Nice, right?

Subscription business models are based on the idea of selling a product or service to receive monthly or yearly recurring subscription revenue. They focus on customer retention over customer acquisition. In essence, subscription business models focus on the way revenue is made so that a single customer pays multiple payments for prolonged access to a good or service instead of a large upfront one-time price. Now, the economy is trending toward more subscriptions instead of ownership for cars, software, entertainment, and shopping. This increases the lifetime value (LTV) of the customer.
— Investopedia

When you have to call “customer service” and have to endure a Filipino accent when being told what they can’t (or won’t) do, do you feel like a valued customer after they have your money?

Corporations make you pay for monthly subscriptions despite the fact that some of the services provided are those you really don’t want and would never pay for on their own.

You buy a cell phone so you can communicate instantly with others, but you also get a device that spies on you, “free” functionality apps that also sell your data, divulges your location to people you don’t know, and based on your activity online, sends you dozens of annoying ads per month for products you have no intention of buying.

Granted, there are some “free” products that people can obtain like Facebook, Twitter, and their Big Tech subsidiaries. They just sell your personal data to advertisers.

Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly claims Facebook does not sell data. The statement has become a shield in the tumultuous era for the company. But is it true?

“As a data scientist, I am shocked that anyone continues to believe this claim,” wrote Michael Kosinski, assistant professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, in a New York Times opinion piece. “Every time you click on a Facebook ad, Facebook sells data on you to that advertiser.”
— AZCentral, 2/15/19

Multiply that within the estimated 1.9 billion daily users, that’s a good chunk of income from what in essence are just social media websites and after they get user data, they can abuse their customers as they wish. That’s a business model probably not taught at the Wharton School… yet.

Music streaming subscriptions give you access to genres you appreciate, thus there may be two or three channels of music you’d religiously listen to. But as you (and millions of others) are paying for the service on a monthly basis, you’re also paying for genres you may genuinely dislike and artists you really abhor whose music you would never purchase.

Streaming services, like the music companies of old, screw the artists, but that’s another story altogether.

Cable companies charge monthly for hundreds of television channels while there may be less than a handful any given person may watch on a consistent basis. But since millions of viewers are paying (in some cases) close to a hundred bucks a month for bundle packages, consumers are paying for channels that would go belly up if they had to compete in an ‘à la carte’ environment.

Corporations like Amazon, thanks to their “Prime” subscriptions, are in the entertainment business, are actually making product. Some movie companies are in the streaming business. Simply by adding a “plus” on their brand gives you access to new productions of varying quality, old movies and shows you probably viewed years ago and will probably never voluntarily view again. Consistently good product is another thing, but at least Hollywood is getting paid….

But this is the current business model for corporations who want a steady stream of income despite how well their product performs and/or if all the “services” provided are what people really want or will use.

Apple Inc. is working on a subscription service for the iPhone and other hardware products, a move that could make device ownership similar to paying a monthly app fee, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The service would be Apple’s biggest push yet into automatically recurring sales, allowing users to subscribe to hardware for the first time — rather than just digital services.
— Bloomberg, 3/24/22

So now it’s not enough for families to pay outrageous monthly fees to pay for the phone and service but now Apple wants to charge people for the device’s guts every 30 days.

People used to buy physical newspapers because the wanted to be informed of local and national news. But now that the talent pool has degraded the product to the point where people just find the news they want online for free, some companies are putting out introductory hooks that can be as low as a dollar a week.

 
Seriously, if someone is trying to get you to buy something for a dollar a week, just how good is that product? In some cases, all you’re paying for is the privilege of seeing and hearing people blab. On the course of one’s daily activities, paying people (some of whom you may not choose to hear) to talk doesn’t exactly sound like a wise use of the monthly budget.

For the most part, when you pay a subscription you are subsidizing mediocrity. Some companies are making you choose between paying for crap or losing functionality of an expensive device you either bought outright or are making more monthly payments on.

While there are some aspects of subscription services you need or enjoy, you’re also paying for services and/or talent you may truly despise. That’s how they all stay relevant, fed and you get to pay for it. This is the current business model so suck it up.

That is until the Internet goes down.

Before they lost the 2016 election, the Hillary Clinton campaign tried to set up Donald Trump with fake accusations and use those accusations to portray him as a traitor. They wasted near $32 million taxpayer dollars paying Democrat lawyers in a failed investigation. They lied to courts so they could spy on American citizens. Entertainers publicly fantasized about killing the president. They used third-party hearsay to launch an unsuccessful impeachment proceeding. They harassed and intimidated Administration officials at restaurants and at their homes. They doxxed and assaulted the president’s supporters. They assaulted and assassinated police officers. They used social and the news media to cover-for and censor opposition. They cheated to win the 2020 election. During that time, they vandalized, burned, looted and seized control over parts of major American cities. In 2020, they voted for a senile, old man who, at times, didn’t know where he was or which office he was running for and now wants us to “unite” behind him.

One can clearly see that Democrats are certifiably insane.

Now that Joe Biden believes he’s going to be the next President of the United States, even though his supporters threaten mass violence if he lost on Election Night, he conveniently wants Republicans and conservatives to forget an elongated, abusive past.

“Unite” with Democrats means give them all they want, or else.

That’ll be a tough one, Joe.

Our job is to control what people think.
— Mika Brzezinski, 2/22/17

And with good reason. We now have a classic example of bias-by-omission. In other words, if the media doesn’t report it, it never happened.

As they trumpeted “Russia, Russia, Russia”, convinced half the nation the president was a traitor and there was rampant election interference, the media is now all-in on making us believe that Joe Biden is winning the 2020 presidential election fair and square, despite what many saw and are now seeing with their own eyes.

Delaware County, Pennsylvania vote counter appearing to “correct” a ballot….

Despite video, readily available online and defensively flagged by Big Tech, showing Republican observers being tossed from ballot counting areas to the cheers of Democrats, hundreds of dubiously-completed ballots that only have Joe Biden’s name checked arriving by the carload in the middle of the night, the media insists there’s nothing to see here.

Fact check: Trump alleges voter fraud in Pa.; officials say there is no evidence
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker to investigate election after Trump alleges fraud without evidence
Trump campaign hasn’t provided evidence to back up claim of Wisconsin election ‘irregularities’
Trump, in White House address, continues to level unfounded charges of election fraud
McDaniel claims election misconduct in Michigan, elsewhere, but doesn’t present proof

Despite the documented voter suppression committed by the media in 2000 by premature state calling and their pledge to learn from their mistake, they did it again in 2020. We won’t even get into the barrage of pro-Joe Biden “polls” that were way off but the political manipulation was accomplished.

Despite the lack of physical proof of Trump-Russia collusion, that didn’t stop the Democrats and their media from making bold declarations of guilt constantly for the first two-plus years of the Trump administration, and continuing on even after exoneration from the Mueller special counsel team.

Despite their defensive denials, it’s also clear why the New York Post was in the social media cross-hairs long before they broke the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.

A top Democratic operative says voter fraud, especially with mail-in ballots, is no myth. And he knows this because he’s been doing it, on a grand scale, for decades.

But the political insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears prosecution, said fraud is more the rule than the exception. His dirty work has taken him through the weeds of municipal and federal elections in Paterson, Atlantic City, Camden, Newark, Hoboken and Hudson County and his fingerprints can be found in local legislative, mayoral and congressional races across the Garden State. Some of the biggest names and highest office holders in New Jersey have benefited from his tricks, according to campaign records The Post reviewed.

“An election that is swayed by 500 votes, 1,000 votes — it can make a difference,” the tipster said. “It could be enough to flip states.”

The whistleblower — whose identity, rap sheet and long history working as a consultant to various campaigns were confirmed by The Post — says he not only changed ballots himself over the years, but led teams of fraudsters and mentored at least 20 operatives in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania — a critical 2020 swing state.
— New York Post, 8/29/20

In a nation the size of ours and the number of partisans who’ll do anything for a buck, it would be grossly naive to think this whistleblower is the only one ever deployed. But if chaos is what was desired, it’s been permanently installed into our election process.

Prior to the last decade full of tabulation machines and computers, people were able to count votes and states announced a winner within hours of the polls closing. The only mail-in ballots mostly came from overseas soldiers and Democrats routinely discarded them as they tended to lean Republican. But “voting irregularities”, as they’re politely termed today, were not as abundant as we’re seeing with a process that now includes, of all people, the United States Postal Service.

Voters are justifiably skeptical when it comes to election outcomes; one because of ignorance and the other for examples being uploaded to social media Big Tech and the media are squelching.

In 2016, Hillary voters were left in tears because they stupidly believed she won because of a higher popular vote total. Note the amount of media posts for morons in 2020 explaining the Electoral College process, while editorially dissing it as antiquated. But one day a Republican president may threaten to win the popular vote and Democrats will be exalting the genius of the Founders and why the Electoral College takes precedent.

In 2020, putting an election outcome partially in the hands of the Post Office would be an idea that would be written out of a comedy script purely because it would be considered way too over the top and implausible. Yet, this is what Democrats deployed and Republicans allowed to happen. If President Trump doesn’t win his challenges, we’re going to be stuck with this shit for years. Seeing how this process has benefited Democrats, that’s all it takes for their media to sanction and defend.

So, the best we can do is let this present process play out in the courts. It’ll be messy and either way, over 70 million Americans will believe they got jobbed on this election. #Resist will again be an active word and before it’s aimed at an administration, it should be focused most on those who believe it’s their job to tell Americans what to think.

…
It’s even more dangerous because too many Americans blindly believe them.

It appears to be very domestic.

The idea that Google is subtly pushing masses of voters to the left has the ring of conspiracy, and thus the work of Robert Epstein is warmly embraced by conservative lawmakers — as well as a president — convinced big tech is plotting against them.

Epstein, a former Psychology Today editor in chief who runs a nonprofit institute in California, calls the phenomenon he has explored the Search Engine Manipulation Effect. “These are new forms of manipulation people can’t see,” he said. The technologies “can have an enormous impact on voters who are undecided. … People have no awareness the influence is being exerted.”

Google dismisses his research as the work of a misguided amateur. Company Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in December that Google had investigated Epstein’s findings and found his methodology flawed.
— Los Angeles Times, 3/24/19

Of course they would, but to be fair, Google shouldn’t be singled out. Facebook and Twitter have similar capabilities and accusations of their abuse of right-leaning users abound.

Judge for yourself if Epstein is this “misguided amatuer” or if he’s hitting too close to home for Big Democrat Tech….

…

More Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than any other losing presidential candidate in US history. The Democrat outpaced President-elect Donald Trump by almost 2.9 million votes, with 65,844,954 (48.2%) to his 62,979,879 (46.1%), according to revised and certified final election results from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
— CNN, 12/22/16

That “2.9 million votes” are within Dr. Epstein’s “manipulation” margin, and in 2018…

An estimated 113 million people participated in the 2018 midterm elections, making this the first midterm in history to exceed over 100 million votes, with 49 percent of eligible voters participating in the election. By comparison, the 2014 midterm elections had one of the lowest turnouts in American history, with only 36.4 percent of eligible voters participating.
— CBS News, 11/7/18

… an all-time record amount of midterm voters were inspired to “Go vote!”.

Google Doodle: Election Day logo update tells users to ‘Go Vote’
Twitter will put election information in-timeline with #BeAVoter

If it’s really this easy for “Big Tech” to manipulate search results, issue “Go vote!” messages to selected users, shadowban and/or punish chosen content creators, then one could rightly call into question the legitimacy of the final popular vote totals after the last presidential election, the results of the 2018 midterm election which resulted in one party retaking the House of Representatives; not to leave out local elections as well.