I am posting this in case anyone else doesn’t know how to either become a paid or cancel their paid subscription. I have a page on my main page with this info but I know most people just get my emails and don’t visit the main page so every so often I have to send out an annoying email reminder.

So here you go - click here which has instructions on how to become a paid subscriber:

And here is how you manage your subscription or become a free subscriber. I haven’t yet put anything behind the paywall and depend on the kindness of strangers. It has proven slightly difficult to keep track of all of the different ways people have sent in donations and I don’t want to leave anyone out - but I am working on it, five years now. :)

Thanks for being such supportive readers and commenters.

This is a difficult time for me. I’m not gonna lie about that. There is so much division and chaos that it’s hard to just disconnect from it and touch grass, as they say, or dog fur, as the case may be.

The money part of Substack is by far the hardest. It is a new business model with an open-ended conclusion. Is it better than advertiser-based? Better than a salaried position? These are all questions that will be answered one day.

But for now, I just wanted to say thank you and that it means a lot to me that you care. I notice, and I appreciate it. That’s all.

The point is that the Oscars a silly ritual about people patting themselves on the back. The more political they are, the worse they are because it’s politics that has not only destroyed the Oscars, but Hollywood too. If you think Redgrave or Marlon Brando or anyone else was right in using their award win to push their political agendas, fine. My point is that too much of that has now alienated their audience because it is preaching to the choir.

If you’re interested, she interviewed me for about an hour. You can find that interview by clicking here.

She’s also worth reading at her Substack, and her videos are great too. We talk mostly about my life but she also has some stories to tell. We’re toying with the idea of doing a regular podcast.

It took many attempts of trying but I finally got through to tech support via a tangled web of various wrong paths before finally finding the right path. The important lesson is that you should secure your accounts, always, with two-factor authentication. That will stop a hacker, or at least slow them down. They might still get past that, but it’s a good place to start.

The second thing to do is to follow the directions specifically on X when you file your report. It can’t be what I did, which was throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick. I did not know what email I used when I started the account because it went back to 2010. So when I checked the box that said “I don’t have access to that email,” it gave me the proper response, and I was able to respond to the email and put the process in motion.

Even though I’ve been online for 30 years, there are still things I do not know. But thankfully, it’s restored. That is [at] realsashastone. I’ll probably keep [at] substacksasha for postings of pieces here. We’ll see.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that the drama is now over.

Thanks for hanging in there with me in this sad little drama for the internet age.

I canceled his subscription with a full refund. You can find how to do this on the main page. I have put up a handy link with all of that information.

As longtime readers know, I’ve been trying to paywall some of my content, but so many have donated from different places that I didn’t want to leave anyone out. But I will probably do it at some point. I just have to figure out how to best manage it. So far, I have liked offering up what I write for free and counting on goodwill. But I understand that’s not fair to paying subscribers who deserve extra perks. So I think I will try to come up with something yet again.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

I did not break the rules. You guys have locked me out three different times. I’m just trying to use X. Why is it so difficult? My original account, @realsashastone was hacked by crypto pirates -- still can’t be used. I then started @sashastone26 and you banned me for impersonating myself. Now, I finally found a new way to have a second account, which is directly attached to my Substack and you’ve suspended that too. I am at a loss here. I have been a good customer for years. I have two premium subscriptions. I have written articles praising and defending Elon Musk. I use X all of the time. I do not understand why this keeps happening and no one in your company will get back to me or help me.

My apologies for leading you astray. About 400 of you had followed me before they pulled the plug. I don’t actually know what to do now. I’m all out of options.

There is a certain type of subscriber who gets angry and resentful after signing up for a paid subscription. They decide to open a dispute. It hasn’t happened a lot, but every so often. The most recent one is from a woman who disputed two $7 charges. To dispute them will cost me an extra $15. To accept them means I have to admit I charged her fraudulently, which I did not.

I understand Substack can be confusing. I have an entire post on how you can unsubscribe.

I also have a tip jar for people who don’t want to subscribe but would like to donate.

As you know, the financial aspect of this is always uncomfortable for everyone involved. I’m glad that so many of you appreciate my work. I remain shocked and amazed that anyone would pay to subscribe.

I get emails from people saying they have to drop the paid because they can’t afford it anymore. Totally understood. You don’t even have to tell me. I understand. I appreciate those who have paid subscriptions, as I do not — at the moment — put anything behind a paywall. It is generous and kind of you in tough times to appreciate the work I put into these podcasts.

But please, don’t order “disputes.” You can always write me if you can’t figure it out and want to cancel your paid subscription.

Just don’t be like this woman:

I never “took money” from her or anyone else and resent the accusation…

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Working on a piece now that I will post either tonight or tomorrow. Hope you are having a great weekend.

Thanks. Happy New Year. Beware of scams!

Merry Christmas!

Chargebacks are when a subscriber does not recognize the charge and reports it to their bank, suggesting I charged them fraudulently, which I would never do.

They look like this:

The way it works is that there is nothing I can do on my end. I can try to provide evidence of when the person subscribed. However, in almost every case, they cost $15 regardless of the circumstances.

It’s not necessary to go through all of this. You can simply cancel your subscription or you can write me and ask for a refund.

You can find the option to cancel in your “subscriber preferences.” I have also left instructions in this post:

Thanks.

I wish all of us Substackers could design our own sites, like the Free Press does. They have the ability to make it so very clear for their users. But the lower-level sites like mine do not. So let’s go through it.

We’ll use Racket.news.

1. Your top right is where your circle logo/image is.

2. Click the little arrow by your picture.
   

   

   
   3. Click where it says “manage subscription.” This is what I see:
   

   

   
   So the “notifications” mean how you select what you want to read. On mine, I only have a few of them but “Tucker’s Interviews” will be one. Just unclick it and it will not arrive in your inbox.
   
   They also have this option for paid subscribers:
   

   

   But I have not yet set that up on my site.
   
   4. To unsubscribe as a paid subscriber, you must scroll down to the bottom:
   

   

   
   Some people have asked me why I post the Tucker Carlson interviews. I do it because way back when Fox News fired him, many of us felt cheated out of Tucker’s nightly monologues, which I loved. So once he began building back his voice online, I posted his interviews here for my subscribers who do not use social media.
   
   But Tucker doesn’t need me to do that anymore because he has his own very popular YouTube channel. That’s why I took Tucker’s videos off my main page, though I still send them out to people who appreciate them, and many of my readers do. We even had a poll one time, and the results were overwhelming.
   
   I hope that clarifies it.
   
   

This comment comes courtesy of a reader named Rich:

Big fan of yours. I am the guy who encouraged you to keep “be true to your own self“. The music you plan is many times horrible. Today was extra horrible. Why do you do that?

First off, I appreciate the effort you took to encourage me to keep the phrase. That’s very generous and kind of you. But second, the “horrible” music will probably always be “horrible.”

I imagine the music I choose for the podcasts isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Look, I never liked Steely Dan. No amount of enthusiasm by anyone could convince me that they were good band. There is no way to please everyone.

A quick background on the podcasts — I didn’t even use to do them. I just wrote pieces here. But then, at some point, I started recording them, and before long, people liked the recorded versions more than the written ones, although there is probably an equal share of both.

The podcasts are very much my own particular style. I don’t think anyone else in the podcast lane does them the way I do, with music and such. But that’s how I like to do them, and honestly, that isn’t going to change.

The last podcast I was in a rush. I knew I’d be up late, and when you’re driving across the country, the last thing you want to be is drowsy behind the wheel. Keeping up with your sleep is the number one most important thing to do when driving five hours every day down the interstate.

But I had to get one out, and I couldn’t spend as much time on it as I usually would, perfecting it. I left out the names of many women I would have liked to have credited, for instance. And the music was a wee bit too much—even I can admit that. But again, I didn’t want to spend an hour or two tinkering to make it perfect.

Then again, if the music is often times “horrible,” then last night’s wouldn’t have been so much more horrible than usual.

Some of the videos in the piece had their own music — like the Trump video, which came from his own YouTube channel. Other pieces had different music and generally, I can blend them better. But this time, I figured, just get it done.

I’m happy with how it turned out, given the circumstances. As to the comment that my music is always “horrible,” there is nothing I can do about that because there is nothing I want to do about that. I offer these up for free. They take a lot of time to put together — way too much time. I write them, I rewrite them, I record them, then I edit them.

But if it bothers you, don’t listen to it. If you are a paying subscriber, you can cancel your subscription in your subscriber preferences, top right. Thanks for the feedback, though.

While I have you here, in case you missed it, Miranda Devine launched a new podcast with her first guest, the President of the United States:

Roseanne being funny on Triggernometry:

Tulsi Gabbard on her recent trip to Hiroshima:

Rest in Peace, Brian Wilson

Even still, most of what I post continues to be free because I prefer it that way, personally, and I’m making a little money, not a lot. I have about 2K paid subscribers vs. about 28K free subscribers. I’m grateful for it, as I am still amazed anyone would pay anything, especially considering how many people are writing on Substack.

But I have decided to paywall my travel posts for two reasons: the first, as a “thank you” to paid subscribers, and the second, because, quite frankly, I couldn’t take this trip or even run this site without them.

I have received a complaint from a reader who doesn’t like the “free preview” posts that say you can read the rest if you become a paid subscriber. He said they are annoying. The solution would be to send them to paid subscribers and skip the free preview. Does that sound like a good plan?

Let me know what you think.