Ads are Killing the Internet

 You may have noticed.

Here is what the American Prospect is substituting.

Why We’re Removing Our Programmatic Ads Programmatic advertising is the technology behind banner ads, sidebars, and pop-up videos you see on websites—the ones that seem to “follow you around” based on what you’ve been browsing. Unlike a directly sold ad, where a brand negotiates a deal with a specific website to show their message, programmatic advertising uses automated technology to instantly match ads to audiences across millions of sites at once. This is why you might see an ad for shoes on a news site right after shopping for sneakers; your data is used to supply advertisers with likely audiences for their products. This is not neutral technology. It is built on surveillance and monopoly power: two forces that the Prospect exists to challenge. Our readers are not products to be bought and sold by corporations. But that’s exactly what happens every time someone loads one of our pages with programmatic ads. An act of democratic engagement—reading independent journalism—gets transformed into a monetization event for a handful of tech giants. The reader’s attention, behavior, and personal data become a commodity, packaged and resold through a supply chain riddled with fraud, opaque middlemen, and unscrupulous actors. And we, as a publisher, must admit to being an accomplice in that transaction. That ends today. Starting April 6, 2026, The American Prospect is removing all programmatic advertising from our website. We think you and your personal data deserve more respect than we were providing. We think it will provide you with a healthier and more beneficial experience. And we want to explain to you why. The damage from programmatic advertising is real and visible. Ads slow down our site, create security vulnerabilities for readers, and interrupt the reading process. They create real barriers for readers on older devices and slower connections, the very people who may already face obstacles accessing quality information. Some subscription-based websites offer “whitelists” for people who pay to remove ads, but everyone else is stuck; in fact, many sites demand that users take down ad blockers before accessing their content. With programmatic ads virtually ubiquitous, readers have vanishingly few options: Either they visit sites that are bloated with ads that make the page barely readable and load slowly, or are forced to pay for expensive subscriptions to access quality information locked behind paywalls. The costs extend beyond our site. The entire digital advertising system is an engine of waste: economically, environmentally, and editorially. The energy consumed by ad servers, real-time bidding exchanges, and data centers that track billions of impressions per day is enormous, with no public accountability. The ability to track real-time data about user tastes and behaviors invites predatory companies to capitalize on the information asymmetry to exploit and abuse customers, while the collection of all this data on centralized servers leads to data breaches and invasions of privacy. And it’s not even clear that more honest advertisers benefit from it very much; there are legions of stories about fraud and manipulation suggesting that tech platforms aren’t providing much value for every ad dollar. Meanwhile, the revenue that does reach publishers is a fraction of what advertisers spend, siphoned off by layers of intermediaries adding little to no value. The broader consequences for the media ecosystem have been catastrophic. When advertising revenue migrated from publishers to platforms, local newsrooms lost the financial foundation that had sustained them for decades. Facebook and particularly Google, which controls the auctions for programmatic ads, take an enormous cut of the revenues of advertising for themselves, leaving publishers with a tiny fraction. This advertising technology business has been officially labeled a monopoly in federal court—as you may have read in the Prospect—and the judge will soon rule on the remedy phase of that lawsuit. The result for the news business has been well documented: thousands of communities with no local coverage, no accountability journalism, no one watching the school board or attending the city council meeting. Readers migrate to free sources of information on platforms owned by tech monopolies, which have little incentive to do anything other than manipulate them into staying on the platform as long as possible in order to show them ads and harvest their personal data. We have a media environment where readers, watchers, and listeners receive a steady diet of deteriorating online content while our democratic institutions and social fabric erode. Ad-driven business models have also warped editorial judgment. The logic of programmatic advertising creates an incentive structure that does violence to public-service journalism: more clicks, more page views, more time on site at any cost. This has given us sensationalized headlines, slop aggregation, and the degradation of social media into a traffic machine optimized for emotional manipulation rather than informed discourse. Nothing about this is particularly new. Almost eight years ago to the day, our executive editor David Dayen wrote a story called “Ban Targeted Advertising,” making the same arguments that programmatic ads don’t serve readers or even advertisers, facilitate monopoly, expose user data to breaches and other harms, and corrode a free and open press. That story led to federal legislation, but Congress has never been able to find a way to solve this problem. The Prospect has always tried to resist the pressures of clickbait and the self-defeating drive for audience reach. But as long as we participate in the programmatic advertising system, we are complicit in it. We benefit from the same surveillance infrastructure we critique. That’s a contradiction we can’t defend. And we’re not going to defend it anymore. If you’re a Prospect reader, you’ll notice the difference immediately. When you open our website on your device, our articles will load faster. Your phone won’t stutter through a wall of ad scripts. You won’t accidentally tap a banner when you’re trying to scroll. It will just be a faster, cleaner, more respectful reading experience. Other sites offer something like this—if you pay. We’re going to provide this experience to every single reader, regardless of their ability to purchase a subscription. We see it as an experiment and a question: Can a nonprofit news organization sustain itself through the trust and generosity of its readers without selling their attention and data to the highest bidder? We think the answer is yes. Over the next year, we plan to redesign our site with readers at the center of all of our decisions. Where banner ads that tracked your information once sat, you’ll instead find clear paths to support our work, read more of our journalism, and join our community. We’re not going to offset this lost revenue by putting up a paywall either. The Prospect will still be free for all to read. What we are trying to do is earn and keep your trust. We believe there are serious problems with the business model and incentive structure for businesses for which programmatic advertising is a key revenue stream. The Prospect wants to be untethered from the economic pressures that push for the type of engagement strategy that is aimed at algorithmic optimization at the expense of readers. Too many businesses in our economy have cast aside the concept of providing a good product at a reasonable price, in favor of surveillance pricing and consolidation. By deliberately forgoing ad revenue and building a business model based on voluntary financial support from readers, we’re investing in a relationship built on respect rather than extraction. That’s a fundamentally different proposition than most of what exists in digital media today, and we think it’s a better one. The crisis in journalism is, in large part, a crisis of business models. Newsrooms across the country have been hollowed out by a digital advertising system that concentrates revenue in the hands of a few platforms while leaving publishers to fight over scraps. The answer can’t be more of the same. We’re not the first publication to question the ad-supported model. But so far as we know, we may be the first nonprofit newsroom to run a rigorous, publicly documented experiment to test the alternative. We’re going to measure everything: site performance, reader engagement, donation and subscription behavior, reader satisfaction. And we’re going to publish what we learn so that other independent outlets can build on our experience. If going programmatic ad-free makes the Prospect stronger, then what we’ve done is create a proof of concept for reader-supported journalism everywhere. Our hope is that we can demonstrate that a publication can align its business model with its editorial values and come out the other side better for it. How can you help? Become a monthly donor. Recurring gifts are the foundation of reader-supported journalism. Even $5 a month tells us that this model can work. It’s the single most powerful thing you can do to support this experiment. Subscribe to our magazine. A Prospect subscription gives you our beautiful print magazine in your mailbox six times a year and, like a monthly donation, powers the work we do. Sign up for our newsletters. Email is how we build a relationship with readers that doesn’t depend on social media algorithms or advertising platforms. Every sign-up strengthens our ability to reach you directly on our terms and yours. Tell someone about the Prospect. Word of mouth is still the most powerful force in independent media. If you value what we do, share it. Forward a story. Mention us in conversation. Every new reader is a potential supporter. We’re going to be transparent about this experiment every step of the way. We’ll share what’s working and what isn’t. We’ll invite you to tell us how the experience feels through surveys and direct feedback. We’ll publish a full report on our findings so the results belong to everyone. If it works, we’ll have a model other newsrooms can follow. And you’ll have a news organization that doesn’t treat you, the reader, as just another revenue stream.

Organizing a Pro Democracy Movement

 https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/toward-a-pro-democracy-movement?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

St. Paul No Kings Rally

 St.Paul. No Kings Rally 

https://youtu.be/BY7bchcJ3p0?si=PzCYXHzDOEtUEwmE

No Kings : The Resistance Grows

You and I make the difference, We make the road by walking. 

 Indivisible 

It’s been a long harsh winter, but the ice is melting, and it’s time for No Kings Spring. In these newsletters, I try to inform with a bias towards action. The only way out of this mess is by recruiting a lot more people to do a lot more organizing in a lot of more communities. There’s no bigger or better opportunity to make progress against the fascists in the month of March than No Kings 3. 

No Kings 3 will be historic because we will make it historic. Less than two weeks out, I can now confirm that there will be more No Kings protests on March 28 than on any previous day in American history. 

But, as with Hands Off last April, No Kings last June, and No Kings 2 last October, I know this isn’t done until it’s done. We need this to be an enormous, historic rebuke to Trump’s regime. But whether it’s successful depends on far more than just me or Indivisible -- it depends on the leadership, courage, and commitment of millions of people around the globe. 

This is a grassroots-driven event, which means it will succeed or fail because of what we all do to organize, recruit, and prepare. There are no corporate sponsors, there’s no massive advertising campaign, and despite what the right-wing wackjobs obsess about, nobody’s sending big checks to protestors. It’s up to us -- all of us. 

The good news is we’re not alone.

Momentum is building -- you can hear it. Last weekend, Leah and I went down to Selma for the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee's commemoration of the 61st anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the fight for a real, multiracial democracy. We were there because Indivisible received the Freedom Flame award, and we wanted to experience the history of that pivotal moment in Civil Rights History first-hand. I’d recommend anyone and everyone go next year. You’ll learn from and be inspired by the leaders who paved the road for our democracy with blood, sweat, and tears. 

You’ll also find lots of friends.

We were humbled when Faya Ora Rose Touré, the civil rights legend who cofounded the Jubilee, came up to us and shared a song she'd written for No Kings. You can see the lyrics here.

All of us can organize. I love that No Kings is becoming so well-known that talented people all over the world are creating art in support of the movement. Nils Lofgren -- guitarist for the E Street band with Bruce Springsteen -- sent us his new song: No Kings, No Hate, No Fear. Neither he nor Springsteen had planned to write new protest music or even go on tour this spring, but after the crackdown in the Twin Cities, they decided they had to do a No Kings protest tour, kicking off in Minneapolis after the flagship No Kings protest there on March 28. 

But you don’t have to be a world famous artist to help make No King 3 into something historic. I’m not talking about money -- I’m talking about effort. With twelve days left to go, here are the three things I’d recommend:

1. Register your local No Kings events! If your No Kings protest isn’t yet on the map, you’ve got until Wednesday, March 25 at 11:59pm PT to register it. Rule of thumb: if you go to the map and can’t find a protest within 30 minutes of where you live, start planning your own! 
2. Train up. If you’re looking for training on safety, de-escalation, marketing, digital, or constitutional rights, we’ve got you covered. If your Indivisible group needs support, reach out to your organizer to walk you through the esources we provide. Ultimately this is up to you and your group, but you’re not alone and we can help!
3. Recruit. Yes you should post to social media, but don’t just rely on the largely regime-friendly tech platforms to spread the word. At your favorite coffee shop, on Nextdoor, or among friends -- invite folks to join you. Find three people who didn't attend No Kings last year. Have a conversation about the moment we’re in, and ask them to come with you on March 28. This is old-school and more time consuming than just posting online -- but nothing is more effective at actually building the movement.

As Faya Rose put it, without democracy, we cannot be free. That’s why we march, that’s why we sing: No kings, no kings.

In solidarity, 
Ezra Levin 
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible

The Resistance Continues for us all.

 Six days from now, next Saturday, on the third No Kings Day, we will proclaim our refusal to submit. We will march against this vile regime in larger numbers than have ever protested in America. 

This alone won’t bring down Trump, of course, but it will show lawmakers on both sides of the aisle the breadth and depth of the opposition to him. This is essential to strengthening their backbones against him. 

It will also show each of us that we’re not alone. It will show hope and determination all around us. 

It will show us that our communities won’t submit to Trump’s vicious police state. That we won’t allow his goons to arrest and imprison our neighbors without due process of law. 

It will give us more courage to stand up against his senseless war. Against his attacks on the environment and on public health. And against his attacks on the freedom of our teachers to teach the truth, on the media to reveal the truth, and on our own freedom to speak and spread the truth. 

Our march next Saturday will demonstrate that we will not be silenced. 

We will continue to build the resistance. We will enlarge our movement. And months from now, we will get out the largest midterm vote in history — giving control of Congress to senators and representatives who will join us in standing up to Trump’s tyranny. 

In doing all this we will honor the memories of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and others who have died or been wounded at the hands of ICE and Border Patrol agents. 

We will show solidarity with our neighbors who continue to live in fear of ICE. 

We will demonstrate our concern for the nearly 70,000 immigrants now locked in detention facilities coast to coast, and our opposition to the Trump regime’s plans to convert warehouses in several states to lock up tens of thousands more. 

We will show our respect for the families of the 42 people who have perished in ICE custody so far under Trump, such as Afghan asylum seeker Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal — who had worked with U.S. special forces in military operations in his home country and who died in an ICE facility in Texas last week. And 19-year-old Royer Perez-Jimenez, from Mexico, who died in an ICE facility in Florida last week in what ICE calls a “presumed suicide.” 

In our resistance to the Trump regime we also honor the service members and all others who have been killed in Trump’s war in Iran and his invasion of Venezuela. 

And we honor the law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and others who have given their lives protecting America from tyranny. 

Above all, our resistance affirms that America does not belong to strongmen, greedy billionaires, or those who rule through fear. 

America belongs to us, We the People.

Robert Reich

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Dolores Huerta and the UFW

 For a substantive view of the current revelation of mis use of power by Cesar Chavez, see

https://medium.com/@dolores_huerta/march-18-2026-e74c20430555. 2025.

For background on organizing in farm labor, and the role of strategic racism, see

https://beyondchron.org/cesar-chavez-the-ufw-and-strategic-racism/

(2014.) 

posted by Duane Campbell 

Illegal and Immoral. Sanders

  

We are living in unprecedented and dangerous times. It seems that every day there is an action or statement from the Trump Administration that is grossly illegal or vulgar - or both.

In the midst of all the chaos I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your ongoing support and let you know what I and my co-workers are doing to combat Trumpism. Frankly, we’re doing a lot. Here is just some of what we’re focusing on.

COMBATTING TRUMP’S AUTHORITARIANISM: Today we have a president who is not only a pathological liar, but a narcissist, a kleptocrat and an egomaniac. He wants more and more power in his own hands and couldn't care less about the Constitution, the rule of law, decency or democracy. 

The fight against authoritarianism is a struggle we are fighting on a number of fronts. Last month, I offered an amendment in the Senate that received 49 votes (all Democrats and two Republicans) to rescind the $75 billion that ICE received as part of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the worst piece of legislation passed in the modern history of America. With your help, we were also able to raise $200,000 for some of the courageous groups in Minnesota who fought back against the ICE occupation of that city and showed us what grassroots activism can achieve. In preparation for the 2026 elections I am working with a number of my colleagues to make certain that, despite the outrageous efforts of Trump and many Republicans to suppress the vote, these elections are free and fair.

FIGHTING OLIGARCHY: Never before in American history have so few individuals had so much wealth and so much power. Today, with the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 93%, we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. While 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, the Oligarchs are not only getting richer but they are increasing their power by buying up media and making huge campaign contributions.

I am proud that our Fighting Oligarchy rallies have now taken place in 24 states, with some 325,000 people in attendance. And it’s not just Progressives who are coming out. It’s Independents and Republicans as well. We have also just introduced a bill that would impose a wealth tax on billionaires. This bill would raise $4.4 trillion in the next ten years, and plow that money back into improving life for the struggling working families of our country. Yes. We need a government that works for all, not just the 1%. I am also supporting the Billionaire Wealth Tax proposal in California and was part of a great union rally that was held in Los Angeles last month.

ADDRESSING THE THREAT OF AI AND ROBOTICS: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics are being pushed by the wealthiest people in the world - Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Thiel, etc. Left unchecked these technologies will bring about a massive transformation of American economic, political and social life. I will not surprise you by stating that the multi-billionaires developing these technologies do not stay up nights worrying about the well-being of ordinary Americans. Their goal is to simply increase the enormous amount of wealth and power that they have, and they want to do it without any rules or regulations to impede their greed.

Studies indicate that AI and Robotics could result in the loss of tens of millions of jobs. Further, these new technologies could impact the mental health of our young people, undermine democracy and significantly erode our privacy. And, if a super -AI becomes smarter than humans, as some leading experts believe may happen soon, it is possible that AI could function independently of human control and threaten the very existence of humanity.

Next week, I will be introducing legislation calling for a moratorium on the construction of new data centers. Congress and the American people must get a handle on these rapidly evolving technologies. The function of AI and robotics must be to improve life for all, not just make a handful of very rich people even richer.

THE WAR IN IRAN: At Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s request, Trump initiated a horrific war against Iran. Trump’s actions were unconstitutional, as he did not get approval from Congress. It is also in blatant violation of international law. By attacking a sovereign nation Trump is moving the world toward international anarchy where any nation, for any reason, can attack another. That makes all of us increasingly unsafe.

The death toll and destruction from the war continues to mount. As of yesterday, 1,444 people in Iran have been killed, 910 in Lebanon, 29 in Iraq, 15 in Israel and 8 in the UAE. Further, 13 members of the U.S. military have also been killed and several hundred have been wounded. In addition, there are many thousands of civilians who have been wounded and displaced, as well as massive destruction of housing and infrastructure.

This is a war that should never have been started and the Trump Administration must be held accountable. Further, I will continue to help lead the effort to end all military support for Israel. We cannot continue to arm an extremist government that has brought so much death and destruction to the region.

BUILDING A STRONG GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT: Our current political system is corrupt. The bad news is that, as a result of the terrible Citizens United Supreme Court decision, billionaires in both political parties are spending huge amounts of money to elect candidates who represent their interests. The good news is that, in every region of our country, there is growing disgust at a political elite who ignore the needs of the average American. 

During the last number of years, the progressive movement has had enormous success in electing outstanding progressives at the local, state and federal level. Right now, for example, there are over 100 members of the House Progressive Caucus, which is one of the largest caucuses in Congress. Last November, Zohran Mamdani was elected Mayor of New York City. Last month, Analilia Mejia won an upset Democratic primary victory in New Jersey for a congressional seat. 

Even more importantly, poll after poll shows that the American people are tired of status quo politics and are demanding real change. They want a progressive agenda that makes certain that, in the richest country in the history of the world, all of our people live with dignity and security. 

They understand that our health care system is broken, that health care is a human right and want Medicare for All.

They understand that the cost of housing is unaffordable and want us to build the millions of units of low-income and affordable housing that we desperately need.

They understand that wages are far too low and want us to raise the federal minimum wage from a starvation wage of $7.25 an hour to a living wage of $20 an hour.

They understand that our approach to funding education is absurd and that young people who want a higher education should not leave school with $50,000 or $100,000 in debt.

They understand that climate change is real and that we can cut carbon pollution and create millions of good-paying jobs by encouraging the development of sustainable energy and energy efficiency.

Building a progressive political movement is not easy. But we’re doing it. We’re taking on the Oligarchs and all their money. We’re taking on the corporate media. We’re taking on the political establishment in both political parties. 

And, because of your support, we’re succeeding. 

Let’s keep going forward together.

In Solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

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