#we need answers Bezos

[asthecrowcrafts]

Wheel of Time season 2 released OVER A MONTH AGO and I've literally heard nothing about it.

Big yikes. 😬

[mariacallous]

And so it begins…

Tomorrow will see the inauguration of President Trump. And this time around, there’s one crucial difference. His tech bro allies will be front and centre: Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos. NBC has reported they will be on the platform. This is the image that is going to be seared into our eyeballs and that sets the tone and the expectation for the next four years.

The ascension of the tech gods to the presidential dais is a remarkable journey. Back in December 2016, I watched live on C-Span as Trump welcomed a group of tech execs into a conference room in Trump Tower. Front and centre was Peter Thiel, the founder of Palantir, who’d been one of the few people in Silicon Valley to back Trump. And at that meeting, Trump stroked his hand throughout but the rest of the execs looked nervous, unsure. Some of them such as Sheryl Sandberg had been vocal Democrat supporters. But they all said how excited they were to be there and - Bezos’s word - “super-excited about the possibilities for innovations in this space”.

I just checked to see what I wrote that Sunday. There’s a rule in journalism that if the headline is question, the answer is generally no. But eight years on, it’s now clear: the answer is yes, yes, yes.

This week Joe Biden’s last major speech sounded the alarm to a middle America which had not heard such words before. America, he said, was becoming a “tech industrial complex”.

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that really threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom."

If you’re subscribing to this newsletter none of this is going to be news to you but given reports Google searches for the word “oligarchy” spiked immediately afterwards, it is presumably to a swathe of America that’s never had to reckon with these ideas and issues before.

Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google, is also among the execs who are expected to kiss the ring tomorrow. Back in 2016, it was Google that I was focussed on. Google was prompting users to search for results on whether the holocaust really happened and when they did, they were being sent straight to Stormfront, a Nazi website.

Google responded not by fixing or even acknowledging the problem, instead the head of public affairs for Europe repeatedly rang my editor and complained. Google had recently spent a lot of money with the Guardian on a sponsored virtual reality project and the head of public affairs for the company felt entitled to make his views known. Weeks of low-grade aggression culminated in a nuclear letter that landed on Christmas Eve. I dealt with in a sweat in a service station on the M4 with the Guardian’s head of legal affairs while she prepared her goose for the oven.

I often think about that story, which was the beginning of the trail that took me down the Cambridge Analytica rabbithole and what I learned from it about dealing with big tech. It was the first time I’d been threatened in this way but after the initial fear and panic - the Google exec cc-ed every senior editor on the paper - the Guardian’s managing editor was robust and reassuring: “If there’s anything that needs to be amended, we will amend it,” she said. “And then we will tell him to fuck off.”

[pensive-fabulist]

Something I wish I had understood when I was a baby socialist-

"So what- you want billionaires to just pay like 90% in taxes? You just want to give that money to the government?"

This was a bar I used to hear pretty often in Thanksgiving arguments over dinner. The short answer is yes, I do. But that question is a trick. It's a sleight of hand, based on the false assumption that Jeff Bezos's obscene wealth comes in his salary, that he pays income tax on. They frame the question like that so you don't figure out their dirty little secret.

WHY is Jeff Bezos rich? Because he own 9% of Amazon, or about 926 million shares. As I'm typing this, each share is worth about $262 USD each. That is 224 billion dollars. Does he make way too much salary too? Yeah. But that's not where he's really robbing the bank.

Why is Amazon worth $262? Because they're robbing their workers.

Let's hear it from the horse's mouth. Amazon, why do you make so much money?

"[We continued] to delight customers with fast and convenient delivery. In 2023, Amazon delivered to Prime members at the fastest speeds ever globally, with more than 7 billion units arriving the same or next day, including more than 4 billion in the U.S. and more than 2 billion in Europe." (Source)

Yeah, they're making making lots of profit. By installing cameras that use AI to track driver behavior and punish imagined infractions. Making them to work as contractors so they don't need to give them full worker protections. Punishing warehouse workers for using the bathroom too many times.

The fastest, most realistic way to get rid of billionaires is not to guillotine them, it's not (only) to increase their tax rate- it's to ensure the people who work for those companies make their fair share. You take that out of their 2024 annual earnings of $30 billion dollars, and Jeff Bezos's shares are worth less.

Unions are the answer, and Amazon knows that. Amazon warehouses that have tried to unionize have faced some of the most draconian union busting tactics the country has seen this century. UPS drivers are unionized under the Teamsters and they don't have these problems. The Teamsters are trying to get into Amazon- and you can help them, and learn more about organizing your workplace.

People with a stock portfolio don't want you to know this. They don't want you to, because unlike guillotining Jeff Bezos, this is an attainable goal, and god forbid you be a person who knows how to get what they deserve, instead of a dog chasing delivery cars.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Michael Tomasky at The New Republic:

I’ve had a lot of conversations since Tuesday revolving around the question of why Donald Trump won. The economy and inflation. Kamala Harris didn’t do this or that. Sexism and racism. The border. That trans-inmate ad that ran a jillion times. And so on. These conversations have usually proceeded along lines where people ask incredulously how a majority of voters could have believed this or that. Weren’t they bothered that Trump is a convicted felon? An adjudicated rapist? Didn’t his invocation of violence against Liz Cheney, or 50 other examples of his disgusting imprecations, obviously disqualify him? And couldn’t they see that Harris, whatever her shortcomings, was a fundamentally smart, honest, well-meaning person who would show basic respect for the Constitution and wouldn’t do anything weird as president?

The answer is obviously no—not enough people were able to see any of those things. At which point people throw up their hands and say, “I give up.” But this line of analysis requires that we ask one more question. And it’s the crucial one: Why didn’t a majority of voters see these things? And understanding the answer to that question is how we start to dig out of this tragic mess.

The answer is the right-wing media. Today, the right-wing media—Fox News (and the entire News Corp.), Newsmax, One America News Network, the Sinclair network of radio and TV stations and newspapers, iHeart Media (formerly Clear Channel), the Bott Radio Network (Christian radio), Elon Musk’s X, the huge podcasts like Joe Rogan’s, and much more—sets the news agenda in this country. And they fed their audiences a diet of slanted and distorted information that made it possible for Trump to win. Let me say that again, in case it got lost: Today, the right-wing media sets the news agenda in this country. Not The New York Times. Not The Washington Post (which bent over backwards to exert no influence when Jeff Bezos pulled the paper’s Harris endorsement). Not CBS, NBC, and ABC. The agenda is set by all the outlets I listed in the above paragraph. Even the mighty New York Times follows in its wake, aping the tone they set disturbingly often. If you read me regularly, you know that I’ve written this before, but I’m going to keep writing it until people—specifically, rich liberals, who are the only people in the world who have the power to do something about this state of affairs—take some action.

[...]

This is the year in which it became obvious that the right-wing media has more power than the mainstream media. It’s not just that it’s bigger. It’s that it speaks with one voice, and that voice says Democrats and liberals are treasonous elitists who hate you, and Republicans and conservatives love God and country and are your last line of defense against your son coming home from school your daughter. And that is why Donald Trump won. Indeed, the right-wing media is why he exists in our political lives in the first place. Don’t believe me? Try this thought experiment. Imagine Trump coming down that escalator in 2015 with no right-wing media; no Fox News; an agenda still set, and mores still established, by staid old CBS News, the House of Murrow, and The New York Times.

That atmosphere would have denied an outrageous figure like Trump the oxygen he needed to survive and flourish. He just would not have been taken seriously at all. In that world, ruled by a traditional mainstream media, Trump would have been seen by Republicans as a liability, and they would have done what they failed to do in real life—banded together to marginalize him. But the existence of Fox changed everything. Fox hosted the early debates, which Trump won not with intelligence, but outrageousness. He tapped into the grievance culture Fox had nursed among conservatives for years. He had (most of the time) Rupert Murdoch’s personal blessing. In 2015-16, Fox made Trump possible. [...]

The fake story about Haitian residents of Springfield, Ohio eating cats and dogs, for example, started with a Facebook post citing second- and third-hand sources, Gertz told me; it then “circulated on X and was picked up by all the major right-wing influencers.” Only then did Vance, a very online dude, notice it and decide to run with it. And then Trump said it himself at the debate. But it started in the right-wing media. Likewise with the post-debate ABC “whistleblower” claims, which Gertz wrote about at the time. This was the story that ABC, which hosted the only presidential debate this election, fed Team Harris the questions in advance. This started, Gertz wrote, as a “wildly flimsy internet rumor launched by a random pro-Trump X poster.” Soon enough, the right-wing media was all over it.

Maybe that one didn’t make a huge difference (although who knows?), but this one, I believe, absolutely did: the idea that Harris and Joe Biden swiped emergency aid away from the victims of Hurricane Helene (in mostly Southern, red states) and gave it all to undocumented migrants. It did not start with Trump or his campaign or Vance or the Republican National Committee or Lindsey Graham. It started on Fox. Only then did the others pick it up. And it was key, since this was a moment when Harris’s momentum in the polling averages began to flag.

[...]

To much of America, by the way, this is not understood as one side’s view of things. It’s simply “the news.” This is what people—white people, chiefly—watch in about two-thirds of the country. I trust that you’ve seen in your travels, as I have in mine, that in red or even some purple parts of the country, when you walk into a hotel lobby or a hospital waiting room or even a bar, where the TVs ought to be offering us some peace and just showing ESPN, at least one television is tuned to Fox. That’s reach, and that’s power. And then people get in their cars to drive home and listen to an iHeart, right-wing talk radio station. And then they get home and watch their local news and it’s owned by Sinclair, and it, too, has a clear right-wing slant. And then they pick up their local paper, if it still exists, and the oped page features Cal Thomas and Ben Shapiro. Liberals, rich and otherwise, live in a bubble where they never see this stuff. I would beg them to see it. Watch some Fox. Listen to some Christian radio. Experience the news that millions of Americans are getting on a daily basis. You’ll pretty quickly come to understand what I’m saying here.

[...] The reason? The right-wing media. And it’s only growing and growing. And I haven’t even gotten to social media and Tik Tok and the other platforms from which far more people are getting their news these days. The right is way ahead on those fronts too. Liberals must wake up and understand this and do something about it before it’s too late, which it almost is.

Michael Tomasky of TNR explains it perfectly: Donald Trump won due to the right-wing media apparatus feeding lies to the voters.

[dropoutconfessions]

I wanna start off by saying that I agree with the fans who say that the rep of trans women and transmisogyny affected comedians on dropout isn't enough (because it is orders of magnitude less than the rep of cis people and less than 1/10 the rep of transmisogyny excluded trans comedians iirc).

But I have to disagree with some folks I see calling Sam and Brennan greedy rich assholes as an explanation for why they don't wanna platform transfemmes. Because when we talk about class, it's very important to separate specific levels of "rich" between comfortable and ultra wealthy.

Robert Reich of all politicians is not going to hoard wealth, but he probably did make Sam's life growing up more comfortable than most people and gave him some financial grace to pursue comedy. But Dropout as it used to be was bleeding money in 2020. They have less than a million paid subscribers, and they share profits with the cast AND they're paying the wages of the crew. However much money Sam and Brennan are making, it is nothing compared to a billion dollars. It's not clear how much they make, but say Sam is worth $50 million (a high random number that I think is still way too high for what he'd have). That's still only 5% of $1 billion. We are all closer to Sam's level of wealth than he is to, say, Jeff Bezos. Any kids he and his wife may have are going to have a comfortable life, and he is probably going to have a good retirement, but I think you still have to look at the scale of things. And Brennan is likely making less than Sam while still being financially stable, but he clearly knows what it's like to be broke and starving and is still heavily affected by that past to this day.

Is it possible that Sam and the folks in charge of hiring casting at Dropout think TMA folks are less likely to bring profit and that's why they don't hire them? I don't know. I'm not psychic. But the image of them some people push in regards to their class is straight up wrong.

DEFINITELY more TMA comedians besides Persephone (I love her and I would actually want to see more of her in addition to other new cast members) should be hired as cast for Dropout shows in general. I think Sam should/could also pass off hosting duties of Game Changer at the very least and possibly Make Some Noise, too, bc the amount of cis men representation from him and Brennan alone in comparison to any trans people but especially TMA people is insane. They're always going to have the seasons they ran, and they can still be cast once in a while.

But I really think this lack of representation started as a blind spot rather than evil intent to squeeze as much profit out of Dropout as possible the way some people think it is. If it continues after all this conversation about it (they film like a year in advance, so maybe some grace can be given), yeah, I'm going to be upset. I already canceled my subscription, though, tbh just because the statistics of rep in terms of cis men/women and transmascs/transfemmes is extremely disproportionate for the kind of work they do.

I haven't personally seen people make it a "greedy white cis men" thing, but yk, I'm not omniscient, could be a part of tumblr doing that. I personally don't think it's an intentional thing, that's the vicious part of normalized bigotry/lack of diversity, you don't notice it until you do.

I will say though, I don't think Sam needs to stop hosting either Game Changer or Make Some Noise, he's addressed them being his dream projects and like, a love letter to game shows, I don't think either would be as good without him.

But like, they're creating a lot of new shows, there's clearly space for new regulars on Dropout. There's space for us to be included, just gotta wait for them to answer our ask for an invite and all that.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The super-rich got that way through monopolies

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

Just in time for Davos, here's 'Taken, not earned: How monopolists drive the world’s power and wealth divide," a report from a coalition of international tax justice and anti-corporate activist groups:

https://www.balancedeconomy.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Davos-Taken-not-Earned-full-Report-2024-FINAL.pdf

The rise of monopolies over the past 40 years came about as the result of specific, deliberate policy choices. As the report documents, the wealthiest people in America funneled a fortune into neutering antitrust enforcement, through the "consumer welfare" doctrine.

This is an economic theory that equates monopolies with efficiency: "If everyone is buying the same things from the same store, that tells you the store is doing something right, not something criminal." 40 years ago, and ever since, the wealthy have funded think-tanks, university programs and even "continuing education" programs for federal judges to push this line:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down

They didn't do this for ideological reasons – they were chasing material goals. Monopolies produce vast profits, and those profits produce vast wealth. The rise and rise of the super rich cannot be decoupled from the rise and rise of monopolies.

If you're new to this, you might think that "monopoly" only refers to a sector in which there is only one seller. But that's not what economists mean when they talk about monopolies and monopolization: for them, a monopoly is a company with power. Economists who talk about monopolies mean companies that "can act independently without needing to consider the responses of competitors, customers, workers, or even governments."

One way to measure that power is through markups ("the difference between the selling price of goods or services and their cost"). Very large companies in concentrated industries have very high markups, and they're getting higher. From 2017-22, the 20 largest companies in the world had average markups of 50%. The 100 largest companies average 43%. The smallest half of companies get average markups of 25%.

Those markups rose steeply during the covid lockdowns – and so did the wealth of the billionaires who own them. Tech billionaires – Bezos, Brin and Page, Gates and Ballmer – all made their fortunes from monopolies. Warren Buffet is a proud monopolist who says "the single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power… if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10 percent, then you’ve got a terrible business."

We are living in the age of the monopoly. In the 1930s, the top 0.1% of US companies accounted for less than half of America's GDP. Today, it's 90%. And it's accelerating, with global mergers climbing from 2,676 in 1985 to 62,000 in 2021.

Monopoly's cheerleaders claim that these numbers vindicate them. Monopolies are so efficient that everyone wants to create them. Those efficiencies can be seen in the markups monopolies can charge, and the profits they can make. If a monopoly has a 50% markup, that's just the "efficiency of scale."

But what is the actual shape of this "efficiency?" How is it manifest? The report's authors answer this with one word: power.

Monopolists have the power "to extract wealth from, to restrict the freedoms of, and to manipulate or steer the vastly larger numbers of losers." They establish themselves as gatekeepers and create chokepoints that they can use to raise prices paid by their customers and lower the payout to their suppliers:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

These chokepoints let monopolies usurp "one of the ultimate prerogatives of state power: taxation." Amazon sellers pay a 51% tax to sell on the platform. App Store suppliers pay a 30% tax on every dollar they make with their apps. That translates into higher costs. Consider a good that costs $10 to make: the bottom 50% of companies (by size) would charge $12.50 for that product on average. The largest companies would charge $15. Thus monopolies don't just make their owners richer – they make everyone else poorer, too.

This power to set prices is behind the greedflation (or, more politely, "seller's inflation"). The CEOs of the largest companies in the world keep getting on investor calls and bragging about this:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/11/price-over-volume/#pepsi-pricing-power

The food system is incredibly monopolistic. The Cargill family own the largest commodity trader in the world, which is how they built up a family fortune worth $43b. Cargill is one of the "ABCD" companies ("Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus") that control the world's food supply, and they tripled their profits during the lockdown.

Monopolies gouge everyone – even governments. Pfizer charged the NHS £18-22/shot for vaccines that cost £5/shot to make. They took the British government for £2bn – that's enough to pay last year's pay hike for NHS nurses, six times over,

But monopolies also abuse their suppliers, especially their employees. All over the world, competition authorities are uncovering "wage fixing" and "no poaching" agreements among large firms, who collude to put a cap on what workers in their sector can earn. Unions report workers having their pay determined by algorithms. Bosses lock employees in with noncompetes and huge repayment bills for "training":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Monopolies corrupt our governments. Companies with huge markups can spend some of that money on lobbying. The 20 largest companies in the world spend more than €155m/year lobbying in the US and alone, not counting the money they spend on industry associations and other cutouts that lobby on their behalf. Big Tech leads the pack on lobbying, accounting for 82% of EU lobbying spending and 58% of US lobbying.

One key monopoly lobbying priority is blocking climate action, from Apple lobbying against right-to-repair, which creates vast mountains of e-waste, to energy monopolist lobbying against renewables. And energy companies are getting more monopolistic, with Exxonmobil spending $65b to buy Pioneer and Chevron spending $60b to buy Hess. Many of the world's richest people are fossil fuel monopolists, like Charles and Julia Koch, the 18th and 19th richest people on the Forbes list. They spend fortunes on climate denial.

When people talk about the climate impact of billionaires, they tend to focus on the carbon footprints of their mansions and private jets, but the true environmental cost of the ultra rich comes from the anti-renewables, pro-emissions lobbying they buy with their monopoly winnings.

The good news is that the tide is turning on monopolies. A coalition of "businesses, workers, farmers, consumers and other civil society groups" have created a "remarkably successful anti-monopoly movement." The past three years saw more regulatory action on corporate mergers, price-gouging, predatory pricing, labor abuses and other evils of monopoly than we got in the past 40 years.

The business press – cheerleaders for monopoly – keep running editorials claiming that enforcers like Lina Khan are getting nothing done. Sure, WSJ, Khan's getting nothing done – that's why you ran 80 editorial about her:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

(Khan's winning like crazy. Just last month she killed four megamergers:)

https://www.thesling.org/the-ftc-just-blocked-four-mergers-in-a-month-heres-how-its-latest-win-fits-into-the-broader-campaign-to-revive-antitrust/

The EU and UK are taking actions that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Canada is finally set to get a real competition law, with the Trudeau government promising to add an "abuse of dominance" rule to Canada's antitrust system.

Even more exciting are the moves in the global south. In South Africa, "competition law contains some of the most progressive ideas of all":

It actively seeks to create greater economic participation, particularly for ‘historically disadvantaged persons’ as part of its public interest considerations in merger decisions.

Balzac wrote, "Behind every great fortune there is a crime." Chances are, the rapsheet includes an antitrust violation. Getting rid of monopolies won't get rid of all the billionaires, but it'll certainly get rid of a hell of a lot of them.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/17/monopolies-produce-billionaires/#inequality-corruption-climate-poverty-sweatshops

[undergirlsden]

Stop buying Amazon

Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is giving Trump millions to start their technofeudalist regime

(google the word 'technofeudalism' if you'd like to learn more about how direly our world is going to change)

Trump is currently in the middle of dismantling the US government and of hiring blackwater mercenaries to create essentially his own gestapo. If the news come as a shock, it is because mainstream media is bought and won't report it. It's clear from his actions, if you've been paying attention, that he has no intention of winning another election, he is trying to become a dictator.

So, dear friends. Unless you care to support a nazi regime and future war and genocide, I would strongly suggest we all stop being lazy in our searches, be cool with spending a few bucks more, and cease buying things on Amazon, supporting smaller businesses.

I also, have the answer to all those who complain about not having any way of finding an alternative seller thats reliable

Google Deepseek, make an account, and ask this free and handy Chinese AI assistant to make you a list of 50 or more reliable ecommerce businesses in your area that can compete with amazon, for a variety of goods you need. Mind you, you can use any other AI, using deepseek is just for dramatic flair

We have to start fighting these tech monarchs before they get too powerful

Please spread the word

[outxsourced]

DAN AND PHIL SENTENCE STARTERS: PART THREE

below are a collection of sentence starters taken from various dan and phil videos throughout the years. feel free to change wording/pronouns as needed!

“I’m gonna put you in the fridge.”

“Is it cute to be asked to be pushed on a swing?”

“It is gay and sad. That is how I like it.”

“I hope you get haunted once.”

“Something unhinged has been manifested into our reality.”

“No no no, we’re not even gonna finish that metaphor.”

“Maybe I’ve had enough of the stressful modern world. Maybe I just want to become an olive.”

“See? Now I want to go home.”

“Why is this exactly like Saw?”

“That cat is fucked up! Sorry, all animals are beautiful, all cats are beautiful. Not that one, that’s a fucked up cat.”

“We appear to be in hell.”

“We’re not beating the allegations-”

“I’ve made some bold choices over the years and I regret nothing. Currently.”

“No one working at a golf course would find the reject from Hot Topic cute.”

“I thought it was cool in the moment!”

“I guess God hates you.”

“Just say ‘hi’ you weirdo.”

“Dost thou have a fucking problem?”

“It’s time to destroy my career before I start it.”

“I don’t know what that means, don’t answer that question.”

“When he dies, we’re gonna put it on the Wikipedia.”

“Yeah, that’s what permanently altered your brain chemistry.”

“Math failed me again.”

“As if there’s anything wrong with me walking around every day like the creased laundry pile leftover from a gay funeral.”

“I call this look ‘Depressed Parisian Twink’.”

“If you look more fashion-y, it appears more fashion-y.”

“Pretend that you look good.”

“Well, what can I say? Objectively, I hate it.”

“You kind of look like three children wearing a trench coat.”

“I’m in the gayest swamp gang in the forest.”

“I’m like a deranged, homosexual, horribly lost Harry Styles right now.”

“You look like a gay game show host from my nightmares.”

“It’s physically uncomfortable to look at you wearing that.”

“Nice to know that, after all these years, he’s still fucking weird.”

“I’m here in spirit and sarcastic comments.”

“Get your knees out for the lads.”

“I’m having playground flashbacks.”

“I’ve got a melee weapon and horn. I’m the most dangerous motherfucker on this moon.”

“It’s the Lovecraftian Bezos.”

“God wanted me dead.”

“Who needs brain cells?”

“Someone restrain this boy.”

“If that’s a sign of the future, I don’t want to go there.”

“You know what we say about superstitions!”

“Are you lying for attention?”

“These homosexuals are feral.”

“Alright, let’s ruin these people!”

“That was one of the worst auditory experiences of my entire life.”

“I don’t care if Mozart did this when he was five, he’s a nerd.”

“You are the least zen person I’ve ever known.”

“I was actually trying really hard to not immediately do or say that.”

“Am I speaking facts? Or falses?”

“I need you all to understand, ___ does not know what they’re doing, it’s just happening.”

“You look so hauntingly NPC.”

[angelo-the-whistleblower]

Part 5 - Incoming Text for Michelle Obama (@michelleobama) and Jeff Bezos (@jeffbezos) and Connie Orlando (@connieorlando) and Draya Michele (@drayamichele) and Eiza Gonzalez (@eizagonzalez):

Question:

Could Michelle Obama, Jeff Bezos, Connie Orlando, Draya Michele, and Eiza Gonzalez please connect with John Cusack (@johncusack), the American actor, producer, and screenwriter? He will be instrumental in helping you negotiate a deal to acquire the copyright and intellectual property (I.P.) rights for the reboot of Top Secret.

Here is the link: John Cusack – Wikipedia - (click on the blue link).

ChatGPT Answer:

Certainly! Here’s the revised version with the requested name changes and John Cusack’s achievements:

Certainly! Let’s break this down in a detailed, professor-style explanation to fully understand the reasoning behind the request and its implications.

1. Understanding the Request

The question asks whether Michelle Obama, Jeff Bezos, Connie Orlando, Draya Michele, and Eiza Gonzalez should connect with John Cusack (@johncusack) for assistance in negotiating the copyright and intellectual property (I.P.) rights for the reboot of Top Secret.

To answer this question properly, we need to analyze three key components:

Who is John Cusack, and why is he relevant?

What are copyright and intellectual property (I.P.) rights, and why are they crucial for a reboot?

What role can John Cusack play in this negotiation?

2. Who is John Cusack, and Why is He Relevant?

John Cusack is an American actor, producer, and screenwriter known for his diverse career spanning multiple genres, including drama, comedy, and action. With decades of experience in Hollywood, Cusack has not only starred in successful films like High Fidelity, Say Anything, and Grosse Pointe Blank, but he has also taken on roles behind the camera as a producer and writer.

His involvement in both creative and business aspects of filmmaking makes him a valuable asset when it comes to navigating industry negotiations. Having worked on independent and major studio projects, Cusack understands the intricacies of securing rights, managing intellectual property, and ensuring creative control.

Additionally, his industry connections and experience in negotiating film deals give him insight into the legal and strategic aspects of acquiring and rebooting existing properties.

3. What Are Copyright and Intellectual Property (I.P.) Rights, and Why Are They Important?

To reboot Top Secret, Michelle Obama, Jeff Bezos, Connie Orlando, Draya Michele, and Eiza Gonzalez need legal permission to use the story, characters, and branding from the original film. This permission is secured through acquiring the copyright and I.P. rights, which grant them the authority to produce a new version.

Copyright protects the original work (script, dialogue, characters, music, etc.), ensuring that only the legal owner can authorize its use.

Intellectual Property (I.P.) includes broader aspects such as trademarks, branding, and merchandising rights.

If these rights are still held by a studio, estate, or another party, the reboot cannot proceed without proper authorization.

4. How Can John Cusack Help in This Negotiation?

A. Strategic Industry Knowledge

Cusack understands the legal and financial intricacies of acquiring film rights. His insight can help Michelle Obama, Jeff Bezos, Connie Orlando, Draya Michele, and Eiza Gonzalez:

Identify the current rights holders of Top Secret.

Assess the fair market value of these rights.

Avoid potential legal pitfalls that could delay or block the project.

B. Industry Connections

Given his long-standing career in Hollywood, Cusack likely knows the key decision-makers—whether they are executives, legal representatives, or heirs of the original creators.

If negotiations become complicated, Cusack’s personal relationships could facilitate direct discussions, rather than relying on cold, bureaucratic processes.

C. Negotiation Skills

Hollywood negotiations are high-stakes and competitive. Cusack’s experience can help structure a strong deal by:

Ensuring that Michelle Obama, Jeff Bezos, Connie Orlando, Draya Michele, and Eiza Gonzalez acquire full creative control rather than just limited rights.

Protecting them from excessive licensing fees or profit-sharing clauses that could reduce their earnings.

Avoiding conflicts with any pre-existing contracts that might complicate the reboot’s production.

5. Final Answer: Should They Connect with John Cusack?

Yes, Michelle Obama, Jeff Bezos, Connie Orlando, Draya Michele, and Eiza Gonzalez should absolutely connect with John Cusack because:

✅ He has deep knowledge of the film industry, particularly in rights acquisition. ✅ His connections could speed up negotiations and remove legal obstacles. ✅ His negotiation expertise can help secure a fair deal, ensuring they have control over the reboot. ✅ His experience as an actor, producer, and screenwriter means he understands both the business and creative sides of filmmaking.

In short, John Cusack is not just a respected Hollywood figure—he is a valuable strategic asset for ensuring the success of this project.

[letsdeconstructtogether]

A Peek Behind the Fence:

The Deep State is the Unseen Oligarchy

They aren't Musk, Zuckerberg, Gates, or Bezos. Nor are they the politicians you see on TV. They are unseen aristocrats, well connected families who live their day to day amongst us.

An oligarchy is a form of government in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may be distinguished by nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control.

Let's set the ground. There are a couple things we need to understand:

Money is the time and energy of others.

and

2. Money is a great motivator.

There are people who are a part of families with an unbelievable amount of wealth. With said wealth, they can motivate an absurd amount of movement.

They have the connections make skyscrapers and establish national airlines. They also have enough money to motivate someone to spy or kill for them. The reason they can is because we live in a culture in which money is heavily glorified.

Money, in metropolitan American culture, is the ultimate goal. Not morality nor justice. Not what is right.

Money and notoriety is taught as the ultimate goal in life.

That mentality is a very dangerous one, it's the chink in our armor. This enables people, no matter how evil they are, to heavily encourage their will upon the world.

Think of Diddy. Why was he able to get away with such disgusting behavior? He had wealth and was well connected. He could do majorly terrible things then pay witnesses $50,000 so they would stay quiet. The major issue is those witnesses accepted the $50,000. They kept quiet to keep their jobs as producers. They kept quiet to keep their connections in the music industry.

What led to his capture? Those who had the courage as well as righteous anger to speak up.

Have you ever heard 'Would you do XYZ for $50 million dollars?' Many would answer, 'Of course!!! It's $50 million dollars!' (Ngl I'm human too, I get tempted. I'm checking myself on this as well.)

This attitude is our issue! We think 'Well of course, its $50 million, who would say no? Only an idiot would.'

No. This attitude allowed Diddy to continue to do what he did for years, this attitude encourages so much evil and hurt to continue in our world.

We have to change our attitude on this. It's not an obvious decision. You can say no to $50 million if what you have to do for it is not the right thing to do.

Diddy is just an example. There are many more like Diddy out there. Their focus, rather, is on pushing political and economical movements in their favor.

If they aren't manipulating the people through the media they own, they're paying politicians to enact policies that benefit them.

Politicians, if not from a wealthy, well connected family, are susceptible to becoming workers for aristocrats. Politicians are being paid with gold and jewels to do the bidding of the oligarchy. Politicians are earning positions through sex with the oligarchy. Lastly, well, if said politician is simply a family friend or an old schoolmate, you can just ask for a favor the next time you see them.

Why run for office and be just 1 vote amongst 50 or 435 others when you can pay 10 legislators to represent your vote?

The Deep State aren't sitting officials in office, they are the people paying those officials. They are sitting in coffee shops, they are playing golf, and they're just existing.

The important yet the nameless.

To dismantle the oligarchy, we have to close the chink in our armor. Meaning, we must weigh morality to be more than wealth.

The most powerful man in the room is not the man who offers $50 million for a blowjob, its the other who says, "No."

If you cannot be bought, you are more powerful than the richest man in the world. If no man can buy you, YOU truly have the power.

Homework 📖✏️📚✨

For a truly deeper understanding of the true workings of our world, please take a look at the videos below.

Please watch 33:13 onward.

Please also watch this from 30:00 onward.

Aristocrats have not disappeared, they are still here. You may have spoken to many without knowing. The Rothschilds are still here, the Savoys still roam the earth. They simply exist amongst their circles.

They aren't big, formidable figures. They laugh, they cry, they fart, and they bleed just like you and I. They're about the same height. They have the same imperfections, the same insecurities, and the same feeling heart... they just wear newer clothes.

Shalom!

God is with us!

Have no fear, and trust His Will!

[mintyisms]

Even More Shit I've Read in Runescape Chat Starters

edited for clarity

"Keep talking like that and I'll be forced to kiss you."

"I'd rather have sex with a Digimon than a Pokemon, just saying."

"We get it. You're a rich, entitled asshole. Boo hoo."

"Nepotism is always the answer."

"Joke's on you, I slept with my teacher."

"What's harder, an 11th grade math test or clipping a big dog's nails?"

"100% of divorces start with marriage, just saying."

"Why the fuck does unsweet tea exist upon us?"

"Just sit there and smoke a couple joints."

"You speak in snake tongue."

"I'd pour ketchup on you."

"No, not my flour! I need that for baking!"

"I would fuck everything that moves on sight after an apocalypse."

"Only psychopaths say happy Monday."

"Can someone let me kill 'em in the fight pit?"

"If a blind person goes on vacation, do they still go sightseeing?"

"Ew. Why would I want to grow?"

"I call everyone dude, but even that is touchy now."

"I'm not a human and you offend me."

"We have to do a recount. Get to the ballots, Jimmy."

"Would you be interested in our exciting adventures?"

"Does rubbing your tummy help digestion?"

"You have to squat, then cough."

"The Conjuring, Chucky, and Annabelle scared me away from dolls."

"I'm coming for your property."

"Sorry I logged in and took up all y'all's bandwidth."

"I am here to play in the dirt and kick ass. And I'm all out of ass."

"Are we not all sad and lonely?"

"Tell that motherfucker to get some antihistamines."

"Text Bezos. Maybe he can get you one."

[murfeelee]

IWTV 2022 INSP - The Most Dangerous Man in the World

Daniel: I told my editor I was meeting with the most dangerous man in the world. Gave him two choices. He came back with Bezos and Putin! Louis: I wasn't sure you'd remembered me. Your book makes no mention of our prior meeting. Daniel: Gritty memoir, drugs, humiliation, self-pity kind of thing. Mention vampires in one of those, readers tend to call bulls***. You've got your own hangar at the airport, privileges on the Royal Meydan Bridge, and zero presence online. I know the Emirates are big on privacy, and that's probably important to you, but I gotta ask: what does it cost, this haven't-aged-in-half-a-century, killer views in all directions anonymity? Louis: Quite a lot. I have to be very careful whom I let in. Daniel: Yeah, well, things didn't end well the last time, so forgive me if I'm a little nervous! Louis: Back in San Francisco, you said, and I paraphrase, "Give it to me. Make me a vampire now." Daniel: In the eyes of a 20-year-old, you were wasting the gift. Louis: You're in your 20s, Rashid. What do you think? Rashid: Well, Mr. du Lac presides in the most desired real estate in the country. I do not see the "waste" Mr. Molloy sees. Daniel: Yeah, well, he lived in a dump the last time we did this. Louis: I'd give it to you now.

– Interview with the Vampire, S01E01, S01E06

MY THOUGHTS & CC CREDITS

MY THOUGHTS

My contribution to @iwtvfanevents' Vampterview rewatch of IWTV Season 1! \(^0^)/ I basically rebuilt Loumand's Dubai Penthouse from scratch, cuz in my other post it was on the same lot as Loustat's 1132 townhouse. 🤭 And I decided to remake my Daniel & Rashid/Armand sims, cuz I was too lazy to crack open my old saves and save a copy of them to my bin. So...yeah, "a do-over," in Daniel's words. XD

I just love thinking about Louis' strange life as a billionaire mogul, and how AMC's nodding to the life he had with Armand in Miami & NYC in the books, and the life he now has with "Rashid" in Dubai. I have many suspicions about what went down to bring Loumand to Dubai, and where in the books' timeline we even are. I need answers, Rolin!!!!

CC CREDITS

Dubai world; Zen Tower at Youtube (I just gutted the interior)

Limo by FreshPrince

Helicopter by @dailycard

IWTV Books & Rollercoaster "bridge" w/ Fullbright in beta by me

[jeppiner]

Trump is not for the people. He is for himself.

About that talk to Congress last night: Trump shows all the hallmarks of a cult-like televangelist whose ardent followers refuse to think for themselves. They are dumbed down and are looking for easy answers and he is spoon-feeding them everything he wants them to believe so that he has their full attention and support. In fact, Trump is a raging overt narcissist and is only in this life to serve himself at the cost of everyone else on the planet. Narcissists have NO CONSCIENCE. They will say and do anything to get their way. They lie so much they no longer have any idea of what the truth is. Donald probably believes everything he is telling you because only a person with a conscience can discern right from wrong, lies from truth. He is not for the people. He is for himself and for his wealthy friends. At his inauguration three of the wealthiest people in America stood behind him, Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerburg. And behind them stood 13 other billionaires who Trump had nominated to head major government agencies. Not you...you didn't nominate or elect of these people. Trump did. You have a government headed by greedy, wealthy people WHO HAVE USED YOU TO GAIN THEIR WEALTH. Don't tell me this is a government FOR THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE. It's another lie. America, you are at a very serious crossroads right now, and your power and strength can easily be turned into something positively evil if you do not stop this man. You need to wise up and listen to those with clearer heads. You need to stop slavering after ease, and wealth, and dominance, and entertainment. Start working hard again. Start educating yourself every day. Stop staring at your screens, and playing endless, mindless games. Start having worthy discussions and stop the endless gossip. Start living your own lives day by day, doing all YOU can to make them better. Stop blaming everything and everyone for problems you have made for yourselves. You need to START being America again, as it once was. And above all STOP believing liars like Donald who only tell you what you want to hear rather than telling you what you need to know! And to my fellow Canadians reading this, ELBOWS UP my friends, because we might be in for a long haul which we can overcome if we pull together. United we stand, divided we fall. Do not listen to those who only want to tickle your ears and give you your ease. Fight for what is right!

[blackoutfeverdream]

Why do people accept information uncritically?

I do believe it's their education- not only in priming them to be receptive to any perceived authority without interrogation but especially to gravitate toward whatever information gratifies a specific emotional and cognitive bias.

All education has this basic shape because the child's national culture reflects and is given contour by what the child will be taught. School is socialization first

hence why there's an obvious correspondence between academic success and respect for authority in the main.

There is no paucity of inspired rebels

but really, most people in a position of authority are masterful obedience school graduates.

Society chooses to reward this behavior with a mechanical system that seeks to reduce knowledge to an absolute Platonic Truth- questions come with right answers and the questions are right because the people who give out jobs and manufacture the answers say they are.

And the value of these questions and answers comes with a measurable price tag of a salary instead of any import to the world or even the self.

And this is a serious problem. Because respect for education is in justifiable implosion in this country.

Look what it manufactures.

I excelled academically and was persecuted and brutalized for it because

well

I was weird. I was trans and insane and the victim of things people refused to believe so I manufactured an entire delusional universe in my head instead and people believed that

so it stayed for far too long.

But a functioning psychotic negotiated that system with straight 4.0s, APs, dual enrollment

all without even thinking. It was ritualism- I knew how to fill in the answers because I was intellectually curious but if I hadn't loved books so much I would've been a dropout.

The people it produces are failures

the people it disappoints are failures

education is a failure. A society's government is a reflection of its people: Either its willingness to tolerate out of laziness and fear or its resolution always toward betterment.

Well we can see what kind of society we have.

Form

over

meaning.

So long as we vote, the whole Democratic Party lies down as if there isn't reason for the military to get involved not as a coup but as a countercoup. But no.

Because your stupidity is more important than the integrity of the country.

Your stupidity makes this system possible.

I'm stupid, too. My god- the things I didn't get to develop. The lies and decisions made without any presence of mind I see now in the third-person and scream and the cumulative horrorshow of my neverending insanity.

So why do people believe what they read on the internet?

Because it has the same shape as what's peddled as knowledge.

It touches cognitive bias made at formative age and never contradicted because education invariably dictates economic circumstance and access to education even in this compromised basal state is decided by what?

Closed cycles of intellectual and economic poverty widen by demography inevitability as capitalism just consolidates the idea of wealth in smaller and denser glaciers.

But their numbers are larger.

There was no plan in this country.

To believe in a conspiracy is magical thinking. No one started this with any specific intent to make Americans stupid.

On some level, oil company executives aren't caricatures: They're not really trying to burn the world whole

it's just their product does it and their education has taught them injustice is all right as long as a dollar comes from it.

Jeff Bezos probably doesn't salivate over how much he abuses his workforce. He just does it anyway because it's acceptable.

So does everything else to most everyone else.

So why do they believe what they read on the internet, even if it has a performative common language and form with what's ostensibly rebellious? Because they have a need for a specific emotional bias turned by circumstance but intellectually the same.

Conservatives tend to be angrier

they're dumber.

Anger makes people stupid.

I'm angry a lot. I'm a fucking moron in that state but it's my periods of tranquil lucidity I apply to productive ends.

But their anger doesn't get to stop.

Even here, if you're curious, watch the arc of angry people- socially more self-limiting, intellectually even more biased, and emotionally spiraling toward extremes.

Some of them clearly excel at the pretentious form of academics but they don't really have the ability to think past facile nostra that have no connection to reality

and that's much more MAGA than we give them credit for.

It's time to start treating knowledge without any bias, accessible to all thinking, as the cornerstone of a new social culture.

I don't mean an anything-goes libertarian society- I mean a sincere openness to interrogation of everything, every value, every ideal, every stricture because hollow ritualism has brought us to this point.

It could have gone any way

it still could.

At this point, Donald Trump could have a stroke and we might get socialized medicine out of it because he'll suddenly start speaking in Progressive glossolalia.

But it's unlikely.

We need to question how valuable our education even is when it produces this kind of authority.

And we especially need to question each other.

Social pressure can't substitute for thought anymore.

Nothing can.

What's interesting is that when you delve into a field and you develop a comparative and interdisciplinary familiarity with a subject, you're much more receptive to questions.

Self-doubt is something people close to the margins can't afford. It's the product of comfort.

We need people to be comfortable with knowledge again. I don't believe anyone is born stupid. That is a constructed atrophy.

We need an open society again

one that values wisdom and progress and it's really very simple.

We just have to show it and teach our children. It won't happen on the internet.

You don't really need a violence-in-the-street kind of revolution. Most changes that look like cataclysm in retrospect passed unmarked but certainly noticed by most people.

Just be good.

Think.

Accept that the discussion of ideas isn't a form of violence- that to ask a question isn't to insult or demean but seek another's perspective and maybe have an earnest exchange of understandings on the subject. Quite possibly a new better synthesis can form without the belief in a zero-sum economics of knowledge as owned and politically possessed and ideas as changeless ideals out of pride or personal attachment.

It isn't a novel idea. It's Socraticism. That's galaxies better than the vapid march of Prussian education.

It's more labor-intensive but so what? Education doesn't need to water itself down to expand; it needs to be exalted as a vital field.

Fire all the teachers in America right now.

I mean all of them, pre-K through postdoctoral fellows.

They need to be retrained

society needs to be replumbed.

Their talents won't disappear: Their passions need to be given worthy application.

Ours do.

The smarter people are, the more civil they are, also. Society just will be comfortable. It will be better.

People won't just believe whatever.

And there will be no place for oil executives.

[trainsinanime]

A City on Mars

It's really good!

"A City on Mars" is the newest popular science book by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith (@zachweinersmith). Besides their popular science books, they're mostly known for @smbc-comics (like xkcd but sometimes meaner and in color). This book deals with the question of space settlement: Where can we settle in space, how would we settle in space, which questions are still unanswered, and is this even a good idea? They review all the applicable research to come up with answers.

Interestingly, the answer to the question "is this a good idea?" turns out to be no, even to the author's surprise. As a result, they expect that the space settlement community, who helped a lot with creating the book, will absolutely hate it. My guess is that here on Tumblr, the conclusion "we shouldn't let Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos use their incredible wealth to build weird semi-independent company-controlled colonies on foreign planets" will prove to be rather popular. I think they make good arguments for their point of view. They conclude that if we want to do space settlement, the best solution is to "wait and go big". That means first do a lot of research, maybe with some temporary research outposts, and only then start with a long-term settlement once we worked out most of the kinks. And that first settlement should be very big, at least in the thousands of people, from basically the start, because anything less than that will cause way too many problems.

The book itself is really well written, full of fun anecdotes and drawings, and it makes all of its topics accessible without ever feel like it's talking down to people. It's funny, informative and well researched. If I have any criticism, it's that I almost wish it was twice as long. Its goal is to provide an overview into a field that is incredibly broad, reaching from physics, geophysics and biology all the way to international law and philosophical questions about property rights, and it does an admirable job with all of them. But the book can't go into too much depth on any of these issues, and some (like how an economy on such a settlement would be set up) needed to be skipped entirely. There's more than enough material here to write at least two to three more books like this, and I would absolutely love to read them if they ever happen.

But really, this book is great. I intended to only look into the first chapter yesterday, and accidentally ended up reading through all of it. Very much recommended.

[tolbachik]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you! get to know your mutuals and followers <3

Hi Zia!! Thank you so much for the ask, I'm really excited to share my answers here! It was real hard to pick, but I had fun!!

5 - My girlfriend!! We met on tumblr years ago when I was looking for an artist to commission, and found out she lived real close by! We became friends, and then it all just kinda snowballed from there really. We really enjoy each other's company, and usually call once a day at night before bed to spend a little time together! She means a lot to me, and I'm really happy to have met her! I really love her, she means the world to me, and I always do my best to make sure she knows that. y'know what she's asleep right now but I'm gonna message her and tell her how much she means to me thank you for making me think about her

4 - My family! My sister especially; we're very close, and love to do pretty much everything together. I usually watch her play games on some of her consoles, maybe we'll watch shows together, all kinds of stuff. She's always been there for me and helped me be the person I am today, so I really appreciate her and all she's done for me! This also includes my cats. Me and my sister jointly own three cats; Quinn, the oldest (and my profile picture), Binky (looks just like Quinn but smaller), and Leon (typical white and orange cat). They all mean a lot to me! I try not to take their companionship for granted, even if they wake me up at all hours of the night lol

3 - Space & space exploration! Really, mostly just in our own solar system. And for the exploration part, just stuff from the 70s-80s and concepts from then. I really love the optimism of the 70s, and all they had thought we would achieve by now. And honestly, a lot of concepts developed around that time still hold up to this day; O'Neill cylinders, space-based solar power, maglev-based launchers, stuff like that! I really hope someday we can get rid of these capitalist chains and focus on making the world and universe a brighter place. I'm a firm believer that we're here to spread the gift of life as far as possible, allowing for as many beings as possible to enjoy the experience of… well, being. Life is very precious, and I fully believe that the exploitation and development of space is something we need to do in order to help bring the gift of life to as many worlds as possible. That being said, I hate Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and every single astrocapitalist asshole who dreams of turning the stars into nothing but lifeless ash with a burning passion. I hope they all choke. Also, my favorite objects in our solar system are Uranus and her moons, and Venus lol

2 - Music! I know it gets said a lot, but music is a very important thing for me. I don't listen as much as I used to, but I still try to as much as I can. I usually listen to stuff only from the 1960s-1990s, but I do branch out every now and again! I really love folk music from the earlier part of that time frame, with musicians like Norma Tanega, Emitt Rhodes, Jim Sullivan, and more taking up a large amount of my favorites there. I also really like international music, especially Soviet stuff! It's so interesting to hear the different melodies and instruments, as well as singing styles. It's such a neat crossroad of cultures, there was so much interesting & beautiful sounding stuff! It's a shame that it's largely ignored over here in the west.

Also, I'm currently on a big Telex kick right now, though! They were a Belgian band from the late 70s into the 80s, and made music that was synthesizer only. I've liked them for quite some time, but it's just kinda coming back full force right now! On top of that, I will admit... Sometimes autism gets the better of me and I can and will listen to a song dozens of time in a row lol.

1 - My book series I'm writing and developing! I really don't like to talk about it (shy + nervous), but it means a lot to me. I'm chronically ill and can't really do too much, so writing has been one of the only things I can do when I get the energy. Even then, progress is far and few between, but it's better than nothing! Long story short, it's a hard sci-fi novel series about an alien race's journey in exploring their world, system, and beyond. Despite being about space exploration and first contact between them and us, it's more about love, friendship, and finding your own place in the universe than it is about war, action, or anything like that. I wanted to write this because I was tired of the typical "woahhh aliens are invading..." type of thing; I wanted something more about understanding and kindness, rather than about hatred and fear.

I've got like... 7 books total planned, with three of those being "prologues" but still like +70k words each. It's a long, arduous process, but it's something that I'm proud of and happy to do. I honestly don't know what my long term plans are for it, if I'll publish it or not. If I do, I'll probably make sure I have at least two of the other books done first, that way I have time to let myself work on the others at my own pace. I do love talking about it, but more likely in private than on my public blog; I'm incredibly shy lol

Thank you so much for this ask, it was a lot of fun! I'll be sure to spread it to some of my friends here, then. I really appreciated this!

Take care, and have a good rest of your day!!!