Author: Sarah A. Hoyt

If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH

FROM PAM UPHOFF: Best Enemies (Chronicles of the Fall)

Hayden Jaeger, youngest son of the Chairman of the Council and Ambrose Vinogradov, the youngest son of the Founder, were thrown together by random chance as they were assigned to be dorm mate at the University. It was not an instant friendship.

300 years before the fall of the Troystvennyy Soyuz, the foundations of a secret society are about to be laid down . . .

https://amzn.to/4d2kT6IFROM KEVIN IKENBERRY: Bureau 42 (The Phoenix Initiative)

Peacemakers. The Galactic Union’s most capable enforcers and resolute negotiators, their name alone elicits fear and awe among the Union’s citizenry.

It doesn’t happen often, but when a Peacemaker can’t solve a case, it goes to the Peacemaker Archives, as all Peacemaker cold cases reside within “Bureau 42,” as it’s also known. Cases dealing with ghost ships, missing Peacemakers, mysterious killers, and even a few cases that aren’t even really cases can all be found in the files of Bureau 42.

Fourteen authors present thirteen all-new stories from the depths of Bureau 42. Take a look into the forgotten files of the Peacemaker Guild and find never-before-seen secrets, some of which herald the future of the Peacemaker Guild and even the Galactic Union itself.

These stories honor the threat, set the terms, and walk the knife edge between standing or falling. Step inside, Candidate, and see what our files hold…

FROM ROBERT ZIMMERMAN: Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8: The First Manned Mission to Another World.

It was Christmas Eve 1968. And the astronauts of Apollo 8 – Commander Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders – were participants in a mission that took them faster (24,000 mph) and farther from the earth (240,000 miles) than any human had ever traveled. Apollo 8 was the mission that broke humanity’s absolute bond to the earth: it was the first manned vehicle to leave the earth’s orbit. Confined within a tiny spaceship, the astronauts were aided in their journey by a computer less powerful than one of today’s handheld calculators. Their mission was not only a triumph of engineering, but also an enduring moment in history. The words these three men spoke from lunar orbit reverberated through American society, changing our culture in ways no one predicted.

FROM KEITH HEDGER: Tales of the E4 Mafia

They are specialists, corporals, and petty officers. They are the military personnel who have learned some leadership and gained expertise in their specialty. “Work smarter, not harder” is their watch phrase, followed by “If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying”.

They are masters of avoiding work, getting up to shenanigans, and, when a mission needs to be completed or job done, it’s an E-4 that others turn to. They are the near mythical E-4 Mafia, and their ability to avoid work, solve problems, and create trouble is the stuff of legend.

Here are eleven stories of the E-4 Mafia in a variety of settings and situations that are sure to thrill and entertain anyone with an interest in military fiction, science fiction, a sense of humor and the curiosity to peek under the rug to see what got swept there when something needed done.

FROM CAITLIN WALSH: Mama Bunny #2: Daddy’s Home

Mama Bunny is back, and this time she’s got backup!

In this brand-new Papa-focused collection, follow the Bunny family as they perform unwise science experiments, operate heavy machinery, and disassemble anything that stays still for long enough.

Being a stay-at-home mom has its challenges, but with your husband at your side, anything can be managed—no matter how ridiculous.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Whine in a Box (Liquid Diet Chronicles Book 3)

Maybe chasing murderers wasn’t so bad after all…

Meg Turner, vampire, accountant, and investments advisor…is a political radical. By vampire standards, at least. She’s young, American, and wasn’t inducted into the unlife in the usual way. Which means she’s not a European feudalist. So, when other vampires started asking to move into her territory, she wasn’t sure how to react, other than to welcome some of them. She has a chance to shape an entire territory, if she wants.

(She doesn’t)

Her allies have other plans, though. And, between those plans being sprung on her without much warning, her nearest neighbor coming under attack (and sending his helpless civilians to her for shelter), her mother showing up on her doorstep, looking for answers to why she’d not gotten in contact in the last twenty years…yeah. She’s got a reason to whine.

And that’s not even counting the rising panic over a brand new virus…that shouldn’t affect her people, but will anyway.

FROM DALE COZORT: Through the Wild Gate

Robinette Thornburg, the half-human daughter of ultra-rich Robert Thornburg, thought she was fully human, just weird, for the first twenty-one years of her life. She went to expensive private schools, then Harvard. On her twenty-first birthday, she learned that she was half Mangi, the result of an encounter between her father and a primitive near-human woman from the Wild, an alternate reality North America where primitive humans arrived half a million years ago, but no modern humans ever did.

That was the first she had heard of Mangi or the Wild, closely held secrets of the wealthy families who control Gates to it, but she finds out far more than she wants to about the Wild when mysterious enemies kidnap her and leave her to die in the Wild, naked and weaponless.

Robinette nearly starves before finding her way back to our world through an early, uncontrolled Gate. She vows revenge, but on who? She teams up with Eric Carter, a down on his luck private eye and former bodyguard to her father. The two try to figure out who kidnapped Robinette and why, a quest that takes them through the decadent world of the Gate families, the only law in the Wild. It also takes them back to the Wild and then to a final confrontation with, their lives and the fate of the Wild at stake.

FROM KAREN MYERS: Broken Devices: A Lost Wizard’s Tale (The Chained Adept Book 3)

Book 3 of The Chained Adept

CHAINS WITHOUT WIZARDS AND A RISING COUNT OF THE DEAD.

The largest city in the world has just discovered its missing wizards. It seems the Kigali empire has ignited a panic that threatens internal ruin and the only chained wizard it knows that’s still alive is Penrys.

The living wizards and the dead are not her people, not unless she makes them so. All they have in common is a heavy chain and a dead past — the lives that were stolen from them are beyond recall.

What remains are unanswered questions about who made them this way. And why. And what Penrys plans to do to find out.

FROM MARY CATELLI: The Witch-Child and the Scarlet Fleet

Trapped in a pirate port. . .

Caught between pirates who would force him to use wizardry in their aid, and a king who would force him to spy, Alik will need every scrap of wits and wizardry to forge his own path.

https://amzn.to/3S7ugtRFROM LEIGH KIMMEL: A Gift of Koi

Ancient and wise, the grandfather Koi knows at first sight that this human bears a hidden wound. But how can a mere fish, even one as old as himself, be of any aid to a human?

Astronaut Tyler Lanham had come to Grissom City, first and oldest lunar settlement, in search of the medical expertise he couldn’t find on the far side of the Moon. When he sees the scar on the ancient koi’s side, he knows he’s found a kindred spirit.

But an enemy is stalking these lovely gardens. A danger that will change both man and fish.

A short story of the Grissom timeline.

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.

We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Your writing prompt this week is: TROUSERS.

UPDATE: I REALLY suck at fundraising, don’t I? Today is the day before last, I promise.

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

*Before the post. Yeah, the killer was “registered Republican” — I was briefly registered democrat, to vote against Obama in primaries. And I only registered Republican (as opposed for independent) to vote in primaries. Primary registration means nothing. Who you donate to does. I… made a tweet about it, because it supports the “we deserve better psy-ops” joke, but really, I think it was a misseducated kid who thought democratic socialism was wonderful and Trump was Hitler. The only thing suspicious is “no social media.” That I don’t buy.

Now a few things: For everyone who says false flag.

And this: should be read. And this.

And oh, yeah, you’ll see pictures of clean cut assassin to bolster the “GOP supporter” thing, but…. Well, this is what he looked like (most photos have curiously been vanishing from online, so this was the best.)

Oh, this also has a photo of the assassin, as well as a good recap of the whole thing. Look at the photo and tell me that’s a “Republican gun enthusiast”!

– SAH*
This is an extraordinary meme post. We’re all unsettled and scared, mostly at the bullet we all collectively dodged yesterday. BUT we’re Americans, so we’re already making jokes.

Let the memes be lit. AND BE NOT AFRAID.

UPDATE: GRUMBLE I should add this. Two more days.

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

The last two weeks have been both enlightening and horrifying, and that enlightenment continued with last night’s pull-ups er big boy conference, so called.

Oh, not because I didn’t know the zombie was a zombie, shambling around and being directed by the extreme left. I knew that.

My mistake, though was one that us, old cold-warriors are prone to. You see, in our day commies might not have been any more competent than they are now (I maintain at least the western ones were still competent, while in the USSR they might be suffering from 4th generation communism, a virus that eats brains. (Not literally. And yes, I can explain.))but they sure appeared more competent. I don’t know how much of this was the effect of a complicit and fully in control of all information media. It might be impossible to ever know.

However, while I didn’t assume their plans would work in the long run, I assumed their plans were minimally competent. Like, not eating paste competent.

This was torpedoed by two things: letting the zombie get on that stage for the debate, and thinking it would work, somehow, at all. And all the hype beforehand, too, about how incisive and brilliant the zombie was.

And then the reaction on the left to the big boy pants conference. Not the conference, which was its own amazing disaster though perhaps, if I trust Stephen Green on it (Look, I’m not stupid enough to watch it, no) marginally less obviously presented by a zombie than the debate, no. The REACTION to it from the left.

It wasn’t their in one voice, trained-seal like clapping and telling us how cleveramazing Biden was. That’s… Look, they’re group oriented, they might even believe it. Because they believe whatever the group believes. Hillary’s slogan was almost right to define the left’s modus operandi, only it wasn’t “I’m with her” it’s always “I’m with them.” They believe that there’s safety and MORALITY in numbers that the greater number is always right and to an extent — remember, levitating the mint seemed rational to them — that reality is determined by consensus.

So once they realized they’re stuck with Biden, they would start seal-like barking how amazing he is, in the face of all sanity and evidence, because they hope this will shape not only opinion but REALITY.

But the stuff that leaked in around the corners is what was truly horrifying. I have a friend who is a mixed blessing because he insists on showing me things going up in Mastodon. For those who have forgotten, Mastodon is where the left ran for fear of free speech on twitter. So, while it’s absolutely horrifying, it’s also a good measure of things they just think make sense and are what everyone knows.

On Mastodon last night they were gloating about how what happened was that reporters thinking they were going to watch an explosion listened to a “well informed” and “brilliant” conference on Biden’s agenda, including foreign policy and domestic measures….

Oh, I saw some of those. Well informed and sensible, indeed. If your mind is full of Imagine, Give Peace a Chance, and the more ridiculous just so stories that the left loves to believe.

This is a world in which feeding the “starving” children of Gaza will miraculously bring peace about, instead of the money going to build more weapons and mount more attacks on Israel, while the children are taught it’s all the fault of the Jews and that killing more or them will bring about paradise.

But more importantly, this is a world, and a set of minds to which “National rent control” is a sensible solution.

And here’s the thing: the set of mind who believe this are the same set of minds that is manipulating Biden (self obviously) and who thinks these appearances and speeches will garner support.

Because polls notwithstanding (Don’t fully blame them there. They know they manipulate those, so they assume now we’re manipulating them, which, while in error is far more sensible than any of their other beliefs, because it merely rests in assuming everyone is like them.) they still assume what they propose is right and just, and what any sensible person will immediately perceive as right and just. They think the only thing they have to do is proclaim what they intend to do and most of all their wonderful intentions loud and clear, and everyone will of course see they’re just, sensible and wonderful and fall in.

Their opposition to them is two camps. One that is outright evil, and perhaps suborned (not very clear by whom, but they probably think “millionaires and billionaires” without realizing most of those are on their side.) The other are simply people who haven’t heard the Gospel of progressivism. Once they hear that loud enough, they’ll instantly convert and stop voting “against their interests” and there will be candy and unicorn farts for all.

The problem, the real problem, at the basis of it is that these are the children of Summer of Love by The Good People Lost. They are the third generation of leftover leftist hippies who refused to believe anything we saw during Reagan’s tenure. To them rent control still means rents are lower, and they never understood what we mean by “market distortion” nor processed the fact that most places with rent control are both hellish expensive and have decaying real estate. To them that’s just because landlords are greedy. To them minimum guaranteed income is just sensible, and the resulting inflation and lack of production are just a sign that rich people are greedy and capitalism is evil. To them government should control everything AND there should be no borders, because the experts should be in charge of everything worldwide. And if you, yes you, you stupid peasant, would just eat the bugs and live in walkable cities, Gaia wouldn’t be mad at us, and everything would be great.

Oh, and the USSR only fell because we are so evil we tricked “the good guys” into surrendering. And no, there wasn’t anything bad behind the curtain. Here, they have these pictures clipped from Soviet Life in the seventies to show you how beautiful and prosperous a planned economy can be. And if only everyone–

If you imagine this in the sniveling, high tones of a middle school girl in a snit, you’ll have the full picture.

These are the people who working behind the scenes at Hillary’s campaign not only thought that the pee story about Trump made sense, but also would cause the entire right to run screaming from Trump, because ‘ick, Russia’. You see, they never understood why the right in this country rejected communism. I mean, they told us it was wonderful. They explained. They explained in school and in movies, and on TV. So, the only reason we rejected it was, of course, because we’re evil. And mean. And hate Russia, for no good reason. So associating Trump with Russia would make us run. When it didn’t they suddenly assumed that’s because it was true, and Trump was working with Putin. NONE OF IT MAKES SENSE unless you assume that communism is absolutely wonderful, the USSR agit prop of the seventies was holy writ, and that if only they explain louder–

This is the Biden camp. That and a few ruthless people who are getting very rich and protecting their stash while assuming “Apres moi, le deluge.”

But the few manipulating Biden, the ones in charge, picked by Jill who, as various people have pointed out, is cunning and profoundly dumb?

They are commies, sure. But not the cunning commies of the cold war. No. These are 40 something theater kiddies, who have been doing all the right things according to what they were told is right.

Kiddies who were told that all the discomfirmation of their cultish upbringing in holy Marx was “disinformation” and “evil.” (And probably greedy and mean too.)

They BELIEVE. They incandescently believe in a bunch of shibboleths that make no sense whatsoever, but which they hold onto like a baby to his pacifier.

They believe if the US disarms, or turns its military into a cross between a charity organization and a force for disseminating sexual liberation propaganda, there will be PEACE.

They believe if price and wage controls go into place, everyone will be prosperous, and only “the rich” will suffer.

They believe you — yes, you — aren’t sufficiently taxed.

They believe in open borders, because it helps redress “colonialism”.

They believe in two spirit, and BIPOC and– THEY BELIEVE.

They believe so hard they figured no one would realize that Biden was a zombie, because look, he’s saying the Holy TRUTH and therefore good. And once everyone hears it, they will of course realize it’s true and perfect.

I have a headache. And I’m for real terrified. Because evil? Evil we can fight and maybe even defeat. But this is stupid. Willful stupid on steroids, and without bounds.

And stupid is dangerous.

In the short term, expect much much louder affirmations of what IS RIGHT AND JUST, including that Biden is an immortal genius.

In the long run, may G-d have mercy on the United States of America.

Because if we don’t take as much control as possible out of the hands of the fanatical stupid, the crash is going to be very hard and the rebuild painful, because what we’re doing is the equivalent of letting the toddlers bang on everything with a hammer. And that breaks things. And some of those things are things we’ll need.

Evil has revealed itself. And it’s well-meaning. And profoundly stupid.

UPDATE ONCE MORE I FORGOT TO POST THE FUNDRAISER BECAUSE I’M AN IDIOT.

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

Human brains — and bodies — are not designed to deal with glut.

Throughout most of our human journey in this world, heck, from before we were humans even, had no problems with an excess of anything. It wasn’t even a consideration.

If one of your ancestors before say the eighteenth century and then only if he/she was well off, had to fight with him/herself not to eat an extra cookie, it was not just “because I’ll get fat” but “because I’ll be taking food from the kids, who are still growing.” (Which if you’re a decent human being, makes it easier to resist.)

Now I routinely fight with myself not to overeat at breakfast. (Because I wake up very hungry, and it takes a while for the body to know I’ve eaten.) And if I were to give in, the damage would be to my attempts at weight loss, not to our budget or survival. You see, a bowl of cheerios is cheap. Which by itself is a miracle and a wonder, but never mind.

It wasn’t till this morning that it hit me, we’re now facing the same problem with glut on the informational front. Not just story or entertainment, but information. Of all sorts.

It was while scanning a conversation online, overnight, that I came across people saying “But how could he not have known?” And then it hit me “Well, because it was more than twenty years ago, and finding information was difficult then.”

No, seriously. You people who are younger than me, get off my e-lawn. You have no idea. It used to be really hard to find information. All information. In general.

Small piddly stuff, like people’s address, sure. “I know so and so lives in this small town, but dang it, I can’t find his last letter. Let me hie myself to the library and see if they have a phone book.” (They usually did, at least for towns in the state. But still.) But also “Mom had a recipe for carrot fritters, but I can’t find it. It must have been a known thing, but….” It could start a years’ long dive into historical cook books and chances are good you’d never find it. Now I can find it in ten minutes of poking around at the right area and recipes online.

The most obvious illustration of this, in my career, and it also shows how fast the change was, was my research for the Musketeer Mysteries. I couldn’t find a thing on how police was organized in France at the time. Not a word on line, or any of the books. I went on just keeping it out of the books as much as possible. Now it’s trivially easy to find. The same with a map of Paris at the time. I still have a huge (Wall size. It’s behind a set of bookcases) map of Paris at the time of the Musketeers, for which I paid the Earth in a specialized map store. (It’s a reproduction of course, not antique. Weirdly at the time the gentleman who worked there told me they mostly sold such historical city maps to RPG gamers.) but it stopped being needed halfway through the series. Because there are a ton of them online.

For those born in the new age of glut, the process of finding out info went something like this (and I’ll use research for a historical novel series as the model, because those were my most egregious fishing expeditions):

Have an idea. Go to the public library and come home with 50 books on the general area/time/subject. Read them to refine more closely what you might want to say/work with. Go out and get another 50 books by borrow, beg or buy. Refine still more. Now go and buy (at this level, it was almost always buy) another 50 books. Note some of these will be useful for one line, maybe two.

Now imagine having to do that for everything. I mean, everything. Like, you have some specialized thread you found at the thrift store. It’s very pretty. So you got it for 99c. Now what do you do with it. Just researching what it is, and where it came from even if you had a bobbin with a name, could take years. Now: minutes with an internet connection.

This applies to information on current events as well. Not only can we hit the net and get a lot of (early on very conflicting) information, but we can usually these days — or at least I can — call a friend in a nearby region to the event and talk over what happened. A surprising number of times, I’m no more than two degrees of connection to someone who was there. (The first instance of this for me was 9/11.)

This is not in any way a bad thing. It’s a great counter for the unified front of propaganda. Which is how and why the left is failing these days, because they got used to being the man behind the curtain. Their positions of power in the information/entertainment industrial complex helped them manipulate the country and the world for almost a century. They really got nothing else — the ideas don’t work and their social beliefs are (at best) puerile and increasingly more so — but they could make it seem like everyone else ‘believes this way’ and thereby force the social apes to fall in line, no matter how absurd the development/idea/push.

It’s not working. These days we can see them doing the push in front of G-d and everybody. And even if most of the people tune it off — more on that later — enough of us see it that the front isn’t unified. And for the more ridiculous ideas/pushes such as that no one knows what a woman is, or that Joe Biden is a fully functional human being, it takes a unified front. Now not only are there dissenters, but the dissenters know there are dissenters and that there is a good reason for dissent. Which makes the whole push less effective. (Not completely ineffective, mind.)

But there is a snap-back reaction to the glut of information.

I’ve explained before how I am an information sponge and my normal day resembles an intellectual drunkard’s walk through internet information sources, from the sane to the silly. To an extent I was always like that. Before the internet a lot of my morning was consumed reading six newspapers. (If you’re going to ask why! I just had to. Yes, we subscribed to six. It’s a long story.) But I’m unusual.

And even I find that the glut of information on the net makes it impossible to remember where I got the information/idea. (Ah, for the memory I had at 20.)

During the Obama administration I noticed that their way of hiding terrible things they’d done was “hide a scandal with another scandal.” This is a well known strategy and was used by the fashionable in the courts of Europe. But to dance like that in full light of news/information, over and over again was breathtaking. And while I’m sure some of it was deliberate, I now wonder how much of it was simply that all of a sudden we could watch them much closer, and the information just kept coming.

The other day I was trying to list all the “Trump did this horrible thing” that have been debunked, and could only come up with three, so I asked in a group, and I swear for all of us, hyper connected, hyper political people, it took us hours and then someone would go “Oh, yeah, this.” until the list was something like 25. And I’m sure if I look in that discussion now, there will be others.

But the thing is, it’s too much information. The normal brain will not track or retain all of it, unless it’s immediately related to survival.

If I weren’t hyper-political and connected, or were in an information subgroup that reports “everything bad ever said about Trump” but not the denouement where the report is often completely upside down, all I’d know was that “there have been a lot of bad things said about Trump. What a horrible man.”

And this is the reason why, although partisans were always hard to convince of flaws, that that there are Scott Adams’ two movies (at least. Actually there are at least six at the same time) in people’s heads, and people are so resistant to even admitting there are other movies.

Because there is an information glut. And the human brain deals very poorly with too much of anything, including of a good thing, like food, or info. One way to cope with it is to artificially filter it.

Diet wise, we tend to do that by artificially restricting it. Low carb (never really worked for me, but it worked for Dan, so we were low carb for 20 years, because it was far more important to keep his sugar under control than for me to lose weight. Until it stopped working for him) or vegetarian, or vegan, or paleo or– I always wondered how many of these diets were actually beneficial (they are, to some people. But the human genetics are a mess, okay?) and how many were just a way to make it so you don’t have to fight with all temptation, all the time.

We do the same with information. I — as I said — am in a weird group. So whether it’s someone we love or hate, we usually have this one guy (actually a gal, but–) who does a deep dive and comes up with the contrary view. But for most people? Nope. They already decided what they believe, and why will only consume information that confirms it.

This is true even in non-political fronts. I bet half the people in the comments are going to tell me low carb works for everyone and how very dare I? (It worked great for Dan, so long as he could exercise. It worked for me for about six months. And then I started craving things I simply could not have low carb. Obsessively. Corn chips. Potatoes. etc. etc. etc. I can’t swear I ended up consuming more of the allowable food to compensate, but I think I did, because I started gaining weight. And after that, I simply couldn’t lose. But I could gain. Its stopping to work for Dan, for a bunch of reasons including inability to exercise, and then probably cpap issues meant we had to try “normal food small portions” which is working better for me than for him, but also for him at last. And the weird thing is all the cravings have gone silent. Completely. Heck, even the things I love, like potatoes, I’ll eat a few and I’m done.) Because it’s the way to cope with things one has found, and it’s horrible to be thrown back to formless and disordered glut (of food and info.)

This is also fueling a lot of the “I want to go back to when we were united, and things were simple and–“

To the extent Joe Biden got real votes in 20 (I’d guess about 25% of them were real) it was because people were sick with the wish for normalcy and old white dude who has been around politics forever promised it. A lot of the anger at him, likewise, is not just that he’s a walking cadaver, or that his policies have been uniformly disastrous, but that he couldn’t take us back to circa 1950 when, in our minds, things were so much simpler. (Spoiler voice over: they weren’t. It’s just how we remember them. Partly due to lying movies.)

The frustrating thing with all this is that there is not a single panacea for how to cope with glut. Again, neither bodies nor brains were designed for this. Throughout the history of the world scarcity was the norm. Mostly extreme scarcity at that. Life-threatening scarcity.

So whether for excess food or excess information, we each have to find our way to cope.

I just humbly submit that over restricting on either of those, and never re-examining the evidence or the results can be as lethal as natural extreme scarcity.

Or worse.

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

In cities across the US — in fact across the world, but particularly in the US — homelessness is a growing problem. In fact, there has been a growing bleeding heart argument that we should just let people camp and defecate on the street, or it’s “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The cities are dealing with this the way they deal with this, and the do gooders ditto. The way the cities deal with it, is by building at great cost, houses to put these people into. The do-gooders collect money, build shelters, and generally try to make it easier on people who are in these circumstances, in the hopes they’ll pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

They seem to think the people camping on the streets, randomly attacking passerbyes, defecating and masturbating in public are doing this because housing is too expensive. Or that there isn’t enough housing. The latest renaming of “homeless” to unhoused puts the emphasis on that, making it sound like these people are really, really, really just on the streets because mysteriously there aren’t enough houses to go around.

Now, I’m not going to argue with any of you that housing and rent isn’t to expensive. That has way too many reasons, among them the stupid covidiocy and the fact landlords have to recover all the money they lost during the “no one needs to pay their rent” so they can do repairs and such, you know? But also well, the open borders bringing illegals in and then having the government house them at the People’s expense and top dollar, and foreign investors buying American real estate under the illusion it’s a safe investment. Honestly, to list all the reasons houses are too expensive and people– particularly young people –are having serious issues paying for housing I’d need a bigger blog. However, I’ll note in passing we could get rid of the shortage and have a glut if we got rid of all the wanker regulations on what houses have to have and do to allow people to live in them. No, I don’t mean “must have a roof” and “must be minimally functional.” I mean stuff like “The pipe used must be blah blah” and such. If you just make it easier to retrofit commercial real estate into living space you get rid of the office space glut and you create enough housing to make the housing market more rational.

But here’s the thing: the people who can’t afford houses or even apartments aren’t the people who are “homeless” or “unhoused” in the sense of camping on city streets and making a public health hazard out of themselves, while making it impossible for people to live normal lives around there. No, the people who can’t afford houses or even apartments, a number that’s growing as inflation makes it hard to afford that and food, both, are either getting another couple of roommates — it’s not unusual for married couples in their twenties to share with other married couples, or three or four single people — or living “van life” or couch surfing with friends till the crunch passes, or move back in with mom and dad, or, oh, a million other arrangements that still count as “homeless” because they aren’t renting or buying a house. Those people might not or might be helped with some money, but honestly? Most of them you couldn’t get them to take it. Like all Americans they’re not poor, they’re temporarily embarrassed millionaires. The best help you can give them is cut through the forest regulations and government money making housing stupidly unaffordable.

The “Homeless” making our big cities unlivable and growing in numbers are a different breed, and throwing money at it isn’t going to solve anything. In fact it’s going to make everything worse.

Look, even I didn’t fully realize this. Except, you know, I lived in a downtown area for most of my married life. To be exact in downtown Colorado Springs. And we routinely walked downtown (all of us) mostly because parking was really impossible. It took less time to walk the mile and a half downtown than to drive and then try to park. And we often walked through or around Acacia Park which at the time was full of homeless people.

It was impossible to do that and not listen in on their conversations — look, I’m a writer. I listen to conversations. That’s what I do. — and to start getting a feeling for why these people were there.

Sure, most of them were addicted to something. Sure. Whatever. A surprising number sounded functional enough. However…

They talked — particularly the young ones — about leaving home because of “all the rules”. And they made fun of the rest of the population, those who worked for a living. They talked of places to eat for free, places to sleep for free and “with no judgement”, places where they could get medical care and dental care. (Outside emergency room where they get medical care for free anyway.) All of this — absolutely all of this — for free and not demanding anything of them.

They thought we, the rest of us who work for a living and try to save for retirement and all that, were stupid.

And you know, if you don’t mind living in a tent, etc. they aren’t even wrong.

Yes, there’s genuine untreated mental health. There’s genuine untreated addiction.

But through it all? There are people who are homeless, or at least start out that way — I think the drugs and mental health kind of come with the territory after a while, because man was made to strive, not to an endless, purposeless summer vacation — because it’s easy. Because there re no rules to follow. They don’t have to do anything. Everything gets given to them. This while life for the productive, between unemployment, inflation, and increasing regulations is getting harder and harder every year.

Listen here, perhaps we get more and more homeless every year because we throw money at it. You get more of what you pay for. It’s basic economics. Everything else is a cope session to claim economics is wrong in this case.

We sneer and point fingers at the Victorians because they put the poor and homeless in work houses. But you know, from where I stand, I don’t see where “hand them everything with no judgement and don’t demand anything of them” is better. Do you? At least they — failing and with massive recidivism — tried to encourage bourgeois virtues, not spit on them.

Perhaps we should stop treating those who fall by the way side as impaired, incapable and victims, and stop throwing money and care at them with no conditions.

If you ask me, encouraging them towards normalcy and a productive life would be better for everyone. Including themselves.

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

We need some way to study culture that isn’t as silly, corrupted by Marxism and outright faddish as our current anthropology field.

No, hear me out, okay? Studying what a culture even IS and how much it influences the group it works with; what happens when the culture is broken or occupied; signs of a culture under attack; a culture under natural decay; a culture that’s gone toxic.

Because humans are social apes, it’s always a question what’s nature and what’s nurture, and because cultures as they exist currently are just a static thing, you have to look at cultural perspective, which in turn involves bias in reporting.

However, it’s possible to break through that, as through all bias in reporting issues, by having many historical reports, with many biases, and not assuming our current one is more right than the rest.

But Sarah, you’ll say, why do we need cultures to be studied? What’s with wanting all these fluffy irreproducible social science stuff? Don’t we spend enough money on those? Let’s study STEM.

Okay, you do you. And note, I’m not 100% sure these should be founded by government. In fact, I’m fairly sure they shouldn’t because wellll the inherent biases of a corrupt bureaucratic structure don’t help anything. BUT–

The other day at insty I shared this: Tough Question, Simple Answer.

Yes, I do realize it’s an old post, but I thought it was still relevant. And I wanted to point out that I agree with him on South Africa in general and on apartheid in general, but not on the whole “The population might be genetically predisposed to short-time preference and inability to plan.” Not because “racissss” (And not Kim doesn’t say “IS” because we can’t, because studies on it are all muddled, partly by being done by the apartheid regime to justify itself.) But because as far as I can determine it isn’t true.

Sure, Africa is a total mess, and Africa in general exhibits a lot of of the same pathologies (though part of this is the European export of communism which is is the worst colonialism.) But there’s really no proof they’re due to a common genetic heritage OR lack.

First of all because Africa has the most genetically diverse populations in the world, and second because African people who immigrate and make a point of acculturation often do quite well. Also a lot of African countries did well under colonial rule, and it wasn’t despite it’s native populations, but they were full contributors. Also when people bring this up, they inevitably bring up the black population of the US, which is a laugh, since 90% of them are technically what’s known in the rest of the world as “Caucasians” and Americans go on the slightest facial hints to say “that person is black.” (We recently watched American fiction, and I was baffled because I’d heard it was about a black author. I kept waiting for the black author to come in, until the character meets his family and they’re obviously black. Until then he read “Mediterranean” to me. Dan says he’s obviously black. GO FIGURE.)

Also, though this is deliberately hidden, despite all the things stacked against them, black people in America were doing quite well and were perhaps more “bourgeois” in values than white people, until the welfare state came and socked them down again. And as far as black misbehavior, it’s more or less standard “white trash” misbehavior, probably proceeding from people brought in in small groups or individually (slaves came from all over Africa) and having lost their moorings acculturating to the culture of other field hands and supervisors. So, you know “Lower class British/Irish in the 18th and early 19th century.” Like the speech. Anyway, the white underclass is going on the welfare ride along with black people in America, and both need to be freed from the degradation of low expectations.

Now, I’m not saying that there isn’t a genetic component to some human behaviors. We’re still, after all, mammals and have bodies. Oh, and an evolutionary history. It’s just that it’s not that simple. Even short/long time preference isn’t — probably — based on a single genetic trait. And all genetic traits can be employed various ways.

When I went to older son’s sweeping of every award for chemistry on his final undergrad year (not seriously. They told him “Don’t bother getting off the stage.” as they called in each new award for this and that) I will confess I felt a little uncomfortable. In the sense that every kid there but son and another kid had a German last name. And it turned out kid had a German immigrant mother, and son has a Amish great grandmother. Add it all together with the fact that chemistry — which I cordially detest — is a fussy, exacting, button counting system, and you start getting the slightest bit squirmy and going “Well, now…”

But historically that’s complete BS. First because the Germans were considered “wild and unorganized” well into the eighteenth century. Second because the communists managed to make the East Germans slovenly and short-time-preference incapable of maintaining anything.

So do I have a bad sample, or is there a correlation, and it’s just how the culture uses the “fussy, obsessive on details” genetic trait?

I’d be inclined to the latter, because, well…. because. I mean, if the entire culture is “wild” then the fussy obsessive on details gets spent on…. I don’t know. Better traps for house breakers? And the communists turned that trait into obsessive spying on everyone, till there was no energy for anything else.

In the same way, I often refer to Portugal as ADHD with borders. And it is that. It’s weird, the level of ADD that’s considered completely normal there. (And I was off the charts even for there. Oh, well.) But it took me till this last visit, when I’m almost — to the extent I’m fully acculturated here, or as much as it’s possible to be — to realize how much of Portugal’s inability to organize its way out of a wet paperbag OR maintain anything less durable than a Roman aqueduct (and even those!) is reinforced and driven to eleventy by a culture that goes “The highest virtue is doing things fast, no matter how BADLY they’re done.” And that’s pushed everywhere and by every possible means. And yes, I grew up with it (Anyone making a comment about my books gets put in the corner. Actually they’re worse if I take very long. Yes, I have an explanation, but it doesn’t matter. It is what it is) and internalized it to such an extent it took almost forty years to SEE it was there and it was bad.

And these traits can be recoverable from, if one acculturates elsewhere. I know that, because when I first moved here — I tell this story often, because it’s now hilarious — my entire family was shocked and dismayed to find out that as I was sending things over the transom, the manuscript would get rejected if I had a typo or punctuation error in the first page (Or others, but particularly the first.)

It wasn’t so much that they found I was being asked to do something impossible, but also because they couldn’t understand why I was expected — as a creative — to punctuate my manuscripts at all. “Surely the houses have people for that.”

You’ll be shocked — because I know what this blog looks like, yes, but it’s fitted in around things — that my manuscripts are actually cleaner and more grammatical than 90% of the writers’ out there. Because I spent so many years in slush, I trained myself to correctness and obsession with details. Though looking at Portugal no one would expect that.

And there’s Portugal, of course. Let’s say that to talk of innate Portuguese characteristics is …. kind of like talking about the innate genetic characteristics of street cats. My kids’ characterization of Portugal as “the reservoir tip of Europe” is mean. It’s also accurate. Genetically Portuguese are…. a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a dollop of the other thing. However they are all for real ADD AF. Even if I’m more so than most of them. And they all exhibit short-time-preference.

I suspect — to revisit the vexed question of “Africa always wins” which is not the point of this post, but needs a sort of exclamation point at the end — that Africa’s true tragedy is an overall (with exceptions, yes, I’m not stupid) climate that makes living easy for humans, and a fact that tribalism was never broken there, and tribalism is a curse on humanity. Like communism, it penalizes saving or planning for the future, in favor of short term “being in good with the group.” And it’s about as pleasant to live under as communism. Don’t be fooled by the “country borders.” Sure, countries exist in Africa, but as far as I can understand, they’re just a nifty mask for the same old tribal wars and clashes.

Which brings us back to cultures. It doesn’t matter if tribes in Africa have different cultures or genetics, their cultures are all varieties of tribal culture, and that penalizes individual action and innovation in favor of almost nihilistic obedience to and supremacy of the group. (The same nonsense our wokies want to impose here.)

And our problem is that we don’t GET cultures. The Gramscian thing of all cultures are alike, except the cultures of the oppressed which are extra nifty and should be let run rampant is killing us all.

We don’t understand cultures, or how to modify them, or how to help them eliminate bad characteristics before they damage another generation.

I know cultures aren’t sentient, but they behave as if they were. Because they embed in people’s brains when they’re so young they can’t even think, they behave as a sort of collective subconscious. And while they change and evolve over time, they are excruciatingly slow to do so.

All of this is a problem in a world of rapid innovation and deliberately open borders. If we don’t study cultures and figure out how to make the better ones prevail — those more useful to human civilization and happiness, on the individual side, because that’s the only measure we CAN use — what we end up with is hordes of locusts roaming the earth, eating out each slightly better off country. Or if you prefer, tribalism on a global scale.

Take a lot of the things we considered once upon a time problems of “overpopulation”. It turns out what they actually are is problems of a culture that has been conquered and is occupied. The women become whores (to survive the occupation by the enemy, because if your kids are of the enemy, well…) and the men become effeminate, and no one works, and– ALL of these are signs of a culture that has lost a war and been occupied. NOT of overpopulation. It is also the signs of a culture taken over by Marxists, which the culture obviously interprets as “foreign occupiers” — and if you see what they do, it’s typical colonizer stuff, from taking over the schools to punishing everyone who doesn’t display allegiance.

But no one is paying attention to that, because no one is studying the “mechanisms of culture” qua culture, and what cultures do and how they change and use humans almost as their instruments to survive/replicate/conquer/die.

It is necessary. It is urgent. And I don’t know what to do about it.

I do know it’s needed because we don’t have the …. ruthlessness to use the old methods, let alone thinking the old methods were horrible. (They were.)

In the old method, either all men over the age of three were killed (that had mixed success as women often managed to pass on enough of the conquered culture, anyway) or everyone but “the babe at the breast” was killed. That effectively destroyed the culture, and let the conquering culture — often simply more ruthless, but often also better organized and more capable of overcoming tribalism (see Rome) — become THE culture.

The history of civilization is made of such encounters, but we can’t do it. As we are, we simply can’t. And faster travel has made the world one large neighborhood.

So, we need sane, non-fluffy people to study: What cultures are (They’re not food and clothes. And they’re not race. To what extent those influence culture is debatable, but they’re not what culture IS); how cultures clash; how to make cultures that are objectively bad/destructive/useless go away without putting everyone to the sword; the symptoms that a culture is in trouble and how to fix it.

I don’t know how to do any of that, though I suspect a lot of my ponderings on it is coming out in the current headache of a book/series. (Yes, published soonish. But so weird, most of you will run screaming into the night. Never mind.)

There is an entire field of knowledge it’s urgent to study. Our culture ignores it because it’s decided culture means race.

And I have no idea how to fix it. These things always fix themselves eventually, but usually by those old, er…. ruthless methods.

If we don’t want to end up there, we’d best figure it out now.

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

For those wondering at the title, it comes from this:

A fake fortuneteller can be tolerated. But an authentic soothsayer should be shot on sight. Cassandra did not get half the kicking around she deserved.

Robert A. Heinlein

In my defense, I’m not even a fake fortune teller. (Though I won’t object at all if you cross my palm with silver. Have I mentioned these are fundraising days?)

What I am is someone who has an uncomfortable little imp at the back of her head. If I’m similar to a Heinlein character in that it is Friday. Why Friday? Well, remember the scene where her boss calls her in the middle of the night and asks her questions, before she has the time to think and her “guesses” are correct?

Well, the minute I read that scene my head went “ting” and I thought “that’s what I do, or would be, if I could just randomly rabbit hole from subject to subject and read research and news and fiction and– without limit.” Even at that time, with “just” books (but I was a much faster reader back then, I should add, and even going to college, taking extra courses and working I read at least one full book a day and often much more.) or later, with access to a library, and with full awareness of how controlled publishing was, I’d get these uncomfortable “tings” in the back of my head and know conventional wisdom was completely wrong. Sometimes, digging after the fact even told me why it was wrong. Other times I couldn’t put my finger on it, I just “knew” it was. (And that’s a horrible feeling, kind of like having an itch where you can’t reach.)

All of it became much stronger with the internet. Much. Like…. Through the roof. Both because it gives me a better opportunity to feed the elephant child, and even when I’m not avoiding writing (These days, TBF I don’t have that much time to avoid writing. I’m usually either writing or cleaning/cooking/planting/weeding. Or looking after DIL’s quail, though lately she’s mostly done all of that.) I read an awful lot of … stuff. Partly because I am a compulsive reader/can’t do anything else, like, say, cook, without also reading. Partly because I’m ADD AF (Which makes me wonder if this is the evolutionary advantage of ADD brains.) So on any given day I’ll read history, news, an article on some obscure craft like how to make rosaries out of dried rose petals (you only think I’m joking), ten posts screaming about the next great doom, a bunch of email lists some by highly specialized people others by my delusional lefty colleagues who have forgotten I’m on the list (yes, I know, this might get me kicked out. If they remember my email. LOL.) To which I might add I listen to people’s conversations with the shamelessness only a writer is capable of. People walking by my yard while I’m weeding, people talking on the cell phone outside the pharmacy, people arguing on whether to buy the discount beef or the chicken in the grocery isle… You get the point.

And sometimes something causes me to go digging through like a deranged rabbit which is why I can honestly tell you I now believe there were humans in the Americas as far back as 100k years ago, or further (We’re a curious ape.) BUT I don’t believe they were enlightened; some kind of great matriarchy; gentle carers for Gaia; superior to our civilization. Whether they might have been “civilized” I leave for a future in which we know a heck of a lot more, and perhaps have less crazy academic establishment. (Which means till the afterlife, when I hope I get to KNOW stuff. Or maybe not. some of it will horrify me.)

Oh, add to that that I live with an ADD AF husband who not only falls down his own rabbit holes BUT also repeats whatever he researched lately at me during meals. (Not work. Just crazy stuff. Like the latest was Victorian Mass Murderers. Look…. I don’t KNOW why. Another time and for about a week it was (I swear I’m not making this up) Ways to Make Cheese (he’s never been near a dairy. He’s never known anyone who ran a dairy. In our last house in Colorado some people pastured cows in the undeveloped 400 acres behind us and older DIL and I didn’t know how to explain to Dan what had happened to all the cows in fall — including the cute little calves he’d named — without breaking his heart. I mean he used to watch them through binoculars and named them.)) He often listens to podcasts or reads stuff while puttering around the house, and then SOMEONE has to hear about it all. I’m the only one in the house. I’m someone.

And then… And then I wake up in the middle of the night, as the imp in the back of my brain stomps his little foot and goes “But everyone is wrong.” And then I play Cassandra. And sometimes I’m even right. (Oh, not every time. I was so wrong in 2016! To be fair, though, I was in accord — then — with a substantial minority of people to the right of Lenin. Not against everyone.)

Anyway, right now the hot topic in every blog, even on the left is “When will Biden step down.” and “Will he be killed if he won’t.”

I have bad — or good, who knows — news. The imp of absolute certainty in the back of my head is saying “He won’t step down UNLESS a very unlikely thing takes place.” “If he dies, it is either a deuced clever hit, the kind I don’t actually believe the left can carry out right now, or truly natural causes.”

So, how do I explain this? I’ve been noodling on it for days and keeping my mouth shut. And then when I figured it out, I still didn’t know how to explain it.

Except…. hey, you know, any of you know your Gibbons? The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? Never mind that they’re lousy history (truly) some of the things are broadly true.

Like the fact that whenever one of the truly horrible, crooked emperors fell, everyone in their circle got killed.

Look, it’s a human thing. It’s very akin to mob wars and dynasties, I understand. (I don’t know. I don’t read much mob anything, certainly not fiction. I might be the last person alive in the wild, my age, who hasn’t watched The Godfather.)

That is our model for the current Democrat party. Some of the GOP too, kind of, or would be if they had any power that’s not by attaching to the democrats, and if the media ran the same cover for them they run for the democrats. What I’m saying is the GOP isn’t inherently virtuous, but they’ve suffered different evolutionary pressures than the dems. And therefore the result is different.

But the dems have now, increasingly and over the last 100 years or so been the darlings of the mass-media-entertainment establishment, meaning that they were never exposed, their bad side never shown, and they never got called to task for anything from vices to outright crimes.

They also have to a great extent controlled the voting through machine politics and outright voter fraud, with increasing ability every election.

What does this mean? It means that it have them the ability to grow into a mob-like elite where the power plays are all within the party. And they are ruthless and brutal. (Also often incompetent. I’m still convinced that Paul Pelosi was the victim of a hit, and I wonder by whom, and how he survived, and what deal he made to stay alive.)

But wait, Sarah, isn’t that a reason for Biden to meet the Almighty personally in a month or two at most? We don’t understand.

Well, it would be a very good reason. And if their dome of untouchability from the media were still in place, this would be true. Also, if Biden were alone and isolated.

Biden isn’t alone and isolated. Guys, alone and isolated the walking corpse would never make it out of bed in the morning.

Instead, Biden — on purpose or not — came in surrounded by his own clique. And before you tell me it’s Obama’s clique… waggles hand. I think a lot of members of both are the same, and he inherited some of Obama’s consiglieri, but you’re not in fact going to convince me that Obama was more self-actuated than Biden. Oh, sure, in his life maybe, but not in governing. Over and over again we figured out Obama was just a puppet. And possibly a construct. (Likely a construct, says the imp.)

I think — and if you pause and think for a moment you will too — that Biden was supposed to step down to spend more time with his family two years in, tops. But Cackling Kamala is…. well, they can’t even pretend she’s all there. I think they expected her to be like Obama, and plausible. But also–

But also someone or some ones on Biden’s consiglieri turned out to be more capable of bare knuckle fighting, and far less willing to bow out than the people picking the ticket and supporting it expected.

Look, I’m not going to guess who. Could be Dr. Jill, but I kind of doubt it, on account of she ain’t very bright. Could be Hunter, but guys? The man’s genetic donors aren’t that bright, and he plays with mind altering stuff all the time. Could be anyone else in the clique, really. But someone there a) knows where the bodies are buried. b) has enough power/ability to command “death squads” at least equal to Hillary Clinton’s.

I’m not going to guess because it could be anything, and at this point you have to realize the Praetorian guard er… three letter agencies are in play too, and not all on the same side either, but all broadly on the “democrat” side, because that’s the side that gives them unlimited power. So it could be someone within those, not necessarily the official head.

Hell, for all I know, Kamala was picked as a compromise candidate between two powerful and equally murderous factions, and Kamala’s is just not as strong. Though together they’re obviously stronger than Hillary Clinton’s, and boy, does she have a machine.

What I do know is that they haven’t been able to dislodge the corpse. They haven’t been able to make him stop breathing in a plausible enough way. And they haven’t been able to make him step down.

The step down is out. You may — as my grandmother would put it — take your little horse out of the rain now. Waiting for that one is a moot point. Ain’t gonna happen.

Why not? Because if he steps down, his entire faction is at risk. And given how corrupt they’ve been revealed to be, and how much has come out about the Biden Crime Family while they’re still in control of the entire apparatus of state? The best they and their faction can hope for is that they’d be ruthlessly persecuted if Biden stepped down. More so because they know their own side is ALREADY trying to underbus them to cleanse themselves of “sin” by throwing it all on them.

These people are quite literally fighting for their lives. Because the BEST that will happen to them is persecution and imprisonment. However, death is far more likely as soon as it can be contrived without being glaringly obvious, because they all know things. Even if they’re innocuous things in their circles, they probably can be made much bigger/will still shock the mundanes.

If Biden steps down, most of the people deep in his administration, including a substantial number of those pulling the strings will die. Oh, accidents. Suicide. Strange illnesses. We no longer do the praetorian guard rampaging through the palace and killing everything including babies. We’re not ROMAN. But die they will. And they know enough of the inside mechanisms that they’ll never do it.

I’d guess condition ONE for them to let the puppet bow out is that they get whatever the equivalent of a safe conduct and promise of never being harmed. Of course, that would require them to TRUST the other dems. Anyone see that? Because if you do, you are more trusting than I and a beautiful soul, you sweet summer child, you.

I mean, it COULD happen. But I rate it as a marginal chance at best. AND if it happens it will be only if they find another puppet the Biden faction feels as confident with. I’d say if that were possible, it would ALREADY have happened. And it would depend on the Kamala faction accepting it, too.

So, the death. Same conditions apply. How well would you guard the life of someone on whose life yours depended? And if you were a crooked mafia-like cabal, how many fail safes would you have in place?

All of this is particularly delicious, because I believe the only reason Trump is running is to stay in the public eye and avoid being Epsteined. If they’d left him alone, he’d have let DeSantis or whomever take it. But he can’t, because if he falls off the public eye the dems off him, openly or not. (The fact they haven’t managed to tells you how much more difficult it would be to off Joe with INTERNAL factions militating against it.)

Look, in the 35th century someone is writing a bestselling series about this time, and it’s called something like “A time of knives” or “The clash of factions” or whatever. And I’d appreciate the artistry of it all far more if I weren’t stuck living here.

BUT as it is my bet is: no step down. IF there is a step down expect Hunter and close family and some VERY SURPRISING people to take off to non-extraditing countries just ahead/just after.

No death, unless it’s natural, or a really gifted assassination, of the kind that only happens in books. OR of course an in your face lucky hit of the kind Gavrillo Princip pulled off. And if the last one is the case, well…. It will make WWI look like the Teddy Bear Picnic. This time, the rerun will be WWI like global and combined with ACW. ON YOUR …. not movie screen, alas. But natural or really gifted assassin? They’ll be prevented by all means possible, including but not limited to animatronic preserved corpse (Come on, guys, RGB, remember?) or banned therapies that are much akin to necromancy.

No, I think we’re in for a very interesting time. Possibly terminally — but briefly — interesting.

It’s The Godfather meets Weekend at Bernies meets Imperial Rome. All against the background of technologies that make the outing of plots FAR more likely, and a populace that’s getting restive and frankly pissed off, worldwide.

Hold on to the edge of your seats. We’re riding into a hurricane.

And — as RAH always advised — keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

Most of all, though, be not afraid. This kind of corruption is self-defeating in the end. And they’re more of a danger to their competitors than to us. We just have to get to the other side.

UPDATE: argh, I forgot this on first go out, because of course I did:

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH

FROM MACKEY CHANDLER: A Reluctant Sovereign (Family Law Book 7)

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When North America attacked the space habitats beyond the Moon they had no plan B if they failed. The Earth Claims Commission was already suffering a credibility crisis and North America’s disastrous failure and defeat left them with no muscle. Far flung worlds and stations were abandoned with no banking, no supply, and no news. The explorers who were owed royalties were cut off too. Lee and her father Gordon weren’t about to sit still for that. If you can repossess a ground car, why not a planet? Lee had standing to be sovereign of Providence but wasn’t all that fond of planets. She didn’t want to be bogged down with the day to day drudgery of sovereignty like her friend Heather on the Moon. Was there any reason she couldn’t have her cake and eat it too? None that she could see.

FROM C. V. WALTER: The Alien’s Major Dilemma (Alien Brides: The Chelion Conspiracy Book 1)

When an elite Chelion scout crashes on an uncharted planet, the last thing Cooper expects is to find his mate. But after kidnapping a fiery human Marine named Marissa, he discovers an unbreakable bond forming between them that defies all logic.

Stranded together and hunted by mysterious forces, Cooper and Marissa must navigate a web of intrigue that stretches across the stars. With the help of unlikely allies, they uncover shocking secrets about Cooper’s own people, the Chelions, and their ancient enemies, the Dragor.

As the pair grow closer, Marissa helps Cooper question everything he thought he knew. But when a long-lost Chelion artifact resurfaces, it puts a target on Cooper’s back and threatens to tear the lovers apart forever.

In a world of danger and deception, can Cooper and Marissa’s newfound bond survive? Or will the truth of the Chelions’ past destroy any hope for their future?

Strap in for a wild ride across the galaxy in this steamy sci-fi romance, where two hearts from different worlds discover that love knows no bounds, and the greatest adventure of all is letting yourself trust another.

FROM J. M. ANJERWIERDEN: Mech Bunny

Humans won the war against the Blues, thanks in large part to the neural link they stole from the aliens. Few people can use it properly, though, and anyone with the right kind of brain gets conscripted immediately — even ordinary high school kids.
All Sophie wanted to do was be a dancer. She definitely hadn’t planned on piloting a sixty-foot ANGEL mech with only a cranky rabbit mechanic to talk to, or fighting the genetically engineered foxes and wolves that had turned on the humans once the aliens were gone.
She’s lost count of the battlefields she’s seen, but this next one is the worst yet. Ordered to defend a crucial forward operating base on a volcanic planet, forces are stretched thin, so she’ll have only infantry and artillery support, no other ANGELs.
One girl, one rabbit, and one giant robot up against creatures designed to be relentless soldiers.
Creatures who have mechs of their own.
Great.

FROM SCOTT MCCREA: U.S. Marshal Ezra Flint: Cold As Flint: A Western Adventure (A U.S. Marshal Ezra Flint Western Book 2

The second Western adventure in a brand new series from Scott McCrea!

U.S. Marshal Ezra Flint is on a cross-country trek with a madman in custody and a pack of hired killers in hot pursuit!
When Cass Malone is convicted of murdering a child, a doctor convinces the governor that the man is insane. Flint and the doctor are ordered to transport the lunatic to the state asylum.

But the victim’s father has other plans. He hires a group of badmen to stop Flint and kill the killer.
But … what if the man is innocent? Flint has his doubts and will fight to save an innocent man while dealing with gunmen, rogue Cheyenne and a know-it-all doctor.

FROM RACONTEUR PRESS: Moggie Noir (Raconteur Press Anthologies Book 31)

The question remains whether you should tuck into this volume in a comfy chair for a bit of adventure. Well, if you like cats, there’s more than a little of something you love in the pages or pixels herein because, instead of a bland all-two-legger cast, these stories feature felines as central or pivotal characters. If you are a fan of noir fiction, you’ll enjoy how these authors have explored this genre and maybe stretched the bounds of what you find familiar. Some are set in the 1930s, some are present day, and some are who-knows-when.

After all, who better than a cat might convey the contradictions of a ruthless killer enrobed in the most exquisite package of sumptuous fur with glittering emerald eyes? No one, see? Cats are the ultimate expression of the noir aesthetic, and we hope you will agree, but fasten your seatbelts: it’s going to be a bumpy read.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Lizzy’s Tail

A small, plush horse learns what it means to be real when a little girl chooses her and takes her home. Through adventures and accidents, Lizzy the horse becomes real to her little girl, Carrie, even though she is still a toy.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Lunar Surface Blues

The High Frontier is no place for foolishness, but nature can always make a better idiot.

Four years ago, Molly’s parents brought her up here to the Moon when their work brought them to Shepardsport. In the time since that move, she’s earned her place here and a seat on this field trip. Only one problem — she’s been given the worst possible EVA partner.

A pencil-necked dweeb with an attitude, Benji wants to be one of the guys. But his stunts keep putting them both in danger, and the adults keep blaming Molly.

When Benji gets in over his head, can Molly save him before it costs both their lives?

A short story of the Grissom timeline.

FROM KAREN MYERS: Monsters, And More: A Science Fiction Short Story Bundle from There’s a Sword for That

A Science Fiction Story Bundle from the collection There’s a Sword for That

MONSTERS – Xenoarchaeologist Vartan has promised his young daughter Liza one of the many enigmatic lamedh objects that litter the site of a vanished alien civilization.

No one can figure out what they’re good for, but Liza finds a use for one.

ADAPTABILITY – The Webster Marble Deluxe Woodsman, Model 820-E, has been offline for quite some time. Quite some time indeed.

Good thing Webster has a manual to consult, and a great many special functions.

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.

We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Your writing prompt this week is: ASTONISHING

 

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*