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I wish I had something positive to contribute to this discussion. I am, however, encouraged that all y'all's broad views of the grim future have not dulled your optimism, and that you are motivated by the challenges that show no signs of dissipating. To me, the current political situation is a sign that the tide has turned, - as it inevitably does. The Pandora's box of Trumpism has been opened and emptied and the old rules don't apply. If this can be described as a teachable moment one lesson would be that truth has become a very elusive entity that language imprisons by holding "reality" captive. So those in control can manipulate words to describe a scenario of their choice, and since the word "reality", itself, is trapped in the confines of 7 written symbols, or 4 spoken syllables, who can effectively invoke "reality" as a defense against alternate "facts"? What is reality?? Is it actually a state of flux where we create our own truths? This is the growing trend black folks must try and navigate, figuring out a way to make white folks believe lies we make up. BTW, I don't agree with the pundits who claim that Trump's base has eroded. I even think he is gaining converts from the ranks of wimps who, since their vote couldn't whip him, are simply joining him. Meanwhile, his opponents react more than act. Progressives and Liberals are standing around diagnosing Trump's mental health and pointing out how untrue and illogical his rationales are, ferreting out obscure laws in an attempt to thwart the Republican majority, while making idle threats of impeachment and filibusters. I am very disappointed in how The Press seems to be so in awe of the office of the Presidency that they allow Trump to publicly mock the news media. The idea of simply calling him an outright liar seems unthinkable to reporters. So here I sit, watching how the lines are being drawn, hoping that those who recognize the signs of this country becoming a dictatorship will be able rally enough supporters to ward off the threat. I watched Bill Maher's interview with Milo whose diarrhea of the mouth was probably contracted from blowing diseased penises. He can be dismissed as a "guilty pleasure" because he attacks icons using sly humor and a savvy persona to say what others think, taking full advantage of the mean-spiritness that Trump has popularized. I would simply describe Milo's position with the publishing industry as a mutually beneficial "69".. Bill Maher is, first and foremost, a stand-up comedian. I appreciate how he not only takes obnoxious bigoted Conservatives to task but also calls out Liberals for being smug, do-gooders. He is not a particularly skilled debater but he fortifies his views by inviting articulate people of his persuasion to keep the Republican apologists in check. This alone makes his show worth watching. Elsewhere, this Pop Culture Vulture is motivated to put on her Milo hat because she is sick of BEYONCE who, thanks to the slavish devotion of her social media "Beehive", thinks that having a big belly full of twins has not only obligated her to parade around and show off her bloated abdomen, but has also elevated her to the realm of Earth Mother - a goddess to be held in awe and worshiped by all who look upon her! Her appearance at the Grammys, looking like a latter day Cleopatra with a stomach tumor, was a yawner. She needs to go somewhere and sit down and hope Jay-Z's genes aren't stronger than hers. I'm also sick of seeing a frolicking Obama's grinning face plastered all over the internet, as he has embarked on an extended vacation, immersing himself in a lifestyle where the troubles of the world will never again intrude upon his carefree existence. He may be better off as result of his presidency but I'm not so sure about the rest of the black people who put him in office.

@Troy When I was living in NYC i made it a point to go out at night. Granted Dance Parties dominated the mix, I did try and cover a few difffernt genres it up. I even ran into you and Jasper in Brooklyn. I can't remeber who was performing though. I met a few people who ran parties or did performances and various types of artists. They like you had to create something from their heart that didn't exist in the world. The motivation wasn't financial. Granted there may have been the need to be recognized or acknowledged. I check into your site because Cynique has one of the finest critical minds I have ever met. And you my friend are a passionate, yet open and giving visionary. There are some new flavors developing on your site. Glad the universe brought us together. Del

@Troy You are running an international Salon Here's a a first I am including a Wikipedia Link Salon (gathering) - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_(gathering)Proxy Highlight A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims ... @Troy it is difficult to fight characaters like T Rump and the other guy. Either you try to use logic and they drown you out or you yell like they do. Neither is a winning strategy. Or you do what you have been doing. Keep in people's ear. Get people to think beyond their emotional response to every situation. You have literally thousand of people listening. They may not respond for any number of reasons, but they are intersted. They are the elite that I am referring to, people who think or even better ask questions. Babershops are great places to be warm by lots of words, great wordplay some rhetoric but how ofetn is it provocative or evocative. BTW that Mollusk scene in Barbershop was brillaint. Troy you have no competition. You will see yu influence and effectiveness when one of your members is Celebrated. Or when a Celebrity plugs your site. I reckon in 10 - 15 years.

It probably is just me but I find looking at book covers this way pretty cool and interesting. Lately, I've been playing around with making collages of book covers (like the one below). These collages are not made by hand but are dynamically generated by the code used to drive much of the website. The image below is just a cropped screen shot of this page. I've created similar collages for authors (check out Walter Mosley's books), publishers (check out the one for Akashic Books), all the Carter G Woodson award winning books, and the "Top 100 Books of the 2oth Century" as examples. With the exception of the children's college, I have not made these links to the other pages available to regular visitors to the website. One of these things I need to do, before making these colleges more widely available, is to compress (make the image file size smaller) all of my book cover images (all 8,000) of them. Compression will help these collage pages load much faster and help AALBC.com stay on Google's good side. Sorry for the technical digression... I'm actually still making fairly substantial changes to the website's design while adding new content at a historically high rate. It is hard to believe it has been over a year since I started this website upgrade project, a project I through would take, conservatively, six months, I'm hoping to finish this summer--almost two years of effort.

@Delano Yep this is exactly why I gave up casting for personal gains sometime ago. I began working on raising my vibrations instead. Thank you, though! Now my focus and goal is getting others to raise their vibration so that we can shine bright in this world...

The juxtaposition of this statement with your closing (Bey and Obama) proves "Yes we can!"... Our next step is to figure out what to lie about that would raise the profile of the Black American collective.

@Pioneer1 So, in other words, if asked, you would beat a path to the white house, and suck up to Trump in hopes that you wouldn't alienate white folks which is a bigger sin than alienating fellow blacks by "Uncle Toming" Trump so he will be pleased enough to maybe throw blacks a few crumbs. This is a familiar scenario that hasn't particularly worked in the past - or the present so far. Again, it's about powerless people winning moral victories by humiliating a man who hates to be humiliated, And the only white folks who are offended by this are those who still want Trump to be "given a chance". Not to mention black folks like you who apparently adhere to the ol slavery adage about "catching more flies with sugar than vinegar". LOL

I heard that Bill Maher (whom I feel is a closetted xenophobe) also booked Milo on his Real Time show to the dismay of a lot of his liberal audience. Not sure what to say..... I personally believe in freedom of speech as long as no one is directly calling for another person's harm (outside of legal punishment) or death. But in order to prevent giving these racists free publicity to gather sympathy for their cause.....the show should also host an opposing view point on the very same platform to challenge their rhetoric.

@Mel Hopkins Let me know if you would like a magickal spell. You can either choose to request a specific type of day. Or a general spell. If you are not interested that is fine as well.

I applaud the black Patriot players for not going to the white house to meet with Trump. Tom Brady is a big time Trump fan and he always took a pass on going to the white house when Obama was in. Brady is a jerk who was deceptive about his involvement in the inflated football scandal. He also is now selling his autograph, charging an exorbitant amount to sign super bowl memorabilia, charging even more for a personal comment. He has no class and I hope he and his air head wife self implode. The Trump factor has brought out the mean-spirited pettiness in his foes who are stooping to his level because they are powerless to do anything other than to take advantage of the thin-skins of Trump and his lackeys. As far as the office of the Presidency is concerned, it either makes the man, or the man makes it. This honorable office has thus far shown no signs of transforming Trump's into an admirable statesman but is, instead, being besmirched by the behavior of the corrupt bigoted narcissist holding it.

@Frederic that's Dark Magic. He is one type of Magician. Everything has a cost.There is high and low magic, dark and light. If you have defects in your character magic only amplifies them.There are rumpurs that the lost years of Jesus were spent acquiring esoteric knowledge.

Magus is also the root of magician. Yes sir. The Zoroastrian priests....known as Magi....practiced arts that a lot of the less knowledgable Greeks and other Europeans who visited Persia saw as supernatural. So unexplained phenomena in Western thought started being refered to as "magic". They said the same thing about various African and Native American practices when they came in contact with these people. Because they didn't understand the science of the people, they called it "magic" and often "witch craft". ...until THEY learned how to do some of it, then it was accepted as "science".

@Pioneer1 Magus is also the root of magician. Anno Dominus has been changed to Commone Era.