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PERRIN LOVETT

~ Fiction, Freedom, and The West

PERRIN LOVETT

Tag Archives: blogging

Fake it Till You Fake it More

27 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

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blog, blogging, celebrities, culture, fakes, just pure trash..., perrinlovett.me, robots, social media

Two issues, one Times story (good one): one, people’s online personas are misappropriated for nefarious profits by our robot “friends;” two, real people pay for fake followers. The horrors of the socials scene:

The Times reviewed business and court records showing that Devumi has more than 200,000 customers, including reality television stars, professional athletes, comedians, TED speakers, pastors and models. In most cases, the records show, they purchased their own followers. In others, their employees, agents, public relations companies, family members or friends did the buying. For just pennies each — sometimes even less — Devumi offers Twitter followers, views on YouTube, plays on SoundCloud, the music-hosting site, and endorsements on LinkedIn, the professional-networking site.

The actor John Leguizamo has Devumi followers. So do Michael Dell, the computer billionaire, and Ray Lewis, the football commentator and former Ravens linebacker. Kathy Ireland, the onetime swimsuit model who today presides over a half-billion-dollar licensing empire, has hundreds of thousands of fake Devumi followers, as does Akbar Gbajabiamila, the host of the show “American Ninja Warrior.” Even a Twitter board member, Martha Lane Fox, has some.

At a time when Facebook, Twitter and Google are grappling with an epidemic of political manipulation and fake news, Devumi’s fake followers also serve as phantom foot soldiers in political battles online. Devumi’s customers include both avid supporters and fervent critics of President Trump, and both liberal cable pundits and a reporter at the alt-right bastion Breitbart. Randy Bryce, an ironworker seeking to unseat Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, purchased Devumi followers in 2015, when he was a blogger and labor activist. Louise Linton, the wife of the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, bought followers when she was trying to gain traction as an actress.

11-female-android.w710.h473

NY Mag.

I tried carefully to craft a craziness no one would steal. You, some of you, might recall that, a few years back, I lost “perrinlovett.com” though lazy inattentiveness. Some pirate bought it for $30 and then offered to sell it back to me, once .me got rolling well, for $2,000-ish. Ha! Now they call trying to pay me to take it! I have my price.

But my followers do not. No fakes here or on YT or at FP. Here, of my massive three-man following, only one account is a fake I set up with a floating email. One is the real me – needs to monitor, etc. The other guy is in Russia I think.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to contact the click farm in Indones.

Cold Days of Winter

28 Thursday Dec 2017

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blogging

Hello. Have not been on hiatus here, but things will be a little slow until the new year.

You’ll be fine. Enjoy the cold snap.

I leave you with the world’s smallest police station, which I passed by just yesterday:

ls

Fresh paint job! Carrabelle, Fl.

A tiny police station and a giant baseball within a few miles … only in America!

PS: the year-end recap should be along any day now.

Another Excuse is in Order…

30 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, Other Columns

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

blogging, excuses, love bugs, perrinlovett.me

Ahem. Missed another day. Sorry. Won’t happen again.

To make up for it I thought to regale y’all with the Tale of the Great Plecia Nearctica Internecion of 2017 (recently occurred). That shall wait for another day and perhaps a poetic dissertation. Maybe as a paid feature through my equally neglected Patreon Page. Maybe. Perhaps. Ahem.

nimbus-image-1504142974468

It got ugly before it got sad.

Anyhow, with the silliness aside now, I give you Mark Nestmann’s take on the coming government shutdown that won’t be a real shutdown and probably won’t even happen.

On or around October 2, the US federal government will shut down – again. The actual date could be a bit earlier or later, depending on how the government’s cash flows.

Technically, the government should have shut down on March 15, 2017. That was the date that a congressionally approved temporary extension of the debt ceiling expired. So on that date, the amount of debt on the books ($19.808 trillion) became the new debt ceiling. Since then, the Treasury hasn’t been able to issue any more federal debt.

Instead of shutting down the government, the Treasury has been cooking the books to pay the bills. Payments to federal worker’s retirement and disability funds have ended. The Treasury has also borrowed against federal pension, Social Security, and Medicare trust funds. But that can only go on so long. Without congressional authorization to raise the debt ceiling, some government services will have to end in about a month.

President Trump and congressional leaders want to raise the debt ceiling without any more restrictions. It’s easy to see why. Politicians get re-elected when they spend money on things that benefit voters, and just as importantly, when they spend on things that benefit the people and corporations that finance their campaigns.

But the influential Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives opposes an unlimited increase in the debt ceiling. It favors raising the debt ceiling “only” an additional $1.5 trillion – just enough to keep the government afloat until after the mid-term elections in November 2018. The Freedom Caucus also wants to cut federal spending. Trump and congressional leaders have to take the Freedom Caucus seriously because the Freedom Caucus’s opposition to the partial repeal of Obamacare doomed that initiative earlier this year.

…

It’s reassuring that the staunch conservatives and libertarians from the Caucus want to hold at a measly $1.5 Trillion. Why not cut the crap and make it $1.5 Quadrillion? Maybe a little more?

As I did back in ’95 I support the shutdown (that won’t happen). Houston looters can fill in for the IRS. Drunk monkeys can sufficiently steer the 7th Fleet. And, I tell you from experience, you can still use the National Parks – actually easier without rangers around if you don’t mind jumping gates.

Make of this what you will.

And be careful driving through those cotton fields!

It was Bound to Happen

27 Sunday Aug 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

blogging, perrinlovett.me

So, yesterday, after nearly 15 months of continuous daily posting, I slipped. There was no update of any kind for Saturday, August 26th. But for this sad marker there might been have nothing today…

You still came through as readers. Thanks. I wish I had a cool excuse, like being hacked by Anonymous. Actually, no… I was just busy. Happens.

Things should be back to normal by Wednesday, maybe tomorrow. See you then.

P

Dodging the Drafts…

16 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

blog, blog history, blogging, Patreon, perrinlovett.me

I’ve mentioned this before. In the hopper, I have some 60 or so drafts – some of them over four years old (without edits). Some need publishing, some deletion, and some are just notes for me.

Therefore, I figure I’ll use the slow month of July to dig into them. If I can finish one up as I originally intended, I’ll do so. Otherwise I plan to throw up what exists now, here, and then maybe expound at Patreon.

In keeping with tradition, I make no further progress on this today…

nimbus-image-1500208838692

The Fifth Anniversary Special (2012-2017)

24 Saturday Jun 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

5th Anniversary, blog, blog history, blogging, perrinlovett.me, Thank You

Born of fire. It was a blazingly hot summer day, five years ago, when I first penned this quick little intro blurb:

nimbus-image-1498304058931

An inauspicious start if ever…

I mean it was hot, like 104 hot. Four days later, I got around to a real posting: The Shared Responsibility TAX: ObamaCare a hit with the Supremes…

nimbus-image-1498304342566

It was still hot as Hades – I even noted that in the first sentence. Today, it’s not so bad. Yesterday, was more like it; I undertook the first heavy outdoor activity of the year, and I picked the first near-100 degree day to do it. Got it now: yard work in the cool; blog in the heat. Or is that backwards? Heatstroke typing…

ObamaCare has been a recurrent sub-theme over the years. The title has shifted to TrumpCare, or GOPCare, or WhoCares, or something; the problems remain. The first problem is the sheer stupidity and criminal neglect of Washington. Yesterday, Rand Paul (not his father, but all we have left) interjected a little sanity into the malaise: Rand Paul: Insurance should be available for $1 a day.

I’m not entirely sure anything can be had for $1 per day but I like the concept. What he’s talking about would require a renaissance in insurance and medical coverage. It’s happening here and there, naturally, on the medical front. The insurance business racket is another story. As Rand points out, the main purpose of the old law seems to be to stabilize insurance syndicate profits.

But, please, I babble – perhaps the most common feature of the site. That’s not what we’re here for today, is it?

FIVE YEARS

And, thank you so very much! When I started I really had no idea what I was doing. I’m proud of my consistency in that regard… But it seems to work. There’s been massive growth, month over month, and year over year – all thanks to you. And “You” is a big, broad group. Primarily a US-centric endeavor, with vast Western defensive leanings, I manage to reach people in some 130 or so countries.

The top nine for 2017 so far:

nimbus-image-1498305225874

For perspective: I’ve had more traffic this week, a slow one, than I had in all of 2012. Consistency plays a part in that; for a while, there was none.

In June of 2012 I rattled off the above two posts. Then there was silence. In February of 2013 I resumed the labor and piped away, periodically, until September. Then came more silence. A jabbering or two in June and July, 2014. More silence. In January, 2015, on the advice of a friend, I commenced persistent work. This month makes 30 months in a row. I’ve now had at least one article or post per day for over a year.

And, as I always say, I’m just getting started. There’s always more and better to come, just around the corner. Stay tuned.

As a thank you for your devoted and loyal readership, I procured some balloons.

coloured-balloons-background_1159-121

Have some cake before you go.

35-happy-birthday-cake-and-candles-foil-balloon-7889-p

Happy birthday, little website. Thank you, dear readers, one and all, and please hurry back.

– Perrin

On the Spot: Blogging Guidelines…

12 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

blogging, Perrin, perrinlovett.me

I just accepted a request to run a guest post (maybe more than one), here at perrinlovett.me. The intrepid requester is a young (I presume) lady who has a pretty interesting portfolio. Why she wants to run on the Benny Hill Show of the interwebs is beyond me. It should be fun regardless. Developing…

I don’t have much of a history with guest posting, zero actually. I only ever sought out two guests and they fizzled. That was around 2014. I talked to two other men about it and they ended up starting their own blogs. Then, I’ve had a few I turned down. New territory here and now.

However, in responding to the young lady, I had to try to articulate some guidelines about the site. Like Batman I have a code I go by. But it’s not written down and, unlike Bats, I feel free to break it at will. This became an interesting paradox for me. I felt like I was on the hot seat for some reason. Now I’m thinking about the evolution from 2012 until now. It’s something I think I’ll study a little.

Okay, I ramble – which has always been rule number one.

Just keep your eyes open.

One thing I admitted to her, that I’ve hinted around with you, and which should be obvious from the day-to-day content, is that terrorism posts have become all too common here. I don’t make the stories up and they fit with my theme of continuing Western civilization.

I fear another one is right around the corner. That, in a minute…

Are You Prepared? Freedom Prepper is!

21 Tuesday Feb 2017

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blogging, Freedom Prepper, prepping, writing

I just mentioned Freedom Prepper in a story about my recent allergy attack (unrelated, mind you). And I would be remiss not to mention the great changes this week at that incredible publication. Check out the all new and improved:

Freedom Prepper (Always Ready)

nimbus-image-1487727378059

FP, 2017.

Yes, it’s a Drudge Report style now. I like it. Scott likes it. One really can’t reinvent Matt D’s perfectly good news deliver wheel design. And it’s a news aggregation site, now, primarily. Prepper news and related info, that is. I’ll still have some weekly articles of my own there. Most of my new stuff will (well, does now) appear at the FP App, which is (for now) only available for Apple iTunes. The new site will/should soon have a link to the App, along with the VIP pages, and Preparedness Weekly magazine (also from iTunes but somehow more compatible with other devices).

For an archive of my older (2016-17) FP articles, try THIS LINK. There’s something like 20 pages of my links (so far). The new aggregation links come up first (and are growing rapidly). Those are just links. The real articles are further back; use the “older entries” tab at the bottom of each page to review.

Now, really, where’s my Advil???

1,000 Reasons to Read the Blog

26 Thursday Jan 2017

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blog, blogging, Perrin Lovett, perrinlovett.me

This here is Post 1,000! Literally one thousand great reasons to visit perrinlovett.me.

Welcome back. It’s been nearly five years since I cranked out this little post. I quickly followed it up with a report on the Supreme Court’s idiotic decision on Obamacare. Almost 1,000 posts later, this week, I wrote about the pending demise of that failed law and program. Yes, I like to think I had something to do with that.

Over the years (years now) I’ve also written about:

  • Law
  • Government Evil
  • Guns
  • Religion
  • Schools
  • Cigars
  • Western Civilization
  • Christmas Ties
  • Immigration
  • Society
  • The Rich and Famous
  • Movies
  • Fitness
  • Economics
  • And 100 other things.

it_photo_94156

1000churches.org

As always, there is more and better to come, here. And soon, too. Mark your calendar for June and the site’s fifth anniversary special.

For a thousand posts I give you a million thanks!

Standby! Post 1,001 is right around the corner.

Something I Need to Do: Inspiration From Altucher

19 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

blogging, James Altucher

I need to start using my email list for business. I have a list – nearly 1,000 users – I just have never used it. That’s a waste because these things are effective. James Altucher has a list of probably something like 1 million people. I’m one of them. Here’s the latest I got from him: (this is an incredible story, so I just cut and pasted):

How To Be A Genius

Someone asked this on Quora. I decided to give my sage advice on the topic.

One time I had two million dollars left. You have to be pretty damn smart to make two million dollars, I thought.

And then I had an idea. Or rather, an opportunity presented itself.

I needed to make a lot more than two million dollars. There were people running around (idiots!) with ten million, or even one hundred million dollars.

I was smarter than them!

So I put the two million dollars in a single company. They made “wireless devices for deaf people.” If you ask me now what that meant I would not be able to tell you.

The company went public. For about a day, my two million dollars was worth $2,200,000. In one day I was $200,000 up! This will keep going and I’ll be RICH!

Then it went down. Suddenly it was $1,900,000.

I better hold on. I need to get my $100,000 back.

The next day it was at $1,800,000. Then it kept sinking. My two million was worth $1,000,000. Then $800,000.

I had a huge mortgage. Plus two babies. $400,000.

I put my house for sale. At three in the morning I’d sit in this big couch looking at my two story book case and thinking about how it was all over. I never slept. I sweated all the time. $300,000.

The real estate agent begged me to lower the price of the apartment. I did. Then he begged again. I did. Then he didn’t have to beg anymore. I kept lowering the price of the apartment. Nobody was buying.

“I can’t understand,” I told him. “This house is worth more.”

Now he was cocky with me because he could be.

He said, “This house is only worth what someone is going to pay for it, and it’s a lot lower than what you have it at now.”

I said to my wife, “let’s see if we can borrow more money off of it and then we’ll jut stop paying and keep the money.” We dressed up the babies and went to the bank. They laughed at us. “We don’t do THAT kind of loan.”

So I lowered it to less than what I had paid for it. Then I had to lower it to less than what I owed the bank.

I couldn’t afford the mortgage anymore so I stopped paying it. I ignored all the calls from the bank. I ignored all the calls about the housing taxes. The true owners. I’d pay these people after I sold the house.

Finally we got an offer.

I went to the movies to celebrate. I forgot what I saw. But I remember going to the ATM machine to check and see how much money I had left.

$143.

I called my parents. “I need to borrow just a thousand dollars,” I said. “I’ll return it in a few days.”

They said “No” and I hung up the phone. It was the last time I ever spoke to my dad, who had a stroke a few months later that left him paralyzed and looking at the ceiling for two straight years.

“He has no brain left,” the doctors all said but I think he was just locked in there.

I put myself in exile. We moved 80 miles north to a broken down house 1/4 the size in the middle of nowhere.

I never left the house. I gained 30 pounds. I spoke to nobody. I was trying to think of even smaller places we could live.

Nobody returned any calls at all. Everyone wants to be your friend when you have money. “I always knew about that guy,” they all would say later.

But then I slowly got out of depression. I started waking up early and playing basketball with myself at a court right next to the Hudson River while the sun rose over the mountains. A train would pass at 5:05 every morning and I’d see the faces blinking at me.

I lost the thirty pounds. I started to sleep better.

Then I’d read for two hours. I read every day from one fiction book, one non-fiction book, one self-help book, and one book about games. I love games.

Then I’d take out a waiter’s pad. To remind me of humility. And because they were cheap. And because for thousands of years waiter’s pads were used to make lists.

And I’d make my own list. The list might be “10 businesses I can start.” Or…”10 books I can write.” Or…”10 ways XYZ company could be better.” Or…”10 articles I could write.” And on and on.

Some ideas would bubble to the top and I’d come up with deeper ideas about those. And some ideas would disappear. Some ideas I’d try for a short time and either give or pursue further.

Some ideas I did nothing. It was all practice. It was all experiments. It was all about getting more creative so I could get myself out of the swamp of regret.

I did pray to God a lot. But mostly because I wanted the stock market to go up. I’d go to the church across the street and pray to Jesus. But I was Jewish and I don’t think he listened to me.

So I can really say that at first it boiled down to three things:

Get exercise and eat well.
Read A LOT. I’ve read 2–3 books a week for the past 15 years. I remember maybe 1–2% of what I read. And it doesn’t add up. It multiplies. Because when I learn one new thing, I connect it backwards to all the things I learned before. So every one new thing is like 1500 new things.
Be creative every day. Because the more you know, the more ingredients you know, the more recipes you can make. Writing down ten ideas a day is like a recipe. I noticed within six months my recipes took on a different flavor. They started to have elements of good in them.

I’d surprise myself: “This is a good idea!” And I’d try it for awhile. Some I’d try for more than awhile. Some would change my life.

And every six months, the ideas would get better and better. It was like I was graduating through classes and grades and schools and getting the graduate degrees I had never gotten.

I was constantly connecting more and more ideas backwards and forwards to each other. Songs, books, people, companies, ideas would connect more and more like this thick matrix.

Connections and connections. It was (and is) like my brain was on fire constantly.

This was the secret for me. I don’t know if it would work for anyone else. Every day I have to do this or I think I’m going to die.

I just did it today. I did it yesterday. I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll do it a year from now.

Since that time I’ve started about 20 different businesses. 17 of them have failed. That’s ok. I’ll always have new ideas.

I’ve written 18 books. Some of them were horrible. Maybe most of them. That’s ok. I’ll write more.

I don’t think I’m a genius. But I know the important thing is not the destination but the direction.

I’m going in the right direction.

After my dad had his stroke I had an idea. My dad loved chess.

He was only able to lie in bed on his back and stare at the ceiling. He couldn’t talk or move. He’d stare at the ceiling for 10 hours a day and sleep for 14.

I found a fun chess position in a book. White to move and win in two moves. It involved a queen sacrifice. He once told me, “take the most powerful piece on the board and try to give it away. Do the unexpected and you’ll win.”

So I took that position and I went to the local printer and printed it up three feet by three feet.

Then I went to his room in the medical facility and got on a chair and taped it to the ceiling right above his eyes so he could look at it.

He knew ten languages. He was a chess master. He could play every musical instrument. He had read every book. And when I was a kid he knew every answer.

He would stare at the position. I could see his lips trying to move. I knew he knew the answer but the doctors would shake their heads and walk away.

Then he died.

Some day you and I will too.

Ok, Josie my daughter, get a good night’s sleep.

I know, I know. Yet another story about LOSING money. Ok. Enough of that for now.

I’ve told you this before…about someone I know who’s helping lot’s of people MAKE money. His name is Ramit Sethi.

And after the last time I told you about him even more people wrote me, telling me how they changed their lives. Quit their jobs. Made money on their own.

Because of Ramit and what he teaches. So I’m telling you again. Click here before Friday.

Yes, there is a sales pitch at the end. But the story is worth it – as are all of James’s. And I’ve heard of the Ramit system. Not a bad idea. And I’m sure part of it is the email list. Got to work on that.

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Perrin Lovett

perrinlovett@gmail.com

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