks MindyF. The few leftist I have debate, I found to be woefully ignorant about a variety of topic such as current affairs and history.
You will notice that I do not use the term "liberal" to describe the left. A year ago I wrote a rather splendid essay on Common Sense why liberals are not liberal. (I use splendid, tongue in cheek.) I do not think liberals are liberal nor are they progressive.
The short version is, the founder of the liberal movement in the 19th century England,, John Stuart Mill was a strong (strong doesn't adequately express is his feelings) advocate of free speech.
Today's left does not believe in free speech. PC/Woke and the use of pronouns bear out my premise. People get canceled and fired for not using the "proper speech" according to the tyrants on the left. So, I refuse to call them liberals.
Bari’s trying different things which is okay. Not sure it will work on this platform. And yeah, not interested in People magazine stuff.
I'm going to try to suggest something productive for once instead of complaining (insane, I know. And note I'm not talking about you and others, I'm talking about myself). How about let's give Bari and Suzi some feedback on what we want to read if they're going to do a Saturday pop culture section?
Hey Suzi, I really really don't want to read about Kanye. Even without his mental illness related politics, he's just really gross now as is his "wife".
First. May I recommend TFP connect with Ted Gioia over at The Honest Broker Substack. The guy has REALLY interesting and much deeper and insightful things to say about current pup/music/entertainment culture. A guest article by him will enhance TFP. https://substack.com/@tedgioia?r=erajp&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile
Everyone else, please comment on what you would like to see.
I'll start. I for one would like more honest TV/movie reviews that don't fawn all over something just because the show's got all the right virtue signaling points.
And Pardon me Maureen but I'm going to divert here and use this space to rant about the Netflix series "One Day" which all the usual suspect liberal news media are FAWNING over. I swear to God, reading the raving reviews, all saying literally the same things, is like deja vu reading liberal MSM telling me Biden has perfectly sound mind and can reign for another 4 years. I feel so gaslit. I feel like I'm in Invasion of the Pod People again. How is it I'm the only one who think it's meh? And the unspoken reason why MSM are praising the series to the tee? They made the female main character a "POC".
That's right. This virtue signal point made it so the only thing these reviewers can do is sing high praises. Now, there's nothing in David Nicholl's novel (on which the series is based) that says the character couldn't be half Indian. Honestly I'm open to that, if they had casted the right actress who did the role justice. But Ambika Bod absolutely is not and does not IMO.
First, NO! Despite that every MSM review insist it is so, she and the other lead Leo Woodhall have absolutely NO chemistry.
2. This is a story about a GenX couple. I'm GenX. I remember what things were like for us in 1988. Bod's Emma is just another iteration of the woke "girl boss" "kick-ass girl" prototype, wrinkling her nose at everything around her and with a holier-than-thou social justice streak to boot. That simply wasn't how we were. She got it all wrong. We did want to make the world better, but we were generally optimistic and really think we could make things better. Not because we despised everything around us. Her character was so off-putting. She softens up a little as she grew into the role, but that's hardly what the MSM is saying, that she's so AMAZING in her role. No she's not.
The reviewers shit on the 2011 movie version with Anne Hathaway, mostly dumping on her for the bad accent. Well I'm not Brit and can't tell the accents, but IMO Anne Hathaway did a much much better job as Emma. She wasn't perfect either, too good looking and never quite convincingly British, but her Emma was much more accurate as a young woman coming of age in the 80s-90s era.
Leo Woodhall is actually quite well-casted, and does a much better job as Dex. But he's not more outstanding than Jim Strugess in the movie. Looks wise both are pretty interchangeable and captured Dex well/ But even Woodhall lacked the "live big and devil may care" attitude of a GenX guy of that time. Jim Sturgess portrayed that subtle difference effectively in a way that Woodhall doesn't.
This TV series is such a let down after all the glowing reviews. I'm 3 episodes in and mostly want to fast-forward all the Ambika Mod scenes without Woodhall. Even the scenes with him, I found myself watching reluctantly just to see what he'll do.
But my main point is, our pop culture MSM is exactly like our political MSM. They're gaslighting us. They don't say anything different. Even they are propaganda. How else can it be that they seem to read from the same script in their reviews? And when there's DEI casting, they all toe the line. It's Claudine Gay in One Day and we must all pretend this is the right hire.
I would like to see more deep dives into the ways that Woke and DEI are distorting pop culture.
I would love this. I recently read “The New Puritans” by Andrew Doyle which had a really great chapter on this. Here is a quote I had highlighted:
“Identity politics has turned contemporary film critics into prissy, sermonising bores, determined to see artists as moral educators for those poor, suggestible plebeians who might be exposed to dangerous work.”
100%. This culture shift to racial didacticism has been going on, to some extent, since the Obama presidency; obviously it hit fever pitch after Saint Floyd. Twenty years ago, if I wanted to find a good movie, I would look at what the critics liked, and generally would agree with them. Now, the critics’ opinions provide “negative guidance” — if the critics love it, it’s probably woke as hell and poorly written. So, culturally, I’ve gone from being an elitist to a small-D-democrat.
This one has just about pushed me over the edge! First, country music has not been country music since Kenny Rodgers and Dolly Parton recorded together in the 80's. Beyonce is over-rated as a singer, and Kanye (Ye) is irrelevant to real music. And as for books, I read what I feel like reading, and I read for escape, not caring one bit what others think. Since I have been married for 44 years, I care almost NOTHING about lonely hearts! What a freaking waste of digital publishing! If this is Suzy's column now, then I am GONE!
Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out 👋
Not since Hank Snow and the Singing Rangers, and Kitty Wells. You didn't have to be pretty, to be Country.
Give Jamie Johnson a listen.
I love country but am.not a fan of what I call Music Row rot. Give Jamie Johnson a listen. Stellar stuff.
It’s certainly looking more and more like the FP is running out of gas. Bari has made a pile of cash and that’s great as long as she doesn’t become complacent and mediocre, which seems to be coming on fast. The FP had a nice run for a while there, but I’m also considering redirecting my subscription budget to one of the smaller, up and coming Substacks. And the startup ‘Stacks really need the cash to keep going, just like any new small business.
Mindy stop the passive aggressiveness. You don’t have to tell every negative commenter “well don’t read”. Just keep scrolling- I was going to do the same but you keep popping up telling people “don’t read, free will”. Stop telling people they don’t belong bc they have a different opinion. No one is going to get hurt, trust me.
Thanks for the lecture. If you notice, I only did it with a few but thanks for the hall monitoring - never did I say you don’t belong? Varied opinions - we are all allowed to have them in the same way we are free to comment or not as often as we like. I pay for this, too. I never tell people they can’t comment. Please read more carefully.
You tell people “stop reading”. Worst advice to give in 21st century. Telling people “don’t read” is so 2010s
Dear Rachael… if you guys can come here every single day passive aggressively threatening to cancel your subscription (it’s getting to be more predictable than my toddlers’ 6am wakeup), we can also reply to those comments saying ok then, move on already!. Welcome to the Internet.
Welcome to the internet? Lame
I think the 6am toddler wake-up explains a lot.
Not as lame as paying for a subscription that consistently gives you zero value, but you do you Rachael! 👍👍👍
Once Kanye starts reading the Free Press, then I'll pay attention to articles about celebrities like Kanye.
As my dad would say, "You'd bitch if I hung you with a new rope."
Bari is collecting too much money after picking up a side hustle by pretending to not be a raging liberal to care.
Note: I edited this to correct a mistake I made, which was completely wrong in one sense, but very revealing in another. I appended a more accurate commentary at the end.
The largest story in a generation is the CIA led manipulation of our elections, as described in some detail by Mike Benz in his recent interview with Tucker Carlson. I was wondering if the Free Press would cover it. Given the name of this site, a large bombshell about centralized management of the press would seem to be an obvious story, but I have reluctantly concluded that this site is basically managed mild opposition. To complete batshit crazy, it creates the alternative of mostly not crazy in the obvious ways. It's sad. Disappointing.
The core takeaway from the Benz interview--which is on Tucker's site, and which everyone should read or listen to-- is that whether or not actual voter fraud happened in 2020, that agents of our own government used techniques honed in many decades of Cold War--that were used to overthrow hostile regimes and install our own puppet regimes--in effect to overthrow Donald Trump.
Add to this a propaganda operation run in large measure by six former CIA Directors called the Atlantic Counsel, and what you have is fascism. Our democracy may already be gone, and will certainly be gone by the next election, if members of our government do not start exercising some basic ethical behavior, righting blatant wrongs (and illegalities, but someone with no moral compass will reliably lack any concerns about legality in a system they control), and if the American public does not begin waking up on a larger scale.
Things certainly can get MUCH worse, but my God what does it take to wake people up, that their government is not protecting them, even if it does take their money from them every paycheck?
On NATO:
I am going to lay a line or two of facts on you, then a very interesting piece of logic.
NATO was created specifically to counter the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact nations. Neither have been a threat since 1991 or so, when the whole thing fell apart. No war or threats of wars have occured since. One could count the stuff down in the Balkans, but those were very small scale operations that didn’t require a standing military.
Russia has been not been a threat for a very long time, and given the huge losses they have already taken in the Ukraine, it is obscenely stupid to think Putin could calculate ANY advantage whatever in doing something that would mobilize the whole of Western AND Eastern Europe against him.
A key element in the North Atlantic Treaty, apparently, is that each nation allocate a certain percentage of their GDP to military expenses. America has promised 3.49% I think it was, Germany something like 2%, France something like 2% or whatever, etc. Put another way, the 3.5% of 25 trillion, which was our GDP in I think 2022—works out to a national Defense Budget of $875 billion, and this BY TREATY. It’s required of us, in principle, by NATO.
So what we have is a binding international treaty which requires all signatory nations to commit to minimum annual “defense” expenditures, even though there is no common enemy against whom a strong defense is likely ever to be needed.
Conclusion: could we not plausibly claim NATO exists to defend DEFENSE CONTRACTORS and their allies? What could be more congenial to an industry than an international treaty dictating a percent of the economy be allocated to weapons of war, in perpetuity? And with a such a deal, would it not make sense to scare up some conflict somewhere from time to time to keep people from asking too many questions?
But if you think about it, HAS NATO served any purpose since 1991, and the end of the Cold War? That was THIRTY THREE YEARS AGO.
Could it not even be argued that NATO was a continuation of the Cold War by other means? That NATO become important to military contractors in lobbying their own national legislatures for more money, by locating the demand outside the national borders?
I strongly recommend fellow subscribers watch the hour-long Mike Benz interview by Tucker Carlson. It is highly informative and hits like a slap in the face.
This is a real news story that FP should pursue. Invite Mike Benz to write an article or do an interview. This and the story covering the negotiations of the World Health Organization's treaty on health emergencies, which may remove our civil liberties are the dimly lit stories that need a strong spotlight from an ethical news agency, such as FP.
The overall silence is deafening and speaks volumes, doesn't it?
How is it possible a senile old man who was not Presidential in his prime may be RE-elected, after all this? Well, now we know. They could destroy him in five minutes if they chose, but they can also keep even the walking dead alive.
The biggest trick is not telling people WHAT to think but NOT to think. Once you have done that, any lie is possible, even the most preposterous, absurd ones.
It’s not the old man who is up for reelection, it’s the cabal that handles him
With their new authority the WHO will be able to effectively seize control of most of the USA through nothing more than a mild corona virus.
Centralized currency and medical information will create global profiles on everybody, fed into AI that knows more about you than you do.
WHO's two biggest sponsors are Bill Gates and Xi Jinping.
And the language covers "health emergencies" beyond infectious diseases. Think "climate emergency" here.
If signed off and then put into force for an outbreak (of any magnitude), I expect there'll be SERIOUS civil disobedience.
And STILL nothing on the Biden crime family!!!
But… Kanye.
And Tay-Tay!!!! And Queen Bae!!!!
😂
Isn’t this the pop culture column?
The stance of a media outlet is best understood by the stories the fail to cover.
True. I have always striven to live my life with integrity and honesty, and I guess I understand on some level why people feel the need to compromise their integrity at times. I have been subjected to those pressures, as I suppose we all have. I have simply responded by structuring my life in such a way that those pressures are almost entirely absent. There has been a cost, but the benefit has been worth it for me.
What I would say, though, that in this particular context, Bari would gain a lot of trust and credibility by covering these stories. She would gain with most of her paying audience. Where she would lose is with her peer and friend group, and perhaps with those who fronted the money to put her in business in the first place.
But in the end, people who need you to be disingenuous and to restrict yourself are not really friends. They are not really allies. They are not people who will help you on your own life path.
Now, if the CIA--obviously as a front group--put up the money for The Free Press, which is the sort of irony that is their bread and butter, then obviously Bari has made a deal with the Devil, and you can't get out of deals made with violent gangsters.
But I don't know. I am left wondering and guessing every day on dozens of different issues. To be awake in this strange world is to be forced to admit confusion and ignorance at every turn.
yup. I just get on over to Racket or Public when I want real coverage.. this was disappointing but no t surprising
YeahButt, however November turns out, I suspect it's going to be a hellova scene the months following. O maybe a whimper? I hope I'm still here for it. I was here for Pearl Harbor.
We can't fear civil unrest and violence. The alternative is a creeping totalitarianism made perfect by perfect control and perfect surveillance.
The left has weaponized street mobs just the way Hitler used the SA. And it worked for him. He got what he wanted, and it took a global war and millions of deaths to reverse what he did with his nation.
Time for a struggle session!
I have lived my life similarly. And as a result despite the strangeness of the world I am pretty immune. And blessed.
Taibbi does report on this. He is must read for me. Always short, sweet and to the point. (I mean his written format. I am not much of a video/podcast format person. ) He had one about Democrats "wargaming" where they raised the possibility of a color revolution here. Now I knew we had been at least incidentally involved in more than one of yhose but I was disgusted to learn that our own (faux) leadership has so little regard for the US citizen.
As I hear the story, what happened was that the people running the whole thing came up with a STORY, the story that Russia was interfering with our elections, and used that as a pretext to involve people who would not otherwise, one hopes, have wanted both to break our laws and to betray the trust we gave them, to undermine our democracy.
I think it is plausible to believe that even now, even in 2024, basically decent and well meaning people are being tricked into doing nasty things. I personally believe most members of the CIA, FBI, NSA etc. are mostly honest. But they are naive, prone to coerced participation in engineered delusions, and largely unable to band together because of the very, very close surveillance most or all of them are subject to.
I can't come up with a solution to this from the outside, and from the outside I can't do anything to encourage anyone else to come up with a solution, other than by means of what I am doing here, which is speak the full truth to the best of my ability, as I see it.
I mostly agree with that. But my instinct is that the agencies have been infiltrated by those with interests that conflict with traditional American interests. The Vicky Nuland's and Alexander Vindman's, etc. Sometimes I think it is a globalist agenda, sometimes I think it is just exploitation of our system to procure benefits for a foreign country to which they owe allegiance. I don't think the latter should have a role at all. I support candidates for office who do not espouse a globalist agenda. But I cannot kid myself that our system cannot be readily exploited. But the thing I referenced about the color revolution here was done by Democrat strategists, not active government officials. As for the solution I think it imperative that foreign intelligence and domestic law enforcement be separated. When the pre-cursor to the CIA was created it was very controversial because of the fear that US citizens would be surveilled. So it was not allowed. That held until 9/11 and the passage of the Patriot Act and creation of the Department of Homeland Security. We did what Franklin warned about - we surrendered liberty to secure safety. Now we have less of both. And as to manipulation of the vote election laws need to be revamped at the state level, campaign finance laws need to be revamped at the state and federal.level and Citizen's United needs to be revisited - corporations are not people, they should not be in a position superior to humans when it comes to votes and we all know they are buying votes.
It's impossible to know who runs our agencies, so I won't guess. I simply say it is possible there are many honest people remaining.
And what Mike Benz described may have not technically been direct government involvement, but it was all people who spent most or all of their careers in government, and who were at most on the other side of a revolving door.
And yes, firm limits of what our agencies are allowed to do need to be enforced, and most of the Patriot Act retired. I have read multiple interviews with professionals and all they really need is a few degrees of separation from people they can identify easily enough. To prevent attacks that is enough.
What we have is Total Information Awareness, in which the STATED GOAL is capturing EVERYTHING that happens in any electronic medium. All emails, all phone calls, all texts, all social media posts: everything you can think of, and probably some you can't or wouldn't, like the totality of your movements for the last ten years, as tracked by your phone, and if they wanted, a satellite.
A better set up for a totalitarian state could not be imagined. Beating such a system would take superhuman effort, and probably connections on the inside. So I see it.
As far as Citizens United, I think anybody who pays taxs should get a voice in how those taxes are spent. Corporations pay taxes, as corporations. So too do most or all of those who work for them, or are invested in them.
Interestingly, Unions do not pay taxes, but they are still allowed to lobby.
My personal solution for this is simple: reduce the corporate tax rate to zero, then prohibit them, and Unions, from lobbying.
Managed mild opposition. The voice of the moderate totalitarians.
The role of the press is to get you comfortable with change, so have a good laugh, and just accept that freedom of speech is over.
I like the phrase "Moderate totalitarians". It makes me think of the line in Brazil I have thought of often "don't hold out too long: it may affect your credit score".
You may be right. I hope you are wrong. Neither of us really knows. I'm writing this, so some freedom remains, but most Americans are not capable of hearing what I am saying.
Would a compromise be that "the decision to listen is over?" And what could be the value of free speech when a substantial and consequential segment of the populace is putting their fingers in their ears and shouting "I'M NOT LISTENING. I'M NOT LISTENING".
Life can be scary. Truth about life can thus be scary. And it would seem truths about life are much too scary for many of us.
‘Brazil’ is one of the greatest films of all goddamn time!
I have long said that as a dystopia it got closest to what I actually see. He was apparently both satirizing the 80's, as he saw them, and forecasting our Collectivist future. In our dystopia, you can get any sort of milk you like with your overpriced Latte. But you can't get on the wrong side of the System, or who knows what may happen to you? It's a bunch of billboards concealing a dismal reality.
It’s Kafka meets Orwell meets Monty Python.
Let’s talk about your ducts…
Best comment of the day, so far
If TFP covered all that, it would be under investigation too
So rather than worry about the violence of Muslim bullies, as in Britain, we worry in this country about the even scarier legally sanctioned violence of our own criminally complicit "law enforcement"/crime enabling apparatus? Maybe.
I have said for some time that it never gets easier to speak up, only harder. The time is now. Yesterday would have been even better, but tomorrow is worse.
Our tyrants may be benign. Certainly in the earliest stages that is the smartest strategy. Lenin, in his early days, signalled moderation and peace. But he was just wrapping things up, and once that was done, the gloves came off.
I will just say to anyone reading this: you cannot comply yourself to true safety. The wolves may leave you alone for a long while, but they can come for you any time they like, for any reason they like, and that applies to the Bluest of the Blue Democrat out there. As one obvious example, just being white and not a high ranking member of the power structure is likely enough for substantial harassment and even ruin.
Totally agree with you UF. Those who dismiss the analysis and warning given by Mike Benz (imo, a patriot reminiscent of Paul Revere), do so at the peril of the entire nation. I used to try my best to persuade those around me. It has been an exhausting effort. They are truly blind fools. When the unraveling begins in their own lives and businesses, the panic will ensue. There will be no more just courts to hear their grievances and their welfare will be expendable by a government who never cared about the Constitution in the first place. You are correct that eventually they will be eyeball to eyeball with the totalitarians they once worshipped.
I have some mild hope that there remain relevant people close to positions of power who may resist all of this. The System has its own logic, but internally they have long found the need, I think, to lie to their "troops", and it may be that at some point the troops realize they are part of a malignant cancer, that is pushing against all the things they thought they were fighting for, like freedom, human rights, and democracy.
Members of our military, FBI, CIA, NSA and other such entities need to start making up their minds, and deciding if they are going to be the good Nazis, who followed orders they knew to be radically wrong, or if they are individually, and perhaps eventually collectively, going to fight for the ideals which made America great.
It's obviously possible to build a much, much better society, but not under the direction of amoral psychopaths working solely for their own personal interests, and under the thrall of profoundly bad ideas.
🏆
Thank you Unsaint!!!
I salute your comment. However please call it Our Republic. “Our Democracy” is really just the PMC demanding that the rabble don’t get a voice.
You are of course technically correct, but ours is a Republic resting on a Democratic basis. The People do in principle elect all of our representatives. If our votes don't matter, then it isn't a Republic either. It's an oligarchy of clever and hidden gansters.
Techno-Feudalism? Inverted Totalitarianism?
I actually wasn’t trying to be pedantic, however perhaps I should have said a Constitutional Republic with elements of representative democracy.
Of course rule by bureaucratic fiat isn’t really either.
Can anyone love Kanye? He's a traveling road show of obscenities. If our "culture" is going to survive, we need the broken windows theory applied to public decency. The Dutch do anything goes better- it stays in one place. The U.S. can't handle it. Very large prostitutes slither around in broad daylight in Oakland parking lots, in front of little kids. If you're not grossed out, you're robbed. Award shows, in behavior and dress, are in the toilet. Fashion is confused with freakishness. We need standards. We're confusing liberty with license. Increasingly, I see this current storm as rooted in the abandonment of integrity.
You're spot on, Susan. Confusing liberty with license and having no standards is exactly it.
Viktor Frankl: "I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast."
I’d never heard that quote… I was inspired to look it up, and the full quote is:
“Freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”
― Viktor E. Frankl
Love it!
Hey at least his wife is clothed in that photo.
For the time being
It’s rooted in the abandonment of conservative values.
Well put Susan!
Damn, surprised to read the hostility and loathing of today's articles from TFP- I really don't give a rat's ass about Kanye, Beyond, Taylor either but have to admit it's nice to have some "fluff" every once in a while.
Not sure what I pay now for Netflix, Amazon Prime, the Indy Pods I subscribe to. I really have to SIFT through what i want to hear, watch , read. And for $8/ month for TFP, I can easily tolerate pieces like these. AND, I really liked reading the letters from 3 young, smart, articulate peeps, brave enough to write about who they are and what they're looking for. Keep those emails coming Suzi- maybe one of us has a son, daughter, neighbor, niece/ nephew, co-worker.....that would be the PERFECT MATCH !!!
How cool would that be!
Exactly how I feel! Bari did a courageous thing and I get frustrated with commenters who assume Bari started this as a conservative-perspective niche project for that audience only, on only news topics (of which we get plenty). There are non- conservatives on here who just really enjoy some quality pieces that are not being covered accurately or at all in the MSM. I skip plenty of articles - like any news consumption - but glad she took this on and want her to continue trying to grow. Bari is one of the few who has the courage and initiative to make something happen in a culture drowning in group think group speak news. Let’s see where it goes. The beauty is you can drop off anytime.
You're missing the point, my friend.
Conservatives WELCOME opposing views which we never get from the MSM. We debate to test our beliefs which is impossible if we only have similar, supportive opinions.
Catherine Herridge was fired from CBS this week because she dared to write a piece on the Hunter Biden laptop coverup. A total slap in the face to freedom of the press.
This is right in Bari's wheelhouse. Tell me why she takes a pass on commenting.
What? Sorry I don’t understand your comment at all. Not sure what point I’m missing. It’s Saturday morning - for what I pay, I get a lot to read or not read this weekend and that’s enough.
I think 234 is pointing out that conservatives are here because Bari publishes a different POV that can then be debated in the comments. Most of the conservatives I know do not want to live in an echo chamber. They want straight news. Propaganda will never cut it.
I agree 100%. I wish we had more educated, articulate leftists to debate, who's first words out of their mouths are not "What about Trump?"
I get that - 100 percent. That’s why I’m here, too though (not a conservative). Some of us on the left are starved for the same thing and I appreciate not being moderated, insulted, etc. in the comments (although I don’t debate conservatives on their views here, I generally comment when I am calling out much of the new irrational madness of the left (my camp). I think 234 want Bari to have covered soecific topical issues and that’s fine - but FP is growing - I don’t think saying FP is dedicated to fluff crap is at all accurate or fair.
Bari is providing space for propaganda - free content for different audiences and does deliver on that. Anyway - my POV.
I look forward to reading more of your comments. I am not conservative either. Right-leaning to be sure but totally sick of both political parties. I think another thing that “right-leaners” are completely aware of is that the left has a monopoly on the press- on all platforms- which leaves us with very few places to get real news. I am just hoping TFP will continue to deliver the news. I think her point about Catherine Herridge, who is a serious journalist, was just fired from CBS for covering the Hunter Biden story in-depth AND then CBS confiscated all her computers etc which contained her confidential sources. It does seem as if that would be a story that the TFP would want to report on considering they want the Press to be free to report what they find. Anyway, I appreciate your response.
Agree!
We get news here that we will not get anywhere else. I think that is fantastic.
if TFP wants to be a yenta. get a separate substack. and make people pay like a real yenta does
“Just as Taylor Swift has completed her transition from country music to the Queen of Pop, Beyoncé has done the same in reverse”
———————————————————-
I always thought the Taylor Swift conspiracy was weird and didn’t care that much about it.
Then I saw someone on Twitter who was trying to debunk it and they explained that George Soros bought her music but he did not own it anymore.
So I looked into it and George Soros paid like $200 million for her music. She then re-recorded her music and got the rights back and so he sold it.
So essentially George Soros gave Taylor Swift $200 million for her music rights and then she got her music rights back for free. Ummmmmm……
So now I still don’t care about the conspiracy but kinda think it’s a conspiracy.
Yes, it’s economics. Social engineering redistribution of wealth. The oxymoron is that Beyoncé and JayZ must maintain billionaire status to do so. Country music is extremely profitable, hence the foray into the genre. And…I’m sure they’re having a laugh at the irony of profiting off country music base. Don’t listen don’t buy.
Sorry Kevin you're wrong on this one. Soros didn't give Swift $200 million. The money went to Scooter Braun, who had a huge spat with Taylor Swift because he held all the rights to her earlier recordings through the company she signed with. She rerecorded because she never had the rights to her own music and Scooter wouldn't give/sell it back to her.
Don't think you care but if you want some tabloid reading to know more: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a29807801/taylor-swift-scooter-braun-scott-borchetta-tyrannical-control-amas-netflix-doc/
To be clear, I’m still only at 10% that it’s a conspiracy, but I was previously at 0%
Right but she still got all of her music back for free, yes?
No she never got them back. She did the only thing she could, which was to say screw you to Scooter Braun and rerecord it to redirect the royalties to the same songs to her rerecord instead. Her fans are rabid so they're listening to her rerecords. The copyrights to her old backlist, which Soros bought, became basically worthless.
Yes this is the exact concept I am referring to with more details included.
I absolutely am not going to discuss copyright law, but Taylor Swift finding an amazing loophole that’s super obvious combined with Soros losing nine figures almost immediately in an industry he’s not involved with looks like he paid for her to get her rights back for free.
She’s not the only person with loyal fans. Was there a Napster-level music industry apocalypse of people re-recording to subvert copyright law?
Sorry Kevin, I don't follow. How did Soros paying help her? She could rerecord even if Scooter still held the copyright. She had that right in her original contract with the production company. In fact, her rerecording has resulted in studios now including contract terms to prevent musicians from rerecording in the future.
Napster was a different issue. It was about unauthorized use by listeners. Rerecording wouldn't change anything as the listeners could upload the rerecorded versions too. It had nothing to do with contractual agreements as to authorized use.
You are telling me the details that have been reported.
I am telling you that if George Soros spends nine figures to buy an asset and there’s a loophole that makes it immediately worthless, which he didn’t notice, I’m very suspicious.
Re-recording would take a month or so and boom she has nine figures of IP in her possession. If she always could have done that she never would have had a feud with Scooter. She just would have done it immediately to burn him.
Huge holes in this story.
Thanks for the info QX
Thanks for the research KD! I've always wondered about the Swift phenomena.
It’s kinda amazing how dumb some of these comments are. If you don’t like the fluff, skip the read. I doubt Bari and team are spiking a in-depth expose of Hamas in favor of publishing this.
Not sure why you want to advertise in the comments section that you’re a humorless scold.
I remember when I first started my subscription, the FP was publishing maybe one or two articles a week. Now we sometimes get multiple articles in a day. And to top it off I get some light-hearted cultural pieces to start my Saturday with? Awesome!
Gimme a break. I might be bipolar
Would you keep your Wall Street Journal subscription if one day a week you got garbage like this? And nothing else?
Oh dear lord. I don’t want to cost Bari any money but I’m not sure this is the place you’re looking for.
OFf topic: I bloked two people and still receive their comments. Why?
How do you block?
Tap the icon before the name and go to their about page. There should be an option there, at least on the website, not sure about the app.
I'm more curious who they are? I could probably guess one of them, but the other?
He who shall not be named seems unblockable. He also seems to not subscribe to anything. How does he post ?
Careful, folks, caaaaarefuuuulllll…. I think I hear him rustling in the bushes, somewhere in Siberia… 😆
KD
I tried it and it does not work!
How do you do it?
I tried to block someone. You press on their name and the next window that pops up gives you the option to block. But if I recall, it only blocked them for that thread. The next day they were back.
I’ll try it. Seems like they need to work the glitches out. It’s taken forever for them to do that regarding other things on the comment section.
You might try the blocking again using the Substack website (via a browser) rather than using the app. Some Substack functions ONLY work via the website, like editing one’s comments. I have no idea why…
🎯
same here,,,I tried the right click technique on the person and I was able to choose to block,,,,but that did not work.
I am really enjoying reading the Lonely Hearts. I am not actually looking for love, but the mini- essays are actually funny and interesting. Keep publishing them!
Eli's ranting about Kanye being an "anti-Semitic edgelord" peppered with childish name calling is disgusting. Kanye's comments are awful, but they often sound more like the rantings of a person having a manic episode due to Bipolar disorder, for which it's well documented that Kanye suffers from. Him saying that "The Rothschild's are out to get him" sounds more like a person suffering from psychosis, which is a symptom of bipolar mania, rather than true anti-Semitism. Eli leaves this important context out of his article, all to whine about he feels personally victimized as a Jew. Shame on him, and shame on TFP for printing an article that trashes a clearly mentally ill person.
When from the depths of their unfiltered psychotic souls people rant about Jews, and claim the Jews are after them, or a specific Jew is out to get them, then they are probably antagonistic towards same. I call that antisemitism even if they're crazy.
Anyway, I have never put much store in the insanity plea.
It's fine to criticize his comments, but not even bringing up his Bipolar disorder as a contributing part of his bizzare commentary is leaving out a massive part of this story.
On the contrary, I responded by saying that what burbles up from the mouths of those with bipolar disease, undergoing psychotic episodes, tells us what they're really thinking.
That's not how psychosis works.
Sometimes, that is correct. Often, they are literally out of their minds or in some form of psychosis and will say and do things that have nothing to do with their underlying beliefs. Don’t know about Kanye - but if it is bipolar mania/schizoaffective, it may or may NOT reflect his real views.
Perhaps. And yet: In vino veritas.
This is a good point but the problem is that the truth about his condition/state is not fully known, either. And although I agree that his disorder MAY explain some of his paranoia, etc., those who suffer from the disorder will tell you that a manic state sometimes is the explanation for some behaviours, beliefs, they will also tell you that sometimes a manic episode simply amplifies a believe or position (in other words, the lack of inhibition experienced emboldens them to simply say things that are reflective of who they are or what they believe, without restraint). So I think you make a great point, but it’s also risky to assume it is ALL due to his condition (if it is verified). I think a professional who has experience with many patients with this disorder could shed a lot of light on the point you bring up. It’s not wise to just assume things about any disorder he may be suffering from (we don’t know exactly) and attribute it to that only. If he does live with that disorder, it is a complex one to say the least.
I personally would have at least mentioned it, I agree, but the writer doesn’t have the authority to know for sure so may not want to allege or assume anything without verification (after all it was Kanye’s ex wife Kim who berated people on Twitter for pointing out Kayne’s possible mental disorder/struggles). I sort of see a similarity with the whole “Free Britney” campaign where her supporters relentlessly demonized and attacked her father, family for conservatorship arrangement without ever acknowledging their reasons for doing so and how much they may have actually helped her. The statements made were so damning against her family, in so much detail and so wild (how could they possibly know all these things that are sealed records of her situation)?
Again, to me it seems VERY clear she suffers from a similar disorder and much of her behaviour since being in her own is bizarre and concerning - but since we don’t know exactly what the situation is, it is really to difficult to know how to assess how she’s doing. It’s just obvious she’s not doing very well and I feel empathy for her. Maybe she is happier or in a better situation but it doesn’t seem that way.
Anyway, I’m not a professional in MH or the disorder you mention -
but with respect to Kanye I just think we should be careful in assuming too many things - even if it does seem clear he is living with SOME kind of specific condition(s) and could explain some of his behaviour.
Thank you. I agree completely. I thought made it clear that his comments are anti-Semitic and awful, but likely amplified by Bipolar disorder. The way he speaks and rants are consistent with someone having a manic episode. I have a family member with the disorder, and have learned it's best not to engage with this behavior at all. The Free Press was great because Bari and some of the writers are thoughtful about forming their opinions and reporting with nuance and context. Lately, there have been more opinion pieces lacking in context from leftist writers that are better suited for the NYT and Rolling Stone.
You are right we shouldn't assume, but Eli is assuming there is nothing more to Kanye's comments than anti-Semitism, where there is very relevant context he's leaving out. He shouldn't have written this at all, and TFP should have higher standards.
Yes, I know someone close to me with this disorder and it’s unbelievably challenging to say the least.
Let’s see where Bari and her team take this - I’m a leftist and enjoy her site - mostly because it produces quality pieces that strive for accuracy and not hysteria and it was bold and courageous of her to attempt to get back to some journalism with integrity and at least offer perspective that is missing in the MSM which is just group speak and group think but loud.
If anyone knew how hard it it is to produce good content while trying to grow - they may be a little kinder to Bari and the FP. But hopefully they read comments (they do) and take that in as part of their little engine that could vision.
As for Kanye - I agree he needs help of some kind - if he’s getting it, it’s sadly not working - a personal opinion only.
I consider myself a traditional liberal, which is why the complete disregard for mental illness bothers me so much in this article. It's an awful illness for the sufferer and sometimes even worse for their families, particularly when the person refuses treatment, which is common. Kanye himself said that he has Bipolar disorder, but doesn't use any medications. It's sad.
I hear you - personally, I think he may have more than just one thing going on, just an opinion. Mentioning the possibility of his MI should have been written in for context, I agree - carefully - because then you get the hysterical crazy leftists in our camp screaming that how do we know, are we professional, are we just racist and assume he can’t have his own views, etc. It’s so exhausting dealing with that, too. Anyway, I think it’s good feedback, hopefully they will take it in.
Agree. The only reason the MSM reported incessantly on his anti-Semitic tweets is because he was a Trump supporter, and it served the Trump = Nazi narrative. Had he been anti-Trump, it would have been as you described. I think this could have been a good article if Eli would have highlighted the double standard, the impact of mental illness in general, along with the potential damage of his Tweets while reviewing his new album and creative talent. Oh well.
Thank you Lauren! I agree wholeheartedly!
Yes, when will these whiny Jews put a sock in it already? It’s been millennia of this and I’ve about had it.
Beethoven, Mozart, The Beatles: musical geniuses.
Kanye West: NOT a musical genius.
When someone rants as an antisemite, or anti-anything, for no reason other than their own hatred, they should be shot in the kneecaps (ok, maybe not), but at least boycotted. Not praised. Fuck Kanye West.
he probably would enjoy that
I appreciated seeing the friendship ads in the "lonely hearts" section--I'm not looking to date, but I understand that platonic relationships are very important in life, and it can be hard to make new friends as an adult, especially in a polarized culture. So if TFP is able to foster RL connections among like-minded people, I'm all for it!
Next week we'll have a coloring contest from the BLM coloring book. Winner will get tickets to a Shakira sleep-over
🤣😂
The world of caring what others think of me left me long ago, but in certain parts of the country, it defines people. I can't fathom what the life of a Poser is like.
As a young man reading a biography of James Madison, I saw he had a closet of blue and back suits. He was consistent, and I modeled my fashion on being conservative and not caring what others thought. Books are an exercise of the brain, and I have over 500 of them. I drink richly of history, business, and philosophy. In my twenties, I also discovered the Teaching company and learned about various subjects.
Learning is fun, but sadly, Posers seek the affirmation of others and remain intellectually as deep as puddles. They need Kanye or TikTok to inform them how to think. What a pathetic life. Bari, it would help if you had Kat or Suzi interview Brian Johnson and his Heroic platform to help save some of these Posers from an unfulfilling life. People can get saved, but it will take some work. Thanks for sharing different cultural outlooks; they fascinate me.
Rap is annoying noise. The lyrics may be clever but it is not musical.
Blasting from passing cars, it sounds like rhythmic aggression.
But Tupac is incredible!
Country generally sings about love not sex. Beyoncé doesn’t get that plus the profanity is just ridiculous. Pat Moynihan would call this defining deviancy down.