Potty Humor 💩 🚽

 

Writing, publishing, reading, and politics

 https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Mfs5D34VB/

My response:

It is to my understanding that publishers like to sell books, that they prioritize exchanging books for money. Many of them hold the economic belief that followers are most likely to translate to sales. But no, a following isn't a requirement. If an author can show proof they'll generate sales without a following, that substituted proven method would certainly be considered. 🤔 Though, at that point, why not self publish? On the flip side of the coin, followers do not always translate into sales, so the economic theory may collapse. Except "influencer" is now an actual job that big corporations recognize. 

I suppose it's all in the pitch. A lot of publishers are just looking to know how dedicated an author will be to assuring a return on their investment. The publishing world has had remarkable changes in the last twenty years. 

Or, consider the 50 Shades of Grey series. By most accounts, these were not especially well-written or masterpieces. But there was a following online. And the followers commented about a desire to buy a book, despite free material readily available. So, even though it "NEVER" happens, a publishing deal was made, the free online already "published" versions were removed, and books were sold. Money was made, again to the point of drawing attention, and then a movie was made, which sold even more books. It wasn't about the quality of the words, it was about an audience willing to trade money for those words. 

So, if you can prove in advance that there's a market, that there are people ready to pre-order your book today, no, you don't need followers. Followers is just their word for people who are likely to purchase something with your name on it. It was once the job of publishing houses to do most of the work to find those buyers, but now authors are generally expected to do that task. The rise of the Social Media Influencer.

~~~~~~

The thing is, I get it. I am more likely to buy a book written by a friend, or by someone I've had a positive interaction with at some point. There are a dozen books on my shelf that absolutely prove this. 

~~~~~~~

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D7gELdGAE/

This post on Facebook is actually about history. (And may feel political, depending how you look at the story.) But this part, this excerpt...

Remember when reading and writing was about fun? When it was just enjoyable? 

Now writers are expected to "sell, sell, sell!" And readers are meant to buy, buy, buy and review to do the marketing so they help sell! As many readers are trying to "escape" for a few hours, but writers are supposed to nudge them toward being responsible readers who post reviews and encourage others to do the same.

I have a massive TBR stack. 📚📚📚 Which do I read next? An indie author who needs the minor publicity from my review? (Actually, I mostly leave those to my cousin. He's better at them and has an audience.) Or read a book by a dead author, who it won't matter to if I review it. Or this popular book I looked forward to reading. Or this other book that's now controversial. Or this one, or that one, or finish the other... 

😮‍💨 Yup. 🖥 And then I go back to tv, which I can watch with my husband. Trying to spend as much of our time together as possible, as we may have only a few years left. That's what doctors say now, ticking clocks. Forget dreams, goals, and plans! Prepare for death. We bought our graves and just ordered our tombstones. (Obviously, the death date will be engraved later. Or etched. Whatever.) I can't exactly wrap my mind around that. 

Politics and Prejudice

 In a time when blind hatred and prejudice are too present in our government and nation, I used @resist.bot to ask my #Pennsylvania Reps and @governor.pa.gov to fight against ethnic intimidation! 

Please SUPPORT 

SB1024-1029 from PA Senator Jay Costa to protect civil rights, prevent ethnic intimidation, and better train law enforcement. 

And HB1902-1905 in PA, which also will reduce ethnic intimidation and better train our people. 

Equality, equity, and justice for all! Long live liberty and freedom.

DHS Operation Midway Blitz is a DISGRACE. 

SHAME on the entire United States for allowing such horrific treatment of living beings! Especially children and the elderly. 

Heads should be hung in disgrace. 

This should NOT be who we are as a society. This misbehavior must not be tolerated. No developed nation should consider such actions permissible.

Favorite Written by me #IWSG

 

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

Lake Wallenpaupack is in Pennsylvania. 

"Lake Wallenpaupack received its name from the Lenni-Lenape Native Americans who called the area's central creek "Walinkpapeek" or "Wallinkpaupeek," a name that means "the stream of swift and slow water". The name was then applied to the valley and subsequently the large reservoir created by a dam on the Wallenpaupack Creek in the 1920s."

(🗣 Wall In Paul Pack )

"It's a large, man-made reservoir in the Pocono Mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania, known for its extensive recreational opportunities including boating, fishing, swimming, and hiking. The 5,700-acre lake, created in 1926 for hydroelectric power and flood control, offers over 52 miles of shoreline and is a popular tourist destination."

"The former town that now lies under Lake Wallenpaupack in Pennsylvania is Wilsonville. This community, named after Judge James Wilson, was submerged in the early 1920s when Pennsylvania Power & Light (PP&L) built the dam to create the hydroelectric lake, relocating residents and clearing the land for the project."

This is one of my favorite writings because it made my mom so happy to see it. Sure, she appreciated the poems I had published over the years, and was always supportive. But she really loved this little piece. Showed it to everyone. 

Freedom of Speech matters to Authors

 https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1G7tcMwsQV/

Freedom of Speech is fragile and precious. There is a threat to writers, poets, artists ... A famous comedian gets serious about it in this short speech video. 

https://bsky.app/profile/newfie912.bsky.social/post/3lzhessvns222 A meme post fighting book censorship. 

"Ohhh myyy" check out the chair of banned books week! https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CvhhScagR/

Bovine Land in the USA

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/175C3yFEXX/

AI Bad for Health

 https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1B8kkyRd74/

This is American. 

It's a video of AOC discussing how AI is determining if humans get health care. 

Seriously. 

IWSG -- Em Dash and AI

 https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

Two AI writer discussions appeared in my Facebook feed:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19bRo5drrz/

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BWs4nY5EW/

So I guess using an Em Dash — means I am a robot. 🤖 (In html — is how to make it appear.) 

Is this related to the question? I don't use any of the stuff listed. I don't want AI to write for me, or to steal works of fellow writers. I'd like it to make chores easier, to assist with health care (assist, not take over, not be a primary), and tasks like that. 

Two pictures 📸 from my birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 

A journal and purple pens! 

I'm grateful I was able to celebrate with friends and family this year. And I'm thankful for the memories. 

IWSG unethical practice in the publishing industry

 

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

Upon looking up examples, this seems to primarily be an issue for non-fiction writers, particularly with research papers. But plagiarism was mentioned. That, I guess. 

Honestly, I thought the examples would be about how certain genres seem mostly dominated by gender (scifi= male authors, romance = female authors). But that didn't come up at all in my search. 🤷‍♀️ Feels true though. 

My friend had a big writing achievement recently. I'd like to celebrate that. Woo Nathalie! Her fictional story takes place in Ancient Egypt (she's an expert), and I'm excited to read it one day. 

Social security email

 https://www.facebook.com/share/19AjqaEzuy/

There is a great deal of debate and discussion about this email from the SSA. So, if anyone wanted to read it, and doesn't subscribe and thus didn't see it, here you go. 

Alligator Evolution

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/1NXDgBRV3L/

1- This is the Give A Shift About Nature group, right? So, just a brief pause on the planned atrocity, to take a look at what has just happened. It's the Florida Everglades. That area is supposed to be for protected wildlife. Any man-made structure in that area is a disruption to the special environment there-- no matter what the purpose of that structure is. 

Saying that it will benefit the wildlife because they can rise up the food chain and develop a preference for eating humans-- creatures which have a remarkable reputation for evolution and survival-- is just... 🦖 ... We're watching people bet on human extinction. New dinosaurs, robot 🤖 take over, starvation, roast to unaliving, nuclear winter, or asteroid! Predict the correct apocalypse and win... win the same unalive as everybody else. 🤦 

This is yet more proof that no one "at the top," no elected official with actual authority and power, does, in fact, give a *shift* about nature.

2- There's an incredibly old story about two brothers, Cain and Abel. And Cain unalives his brother. To everyone pointing out that absolutely every single solitary president the US has ever had did a bad thing, a similar bad thing, or a way worse bad thing... okay, valid. BUT we still made murrddeeery illegal, even though Cain did it a way, way, super long time ago. We didn't just 🤷 shrug it off. "Oh, well, we were gonna morally oppose this, but one person did it, so guess we'll let it slide." If forty or so people screw up, we don't have to give up on the hope and dream of ***someone*** actually doing better. We do NOT have to accept that one more person being a screw up means the future is damned. We CAN keep aiming to achieve a compassionate society, a utopia where people come together and support each other, and keep working to do better for each other. 

That can still be a goal. No matter how terrible our past is. Absolutely everyone can decide they desire a more loving and compassionate future where people are supportive and care about each other.

Doom-scrolling comments proves that we have a long, long, LONG way to go. And that many people do not desire that utopia. 

A world for everyone isn't the goal of everyone. 

Thus, some people hope for an apocalypse. Such as alligators evolving into much more dangerous predators who prefer the taste of humans.

3- Believing 🐊 animals cannot evolve will definitely protect you. Yes, if a super-gator corners you in twenty years, explaining that evolution is against your belief system will definitely stop the animal and make it rethink it's philosophy of existence. 🤔🤨🤫

("Unalive" used instead of "dead" because the Facebook algorithm flags words like death and murder.) 

IWSG Try a New Genre

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

I haven't really tried the Choose Your Adventure genre, but I have considered it. They were my favorite as a young teen. I thought about it. My friend did one, and it was amazing, but I saw just how much work it is! Maybe someday. I feel like I'd need an app or something to organize it all. 

 

No Congressional Approval

https://www.facebook.com/share/1LTHkCJ8gn/

Congressional approval is required for the United States military to get into a war. 

So, essentially, Don stole some weapons and units and ordered people to break the law for him, and here we are. 

But what else could distract US citizens from masked goons abducting people- including high ranking officials- in broad daylight? 

Or another attempt to pass a bill that will result in far more COMPLETELY PREVENTABLE lives ending. But hey, at least the veterans who will go to this war he started, can know for sure they'll only have a chance to get medical care if they voted for him, and are married- straight, and will be able to get a job with health insurance to get that medical care, so long as they need no days off or anything. Because those are the kind of "budget laws" he is trying to get passed. Which tracks, because he frequently mocks military service people. 

But hey, at least we know if they retaliate, he'll make sure the states don't get a single penny to repair any damage. (Partly because we no longer make pennies.) But he'll get the funding for his "golden dome," which will maybe protect .6% of the country on a good day, but that's nothing compared to the damage it will cause. 

🤦‍♀️ Hey, maybe other nations won't do anything about the massive human rights violations happening in America, in too many cases to, whoops, actual citizens (because when skipping Due Process, a lot of totally innocent people get picked up too, just for being at work, school, a store...). 

It's very dark. 

We study all these amazing countries that were once leaders. Egypt, Rome, Mongolia... Places fell. Did the people see it coming? 

The United States is no longer able to claim leadership of the free world. The might is over. But it'll probably go out with one last, unforgettable horror. His supporters will enjoy that, even if every last one fails to survive Nuclear Winter. That'll be fine, because at least others will fail too. 🫣

And history won't have a chance to properly discuss how technology was hidden in power cords to circumvent "air gapped" voting machines and scanning vote readers, connecting the machines to StarLink, and allowing manipulation. It was discovered, it was proven, damning evidence has been gathered, but it hasn't been discussed yet in the courts officially. The companies involved did just get military contracts though. But really, those only become valuable if...ummm...well, bigger orders come when the military needs to buy because 🤔... hang on, what were we talking about? Surly a president wouldn't act without Congressional approval to start a war to properly repay the illegal military contracts given in exchange for committing the greatest fraud in the history of the United States? 🤔🤨🫡

Fascinating. 

Yeah, how could this happen? Oh, basic math. Right. 

Well, maybe we should expect a tad less from someone with federal convictions for doing very similar activities. Thank goodness they opted not to sentence while the election was happening, and then opted for no time served after the results indicated a win.

🤨

Fraud?

 Source: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AnrrBsNEx/

I would not normally copy paste an article. But I have NO FAITH that the information won't "mysteriously vanish" from Billionaire-owned sources.

Not that my blog is so much safer. But... 🤷

"The missing votes uncovered in Smart Elections’ legal case in Rockland County, New York, are just the tip of the iceberg—an iceberg that extends across the swing states and into Texas.

On Monday, an investigator’s story finally hit the news cycle: Pro V&V, one of only two federally accredited testing labs, approved sweeping last-minute updates to ES&S voting machines in the months leading up to the 2024 election—without independent testing, public disclosure, or full certification review.

These changes were labeled “de minimis”—a term meant for trivial tweaks. But they touched ballot scanners, altered reporting software, and modified audit files—yet were all rubber-stamped with no oversight.

That revelation is a shock to the public.

But for those who’ve been digging into the bizarre election data since November, this isn’t the headline—it’s the final piece to the puzzle. While Pro V&V was quietly updating equipment in plain sight, a parallel operation was unfolding behind the curtain—between tech giants and Donald Trump.

And it started with a long forgotten sale.

A Power Cord Becomes a Backdoor

In March 2021, Leonard Leo—the judicial kingmaker behind the modern conservative legal machine—sold a quiet Chicago company by the name of Tripp Lite for $1.65 billion. The buyer: Eaton Corporation, a global power infrastructure conglomerate that just happened to have a partnership with Peter Thiel’s Palantir.

To most, Tripp Lite was just a hardware brand—battery backups, surge protectors, power strips. But in America’s elections, Tripp Lite devices were something else entirely.

They are physically connected to ES&S central tabulators and Electionware servers, and Dominion tabulators and central servers across the country. And they aren’t dumb devices. They are smart UPS units—programmable, updatable, and capable of communicating directly with the election system via USB, serial port, or Ethernet.

ES&S systems, including central tabulators and Electionware servers, rely on Tripp Lite UPS devices. ES&S’s Electionware suite runs on Windows OS, which automatically trusts connected UPS hardware.

If Eaton pushed an update to those UPS units, it could have gained root-level access to the host tabulation environment—without ever modifying certified election software.

In Dominion’s Democracy Suite 5.17, the drivers for these UPS units are listed as “optional”—meaning they can be updated remotely without triggering certification requirements or oversight. Optional means unregulated. Unregulated means invisible. And invisible means perfect for infiltration.

...

Enter the ballot scrubbing platform BallotProof. Co-created by Ethan Shaotran, a longtime employee of Elon Musk and current DOGE employee, BallotProof was pitched as a transparency solution—an app to “verify” scanned ballot images and support election integrity.

With Palantir's AI controlling the backend, and BallotProof cleaning the front, only one thing was missing: the signal to go live.

September 2024: Eaton and Musk Make It Official

Then came the final public breadcrumb:

In September 2024, Eaton formally partnered with Elon Musk.

The stated purpose? A vague, forward-looking collaboration focused on “grid resilience” and “next-generation communications.”

But buried in the partnership documents was this line:

    “Exploring integration with Starlink's emerging low-orbit DTC infrastructure for secure operational continuity.”

The Activation: Starlink Goes Direct-to-Cell

That signal came on October 30, 2024—just days before the election, Musk activated 265 brand new low Earth orbit (LEO) V2 Mini satellites, each equipped with Direct-to-Cell (DTC) technology capable of processing, routing, and manipulating real-time data, including voting data, through his satellite network.

DTC doesn’t require routers, towers, or a traditional SIM. It connects directly from satellite to any compatible device—including embedded modems in “air-gapped” voting systems, smart UPS units, or unsecured auxiliary hardware.

From that moment on:

- Commands could be sent from orbit

- Patch delivery became invisible to domestic monitors

- Compromised devices could be triggered remotely

This groundbreaking project that should have taken two-plus years to build, was completed in just under ten months.

Elon Musk boasts endlessly about everything he’s launching, building, buying—or even just thinking about—whether it’s real or not. But he pulls off one of the largest and fastest technological feats in modern day history… and says nothing? One might think that was kind of… “weird.”

According to New York Times reporting, on October 5—just before Starlink’s DTC activation—Musk texted a confidant:

    “I’m feeling more optimistic after tonight. Tomorrow we unleash the anomaly in the matrix.”

    Then, an hour later:

    “This isn’t something on the chessboard, so they’ll be quite surprised. ‘Lasers’ from space.”

It read like a riddle. In hindsight, it was a blueprint.

...

The Outcome

Data that makes no statistical sense. A clean sweep in all seven swing states.

The fall of the Blue Wall. Eighty-eight counties flipped red—not one flipped blue.

Every victory landed just under the threshold that would trigger an automatic recount. Donald Trump outperformed expectations in down-ballot races with margins never before seen—while Kamala Harris simultaneously underperformed in those exact same areas.

If one were to accept these results at face value—Donald Trump, a 34-count convicted felon, supposedly outperformed Ronald Reagan. According to the co-founder of the Election Truth Alliance:

    “These anomalies didn’t happen nationwide. They didn’t even happen across all voting methods—this just doesn’t reflect human voting behavior.”

They were concentrated.

Targeted.

Specific to swing states and Texas—and specific to Election Day voting.

And the supposed explanation? “Her policies were unpopular.”

Let’s think this through logically. We’re supposed to believe that in all the battleground states, Democratic voters were so disillusioned by Vice President Harris’s platform that they voted blue down ballot—but flipped to Trump at the top of the ticket?

Not in early voting.

Not by mail.

With exception to Nevada, only on Election Day.

And only after a certain threshold of ballots had been cast—where VP Harris’s numbers begin to diverge from her own party, and Trump’s suddenly begin to surge. As President Biden would say, “C’mon, man.”

In the world of election data analysis, there’s a term for that: vote-flipping algorithm.

...

And of course, Donald Trump himself:

He spent a year telling his followers he didn’t need their votes—at one point stating,

    “...in four years, you don't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good, you're not gonna have to vote.”

Again-- text copied from sources. 

Preserved here. 

The latest in Politics

This is just art from an app that I colored. 

 

Childhood Books #IWSG

 

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

These are some of my favorites. I loved the Little Bear book. I actually picked this copy up at a thrift shop 20 years ago. No idea what happened to my childhood copy. 

Then there were these other books. (Sorry it blurred, I couldn't steady myself today.) I love the art! 

Not pictured, the "Little Miss" and "Mr." Books. I had so many of those! I loved when my mom read them to me. They were so silly. Great memories. 

I have lots of great memories of reading and being read to. I LOVED library day at school. And PizzaHut Book It, I earned free pizza every month! 

In April I posted about being a volunteer librarian in middle school. It was awesome. If it weren't for my health issues, I'd probably try to get a job as a librarian. (In my country that is actively trying to shut them down🤦‍♀️ by defunding. Talk about no job security. Sigh. Political 🤐) But anyway, I love books. I think literacy is the most important non-survival gift a child can be given. (Meaning food, water, and health come first. SORRY, that really shouldn't be political. My bad...🙊🙉🙈 ) I believe in reading. I loved watching Reading Rainbow. (Crap, political again.🫣)

🌈

Screw it, I can't figure out how to not sound political, even when I'm honestly trying not to. But, since I guess the liberal Democrat is just woven in me, I'm gonna go for broke and all in with:

🏳️‍🌈 HAPPY PRIDE MONTH 🏳️‍🌈

LGBTQIA+ and allies, I hope you celebrate well.