This is absolutely unbelievable! Here we are in 2024 - the United States of America, formerly known as the most free country in the world. Not anymore. What has happened in this country since the election of the great divider is just beyond comprehension. God help us all
This won’t stop. We need a alt-Substack, without stripe. Substack owes us an explanation, Substack also needs to be punished. Here’s an opportunity for Musk.
These people love the darkness and hate the light: "Stripe has apparently modified those web-based resources in which they has previously indicated that this policy was being implemented in response to Federal US Government pressure to delete any reference to Federal US Government actions prompting these policies." Outrageous!
What is the common denominator to all the totally unnecessary problems "we the people face today? federal government. Like china, all the atrocities and betrayals lead back to
03/29/24: Nice alibi! They get to blame the government (which is NOT supposed to be doing this) for doing what they would have done/did ANYWAY. Maybe when they're done f'ing up Stripe (busted, how many stripes did they lose?), they can run over to NBC-Pravda "News" and help Conde, Leist, Rodriguez, Blumenstein, Jones, and Brown completely discombobulate that barrel of media monkeys by RE-HIRING "Triple-Chin" Ronna (McDaniel).
Keep a close eye on them. Paypal cancelled their "pay us $2500 if we don't like you" policy, but stuck it back in after the publicity died down. I ended my 20+ year relationship with them after that.
When Trump lost (stolen election), after more than a decade, I dumped Amazon and paypal. I was spending thousands on business and personal purchases, and now they all go local. Not a big of a margin, but worth it.
I ended it the first time around and didn’t wait. Have never gone back. Humans are the only species who have put themselves into a box with regard to information sharing. We have set up systems requiring taxes to be paid and bills for goods and services to be paid. So we charge for our thoughts and data. Something needs to give and I think it’s humans who need to rethink their life habits. Personally, I’ve never thought my thoughts or sharing of information were something I needed to be paid for. Maybe my honey or herbal products. And those can be done through barter if need be. I like chatting and listening when it comes to ideas over a glass of wine or whatever. When we charge for our ideas and data sharing we start to put ownership onto thoughts. That has an unwholesome trend that I don’t really think we want to drift into.
This opens up a bit of a conundrum. At the end of the day all people really have of value is their time and effort. The grocery store only takes cash. If people are putting significant amounts of time and effort into coming up with ideas or advice which is useful to others or that for whatever reason it might be good for them to know, that time is now not available to be used in more tangible ways like feeding their cows or plumbing somebody's house or maybe tilling their garden. All of us can only afford to give away so much time no matter what we do to support ourselves. I guess the secret is voluntary exchange. If people feel one's ideas and advice are valuable to them and they voluntarily pay something for that then this is nothing more than the exercise of free trade.
Like you, Forest, I have never felt like I was in a position to ask people to offer payment for my advice.
To some extent I see the conundrum and we do pay for books and things. Those are thoughts and even advice we are paying for. But, for instance in the last 4+ years I have spent almost every morning reading stuff; science papers; blogs; newsletters; news articles; etc. Then I’ve taken some of what I consider to be the most accurate or interesting of all of that and summarize it for a group of folks I put together made up of locals and some of my past clients/patients and such who were interested in my take on what was going on. Because I’m a nut about researching things to run down accuracy and known for that for one thing. And because I was horrified by the glassy-eyed obedience I was seeing folks fall into with everything. And it all kept growing as we found out from many people that there was a history of this in our government(s) in addition to just the pharm/medical worlds in which I felt pretty comfy speaking to. I’ve been doing that for several decades. So more research and more reading to understand more. Sometimes paying for these substacks in order to get data I trust or just to see what some folks are up to and saying.
Never once have I ever considered asking anyone to pay me for this time or effort. I care about what is happening to our world and our country and MY life and those around me. I want to get all that back on track so I can enjoy my retirement. In realizing that isn’t going to happen I’m just now doing my part to share data and thoughts in an effort to get as many people to think and ask questions as I can so that maybe we grow the non-compliance population. And get them off their collective butts to do something besides hand wringing or whatever.
I have a property that I feel blessed to live on and we are working it to help us o that in the event things go south and also for the joy of doing those things. That costs us money. We have pensions and those are quite vulnerable to everything going on so that if those get shut down we have a problem. We aren’t independently wealthy like some folks and in the end I’m not seeing that it would matter. I’m not good with that part. We are aging. We aren’t sure we want to live beyond what we could manage in any case if it gets ugly. So, maybe my thoughts are simply my legacy to the world and my gift. What else is there outside of who we also help while here in any case.
Speaking of God: It seems to me that we can't always know how we will be rewarded for trying our best to do the right thing or to help others when there may be little to no benefit or sometimes maybe even a cost for ourselves in those actions. But I've seen enough surprising things happen to believe that God provides for those that are doing good and generous work.
Exactly...LSD (liberal socialists democrats/marxists) very smart as play the long game. This is a temporary reprieve...which is better than nothing. As Arnold stated...I'll be back. They'll be back after the Doc as he's telling the truth about the lies!
Lonnie, sorry but I am not familiar with Paypal's "pay us $2500 if we don't like you" policy. Could you detail that one for me please.
I haven't used Paypal in years. I will likely drop them altogether now if I believe they are manipulating / harassing people who advocate for certain, unrelated to financial business, policies.
Total control...,
I am feeling like a guillotine moment is about to arrive soon.
Paypal, which has access to your bank accounts & credit cards declared if you said anything that they, in their sole discretion, made paypal look bad somehow, they would just take $2500 from you. You get no say in the matter. No appeal. You're walking a tightrope with no idea what might trigger them. My new supplier uses stripe unfortunately, although there haven't been any crazy demands as of yet. Paypal is easy to avoid, stripe would be more difficult.
I have been trying to stop, but it won't work. It is very hard to get rid of these people. And after all, sometimes it is easier to use paypal, since I order things abroad now and then. Usually the only available option is paypal. Use it may be 3 or 4 times a year, they won't get rich off of me.
yes I do that most of the time. But when I tried to quit my PayPal account I couldn't. The only thing I got is a warning that once deleted I would not be able to reapply for PayPal. I finally gave up. I use it very seldom. The Turkish company where I order yarn can process credit card as well.
Yes, I got the same bs on their website. They were trying to stem the tide of people bailing to make things look better, delay. However, I waited a month or so and then, as I recall, just called them and insisted they cancel the account and delete all my confidential information. They did.
I could have it backward too-- maybe I got on the website 2nd time.
As a buyer I don't think this $2500 punishment applies to you, only the people having their credit cards processed through paypal. However buyers not using paypal would send a sign.
Very happy they reversed this for you. I am worried about the average person who cannot afford to take legal action. I hear comments such as “ You/they can take legal action” but that is not a viable option for the average person. Lawfare has been used in such a large degree by those wishing to change our nation. They often have “nonprofits” to back them but “our side” often does not. They are using so many different methods to institute widescale change. The administrative state cannot be fought except by those who can afford to sue or threaten to sue. But then it takes years and too much money for people like say the family farmer to fight back. It is a very scary time for our nation.
Kelly, worse than having non-profits or NGO’s on their side, they have the bottomless resources of the entire Federal government to pursue their agenda. Witness the dozen heavily armed FBI agents that recently arrested two Christian men in the early morning hours, one for praying, the other for defending his young son from an angry abortion mill worker.
Exactly! And if they (the gov't) run low on money they simply borrow (print) more from the fed which the taxpayers are on the hook to pay the interest for.
So, the bottom line is you're paying the people who are screwing you too.
"In my opinion, it is very unfortunate that Stripe and Substack are pursuing these policies, which are absolutely contrary to the principles of support of free speech upon which Substack was founded."
FIFY:
"...which are absolutely contrary to the principles of support of free speech which Substack says it was founded."
This is the first shot. They will be back. Time to investigate alternatives. The con has been revealed.
I agree with you. I write checks and mail them. Without a Substack and Stripe that might be worth the hassle. On the other hand flexibility would be lost. Further, I've read more than 3 articles and heard announcements by the PO advising us not to mail checks, too many mail thefts.
I have sent birthday cards with cash in them for over 40 years. I know it will probably happen some day, but even those bright colored envelopes have not been stolen yet.
Congratulations on this victory and thank you for fighting this Communistic endeavor! I agree with you, however, that a smaller business without the means to fight, may one day be forced off of Substack if they continue to go after conservative posters.
That is terrific. I felt 'sick in my stomach' when I realized the implications for everyone. It would mean they would have information on subscribers also. It has put me off doing paid subscribing to other sub stack authors due to the privacy violations being implemented. What a pity. It is great that you have resolved this issue for this sub stack, but on the whole it has not been resolved at all. So, is privacy only for those who can afford the legal costs to fight for it? Is Substack breaking the law requesting this information? If not, then the law needs to change.
A suggestion for online payments (in the U.S. anyway):
Pay cash for a prepaid Visa or Mastercard at a local grocery store, do not register the card online, and then use that card for online payments and nothing else -- keeping track of your purchases with a pen and paper.
It's the credit card version of a burner phone.
Most of these cards cannot be reloaded, but that only enhances the anonymity aspect.
I spend a few hundred dollars a year buying a couple of these cards just to pay for items I purchase online, such as subscriptions. 😉
Good news! Glad you stood up to them. The government is out to strangle any thoughts or speech they find contrary to their ideology and plans for totalitarian control. They use compliant and scared businesses to achieve this goal, hiding their deceitful plans. Very similar to their telling social media companies who and what to suppress. We all need to resist
Dr Malone, this begs a Class Action against Stripe & SubStack. The Dhillon law firm and you and other aggreived parties, should be able to participate, and get names of the various Federal Agencies and the individuals requesting such violation of 4A rights.
Wow, I’m so glad you prevailed legally which will make it easier for others. Stripe should be made to absorb the expense. It seems there are battles on every front of every size now. Thank you for engaging the battle. The more they encroach, the worse the next battle.
This is absolutely unbelievable! Here we are in 2024 - the United States of America, formerly known as the most free country in the world. Not anymore. What has happened in this country since the election of the great divider is just beyond comprehension. God help us all
This won’t stop. We need a alt-Substack, without stripe. Substack owes us an explanation, Substack also needs to be punished. Here’s an opportunity for Musk.
Musk's latest business venture:
SubstaX!
I do the watusi, wantonly, in admiration of your wit, sir!
03/29/24: Barely awake this morning, I wonder why I merged the words "want" and "only." Drink more coffee, answer forthcoming...
Yes indeed. Plus, Tucker Carlson would surely be interested in this attack from a company that was supposedly set up to support free speech.
These people love the darkness and hate the light: "Stripe has apparently modified those web-based resources in which they has previously indicated that this policy was being implemented in response to Federal US Government pressure to delete any reference to Federal US Government actions prompting these policies." Outrageous!
What is the common denominator to all the totally unnecessary problems "we the people face today? federal government. Like china, all the atrocities and betrayals lead back to
the people in control.
Check... '1984'... George Orwell... we are there. We must fight off these attempts to curtail our freedoms, or they'll be lost.
So how many of the full-time gov't employees CIA/FBI/DHS/et al operatives, once on the old Twitter-Dorsey payroll, have been transferred to Stripe?
03/29/24: Nice alibi! They get to blame the government (which is NOT supposed to be doing this) for doing what they would have done/did ANYWAY. Maybe when they're done f'ing up Stripe (busted, how many stripes did they lose?), they can run over to NBC-Pravda "News" and help Conde, Leist, Rodriguez, Blumenstein, Jones, and Brown completely discombobulate that barrel of media monkeys by RE-HIRING "Triple-Chin" Ronna (McDaniel).
"...God help us all." He's the only one who can.
Agree!
Congrats on your victory which is a victory for all.
Thank you for this.
Keep a close eye on them. Paypal cancelled their "pay us $2500 if we don't like you" policy, but stuck it back in after the publicity died down. I ended my 20+ year relationship with them after that.
When Trump lost (stolen election), after more than a decade, I dumped Amazon and paypal. I was spending thousands on business and personal purchases, and now they all go local. Not a big of a margin, but worth it.
Good for you!!!!!!!
Brave of you because our brick & mortar retail is really suffering because of Amazon. Making it hard to find product
Tonga back on target.
Ooh, maybe Tonga get zug zug from Lanna, now
I ended it the first time around and didn’t wait. Have never gone back. Humans are the only species who have put themselves into a box with regard to information sharing. We have set up systems requiring taxes to be paid and bills for goods and services to be paid. So we charge for our thoughts and data. Something needs to give and I think it’s humans who need to rethink their life habits. Personally, I’ve never thought my thoughts or sharing of information were something I needed to be paid for. Maybe my honey or herbal products. And those can be done through barter if need be. I like chatting and listening when it comes to ideas over a glass of wine or whatever. When we charge for our ideas and data sharing we start to put ownership onto thoughts. That has an unwholesome trend that I don’t really think we want to drift into.
This opens up a bit of a conundrum. At the end of the day all people really have of value is their time and effort. The grocery store only takes cash. If people are putting significant amounts of time and effort into coming up with ideas or advice which is useful to others or that for whatever reason it might be good for them to know, that time is now not available to be used in more tangible ways like feeding their cows or plumbing somebody's house or maybe tilling their garden. All of us can only afford to give away so much time no matter what we do to support ourselves. I guess the secret is voluntary exchange. If people feel one's ideas and advice are valuable to them and they voluntarily pay something for that then this is nothing more than the exercise of free trade.
Like you, Forest, I have never felt like I was in a position to ask people to offer payment for my advice.
To some extent I see the conundrum and we do pay for books and things. Those are thoughts and even advice we are paying for. But, for instance in the last 4+ years I have spent almost every morning reading stuff; science papers; blogs; newsletters; news articles; etc. Then I’ve taken some of what I consider to be the most accurate or interesting of all of that and summarize it for a group of folks I put together made up of locals and some of my past clients/patients and such who were interested in my take on what was going on. Because I’m a nut about researching things to run down accuracy and known for that for one thing. And because I was horrified by the glassy-eyed obedience I was seeing folks fall into with everything. And it all kept growing as we found out from many people that there was a history of this in our government(s) in addition to just the pharm/medical worlds in which I felt pretty comfy speaking to. I’ve been doing that for several decades. So more research and more reading to understand more. Sometimes paying for these substacks in order to get data I trust or just to see what some folks are up to and saying.
Never once have I ever considered asking anyone to pay me for this time or effort. I care about what is happening to our world and our country and MY life and those around me. I want to get all that back on track so I can enjoy my retirement. In realizing that isn’t going to happen I’m just now doing my part to share data and thoughts in an effort to get as many people to think and ask questions as I can so that maybe we grow the non-compliance population. And get them off their collective butts to do something besides hand wringing or whatever.
I have a property that I feel blessed to live on and we are working it to help us o that in the event things go south and also for the joy of doing those things. That costs us money. We have pensions and those are quite vulnerable to everything going on so that if those get shut down we have a problem. We aren’t independently wealthy like some folks and in the end I’m not seeing that it would matter. I’m not good with that part. We are aging. We aren’t sure we want to live beyond what we could manage in any case if it gets ugly. So, maybe my thoughts are simply my legacy to the world and my gift. What else is there outside of who we also help while here in any case.
Bravo! And God bless you for your efforts, Sir!
Speaking of God: It seems to me that we can't always know how we will be rewarded for trying our best to do the right thing or to help others when there may be little to no benefit or sometimes maybe even a cost for ourselves in those actions. But I've seen enough surprising things happen to believe that God provides for those that are doing good and generous work.
God bless you.
Exactly...LSD (liberal socialists democrats/marxists) very smart as play the long game. This is a temporary reprieve...which is better than nothing. As Arnold stated...I'll be back. They'll be back after the Doc as he's telling the truth about the lies!
Not quite. They play the medium term game. One day they will feel the fires that never end.
Happy Resurrection Day ✝️
I used PayPal one time about 20 years ago. They still harass me about terms of service.
We ended our long term relationship with them as well.
I dumped Paypal too and sold my losing position in stock. Paypal sucks.
I’m not using any longer for payment of my designs. They are arm of IRS
Lonnie, sorry but I am not familiar with Paypal's "pay us $2500 if we don't like you" policy. Could you detail that one for me please.
I haven't used Paypal in years. I will likely drop them altogether now if I believe they are manipulating / harassing people who advocate for certain, unrelated to financial business, policies.
Total control...,
I am feeling like a guillotine moment is about to arrive soon.
Paypal, which has access to your bank accounts & credit cards declared if you said anything that they, in their sole discretion, made paypal look bad somehow, they would just take $2500 from you. You get no say in the matter. No appeal. You're walking a tightrope with no idea what might trigger them. My new supplier uses stripe unfortunately, although there haven't been any crazy demands as of yet. Paypal is easy to avoid, stripe would be more difficult.
Oh My God! How hideous!
So there is a hidden price for financial convenience after all. It just wasn’t immediately obvious until we got pushed into crisis mode.
Disgusting!
Thanks for letting me / us know.
I have been trying to stop, but it won't work. It is very hard to get rid of these people. And after all, sometimes it is easier to use paypal, since I order things abroad now and then. Usually the only available option is paypal. Use it may be 3 or 4 times a year, they won't get rich off of me.
Maybe there is an alternative Ingrid.
I used a company called Wise Financial(UK based) to buy some IVM from India last year. Did not need Paypal.
I use Ebay without Paypal as payment, just use my Visa card.
https://wise.com/
yes I do that most of the time. But when I tried to quit my PayPal account I couldn't. The only thing I got is a warning that once deleted I would not be able to reapply for PayPal. I finally gave up. I use it very seldom. The Turkish company where I order yarn can process credit card as well.
Yes, I got the same bs on their website. They were trying to stem the tide of people bailing to make things look better, delay. However, I waited a month or so and then, as I recall, just called them and insisted they cancel the account and delete all my confidential information. They did.
I could have it backward too-- maybe I got on the website 2nd time.
As a buyer I don't think this $2500 punishment applies to you, only the people having their credit cards processed through paypal. However buyers not using paypal would send a sign.
I have been considering canceling my pp account. Have you found a safer on-line payment system?
Very happy they reversed this for you. I am worried about the average person who cannot afford to take legal action. I hear comments such as “ You/they can take legal action” but that is not a viable option for the average person. Lawfare has been used in such a large degree by those wishing to change our nation. They often have “nonprofits” to back them but “our side” often does not. They are using so many different methods to institute widescale change. The administrative state cannot be fought except by those who can afford to sue or threaten to sue. But then it takes years and too much money for people like say the family farmer to fight back. It is a very scary time for our nation.
Kelly, worse than having non-profits or NGO’s on their side, they have the bottomless resources of the entire Federal government to pursue their agenda. Witness the dozen heavily armed FBI agents that recently arrested two Christian men in the early morning hours, one for praying, the other for defending his young son from an angry abortion mill worker.
Exactly! And if they (the gov't) run low on money they simply borrow (print) more from the fed which the taxpayers are on the hook to pay the interest for.
So, the bottom line is you're paying the people who are screwing you too.
and isn't THAT annoying!
Ha ha ha.... "Annoying" is being terribly polite.
and, actually, not LIKE me! my best attempt at being subtle.
Exactly!
They’re coming for all of us …
Trump always told us, "They're coming for you. I'm just standing in their way." I always wondered what Trump was saying about they're coming for us...
"In my opinion, it is very unfortunate that Stripe and Substack are pursuing these policies, which are absolutely contrary to the principles of support of free speech upon which Substack was founded."
FIFY:
"...which are absolutely contrary to the principles of support of free speech which Substack says it was founded."
This is the first shot. They will be back. Time to investigate alternatives. The con has been revealed.
agree
so, is even SUBSTACK a "plant"? a feint by the CIA?
What do you call that. . . "a limited hangout" ?!
OK, no but, subterfuge of some dang sort.
That is what I always worry about. Anyone that gets large enough -- Rumble, Bitchute, D-Live, Locals, Skool, Odyssey -- likely gets a visit. Then we have to pack our bags and scurry elsewhere. Remember it was Obama who gave up control of domain registration to a woke NGO. Maybe the Taliban had it right to keep all communications off the grid and in person. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jodywestby/2016/09/24/7-days-before-obama-gives-away-internet-national-security/?sh=7d65c6ea30d4
Dr. Malone, instituting a P.O. box for direct check subscription payments is still a very good idea.
ED - exactly right! Easy to write checks, easy to cash checks, less ability to manipulate either party.
I agree with you. I write checks and mail them. Without a Substack and Stripe that might be worth the hassle. On the other hand flexibility would be lost. Further, I've read more than 3 articles and heard announcements by the PO advising us not to mail checks, too many mail thefts.
I have sent birthday cards with cash in them for over 40 years. I know it will probably happen some day, but even those bright colored envelopes have not been stolen yet.
Ditto
Now I understand why Whitney Webb wants crypto rather than Paypal and credit card processing. Views that threaten the regime must be silenced.
Bitcoin would be a game changer.
Congratulations on this victory and thank you for fighting this Communistic endeavor! I agree with you, however, that a smaller business without the means to fight, may one day be forced off of Substack if they continue to go after conservative posters.
That is terrific. I felt 'sick in my stomach' when I realized the implications for everyone. It would mean they would have information on subscribers also. It has put me off doing paid subscribing to other sub stack authors due to the privacy violations being implemented. What a pity. It is great that you have resolved this issue for this sub stack, but on the whole it has not been resolved at all. So, is privacy only for those who can afford the legal costs to fight for it? Is Substack breaking the law requesting this information? If not, then the law needs to change.
A suggestion for online payments (in the U.S. anyway):
Pay cash for a prepaid Visa or Mastercard at a local grocery store, do not register the card online, and then use that card for online payments and nothing else -- keeping track of your purchases with a pen and paper.
It's the credit card version of a burner phone.
Most of these cards cannot be reloaded, but that only enhances the anonymity aspect.
I spend a few hundred dollars a year buying a couple of these cards just to pay for items I purchase online, such as subscriptions. 😉
Brilliant recommendation, and I already do my math the prehistoric way, in my head or on paper.
DTT - Excellent workaround suggestion!
Good news! Glad you stood up to them. The government is out to strangle any thoughts or speech they find contrary to their ideology and plans for totalitarian control. They use compliant and scared businesses to achieve this goal, hiding their deceitful plans. Very similar to their telling social media companies who and what to suppress. We all need to resist
Very happy to see the reversal on requirements!
Dr Malone, this begs a Class Action against Stripe & SubStack. The Dhillon law firm and you and other aggreived parties, should be able to participate, and get names of the various Federal Agencies and the individuals requesting such violation of 4A rights.
dead on Cactus!
Thank you for pursuing this. Others would have not.
Wow, I’m so glad you prevailed legally which will make it easier for others. Stripe should be made to absorb the expense. It seems there are battles on every front of every size now. Thank you for engaging the battle. The more they encroach, the worse the next battle.
"SCORE"!
Nice work....For now!