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Sob. On the brink of missing the the NBA playoffs for the first time since 2008, the injury-riddled Chicago Bulls, with inspired play from their "bench", defeated LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, leaders of the Eastern Conference by a score of 105 to 102 on Saturday, creating an opportunity for the Bulls to snatch the last place spot on the playoff roster. But alas, on Sunday the Indiana Pacers crushed these hopes by routing the Brooklyn Nets and by doing so, eliminated the Bulls' play-off bid. And to add insult to injury, Bull fans now have to contend with the prospect of the Golden State Warriors breaking the 72-game winning record held by the Bulls' 1995-96 championship team! And speaking of do-or-die contests, momentum is setting the pace of the presidential race. A surging Bernie is on fire, and Ted has accelerated from Cruz control to full speed ahead. If these 2 outsiders end up being their party nominees, voters will really have a choice to make. In a season of paradoxes, the losing candidates may have the most impact because their disgruntled supporters could determine the final outcome if they sit home and not vote, or vote for the enemy to spite the runner who defeated their candidate. Making matters even more volatile is the possibility of the electoral college selecting a winner who has lost the popular vote. With "lies-trumping-the-truth" being the new name of the game, indications are that "ignoring-rules-and-disregarding-laws" could come into play next. After the election, will sanity and reason prevail? Or is this nation on a collision course with Anarchy? Will citizens revolt and America become a political battle ground where anything goes??? Even more important, will the Warriors break the Bulls' record? Or will the writers of "Game of Thrones" resurrect Jon Snow??? Life is strife, full of conflict and competition, winners and losers. Peace, and harmony are just brief lulls before the long storms. Humans are their own worst enemy. Not only are they destroying each other, they are destroying the planet. Is Doomsday inevitable? Will Mankind save itself? Or is this a job for Womankind.

I stay slow on HBDs, but seeing Pioneer's post cracked me up! Nothing like a little Turbo Tax refunds to brighten a day. LOL!

Happy Birthday Trouble T-Roy ! Point that shoulder in this direction so I can pound out them years....lol. I saw the title and didn't know WHAT the hell this thread was about. I thought Cynique might have gotten some good news from TurboTax or something and decided to share it with us.

LOL!!!!! D Rose would be a bit taller I'm sure. My wife has been questioning the new hair of the players in the league. I have been too, but my son is wearing his hair like that so I kind of just shoulder shrug. The Butler is Jordan's illegitimate son thing is gaining some traction too. The Bulls definitely suffered from the injury bug though. The Joakim Noah injury took their heart away. Chicago is such a great hoops city that I know it's frustrating to watch the team slide into the lottery, but it may be just what's needed. A solid high draft pick, trade Butler while he has value, get Gibson back and possibly trade Noah and let Gasol walk and the Bulls will be in rebuilding mode, but they have a lot of opportunity to change to Fred's system... which I don't think is gonna work, but hey what do you do? I have the DVR set for GoT and Empire is getting shakier, but I am looking forward to the Luscious backstory. I'm also a big fan of the 30 minute sitcom Silicon Valley and Don Cheadle's House of Lies. Television has trumped movies for me and it's a great time to enjoy the medium. It is also the perfect break from business stuff.

LOL I hadn't heard the rumor about Butler being Jordan's illegitimate son! I've been too distracted by his hair to scrutinize his face but now that you mention it... And come to think of it, there has never been any mention made of Chicago-born DRose's father. Could it be that he's Scottie Pippen's love child???? I don't know who his daddy is, but I do know Thibbs has to be laughing his ass off while collecting a paycheck signed by Papa Jerry Reinsdorf. The dream scenario for Bulls' fans would be to lure Glen "Doc" Rivers back home to Chicagoland to take over the floundering Bulls and restore their past glory. Golden state is a well-oiled machine but kinda boring to watch because they are so predictable. Just another week before Game of Thrones returns to rival EMPIRE in family intrigue and recreational sex. I can hardly wait. When it comes to the presidential race, I can only wonder.

This is just great! The Bulls are suffering from the rumors of Jimmy Butler being Jordan's illegitimate son, and of course they couldn't stay healthy for one month... but that's not important considering the Memphis Grizzlies played 28 different players this season. The most of any season in NBA history and we still made the playoffs. I'm thinking getting rid of Thibs wasn't such a good idea. Watching Golden State is amazing. They just tied and they will certainly break the record of the Bulls 72-10 by defeating my Memphis Grizzlies! Talk about being connected! You're in Chi Town, my wife is from Vallejo (The Bay Area) and I'm from Memphis, coincidence? I think not. I don't think Jon Snow is coming back, but I do think The Lanisters are going to kick some major ass this season after the walk of shame last year (which I watched with a keen interest ;-) The election is going to be just as interesting as the Olympics this summer and will probably garner better ratings as these nominations are going to go down to the wire. Good post!

Pioneer, everything you've written is a great history lesson and it's informative, but at the end of the day it is more rhetoric that ultimately like Tavis and West is directed at people who know what has been done. Your information is possibly more valuable for those lurking than it is for me because no matter what you write, you can never explain to me how the last 40 years is any way worse than the first 400 for Blacks. You can't do it and there aren't any comparisons that can be made. If there is one, it's that this life and the things that happen are status quo and more of the same. As far as FDR and LBJ, you are only right in that there has to be a movement to force people to take action. Nothing that was done for Blacks was done for the improvement of the Black status, it was done to save face as the world watched the treatment of Blacks by their own country. In other words the laws and every thing enacted was to show that White America and the government could be civil and trusted to enter other countries and control those people. In regard to Memphis... before and after Dr. King died here we had White government. In the late 80s that changed and Memphis truly was a Black city/Chocolate city with Blacks in power positions throughout the city. At the same time you had White flight... but overall Memphis is unique and unlike Detroit because this is one of the few cities I've lived in where you can be a felon and still find work if you want it. I digress. I wrote these two posts to clarify my thoughts. http://www.cbpublish.com/social-black-lives-dont-matter-but-black-dollars-do-aalbc-coms-discussion-boards/ http://www.cbpublish.com/business-the-black-dollar-is-powerful-lie/ This article gives you a racial breakdown of Memphis and the economy/idea of building Black wealth as it relates to Memphis. It could be better and longer, but it was a response to another discussion. I present these two posts because they give the foundation of what I think can fix things. Once again, I'm not naive about how homelessness increased under Reagan and how crack was introduced and recidivism rates are all screwed up due to Clinton, but as tragic as both of those things are Blacks today and for the last 40 years don't have half of the battle that we've had in this country. We are doing far less with much more access. The regression in the Black community is amazing especially when you consider what we overcame to create the opportunities we have today. I guess I shouldn't speak in broad terms. I will only address myself and my circle. I was born in poverty, extreme poverty. Raised by a single mom. Went to Jail/juvi at 17 based on a mistake in my age and was then transferred to juvi. I had a gun put to my head twice, was almost killed in Los Angeles, but I'm still here. My life was probably shaped by White policies, but I can't tell you what they were. I can tell you when I got busted I was in a stolen car. I did that. I had a gun. I did that. When I was almost killed, it was by a Black dude. When I was almost killed in LA it was by Black dudes. When I saved lives on an Aircraft carrier, I did that. When I earned degrees I did that. My support system was my friends and the government because I earned my College fund. When I decided to teach and coach, I did that. I say all of this to state that nowhere in my life was I affected or shaped by White or government policies in a negative way. I watched my mother overcome being a temporary employee and she worked her ass off for 30 years to own a home. She was the first in our family to own a home. My sister and I both have degrees and are living solid lives. Was everything we did shaped by racism? OF COURSE! I'm sure my mom was a temp far too long. I'm sure I was impoverished because of the policies and laws on the books, but still we kept working. Now I say all of that because I can only speak on myself. The easy thing to say is maybe I was the exception. But I'm not. Most of the guys I know were raised in single parent households in poverty. We made conscious decisions to not follow the path that we were supposed to be on. The one that would have killed us, or at least should have killed me twice and probably a few times I don't know about. When I look at the kids I taught who grew up in the poorest areas in San Diego and Ashland and Memphis, the kids who made it to school and did the work are doing okay. Some are doing better than I am, some are not. Someone has to do the marching and fighting for the government to take notice. Everyone can make good decisions and improve their immediate circles and touch as many people as possible in a positive manner. I choose not to be the marcher, but the person who takes on the grassroots because I can see that change and it drives me. Maybe you are the marcher and fighter for getting government assistance. Both have qualities that are needed in making this country better. I guess I'm not disagreeing with you, I just have a hard time seeing the benefit in pursuing change through the government. I know it works, but I know that being a teacher and a coach works just as well.

Only 130 short now--I just subscribed. I look forward to viewing the videos between trying to get my book marketed. Best...Paul

CD When I was younger I used to wonder why Black people couldn't live together and pool their resources together like the Mexicans or Asians, now I know why. Blacks from Africa can do it because they're used to it....but those of us born and raised in Western society are to individualistic and need too much "space" to live like that and raise our children in that environment. Most Whites couldn't live like that either, which is why they invented trailer parks...lol. Now many of our people DID do it temporarily when they came up from down South. My mother and her sisters and brothers would each come up from Mississippi and stay in an established brother's spare bedroom or basement or whereever and when they got a job (which was plentiful at that time) they'd pay some rent and eventually move out to buy their own home. But the society and economy was different back then. There was more of a family spirit. Like I said, even White people born and raised in America or Europe can't live together in groups like Asians and Mexicans do because they aren't used to those type of impoverished social conditions where people are sleeping on top of eachother, using the toilets right behind eachother, and even wearing the same underwear...lol. We have to gradually get to the point of communal living. But I do think living in groups WILL be the family of the future. Sort of like the extended family but only you get to CHOOSE your extentions rather than being born with them. BTW, at this point of Black economic development....monetary reparations would probably help more Asian and Arab proprietors in the ghetto than the people they were intended to help. Mel If you notice, I didn't say replace the nuclear family period but replace it as the STANDARD or IDEAL. I envision a time when just about ALL family types (except those of the pedophilic type) will be permitted in society whether it's extended, nuclear, man with man, woman with woman, man with several women, woman with several men.....or people just by themselves. However the law of social averages DEMANDS that one type predominates. As I mentioned to CD, I believe the NEW prevailing family of the future America will be the GROUP FAMILY where you have several men and several women together living under an arrangement and taking care of the children and eachother.

Well I'm still 131 subscribers short of my goal. I've averaged about 2 subscribers a day since I posted this appeal. So at this rate, I should reach my goal by the summer. I wanted to achieve my goal by this point, but considering it took me 9 years to get to 600 subscribers; I guess getting 400 in under a year is pretty good. Earlier in the week I noticed Omar Tyree made the same appeal on Youtube. I subscribed to his and asked him to subscribe to my channel. He has 54 subscribers now and even though he is a well known author gaining and an additional 946 susbcribers, organically, anytime soon, won't be easy.

Oh man lighting is a big deal too. You can correct some of the issues with the software, but it is best to invest in proper lighting. Especially if you are going to be creating videos on a regular basis or as your primary business. I did not know Microsoft had free software to shoot screen capture videos. I know their free video editing software was too limited for me to use. In terms of views of videos, I've watched some great videos that had less that 100 views and have been up over a year. It is really hard to believe. Many of these are author videos, some created by institutions like universities. Simon & Schuster creates nice videos for many of their authors and these video are barely watched. I people will invest a lot of time and money and is put into creating videos but in promoting them (the same is true for authors and their books). I look at S&S's videos and wonder why they spend the time creating them--if all they are going to do is dump them on youtube and forget about them...

Thanks everyone!

"Each one, teach one" is a philosophy that, in its own small way, can make waves and have positive effects.