Award-winning pro writer of 50 books + "Teacher of the Year" Saddleback College, SpaceXAI Post-Training Tutor
Southwest Florida
Joined May 2008
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- Following4.6K
- Followers14.5K
- Likes245K
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I'm going to pay other creative people well to create the cover of Like Fire and will publish it this year. This is the really good fantasy book I completed that's paid off in terms of my personal life - these are some of Kirbi Fagan's illustrations that will be in book.
Military budget unlimited, never questioned.
CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME LIKE I'M FIVE YEARS OLD.
If Social Security's trust fund runs dry by 2032, which is now the official projection in this year's Trustees Report, what the actual hell happens to every dollar that's been pulled out of my paycheck for the last 10+ years??
Because here's what nobody explains clearly: Social Security isn't a savings account with your name on it. There's no personal vault sitting somewhere with "your" contributions in it. Every dollar taken out of your check right now is being paid out immediately to current retirees. It's a pass-through system, not a piggy bank.
So when they say the trust fund "runs out," they don't mean all the money vanishes and checks stop entirely. They mean the surplus reserve that's been topping off the gap disappears, and the program drops to paying out only what it's currently collecting in payroll taxes that year. Based on current projections, that means an automatic cut of somewhere around 20-22% to everyone's benefit, with zero congressional action required to trigger it. It just happens by default under current law.
So I've been paying into this system for over a decade, and the "promise" I'm working with is: maybe I get roughly 78 cents on every dollar I was supposed to receive, starting the exact year it's projected to hit, unless Congress does something before then, which it has had decades to do and hasn't.
Genuinely, where did the rest of it go. And why is "trust us, we'll probably fix it eventually" the actual retirement plan being sold to an entire generation.
Wow! Thanks Grok!
10 things people might flex if money is irrelevant by 2050:
1. Rare mastered skills
2. Extreme longevity and health
3. One-of-a-kind experiences
4. Original creative output
5. Depth of real knowledge
6. High-quality relationships
7. Measurable positive impact
8. Physical or mental mastery
9. Authentic personal stories
10. Freedom in how time is spent
Amy Sterling Casil retweeted
Please share, Terrill has not been able to work because of illness and really could use a community of care 🪶💕 thanks if you can assist
Amy Sterling Casil retweeted
Looking for a unique mineral specimen? Shop untreated gemstones and matrix crystals now on sale.
I knew nothing about Jennifer until now. Rest in peace Jennifer. We all knew Fox News was bad. Ed Henry is now with Newsmax. "Team Blue" is no better. antoniazk.substack.com/p/the…
You tell me @grok why the "like" from the OP does not show?
Amy Sterling Casil retweeted
Security called me at 6:12 AM today.
"Patch every PHP server immediately."
I asked what happened.
"Two critical vulnerabilities. Remote code execution. No authentication required."
Cool.
How many PHP servers do we have?
According to inventory: 12
According to reality:
Nobody knows.
We found one running WordPress.
Three running old internal tools.
One under someone's desk.
Two inside vendor appliances.
A forgotten employee directory from 2016.
And a server named:
PHP-OLD-DO-NOT-TOUCH
Naturally, that one runs payroll exports.
Then we found a PHP 5.6 box.
I asked who owned it.
The documentation said:
BRIAN.
Brian left in 2019.
We called Brian.
He said:
"Oh wow, that's still running?"
Excellent.
By 8 AM, leadership joined the incident call.
CEO:
"Can hackers actually get in?"
Security:
"Potentially yes."
CEO:
"Without a password?"
Security:
"Yes."
CEO:
"Then why do WE need passwords?"
Not the lesson.
Finance asked if we could wait until the weekend to patch because downtime affects revenue.
Security explained that the alternative was letting strangers execute code on our servers.
Finance asked for a cost comparison.
At 9:17, someone suggested temporarily taking the vulnerable websites offline.
Marketing refused.
"Our campaign is live."
So for the next hour, the company officially decided maintaining a landing page for 20% off webinar registration was more important than preventing remote server takeover.
We finally patched everything we could find.
Then our scanner discovered another PHP server.
Hostname:
TEMP-PHP-2014
Uptime:
4,512 days.
Nobody knows what it does.
Nobody owns it.
Nobody can shut it down.
But every time we block network access, the warehouse stops printing shipping labels.
Security has classified it as critical infrastructure.
It is running PHP 5.4.
The vulnerability has existed longer than half our employees.
The emergency patch took four hours.
Finding out what PHP actually runs took eleven.
The internet isn't held together with code.
It's held together with servers everyone is afraid to turn off.
Amy Sterling Casil retweeted
One of the best feelings for an introvert is slipping out of a social event without anyone noticing, driving home in complete silence, and feeling more at peace with every mile
I see moronic propaganda statements multiple times a day, just as you my living friends and acquaintances do.
Idk who has any type of stock or investment or not but US taxpayers of any age need to include an SSN or ITIN for tax purposes.
This is provided to the brokerage or financial provider. Not any individual company's owner. Should you not have those numbers ...
investopedia.com/ask/answers…
Amy Sterling Casil retweeted
🥗 "I wish I could provide fresh vegetables, fruits, and food for my family, but I don't have a campaign link to help me afford these basic needs. Please help me get a donation campaign link — I am in desperate need of it. Thank you from the bottom of my h" 🙏🇵🇸
@atmahmudulhasan
Amy Sterling Casil retweeted
Working on my bif Democracy for the Few project and just finished looking at the actual 39 signers and who were slaveowners. They love to lie about this but sadly out of the 39 at LEAST 29 were. 3 would have (it was abolished in those states already) and 1 ran a slave ship.
Amy Sterling Casil retweeted
At just 18, Japanese classical guitarist Haruna Miyagawa performs Niccolò Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in a guitar arrangement. Originally written for violin, this celebrated piece is known for its intricate variations, complex arpeggios, and demanding technical challenges
The recipe discussion shows the common levers pushed by idiots for "engagement". I like the recipe format and it would help anyone who's not an experienced baker.
I'm calling this knucklehead "anime race baiter" grow up please ... it didn't even do ya 1K views.
Real humans we know each other - I'm not telling ya we're living in Star Trek yet. But humanity is on its way. Would you prefer this or idk Blade Runner -
amysterling.substack.com/p/l…