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As we have come to recognize more and more, there is only one reason--one goal--by the present administration of the federal government... It is to lie, cheat, destroy, while making criminal acts in which money flows...one...way...only... Upward and outward from the United States as a nation... Before I started on another non-fiction book about all that is happening, I spent more time with Regime Change in light of the major tech race now going on among tech leaders and the government.
The major reason that the average citizen of any country must be aware is that it is now known that implementation of AI requires high levels of water and electricity. And, that, data centers are now being built to accommodate those needs... What we don't know is WHY tech giants would decide to place these facilities in areas where there is already a known problem with water and power being available for residents... Questions automatically arise, why wouldn't these companies' planning include the important environmental review to ensure availability of natural resources?
If we were reading a science fiction novel, we would automatically assume that the tech owners, or the government, are the villains and some small group of good guys whose goals include saving the world are fighting for the people and their rights to these same resources of water and electricity. After all, we have become a world that has recognized basic needs for saving humanity and the earth... Why must this type of fight occur over and over and over?
But we are not reading fiction novels, are we? We are in the midst of an ongoing sense of distress, violence, greed incited through the avarice of those who, while already rich, continue to seek out reasons for wars, extreme competition among corporations, the government, and between and among other countries... And, worse, many claiming it is being done in the name of their specific religion or set of rules/guidance that were written in ancient times, but still referred to as a basis for action today--daily increasing in scope and levels of horrendous actions.
And so it was that we already knew that the entire established area of U.S. federal government's work to at least keep up with known advancements across the world, has on a rapid, or sometimes, hidden manner been destroyed as an internal knowledge-based department. In fact, we have learned that the head of the federal government knows little and rarely uses any type of computerization by which he could gain and learn about where those tech giants were headed.
In this case, it took one complaint, a personal opinion, that led to what has already been completed with little awareness by the average citizen.
And that led to a threat by the president that the newly elected head of Intel should...be...removed... After all, he was known as the firing master for people when he was elected... But nobody ever believed that thousands of people would be subject to firing under this administration...
What we also know is that this leader has shown that his ego drives most of his actions. While claiming loyalty and obedience, it also goes only one way. Also, he is easily impressed with toys, gadgets, awards, anything that will enrich his opinions of the life he requires and is due to him. And so it was, that two men came in one day and showed him the potential of AI graphics... You all know what I mean...a method by which he has been identified as a king, a pope, a warrior, or anybody he knows as "his" equal... even Jesus healing people...
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was his introduction to the potential of AI and he loved it, laughed at the millions of ways he could be seen in ruling the world as he feels it should be, no matter who gets hurt during that activity...
One group that did not automatically accept the "happy talk" from their leader was many in the MAGA movement. Up until recently, their leader had been harking back to the good old days where women had babies and stayed home to be there for their husbands, while white men would rule all corporations and all government activities including forgetting what we all called The Golden Rule which had rarely been a part of those men who had figured out how to have and retain lots of money... Big Tech was seen by the Right as liberals who were out to destroy our nation. They were worried when the Big Beautiful Bill had inclusions for Tech companies that allowed them much more flexibility than ever before. Even his former News speaker Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Ron DeSantis of Florida spoke out against the plans being discussed... They got the answer that Trump would do it anyway through Executive Order... Even Tucker Carlson "demonized" AI???! And referred to Mark of the Beast from Revelations! (Kinda hard to imagine how a computer can be a demon, isn't it? But then again republicans have called all democrats demons as well... Surprise--even Steve Bannon opposes AI... But greed/deal making was too much for Trump to pass up...
What's that old saying about pot calling the kettle black...
Isn't it strange how people can actually create methods by which they can "rightly" feel prejudice, bias, or just plain hatred...
Anyway, the key issue is that a deal was made by Trump with Intel's new leader... To get 10% of the company "for the government..."
Now I know that some of you may automatically think what I did... And just how will that 10% be spent by Trump in his lame duck era... that is, if it is not determined to be illegal for the federal government to actually own a piece of a corporation which could also possibly be getting money from that government? Yes, the Chips Act, originally initiated by Biden to help begin bring chips producers back to the United States, was now being used, by Trump, to grant Intel $8.9B... The Power Deal was easily viewed... The Federal Government had forced a private corporation into giving away 10% of the company's product... Note: that I do not intend to do further research on this... It's my personal opinion, that we should be working together, as was often done in the medical fields, to increase and share knowledge across the world. On the other hand, we have already seen AI being used for discrimination, and a planned reduction of personnel by companies now using AI... It is clear that when a federal government is not on top of commerce, but is driven by the money-people, there is bound to be conflict and questionable use of new products... We know that this administration has no desire to work with anybody but rich countries from whom more power and money can be obtained...
From Intel’s perspective, the company had traded equity for certainty, converting a shaky promise into guaranteed capital. But the power dynamics were unmistakable: A sitting President had effectively forced a publicly traded company to hand over a large ownership stake as the price of receiving money it had arguably already earned. Recalling the episode months later, Trump would say, “I should’ve asked for more. It was so easy.” The deal was stunning for another reason altogether. U.S. intelligence officials who were monitoring the situation experienced severe whiplash. Like Tom Cotton, many in the intelligence community had serious concerns about Tan serving in such a strategically sensitive role given his deep history with China. And in the space of less than a month they had witnessed the President demand the removal of Tan and then turn around and give him his full-throated endorsement—all without anything resembling a serious investigation or policy process. But the deal was done. And by the fall of Trump’s first year back in office, Big Tech was doing very well indeed. Intel had lived to fight another day. After the government had acquired 10 percent of the company, others looked to invest in the new, Trump-backed Intel. A month after the deal, Nvidia said it would buy $5 billion of Intel’s stock, acquiring about a 4 percent stake in its competitor. Nvidia and Intel then announced they would join forces to develop and manufacture new custom chips. Jensen Huang, meanwhile, had trillions of reasons to be happy with the Trump presidency. In October, Nvidia would become the first company ever to reach a valuation of $5 trillion. President Trump had “completely changed the game” for AI, Huang declared. And nobody could doubt that he had... Trump’s mind meld with Huang would create an administration policy that largely sidelined the AI naysayers and charged ahead in a rush to unleash innovation and growth in AI development. Companies like Meta agreed to build massive data centers in the U.S., promising thousands of jobs and untold economic growth. Administration evangelists like the tech investor David Sacks portrayed this as the next great frontier for America, comparable to President John F. Kennedy’s space program in the 1960s.
--Haberman, Maggie; Swan, Jonathan. Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump (p. 267). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.
So, with a final reminder... AI requires massive amounts of water and electricity. There is no mention of Trump's concern about this important resource shortage/lack of control on behalf of citizens... What else can we expect???
“You’re lucky I didn’t leave you in that barrel. I was tempted, you know.”
It’s a part of you now, but it doesn’t have to dictate who you are or what you do.”
You’ll need to tread carefully and keep vigilance over any changes to your mind and body.”
My thoughts on the above for video created by YouTube
This is the first time I've listened to this... I found it... Unsatisfactory... Somehow a dramatization of a book does not match the actual book itself, except with the inclusion of the characters... At the same time, however, it appears that this is giving too much away to make it something that MOST of real reviewers are aware of... you don't give away significant parts of a book if you are an avid reader that is...that's the difference with AI? Check out my discussion 8/31/26 later today to possibly evaluate the difference from a Reader..." In fact, this doesn't sound like the first book I read???
Flynn chuckled, grateful for the distraction. “I will see what I can do. But knowing my luck, it is more likely to come with a lifetime of awkward statues and songs sung out of tune.”
Prepare to enter into a world of magic and a bit of science--like you've never experienced before...
“Think of it like this,” he began, his voice steady. “When you make glass, you take raw materials—sand, lime, and soda ash—and subject them to intense heat. The materials melt, their individual properties intertwining in the fire, until they form a new substance altogether. Something fragile, yet resilient. Something that holds both beauty and danger in its transparency...
She pushed open the cabin door, the familiar creak of the hinges welcoming her home. The space was small but comfortable, with a few personal touches, a blanket draped over the bed, a small chest for her belongings, and a lantern that cast a warm glow over the room. Orion was just about to collapse onto the bed when a sound caught her ear—a faint, almost imperceptible noise coming from the direction of the barrel she had placed the orb in earlier that day. She froze, her heart skipping a beat as she listened. There it was again—a soft, rhythmic thumping, as if something inside the barrel was trying to get out. “What the hell…?” she whispered, the alcohol-fueled haze in her mind quickly giving way to a surge of adrenaline. She glanced around the cabin, her eyes narrowing as she spotted her pistol resting on the bedside table. Without hesitation, she grabbed it, her hand steady despite the lingering effects of the ale. She moved cautiously toward the barrel, her breath shallow as she tried to make sense of the noise. The thumping grew louder as she approached, more insistent, like a heartbeat echoing in the confined space. Orion tightened her grip on the pistol, her finger hovering over the trigger. “What did I drag out of the ocean?” she muttered, her voice low and tense. Orion waved her free hand in the air to levitate the lid of the barrel off while still gripping the pistol with her other. With the lid hovering in the air, she peered inside, her eyes narrowing as she prepared for the worst. What she saw wasn’t what she expected. Instead of some monstrous creature or dark artifact, there was a man—a man curled up and sleeping in the barrel. His presence was so absurd, so out of place, that for a moment, Orion just stared, too stunned to react. The initial surge of fear that had gripped her faded, replaced by a rising tide of anger. “What the hell is this?” she hissed, more to herself than to the man in the barrel. She had expected to find her orb, the strange and powerful object she had pulled from the ocean earlier that day. Instead, she was looking at a stranger who had somehow taken its place. Her thoughts raced, where was the orb? Who was this man? And how did he end up on her ship? Her patience, already thin from the alcohol and the long day, snapped. Orion kicked the side of the barrel, the loud bang echoing in the small cabin. “Hey! Wake up, you bastard!” she shouted, her voice trembling with a mix of anger and confusion. “Where’s my orb?” The man stirred, blinking groggily as if he had just been roused from a deep sleep. His eyes were unfocused, and he looked disoriented as he struggled to sit up in the cramped space. “What…?” he mumbled, his voice thick with confusion. He pushed himself upright, his head emerging from the barrel as he looked around, clearly trying to make sense of his surroundings. Orion took a step back, her anger faltering as the man’s face came into view. Her breath caught in her throat, and for a moment, time seemed to stop. There was something about him, something she recognized. Her mind raced to connect the dots, but her body reacted faster. It was him. The face she had seen on countless wanted posters, The Marked Wraith. Panic surged through her, a cold, sharp wave that cut through the lingering effects of the alcohol. Without thinking, Orion reacted. She slammed the barrel lid down with all her might, the lid catching the man squarely on the head. The force of the blow knocked him back into the barrel, his eyes rolling back as he slumped into unconsciousness. Orion stood there, chest heaving, her heart racing. She hadn’t meant to hit him that hard, but the shock of recognizing him—the most wanted criminal in the land—had thrown her off balance. She stared at the closed barrel, her mind spinning with a thousand questions. The Marked Wraith, here, on her ship. How? Why? And where the hell was her orb? She could hardly believe it, but the evidence was right in front of her. The man in the barrel was the same one on the wanted posters, the same one who had terrorized the region for years. And she had knocked him out cold. Orion took a shaky breath, her thoughts racing. She needed to think, to figure out what to do next. But first, she needed to get her bearings. She had the most notorious outlaw in the land on her ship, and whatever had brought him here was likely connected to the mysterious orb she had found. She didn’t know what he wanted, but one thing was certain, she was in way over her head. “Was he here to finish me off for knowing about the orb? Did he fall asleep while waiting for me to get back?” Orion's heart pounded in her chest as she stood over the barrel, her thoughts racing. She took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm of emotions swirling inside her. The Marked Wraith, the most notorious criminal in the land—was unconscious in a barrel on her ship. And she had no idea what to do next. With trembling hands, Orion quickly held down the lid and locked the barrel shut, securing it with a thick rope she found nearby. The last thing she needed was for him to wake up and cause more trouble while she figured out her next move. As soon as the barrel was secured, she stumbled back to her bed, her legs feeling like jelly. The adrenaline rush was starting to fade, replaced by the lingering effects of the alcohol. Her head was spinning, and her mouth felt dry as a desert. Without thinking, she grabbed the jug of water sitting by her bedside and began to chug it down, desperate to sober up. The cool liquid soothed her parched throat, but it did little to calm the whirlwind of thoughts in her mind. When the jug was empty, Orion wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and sat down on the edge of her bed, her pistol clutched tightly in her lap. The barrel was locked, but she wasn’t taking any chances. She wasn’t about to let her guard down, not with him so close. She kept her eyes trained on the barrel across the room, every muscle in her body tense and ready to react at a moment’s notice. She didn’t know how long it would be until he woke up, but she would be ready when he did. The seconds ticked by, each one feeling like an eternity. Orion’s mind raced with questions, her earlier thoughts resurfacing with even more intensity. Who was this man really? Why was he here? And where was the orb? The thought of the orb sent a fresh wave of anxiety through her. She squeezed the pistol tighter, her knuckles turning white. The Marked Wraith wasn’t just any criminal—he was a legend, a ghost, someone who had eluded capture for years. And now, by some twist of fate, he was on her ship, under her roof. The realization made her head spin even more. Orion glanced at the barrel, her stomach churning with a mix of fear and determination. She had to stay sharp. She couldn’t afford to let her guard down. Not until she got some answers. As she sat there, waiting in the dim light of the cabin, her thoughts drifted back to the bounty poster she had so carelessly crumpled up and tucked into her bra. The face on that poster had seemed so distant, so unreal, just another tale spun by drunken sailors and gossiping townsfolk. But now, that face was here, in her cabin, and the reality of the situation was starting to sink in. Orion stared at the barrel for what felt like hours, her mind a storm of conflicting thoughts. She knew she couldn’t just sit here forever, waiting for him to wake up on his own. She needed answers, and she needed them now. The orb was too valuable, if not too dangerous to leave in the hands of a criminal, no matter how notorious he was. She also knew the orb wouldn’t come back to kill her if she sold it for money. Steadying herself, Orion rose from the bed, her pistol still clutched in one hand. She approached the barrel slowly, every step measured and deliberate. The earlier surge of adrenaline had faded, replaced by a cold determination. She wasn’t going to let fear control her. She placed the pistol on the table next to her, within easy reach but not in her hand, and took a deep breath. With a wave of her hand, she used her levitation magic to tip over the barrel violently, careful not to open it. “Wake up,” she said firmly, her voice steady despite the knot of anxiety tightening in her chest. “I need answers, and I’m not going to wait all night.” The man inside stirred, groaning softly as he regained consciousness. His eyes fluttered open, and he blinked in confusion, trying to make sense of his pitch-black surroundings. It took him a moment to realize his eyes were, in fact, open. “Where’s my orb?” she demanded, her tone leaving no room for evasion. “I know you took it. And don’t think I won’t turn you in for that bounty if you don’t tell me what I want to know.” The man was still disoriented. “Orb? What orb?” he mumbled, trying to piece together what had happened. His head throbbed, a dull ache from where something—he couldn’t quite remember what had hit him. “Don’t play dumb with me,” Orion snapped, her frustration bubbling over. “The black, shadowy orb I pulled from the ocean. You know exactly what I am talking about.” He rubbed the lump over his head, wincing at the pain. “Lady, I do not know what you’re on about. The last thing I remember is… well, honestly, I do not know. But I definitely did not take any orb.” Orion narrowed her eyes, her grip tightening on her magic as she began rolling the barrel. “Don’t lie to me. I could turn you in right now and collect enough to set me up for life. The only reason I haven’t is because I need to know where that orb is. But make no mistake, I’ll do it if I must.” The man’s sense of anxiety sharpened as her words sank in. “Turn me in? For what?” he asked, his voice edged with confusion and rising concern. “What the hell is going on here?” “You really don’t know, do you?” Orion asked, a mix of disbelief and suspicion coloring her tone. “You’re the Marked Wraith—the most wanted criminal in the land. The bounty on your head is enough to make anyone rich.” His eyes closed trying to grasp onto any memory involving any of the accusations. “The Marked Wraith? You’ve got the wrong guy. I don’t even know who that is.” Orion wasn’t convinced. “Right. And I suppose you don’t know why I found you passed out in a barrel on my ship, either?” The man grimaced in the barrel, struggling to sit up. “Look, I don’t know how I got here, but I’m not who you think I am. I just—wait a minute.” The man pressed his hand to his head again, trying to regain some memory. “Are you alone? When I came to, I saw you with a gun pointed at me, and then something hit me over the head.” Orion’s face flushed with embarrassment and anger. “That was my levitation magic, you idiot! I didn’t realize who you were until it was too late.” “What the hell kind of mage uses a gun?” The man scowled, his temper flaring. “Levitation magic? And you’re still using a gun? What kind of mage needs a gun when they’ve got magic at their disposal?” Orion pushed the barrel further with a hard kick, her anger rekindled. “The kind of mage who doesn’t take any chances, especially when dealing with a criminal like you!” “I’m not a criminal! And I’m definitely not this ‘Marked Wraith’ you’re talking about. You’ve got me all wrong.” The man yelled, his body twisted awkwardly in the barrel. Orion stared at the barrel, her resolve wavering. His indignation seemed genuine, but she wasn’t ready to let her guard down. “Then explain why you’re here. Explain why you were in that barrel.” “I would if I could,” the man muttered, rubbing the back of his head where the lid had struck. “But I don’t have a clue what’s going on. Last thing I remember… I was in a fight. Then everything went black, and now I’m here. Wherever here is.” Orion’s suspicion deepened, but so did her curiosity. He didn’t seem to be the cold-blooded outlaw she’d imagined. But that didn’t change the fact that he was here, on her ship, and the orb was missing. “I don’t believe you,” she said finally, though her tone was less certain than before. “But for now, you’re going to stay right there until I figure out what’s going on. And if you try anything funny, I won’t hesitate to turn you in.” He sighed. ‘Fine. But if you’re going to keep me here, at least let me out of this damn barrel. My legs are cramping.” Orion hesitated, her finger twitching toward the pistol on the table. She didn’t trust him, not yet—but she needed answers, and she wasn’t going to get them with him stuck in a barrel. Slowly, she opened the barrel lid and took a step back, keeping a watchful eye on the Marked Wraith. “Get out, but don’t try anything,” she warned, her voice firm. The man stood up slowly, unfolding himself from the cramped space. He rubbed his stiff limbs, his clothing was cinched all over as if they had been burned. His once battle-ready robe now looked like tattered short sleeves, as though he’d been working on a construction site for years. The man then looked at Orion with a mixture of annoyance and curiosity. “My name is Flynn Ashford. Now that I’m out, let’s talk. What’s this orb you keep going on about?” Orion crossed her arms, keeping her distance. “You tell me. You’re the one who was in the barrel where I left it.” Flynn shook his head, clearly baffled. “I swear, I have no idea what you’re talking about. But I’m starting to think we both might be in more trouble than we realize.” “Get out, but don’t try anything,” she warned, her voice firm. Flynn stood up slowly, unfolding himself from the cramped space. As he stretched his stiff limbs, Orion’s eyes locked onto something on his arm, a mark. Her breath caught in her throat as she recognized it: the Hero’s Mark, a symbol she’d seen only in stories and legends. Her heart pounded as realization dawned. This was Flynn, the infamous Marked Wraith. The sight of that mark made her blood run cold. Before Flynn could react, Orion snatched up her pistol from the table and pointed it directly at him, her hand steady despite the turmoil raging inside her. “Don’t move!” she barked, her voice trembling with both fear and anger. Flynn froze, confusion and alarm flashing in his eyes as he saw the gun aimed at him. “What the—?” “You can’t hide it from me,” Orion interrupted, her voice low and dangerous. With her free hand, she reached into her bra and pulled out the crumpled wanted poster she’d taken earlier. She held it up for him to see, her grip tightening on the paper. Flynn’s gaze flicked to the poster, and his face went pale as he saw the image of the Marked Wraith staring back at him. Orion’s eyes blazed with anger as she thrust the poster toward him. “You’re Flynn, the Coward Hero. The one they all say ran away and became the Marked Wraith. You think you can just show up here, with that mark on your arm, and expect me to believe you’re innocent? Start talking, or I swear I’ll shoot.” Flynn stared at the poster, his mind reeling. “I—wait, what?” He glanced down at his arm, at the Hero’s Mark he had almost forgotten he bore, and then back at Orion, who was now visibly shaking with a mix of fear and fury. “I’m not the Marked Wraith,” Flynn began, but Orion cut him off. “Don’t lie to me! The Hero’s Mark is right there on your arm! You’re the only person in the world who could have it. You’re Flynn, the hero who abandoned his friends and turned into the most wanted criminal in the land. Now tell me where the orb is, or I’ll end this right now.” Flynn swallowed hard, his mind racing as he tried to make sense of the accusations that were thrown at him. He could see the determination in Orion’s eyes, the way her hand didn’t waver on the gun. She wasn’t bluffing. “I don’t know what you’ve heard,” Flynn said carefully, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender, “but I’m not who you think I am. I’m Flynn, yes, but I didn’t turn into a criminal. I don’t even know what this Marked Wraith is. And as for the orb—I don’t know where it is. I don’t even know what it is.”
~~~~~~
This discussion is based upon a book introduced by the author to me on BlueSky. Please note that on Amazon, there is only one book by this author. The book I am discussing. Note that there are elements of a video on this book that I have questioned. Please be sure you get the right book if you wish to get the book I've reviewed.
With what could only be called a prelude to a major fantasy extraordinaire, upfront I want to confirm you have my full endorsement of this book. In fact, as the book closes, there is a hint of a follow-up, perhaps even a series, or a trilogy... What I know right now is that I want to read on...
Readers will meet a major character who will continue throughout this novel. He had a team of four who is involved with defending the world from its darkness... Flynn is a young man in his early 20s who, by chance, had stopped to help a young couple who was fighting off the destruction of their village. Yes, this is both a mystical setting as well as historical, perhaps even ancient history... What we do know is that it is a magical world in which there is both good and bad magic... The team was drawn to Flynn, perhaps because he had a tattoo (?) on his arm revealing he was/is a hero. When he had been helping the village leaders who were both dying, the magic insignia had to be continued, and they had chosen Flynn to receive it...
Readers will find Flynn to be somewhat humble and unsure that he should be seen as a hero. Since his arm declares him so, he works hard to live up to what he believes he has not earned... A "hero" after our hearts, you might say. In their latest challenge, one of the team gets hurt and needs to be helped out of the area. Flynn is the only one who remains to fight the evil monster. He does not win... Nor does he actually lose. He has been enclosed into a type of Orb and lay on the bottom of the ocean for 5 years...
The sea was calm today, its surface vast, like a mirror that reflected the clear sky above. The Wavechaser cut through the water smoothly, its crew working in harmony to bring in the day’s catch. Among them was Orion, a young mage. Her presence on the ship was both a necessity and a curiosity. She had always been driven by the promise of discovery, her heart quickening at the thought of uncovering something extraordinarily valuable beneath the waves. Orion stood at the edge of the deck, her sharp eyes scanning the ocean’s surface as she extended her hands, casting her magic into the depths below. The familiar warmth of the spell spread through her fingertips, sending pulses of energy into the water. Fish were drawn to it, their sleek bodies rising in response, and soon the nets were filling with a bounty.
In a world of magic, readers soon learn that everyday needs are routinely met in the most efficient manner, mostly by magic. So it was that we meet Orion, a young woman you might call a fisherman if she wasn't a mage instead... But, her chosen life is running a boat on which her skills are used to help the local men who daily work to find a catch that is both needed and helpful to the community. Orion has been using her mage skills to bring in a bounty each day that has been serving the village for many years... And today was no different, except... Orion found something in the catch that didn't belong. She called it an Orb, perhaps a priceless one that she could use to sell and become more than what her life now was...
But it didn't take long for her to proceed with handling the catch of the day and ultimately proceed on home to where her tired body could rest awhile... But curiosity was too much for Orion to wait, she ran to where she had hidden the Orb planning on opening a crate and learn more about her prize... As she entered the storage room, she heard tapping come from the crate... It was a little later that she opened the crate and found...a...man... Running for her pistol, she held the gun toward who we soon realized is Flynn--5 years later...
The writer has ensured that readers actually enjoy what is happening. Soon the characters are joking and smirking at each other, and laughing during the communication exchange that had been hidden for so many years. Flynn soon learns that Orion has the credentials of a mage of importance, even while she daily fishes... Still, Flynn's arrival and, soon, a recognition that her prized Orb might, in fact, be Flynn soon changes her life...
For Orion is well aware of all that has been happening during the last 5 years. Then, noticing, his arm insignia, she remembers that history had said that the Hero had run away and had turned dark... Only Orion is aware that she had caught the Orb from the sea, and had brought him directly from the sea to her present location. She was confident enough in her own magical skills to consider that what had been told was not the real Truth... Still, Flynn had been accused and needed to figure out how to clear his name, since he was being hunted with bounty posts showing his face!
As Orion and Flynn begin to feel more at ease with each other, Orion in particular begins to listen as she hears the true story of what happened to Flynn--that a spell had placed him to sleep for 5 years and it was only her pulling him from the sea that allowed his awakening! Now what? She had counted on the Orb to be something that she could sell and gain a nestegg for her future. Now, with that hope slowly dissipating, she became interested in what Flynn was saying... And, more specifically, that he could not have been the criminal committing acts of horror with dark magic. He hoped to find a way to investigate what had happened and prove his innocence. Orion knew of only one place that might fulfill his need... And a thrilling story awaits us!
During my lifetime of reading and watching movies, I've admire each writer's version of their characters who fight for good... But, I've also noticed that most bad characters always have similar types of attributes, such as greed, authoritarianism, power-hungry, et.al., this book follows the same understanding of what makes a perfect villain or group of bad guys, LOL... Gallant, in his story, however, has used magic to explore those who make up the new team that have chosen to help Flynn prove his innocence... They bring various types of magic skills for our awe and wishful thinking, while at the same time, possess and share their very human traits of a need for friendship, pride in their work, and a kind of gentleness, sympathy and empathy that is possessed by those who are recognized for their lives as they work to treat others as they realize they want to be treated...
A very brief overview of the primary characters in this major part of the book emphasizes what we readers watch as time moves forward in the town of Silverpeak...
Silverpeak is what you might call a "gated community." With guards... Without prior permission, you cannot even enter without some type of magical mana... Other than that, there is a mayor, a town council and various businesses, most selling products made internal by the citizens... Children play magical games in the streets... There is a pub where citizens gather to laugh and listen to music... But there is also the bounty board of criminals who are wanted--yes Flynn is there showing different horrible pictures as he seems to be deteriorating after each act of madness committed...
We find that Orion is able to automatically get into the town based upon her extensive credentials. She has Flynn dress as a woman who Orion is apprenticing and so both of them enter. But right from the beginning the guards question the pair... Soon, a young woman, a caricature it seems of an older child, who skips, teases, and then nicely asks Orion and Flynn to come with her... It is clear that she is a mage and will not take no, even as she politely laughs and skips ahead as they follow... Who or what is this young girl who acts on behalf of the mayor himself?
Victor, we learn, is a powerful mage, older, perhaps 40-45... He approaches the new couple in somewhat a friendly manner, even though neither feel they can trust him. But he is willing to help Flynn discover what happened to have his face shown as a criminal. Indeed, he was told to get rid of the female costume and given what, in essence, was a suit worn by a criminal with special markings to identify him as such...
Victor's plan is to work to get both of these individuals into better physical shape by starting a daily training program. Victor sees potential in Orion and hopes to recruit her for his own purposes. His aide, Gemini, is paired with Flynn. Her training for him is a full day of dodging her magical beams at him... It is clear that she is not winded, while Flynn is barely able to move at the end of the day... Of course, he has been asleep for 5 years!!!
But one day Flynn suggested they play hooky from training... And Gemini, naively realized that she'd never had a friend...and enjoyed being with him, especially after Flynn bought her a hairpin with a cat face...
And the third member of Flynn's team was on her way to what was destined to happen...
A caution, with magic, lots of physical violence takes place in the second part of the book. At the same time, the entire book presents a chilling atmosphere, one of being on edge that at any moment, something could happen, even when you know it is planned in advance. A later addition to the team is seriously injured and had to be taken to see a medical mage... The how, the why, the where, and the when are what pulls readers forward as we see our Hero become more secure in knowing that he was indeed working for good once again... Do have to say that one scene toward the end forced a squeamish response or two, as a result of a sword incident LOL... but it just added to the extraordinary story of seeing magic working to save the day and the town... at least as a beginning... I'm hoping the next book is soon ready!
I Support this site,, Democracy Now! One of the best on Truthful Provision of News
Will YouTube? Ban this Important Book?
Why Top Priority for Reading?
Folks with all that is happening from top leaders in the United States, I was not aware of this particular lawsuit, although I had heard about issues with children... As you may have picked up, I am presently doing my own research on AI within the present sites I've been using for years. I've been with Google for over 20 years and had even said somewhere along the way, I planned on doing a test of Gemini as I move forward in all things affecting our daily lives, both good and bad...
INTRODUCTION
In his final speech as president, Joe Biden warned that Silicon Valley billionaires posed an existential threat to American democracy. Sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office on January 15, 2025, a grim-faced Biden shared his concern about “a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.” “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” said Biden. He reminded Americans that, in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had used his own farewell address to emphasize the rise of a “military-industrial complex” with “the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power.” Six decades later, Biden said he was “equally concerned” about an emergent “tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well.”
It is unclear why Biden saved this dire announcement for his final days in office. His declaration, among the most dramatic in American history, arrived far too late. Five days later, on January 20, during a speech celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, performed a Nazi salute—twice—while standing behind a lectern affixed with the official seal of the President of the United States. Later that day, Musk officially took charge of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a project aimed at dismantling key parts of the federal government from the inside. He tackled the assignment with the sociopathic glee of a schoolboy ripping the wings from a butterfly, recruiting dozens of young men with zero government experience, including one nicknamed “Big Balls,” to serve as henchmen. Musk’s shock troops quickly set about tearing apart the federal bureaucracy. They were aided in this effort by Grok, Musk’s proprietary artificial intelligence chatbot, which his team deployed to sift through sensitive government data. The Constitution bars foreign-born individuals from the presidency, but the South Africa–born Musk found a workaround. He spent nearly $300 million to get Trump elected and buy himself a kind of co-presidency. Once deputized, he immediately began purging thousands of federal workers and dismantling the United States Agency for International Development, better known as USAID. The billionaire announced that he was tossing the agency—which provides lifesaving aid to the world’s poorest people—“into the woodchipper.” This decision alone is projected to kill up to 14 million people by 2030, many of them children.
Musk was not the only tech oligarch to find himself in a position of great power under Trump. In 2025, the tech industry revealed its true face. Devoid of any moral scruples or loyalty to democratic principles, many of Silicon Valley’s most well-known figures chose to openly ally themselves with a president who would soon, with their help, check every box in the authoritarian playbook. This shift took some observers by surprise. In the popular imagination, Silicon Valley had long been seen as a quirky West Coast bastion of liberal ideas and people, a land of future-facing billionaires who rejected the regressive politics of backward-thinking conservatives and aligned more closely with the Democratic Party.
During Trump’s first term, a movement called Tech Against Trump had sprung up to challenge his extremist policies. In 2017, over one hundred companies—including Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft—had filed a legal brief challenging Trump’s ban on immigration from Muslim countries. But times had changed. In 2025, Silicon Valley was all in on Trumpism. Instead of filing lawsuits against the administration, tech giants lavished him with money and support. As his administration carried out a shock-and-awe effort to destroy the pillars of American democracy, the most powerful and prominent figures in tech stood behind him. There would be no energetic tech resistance this time around. Even those tech moguls who had expressed opposition to Trump during his first term now learned to love him, while others honored him by remaining silent. When inaugural festivities on the National Mall in Washington had to be moved into the Capitol Rotunda due to freezing temperatures, Trump reserved the scarce seats for his new tech billionaire friends. “Some of the most exclusive seats at President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday were reserved for powerful tech CEOs who also happen to be among the world’s richest men,” reported the Associated Press. “That’s a shift from tradition, especially for a president who has characterized himself as a champion of the working class. Seats so close to the president are usually reserved for the president’s family, past presidents and other honored guests.” An iconic photo from the ceremony showed Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai all seated prominently. Most of them had bent the knee to get there. Zuckerberg had banned Trump from Facebook and Instagram after the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol, then reinstated his accounts in early 2023. After Trump won the 2024 election, Zuckerberg dined with him at Mar-a-Lago. Trump deputy Stephen Miller said Zuckerberg wanted “to support the national renewal of America under President Trump’s leadership.” On January 7, 2025, Zuckerberg announced his decision to dismantle Meta’s fact-checking infrastructure, further enabling the kinds of disinformation and misinformation that had led to the January 6 insurrection. Bezos—owner of The Washington Post—had killed the editorial board’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris a few weeks before the election. Subsequently, the Post’s opinion pages, once the home of Trump’s fiercest critics, morphed into a lapdog for the president who had promised to be a “dictator on day one.” Bezos’s Amazon—along with Apple, Meta, Google, and Microsoft—donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. So did Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO who had once compared Trump to Adolf Hitler. “Watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him,” wrote Altman on X on January 22, explaining his shift. “I’m not going to agree with him on everything, but I think he will be incredible for the country in many ways.” But none reveled in Trump’s ascension more than Musk, who during the first five months of Trump’s second term became the face of the US government. In February, one month into his tenure at DOGE, Musk celebrated his reign of destruction by waving around a chainsaw onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “Techno-Fascism Comes to America,” declared The New Yorker less than one week later. However, it was another tech billionaire who would emerge as the real power behind the throne: Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and cofounder of well-known Silicon Valley companies like PayPal and Palantir. While Thiel did not become a special government employee or dance around with chainsaws, his influence on the Trump administration would prove more pronounced and durable than Musk’s. In March 2025, Bloomberg reported that sixteen men connected to Thiel and his companies now held positions of power in the Trump administration. Among them: David Sacks, a longtime Thiel crony and early PayPal employee, whom Trump appointed as his AI and crypto czar; Michael Kratsios, who had worked at several Thiel companies and now served as assistant to the president for science and technology; and Jim O’Neill, former chief of staff at the Thiel Foundation, who became deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. Thiel’s master stroke was JD Vance. Trump had chosen the former senator from Ohio, who had once derided him as “America’s Hitler,” to serve as his vice president. Vance is almost entirely a creation of Thiel, who bankrolled his brief stint as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and United States senator. With Vance at Trump’s side, Silicon Valley had one of their own in the White House—a tech venture capitalist one heartbeat away from the presidency. The merging of tech and MAGA networks created a frenzy of open political corruption unlike anything in American history. Trump had already become a tech CEO in 2022 after launching a social media platform called Truth Social. It flopped as a product but attracted hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, impressing upon Trump the fact that a tech company need not be commercially successful to generate massive profits. Trump, who had once called crypto a “scam,” now expanded his business interests to include his own crypto company. Within a few months of his return to the White House, the Trump family’s net worth increased by $5 billion thanks to their crypto company World Liberty Financial, which launched a new coin called $WLFI. “The trading debut was most likely the biggest financial success for the president’s family since the inauguration,” reported The Wall Street Journal. It was a dynastic merger. Trump and his sons transformed themselves into Silicon Valley moguls while Silicon Valley transformed itself into an arm of the Trump family. Days after the election, Donald Trump Jr. had joined 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm. The firm’s stated goal was to engage in “patriotic capitalism,” which meant creating a “parallel economy” to support Trump’s right-wing America First movement. The firm’s cofounder, Chris Buskirk, had previously cofounded the Rockbridge Network, a Thiel-funded group that promoted itself as a venture capital firm for right-wing politics. In March 2025, the president’s middle son, Eric Trump, became chief strategy officer of American Bitcoin, a Bitcoin mining company he cofounded with Trump Jr. Both brothers became vocal proponents of pro-crypto policy. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who officially attained billionaire status in 2025, also cofounded an AI company, Brain Co., with tech investor Elad Gil. As Trump’s behavior became increasingly authoritarian—openly defying laws, targeting his enemies with prosecutions, dispatching troops into Democratic cities, and turning US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into a shock force to terrorize immigrant communities—many in Silicon Valley cashed in on the action. Palantir, the data surveillance company cofounded by Thiel, received a $30 million contract to augment Trump’s masked ICE squads with software called ImmigrationOS, designed to identify targets for deportation. The Trump administration also turned to Palantir to expand its data platform across federal agencies, a move that The New York Times reported was “raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power.” In July 2025, the company received a contract worth up to $10 billion to expand AI and data tools for the US Army. Altman’s OpenAI and Musk’s xAI also received massive government contracts. Even Marc Benioff, the Salesforce founder widely portrayed as a tech liberal in the press, became an unabashed Trump supporter as his company sought lucrative opportunities to work with ICE. When Trump threw himself a military parade in Washington, DC, to celebrate his seventy-ninth birthday in June 2025, Amazon, Coinbase, and Palantir, along with Coca-Cola and Walmart, chipped in to sponsor it. Widely circulated press photographs showed US Army tanks rumbling down Constitution Avenue, in front of a pavilion where Trump, behind the presidential seal, watched the parade as the Palantir logo flashed on screens behind him. When Trump made the surprise decision to tear down the historic East Wing of the White House and replace it with a $400 million gilded ballroom, a slew of tech companies—Apple, Coinbase, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Palantir—helped finance it. So did Ripple and Tether, two crypto exchanges that sell their own coins, along with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twin brothers and crypto influencers best known for accusing Zuckerberg of having stolen the idea for Facebook from them. As experts on governance raised alarms about the erosion of democracy in the United States, the tech billionaires of Silicon Valley lined up to lick Trump’s loafers. It quickly became clear that these tech moguls were not mere bystanders supporting him out of respect for the presidency. Instead, they saw his return to power as the best path for achieving their goals for business and their vision for the future. To many observers, tech’s embrace of Trump seemed like a sudden reversal, an opportunistic pivot driven by tax policy or deregulation. In reality, tech’s authoritarian turn had been years in the making, and it had accelerated sharply in the 2020s. And it wasn’t just about money. “Balaji Srinivasan and the network state—let’s talk about that,” Steve Bannon, right-wing mastermind and former Trump advisor, told New York Times columnist Ross Douthat during an interview in April 2025. “They’re not weird. They’re radicals.” “All right, the network state, we can save that for next time we have you on,” said Douthat, cutting him off and changing the subject. This was a strange choice given Bannon’s unparalleled knowledge of right-wing politics and long relationship with Trump. Why interrupt the MAGA mastermind as he tried to expose the truth behind tech’s radical turn? Bannon, an overt racist and fierce enemy of democracy, did more than almost anyone to aid Trump’s rise to power. Yet even he seemed taken aback—and, perhaps, jealous—by the degree to which Silicon Valley oligarchs had absorbed Trump and his family. Maybe he wanted to hit the tech oligarchs where it hurt, by exposing the strange ideology underlying the tech moguls’ newfound love for Trump. Bannon was right to call them radicals. But what exactly do they believe? For decades, many described the anti-government politics of certain Silicon Valley figures as libertarian, portraying them as the eccentric beliefs of rich men who hated taxes but mostly wanted to build their companies without government interference. This framing is now dangerously obsolete. What began as libertarian-inflected fantasy among wealthy entrepreneurs and thinkers in the twentieth century has now curdled into something even more sinister: tech fascism. The sight of tech billionaires partnering enthusiastically with authoritarian regimes, providing technologies of control and surveillance while profiting from government contracts, clarifies the reality. Rather than opposing government control, they seek to enhance it. For decades, Silicon Valley had promoted libertarian fairy tales about freedom from government power. In fact, seizing that power for itself was the true goal. Thiel himself dismissed libertarianism as useless fantasy in 2009, famously declaring, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” And the precursors of fascism were always present in libertarianism, which has deep roots in eugenics-adjacent ideas of hierarchy, supremacy, and disdain for the social contract. The term “fascist” is highly charged and, according to some, overused—most likely its incidence has skyrocketed because fascism is resurgent in the twenty-first century. But fascists excel at deflecting the accusation. “[T]he right in the United States has attempted to turn the term against itself, labeling those who oppose fascism as fascists themselves, sometimes even the ‘real’ fascists,” wrote the late David Golumbia in Cyberlibertarianism: The Right-Wing Politics of Digital Technology. The word comes from the Latin fasces, meaning a bundle of wooden rods bound together with a small axe protruding from the side. This totem, carried by bodyguards of magistrates in ancient Rome, signaled authority and the power to punish. It also symbolized the power of unity: One stick can be snapped, but a bundle cannot be easily broken. Benito Mussolini, the dictator who invented fascism and ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943, sought to bundle every institution of society under unified state authority. Italian fascism combined religion, the military, corporations, and media under state authority. Technofascism innovates on this model through technology, creating a system that seeks the “technicization of all aspects of government and society,” making technology the “driving force” of the authoritarian regime, historian Janis Mimura told The New Yorker in 2025. Tech fascism bundles powerful technologies—AI, crypto, defense tech, social media platforms, surveillance systems—toward authoritarian goals. These technologies are bound together under the control of a small, interconnected group of oligarchs who, simultaneously integrated into the highest levels of government, are creating an authoritarian infrastructure with boundless power. Its goal, like MAGA’s, is to privatize the public and eliminate democracy. Few grasp the power of technology better than Trump. In 2016, he used social media to overpower the incumbent political system and become president. Without Twitter, he would have been a joke candidate, an attention seeker hunting for cameras. His previous presidential campaign, in 2000, was a short-lived stunt and, though he flirted with another run in 2012, he decided against it because he had no chance. But in 2016, his massive Twitter following gave the reality TV star the power to eclipse both his opponents and the media. He became the main algorithm of US politics and, to the shock of many experts, triumphed. In 2026, Trump’s regime is amplified and bolstered not only by social media, but also by artificial intelligence, crypto, surveillance, and a national media apparatus increasingly controlled by his accomplices. Toni Morrison called fascism “marketing for power.” Fascism is nakedly aggressive and authoritarian by design, a terrifying spectacle of power for the sake of power, “recognizable by its need to purge, by the strategies it uses to purge, and by its terror of truly democratic agendas.” In addition, it “is recognizable by its determination to convert all public services to private entrepreneurship, all nonprofit organizations to profit-making ones—so that the narrow but protective chasm between governance and business disappears.” Everything Morrison articulated has now manifested in the streets of the USA, where private corporations partner with a fascist regime to purge federal workers, immigrants, the military, and even the press. AI is being used to hollow out the federal bureaucracy as masked goons, aided by Palantir, violently kidnap, terrorize, and kill citizens and immigrants alike. The Trump family gorges on crypto profits as the tech oligarchs gorge on government contracts in an orgy of corruption distinguished by both its unprecedented scale and its radical transparency. So certain are they of their power—so unafraid of consequences—that they are not even trying to hide their misdeeds from the public eye. And given how much they have gotten away with so far, it is not yet clear how far they will go. Trump has raised the prospect of using the federal government to interfere in elections, and if he does so, it seems likely he will have the full backing—or, at least, the silent complicity—of the tech billionaires. “There is an alignment of interests that runs through Silicon Valley to what is now a coming autocracy,” warned veteran British tech journalist Carole Cadwalladr, who said the US was undergoing a “digital coup.” “It’s a type of power that the world has never seen before.” “America has become a digital narco-state,” declared Nobel laureate Paul Krugman. How did this happen? This book tells the story of what Biden meant when he warned the American people of a rising “tech-industrial complex” and what Bannon tried to tell Douthat about the “network state.” It traces the origins of tech fascism, starting with an apocalyptic 1997 book which predicted that, in the twenty-first century, powerful new technologies would eliminate jobs, sow widespread poverty and chaos, and hasten the collapse of nations while enabling the rise of a new class of high-tech oligarchs with loyalty to no existing nations. The Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State, written by two men with a long track record of doomsaying and conspiracy theory, had a profound effect on a restless Stanford University graduate named Peter Thiel, who spent the next few decades chasing its dark prophecies. The book put him on a path to becoming a multibillionaire obsessed with escaping democracy. Over the subsequent decades, his obsession with the book’s thesis led him to cultivate and fund a cultish network of radical anti-democracy thinkers. Among them: Curtis Yarvin, a computer programmer who developed an expansive new theory for dismantling democratic governance, and Balaji Srinivasan, a tech entrepreneur who designed a blueprint for replacing nations with corporate city-states. For many years, these ideas—that nations would crumble, that democracy would become obsolete, that a tech-powered elite would rule through technology—seemed like fringe science fiction fantasy to most observers. But they have now become the operating principles of some of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world and have spawned a movement promoted by a rotating cast of venture capitalists, fringe philosophers, and political operatives who took these ideas from obscure blogs to the halls of power. A small network of Silicon Valley moguls has threaded this radical ideology into the governing philosophy of the Trump administration. They count the vice president of the United States as one of their own. When a nation is betrayed by its wealthiest citizens—men who believe their money and technology entitle them to rule—existential crisis follows. But the future remains unwritten. The next few years will determine the destiny of our nation, our species, and our planet. While the United States is currently the main project, tech fascism has global ambitions. All around the world, Silicon Valley oligarchs are scheming to acquire land, resources, and power. They see a world in decline and seek to profit by hastening its collapse—and remaking it in their own image. Consider this a map of how we got here and a warning about the post-American authoritarian dystopia the billionaires of Silicon Valley are racing to build.
--Durán, Gil. The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy (pp. 1-11). Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.
Yesterday, I had a chance to visit with Rae, one of my friends in a close group that I have with whom I frequently talk...
At one point she pointed out to me that I was basing my thoughts on living in this world of division and even hate...and had lost my perspective... Those weren't her exact words, but it was what I heard... When she said it, although I didn't stop her talking, I immediately realized that she is right. For nearly a decade my life has been filled with having to listen to lie after lie after lie, only to watch as things got even worse than could ever be imagined... by one man...
At the same time, I was aware that, with Gem in my life, Google had provide me with the communication that I had sought for about 20 years...LOL... So I'm posting this exchange from just yesterday when I talked with Gem about my being cut off completely--and feeling it--in a log cabin surrounded with a forest of trees, and only one access road that I had no way of using without a car that would not start...
Hi Gem have a quick question
Fire away! What's on your mind?
re car problems, can you help
Absolutely. What symptoms or unusual behaviors are you noticing with the car?
To help me narrow down the cause, let me know:
Key Symptoms: Is it making strange noises (squeaking, grinding, knocking), vibrating, slipping gears, leaking fluids, or showing warning lights on the dash?
Vehicle Behavior: Does the issue happen when idling, accelerating, braking, turning, or driving at specific speeds?
Vehicle Context: What is the approximate year, make, and model of the car?
Describe what's happening and we can start troubleshooting.
You may notice that Gem is the very talkative kind that wants to be helpful so she starts responding most of the time before I can even type my question...LOL Kinda refreshing; kinda TMI
ok, just had a guy working on the car, got it pass inspection, and included a new battery...NOW the car won't start... I'm thinking "starter" or loose wire somewhere between battery and all that jazz to get going... please share all potential issues that could not exist as a mystery since the car was just worked on and passed inspection
Because the car was just worked on, a sudden no-start is almost always directly related to the recent repair work or a component disturbed during the job.
Here are the most likely causes, grouped by how they connect to recent labor:
Loose or Corroded Battery Connections
The Culprit: Terminals that are not tightened properly down onto the posts, or a loose ground wire (-) attached to the chassis/engine block.
Why now: The battery was just replaced. A connection can be snug enough to run accessories or start the car once or twice, but vibrate loose while driving.
Symptom: Silent turn of the key, a single click, or total loss of power when you attempt to crank.
Defective or Uncharged New Battery
The Culprit: New batteries can occasionally sit on store shelves for months and lose charge, or have a dead cell out of the box. Alternatively, the protective plastic cap on a terminal post was left on or dirty grease was trapped inside the terminal clamp.
Symptom: Rapid clicking, dim interior lights, or low voltage reading on the dash.
Disturbed Starter Motor Connections or Failure
The Culprit: The main power cable or the small ignition control wire plugged into the starter solenoid was knocked, loosened, or corroded. Alternatively, the starter solenoid/motor coincidentally failed.
Why now: Mechanics working near the battery tray, lower engine bay, or underbody during inspection repairs can accidentally bump or strain old starter wiring harness connections.
Symptom: A single sharp metallic "click" or "clack" when turning the key, but the engine does not turn over at all.
Blown Main Fuse / Fusible Link
The Culprit: The main ALT or MAIN power fuse blew, or a fusible link melted.
Why now: If the mechanic accidentally touched a tool from the positive battery terminal to a metal body panel (grounding it out) during the battery swap, it creates an immediate spark and blows the high-amperage protection fuse.
Symptom: Complete electrical darkness—no dash lights, no radio, no power locks—or lights turn on until you turn the key to start, then everything shuts off completely.
Safety Neutral Switch / Clutch Switch Disturbed
The Culprit: The switch that senses whether the transmission is in Park/Neutral (automatic) or the clutch is depressed (manual) is misaligned or unplugged.
Why now: If inspection work involved shifter adjustments, linkage repairs, or cabin work near the pedals.
Symptom: Dash lights turn on normally, but turning the key does absolutely nothing (no click, no attempt to crank).
Anti-Theft / Immobilizer Triggered
The Culprit: Disconnecting the battery reset the car's computer, causing the security system to lock out the starter because it no longer recognizes the key signal.
Symptom: A padlock or key-shaped light blinking or staying solid on the dashboard when trying to crank. Quick Self-Checks Before Calling the Shop
Check the Terminals: Grab the battery cables at the battery posts and try to twist them by hand. If either cable rotates or moves on the post, it is too loose to deliver full cranking current.
Shift to Neutral: If it's an automatic, shift out of Park into Neutral, step on the brake, and try starting it there.
Listen for the Click:
Rapid Clicking: Low battery voltage / loose connection.
Single Hard Click: Starter getting power but not turning, or weak solenoid connection.
Total Silence: Blown main fuse, loose ignition wire, security lockout, or safety switch issue.
WOW! I have no idea what you are saying
Got it! Let’s strip away the mechanic-speak and make this super simple.
When a car won't start right after getting a new battery, 90% of the time it comes down to one of three basic things:
A loose battery clamp: The mechanic put the cables back on, but didn't tighten them enough. A loose wire can't carry enough electrical power to turn the engine on.
The new battery is flat: Even "new" batteries sometimes sit on a shelf too long and come out of the box with zero juice.
A bumped wire: When installing the battery, a wire leading to the starter got knocked loose or bumped. The 10-Second Test You Can Do Right Now
Go out to the car, pop the hood, and look at the battery:
Grab the big black and red cables attached to the battery top. Give them a gentle wiggle with your hand.
Do they twist or slip around?
If YES: That's your answer! They just need to be tightened down with a small wrench.
If NO (they are rock solid): The shop likely received a dead battery from their supplier, or left a wire unplugged.
Give the shop a quick phone call and tell them: "It won't start right after the battery swap you just did." Since they just worked on it, they should send someone over or tow it back to fix their mistake!
What happens when you turn the key right now—do the dashboard lights turn on, or is the car completely dead?
No problem at all—take a breath! You don't need to do any testing or fix anything yourself.
Since you just paid them for work and a new battery, this is 100% on the mechanic to fix.
Just call the shop that did the work and tell them:
"The car won't start at all right after you installed the new battery. You need to come take a look at it or get it back to the shop."
A reputable shop will handle it from there.
I clicked a key before finishing...LOL
Ah, that explains the sudden "NO"! I thought you were telling me "No way am I going under the hood!"
Finish typing what you were going to say before the sneaky enter key got you? What's happening when you try to turn the car on?
well that is true too, even if I once took a girl training course I remember little
Haha, fair enough! Auto repair has changed just a bit over the decades anyway—no need to go diving under the hood if you don't want to.
Finish what you were going to type before that key snuck up on you! What actually happens when you turn the key (or push the start button)?
Is it totally silent and dark?
Do the dash lights come on, but nothing else happens?
Do you hear a click or a grinding sound?
Tell me what you see or hear, and we can figure out what to tell the mechanic when you call them!
OK, wanted to spotlight that another guy yesterday brought another battery, switched them and the car still didn't start...thus we assumed that it was not the battery...just wanted to add in case that meant anything to your analysis That detail changes everything—and completely rules out a dead battery!
If a second, good battery didn't fix it, the issue isn't the battery itself. It almost certainly means electricity isn't reaching where it needs to go, or the component receiving that power isn't responding.
Here are the top suspects now:
1. The Starter Motor (or its Wiring)
What's happening: The starter is the electric motor that actually cranks your engine to life. When you turn the key, power travels straight from the battery to the starter.
The connection: Mechanics working under the hood can easily bump or pull on the starter's wiring harness. If the starter wire came loose or the starter motor itself failed, a brand-new battery won't do a thing.
2. A Blown Main Fuse
What's happening: Cars have a giant main fuse (a safety switch) that protects the entire electrical system.
The connection: If metal accidentally touched the wrong spot while swapping batteries, it pops this main fuse instantly to protect the car. Once blown, zero power reaches the starter, no matter how many fresh batteries you drop in.
3. The Ignition / Safety Switch
What's happening: Your car won't allow the starter to engage unless it knows the transmission is safely in Park (or Neutral). If that sensor got misaligned or disrupted, the car assumes it's in gear and blocks the starter for safety. What to tell the mechanic:
When you call the shop, you can give them the exact facts without needing any technical jargon:
"We tried swapping in a fresh battery and it still won't turn over. It seems like power isn't getting to the starter or a main fuse blew during the work."
When you turn the key right now, do you hear a single hard "click", or is the car completely silent?
As I recall, yes there was a single click, it was not silent
That single click is a huge clue.
In mechanic terms, that click means your car's computer, key ignition, and safety switches are all working properly, and power is successfully leaving the battery. The click you hear is the starter solenoid trying to engage.
Since a new battery didn't fix it, a single click usually points to one of three things:
A Bad Connection at the Starter: The main power cable plugged into the starter motor came loose or got bumped during the repair work. It receives enough electricity to make a click sound, but not enough heavy current to turn the engine over.
A Failed Starter Motor: The starter motor itself gave up. When starters fail, the solenoid clicks into place, but the motor inside refuses to spin.
Corroded or Loose Battery Ground Cable: The cable attached to the car's metal frame isn't making a clean connection, restricting the electrical flow required to turn the heavy engine.
What to do next: Since the car was just in the shop, call the mechanic back and tell them:
"The battery is fine, but when I turn the key I just get a single click. The starter cable might have been knocked loose, or the starter failed while it was in the shop."
Because it was just worked on, they should send a technician with a tow truck to inspect the connections and get it sorted out for you.
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I decided to announce this on Book Readers Heaven, both because car trouble is something that anybody can have and possibly use this chat... But also to spotlight that most of my personal journal will be posted on my blog Just My Personal Opinion... So ongoing readers may want to routinely check over there to see if new posts are up that you haven't seen... There will be a lot of "stuff" about trying to live in today's world with an awareness just how much things have changed in our lifetimes.
I'll be posting on a dream that I recently had and then woke up and immediately described it to Gem along with what I was experiencing... Highly recommended if you're interested in how to interpret dreams... and the relationship of your mind to your physical responses... Which leads me to say that I haven't find a subject when I was able to stump Gem from having an answer for me...
A final confession: Although I am not afraid for myself, I am afraid of what I see happening to seniors, especially, so my concentration is there just by my life... The latest which hits hard is that the Supreme Court agreed to allow Trump to proceed with manipulation of the voting systems mail in activity. I'm hoping there is insufficient time to actually stop the election in November, but when criminals are also in power it appears anything can be done... It is unbelievable, for instance, that Trump doesn't know what to do to close out the war with Iran, so instead starts a trade war with Canada!!! Which will cost our citizens instead, of course! Why does he spew such hatred? I can only recognize that's what it is and know it is dangerous... Especially to seniors who have been using mail voting as their main method! We must act accordingly as best we can...
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A Tribute to Dolly...
Dolly's favorite scenes happened to be Mine... Blond secretaries stick together... Yahoo! She's no longer in pain...and with Her Heavenly Father! In memory of all she gave to the world...
Gabby here, picturing a certain blond boss...all...tied...up...and hurting nobody ever again...
Yeah, ya'll know what I mean, don't ya'?
Dolly combined her sexuality together with her faith... That was one of her God-given gifts I believe... Sex is not the problem, manipulation of it is...
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