I want to say before anything else that I greatly appreciate those of you who have chosen to subscribe to this Substack. It started as a simple, rather selfish, daily preparation routine for my trading of this index futures contract. As I have gotten established with that routine, I have lately expanded the news and comment section to add some context and to keep people informed of current news as it relates to markets. It is that commentary that led to my articles being read before the WSJ on the now-defunct but then very popular Mr. Swing dot com trading website. That led to a nearly 66-month career as a trader analyst on a radio program on the now defunct BizRadio Network which was heard in some large metro radio markets on the AM and FM dial. I got paid NOTHING for that, as I was a trader and not a radio host. I think my contributions were a very large part of the very high rankings we got on Apple Podcasts, at one point being #2 in the Apple Podcast list for financial podcasts.
I am a libertarian-conservative (some call that conservaterian), a devotee of the Austrian School of Economics, and a very honest writer. I will always inject my opinion into my writing. I do that NOT to have anyone agree with me, but to get my readers to think, and think critically. I still believe in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, and I think everyone should as well.
Because I do that, and because I am not a bomb thrower, I built a rather large following on Facebook. I also had a ton of friends there tied to trading and my business interests.
In 2015, I began to be shadowbanned on Facebook for my posts. Shortly after that, the “fact-checker” era began. When that happened, thinking that my account would be threatened by such action, I began to proactively block the fact-checkers with a method I learned from a Rumble video (which is now gone by the way. Shame on Rumble). I found a way to accelerate that process to make it easy, and over the next 7 years, I blocked roughly 7500 fact-checkers by my count.
I stopped for a while, and then at the beginning of 2023, I was put in Facebook jail because I criticized Uyghur enslavement by the PRC. Very shortly after that, I began to get warnings about my posts (which are largely about economics). In April, I began to aggressively block fact-checkers again. I was not going to put up with that nonsense.
On May 27, 2023, I received a message from Facebook that my account was being hacked and that my password would need to be changed, and that I would have to verify my email and my cellphone number. I was provided with Facebook credentials. When I did that, my Facebook account, along with all of my business accounts, was flipped, and I was not allowed access to my account. Subsequently, some fraudsters hacked the account and began to contact my friends through Messenger to offer them some bogus loan program. I did all I could to stop it, including contacting Facebook security, and they continued to deny my ID (expanded by birth certificate and other data). I made three attempts, and finally, Facebook accepted my ID, but all they sent me was a link to their “Community Standards” website. Facebook had finally gotten rid of me in a way the fact-checkers could not. I was pushed off of Facebook forever.
I will not be pushed off, shadowbanned, or “curated” (as Elon Musk of Musk-er calls it) by anyone ever again. I am going to make my stand on Substack and I will comment as I please. I am not abusive, nor will I disparage anyone else in the process of my commentary. As America seemingly devolves before our eyes into a corporatist/fascist police state, I will continue to comment until I am carried away in handcuffs.
If you want to comment on what I say, you are free to make comments in the comment section. I am always open to that. I will not be bullied out of giving my opinion though. Too many hard-working and patriotic forebears spilled too much blood for this country to make me abandon my birthright as an American citizen. I want you to stay as a reader/subscriber. That will not, however, blunt my opinion about things. Ain’t gonna happen :) .
I just want to be crystal clear about that. I am done with censorship. If you want that, you can censor yourself or hide from dissenting opinions. I will say that as I say that I love each one of my readers. I do this to be some kind of aid to others who struggle to create trade plans.
As Forrest Gump fictionally said, “That’s all I have to say about that”.
Have a great day everyone! I am out!
Well said!