Today is Our 1 Year Substack Anniversary!

It's been a wild ride.

We didn’t want to just create an independent media company, we wanted to build a community. Over 819,000 people have joined us in year 1 by subscribing, and I wanted to personally thank all of you.

We are a truly independent operation. We don’t have wealthy backers or corporate overlords - we answer to nobody and therefore cannot be pressured to do or say anything we don’t believe in. We do what we think is right and try to be utterly fearless in everything we do. I think that is an important characteristic of everyone who works for Meidas - fearlessness.

We came to Substack because we wanted to create a space for ad-free content. I have spoken before about how I have had many influences who have shaped different aspects of my work. Two of them actually influenced how I created my daily Bulletins on politics - Steve Jobs and Peter Gammons.

Jobs for the ascetic - how it presents is very important to me. Jobs was a genius who, like all of us, had many faults and weaknesses as a human. But one thing that impressed me was how obsessed he was with how his products looked and were presented. He was a minimalist who constantly looked for clean and simple designs for his products. His approach transformed how electronics were built, used, packaged and marketed.

So I wanted my columns to present that way. No clutter. Clean, neat, flows easily, not wordy or repetitive. The idea is for the reader to be able to consume a massive amount of substantive news that is easy on the eye while maybe not so easy on the blood pressure!

Peter Gammons was a famous sportswriter who covered baseball for the Boston Globe and I grew up reading his column every day. Gammons created the format that I use - short blurbs of substantive content where he also mixed in some rumors, gossip and humor. He had the longest columns in sports but you never got bored reading them and couldn’t stop until you were finished.

The challenge was to take everything that I consume every day and condense it down to a single daily column which captures the most important news. One of the things I think is unique about me is that for many years I have followed and covered not just Trump but the entire MAGA movement - politicians, candidates, media, influencers, podcasters, donors. Because of that, I can do something extremely rare in American political journalism - present to you a very detailed account of what people are saying not only on the left and mainstream but also the right and far-right.

I also follow a tremendous number of journalists and experts from around the world - most you have never heard of. I look for specialists in a particular field who do deep dives into one particular topic or area. Some of them you hear from regularly in the Bulletins, others maybe once a month or maybe only once a year. I sift through all of them to present to you what I think is the best and most relevant information our there.

It was a leap of faith for me to leave my law practice of 29 years, pack up and leave FL, to do this for a startup independent media company. None of us knew two years ago exactly how this was going to go. But I saw the talented, dedicated and hardworking people they were putting together to do this and I placed a bet on them, and they placed one on me. Judging from the numbers of people who follow and subscribe, it was the right move for all of us.

I speak to other journalists all the time who work for big corporate media companies. I can tell you that in may ways they are envious of the situation that I have. Nobody has ever told me what to write or say - so I never have to water down my reporting or my opinions. Just being able to write - “that is a lie” after something Trump just said is not allowed by almost every single major media outlet in America. Something that simple and obvious is not allowed. No wonder why they are envious of independent journalists.

But none of this happens without your support. I’m probably the worst person in world at asking people for help and support because I’ve always been a fiercely independent person. People ask me all the time why I don’t run for political office - the answer is very simple. I simply can’t fundraise. I have always hated asking people for money. Let’s face it - probably the most important thing to achieve success in politics is raising money. And I’m pretty terrible at doing that.

So I appreciate the free subscribers who are here to read, spread the word, and share our content. We want this to be a huge movement and we can’t do that if we limit participation to only paid subscribers. But I do have to give special thanks to the paid subscribers because without you I would either have to practice law or work for corporate media where I can’t always tell simple truths - like saying that a politician is lying.

Tonight will be Bulletin 214. Hopefully you enjoy it along with all the other content we offer on this space.