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Blogging Tag

When Amazon s***canned us from the Amazon Associates program, it made a point to tell us it was holding back and would not pay us any money we had accumulated as referral fees:
"... Amazon will not pay you any outstanding advertising fees related to your account ...."
I don't know how much Amazon took from us, because by the time I received Amazon's notice that we were terminated, the data was wiped clean as to unpaid earnings when I logged in. It's probably not a Yuge amount, certainly not in comparison to Amazon's capitalization and Jeff Bezo's net worth.

Not for nothing, there is life after Amazon. Walmart.com isn't quite up to Amazon's website ease of use, depth of user reviews, or breadth of product, but it's getting a lot better. And the price is the price and the shipping (or free shipping) is what it is. Do a test at Amazon, price products using Prime for "free" two-day shipping, then price the products without Prime with regular shipping.

For as long as I can remember, Legal Insurrection has participated in Amazon Associates, a way for websites to earn fees when readers shop at Amazon.com via links from our website. It was an important source of revenue to us, and paid for some of the operating expenses readers never see.

Today is Cultural Appreciation Day here at Legal Insurrection. While some yammer on about 'cultural appropriation' (if such a thing does exist, it's certainly not bad), we've decided to share how we celebrate various cultures. A few writers and readers have shared your stories. Leslie is all over Culture Appreciation Day and I refer you to her other posts here and here.

Saturday, May 12 is the first official Cultural Appreciation Day here at Legal Insurrection. If you've followed the news lately (and we assume that if you're a regular reader, you do), you've been MADE aware that something as innocuous as a thrift store prom purchase triggers half the internet. The social justice warriors beam in from social justice utopia to be judgy, vile, and completely ignorant bullies over something they call "cultural appropriation."

This is tough. The conservative blogging world is a small place, so I have good friends who were recently blindsided by the layoffs at RedState, and many who still have a job. My thoughts are with them all. Neither side of this situation is easy. Friday, news broke that RedState, owned by Salem Media, the same outfit that owns sites like Townhall and HotAir, endured massive layoffs.

Ever since  YouTube without any warning took down Legal Insurrection's YouTube account in January 2017, I've been well aware of the power liberal-leaning high tech oligopolies have over our ability to communicate with each other. The account was restored after a fairly massive news coverage of the takedown. That wake up call has come into further focus in the past year, after repeated instances of non-liberal voices being stifled and shut down in a variety of social media locations.

Been off the grid mostly the past few days, without electricity after the Nor'easter that hit the Northeast, but particularly Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. Not only did we lose electricity for several days, but we also lost our favorite tree, an old Apple tree at our shore. It had lost a lot of its branches, but it made a great silhouette. We had an arborist trim it to keep it healthy last fall.

We never have used pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-overs, autoplay audio ads, or any of the other type of ads that take over the screen to one degree or another. Particularly infuriating are the pop-up/over ads that have an "X" that makes you think you are getting rid of it, but in fact you are clicking on it. Forsaking such annoying ads had its cost since they were the most lucrative. That's a point I made during our semi-annual fundraisers in explaining the importance of reader donations. (See what I did there?)

The Stoneman High School JROTC performed heroically during the shooting at their school in Parkland, Florida.  Two JROTC enlistees herded students and teachers into a room and shielded them with kevlar, their quick actions undoubtedly saved not only their own lives but those of others under their protection. A third JROTC member, Cadet Peter Wang, was just as heroic but did not survive.  Wang ushered students into a different classroom and was killed in his valiant efforts to save others.

You want to know what the blogosphere used to look like? Read the post I wrote on September 29, 2009, regarding our one millionth visit, Thanks a Million! I don't know how many of these links are still live, but the number that are not is the point: