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Troy Why do you think these white folks are curious enough to impose and ask you what you about what you reading? Because they have an insatiable desire to find out what Black people....especially AfroAmericans....are thinking. They want to know if we pose a threat to their power or not. If you're reading something about sports or some sort of religious book....you're OK. But if you're reading something written by Mao TsaDong... .....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

@Pioneer1, nah bro, I didn't think you were suggesting a kumbaya with the devil. As you already know, these threads allow my tangential response about what Black folks need to do ( @Cynique ) especially when dealing with them. There's no harm in making Chess moves as long as one knows how to play the game and stays on code.

The debt ceiling has been raised 68 times and counting. The US keeps modifying how much money it can print and/or afford to pay back. The whole debt ceiling thing is a silly exercise because whichever countries the US owes money will never call in the markers. The world economy is dependent on America in one way or another. That's how America can send $80 billion to Ukraine for a war they cannot win but the government want to cut benefits to American citizens.

I was thinking the reaction was fascination and a desire learn what could possibly interest a monkey enough to try to read a book.

LOL....it means you're a RICH woman with a lot of financial connections. You ain't fooling anybody on here. We know you be runnin' with Oprah and 'em! Git it guuuuul....lol. richardmurray If I gain fifty billion dollars tomorrow morning all mine, no tax needed. What will I say. Richard Murray has the most intramultiracial community of black people in the usa. NYC circa 2.5 million black people I am a leader of. and yes, I am also a leader of the black community in the larger usa, over night. Does anyone know me? no. But that doesn't matter. One isn't a leader because people know them or anyone says it publicly. you are a leader in any community when your resources, whether that is fiscal wealth or government position or communal following or other gives you the ability to influence the community you are native to. If I am in NYC and I have fifty billion dollars, I am a leader. Is how I will lead be known? no. People will have the right to do to me what I do to Douglass or others and judge me on my results. If I do nothing then anyone can say I was a poor black leader. if I leave NYC immediately and do things elsewhere a black person in NYC can say, Richard was terrible as a black leader in NYC. There are a lot of Black billionaires from Robert Johnson to Byron Allen....but they are hardly called "leaders" in the Black community. Maybe they'd be considered "financial leaders" in certain circles, but in order to be considered a "leader" you must not only be KNOWN but you must also have INFLUENCE over people. Influence effective enough to motivate them toward some action. Although wealth and leadership are often intertwined (as is the case with @Mel Hopkins...lol), one doesn't necessarily have to do with the other. Both Martin and Malik (Malcolm X) were considered premier Black leaders at the time but neither were very wealthy financially.

On some level I don't think we can actually tell what is "true." Our brains don't have the capacity for this. Our bodies are very limited in terms of what we can actually sense, Our brain create our perception which can differ from person to person. Even when our physical perception of the world is very close, we still can't agree on what is true. This has become more evident in the age of alternative facts and the resulting alternative realities they conjure. Some people believe Astrology is real others don't. Some people believe there are multiple human races, choosing to completely ignore the science. Still other believe you will suffer eternal damnation of you don't accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. If is real for them, while for the majority of the rest of the world something else is "true." How we decide what is true is different for each person, and I'm not convinced it is a completely rational and conscious decision.

A while back, I wrote a post about the debt ceiling as a moving goal post. Another refrain of mine is that American political parties are two sides of the same coin. It's definitely a game. There are many forms of TV entertainment. Instead of watching soap operas, series or reality shows, etc., I watch the news.

Okay, The rest of message, I will ignore it, because as you put it, this SISTA is wife material! Dr. Chi is married and has five children. She looks much younger than she really is!

What a thought. My first thoughts are that, in general, you cannot recognize that you are wrong about something unless you are able to experience the truth (shown the truth) by some form of expression. As humans, we are born and come into awareness of our existence and surroundings gradually, and we are conditioned by others so, by the time we have formed opinions, thoughts and beliefs, therefore, in reality, these beliefs are NOT ours as individuals. So, it will come a time as we mature that SOME OF US will become aware that we need to contemplate why we believe as we do and may come to realize that our earlier 'teachers' and 'stimulants' may have been wrong and immature about certain issues; we have been misguided. I've come to this point where I came to realize that my 'teachers' were completely wrong about certain things. But in order for me to be sure that something was true, I WENT BACK TO THE SOURCE WHENEVER I COULD and questioned them and that became the confirmation! But again, I had to experience the truth before I even realized that I had been conditioned to belief in something that was wrong. Gong back to the source that led me on the wrong pathway is awesome when it can be done, but there are other pathways to getting the truth as well.

Thank you! @richardmurray You really explained it so well and well enough for me to follow and understand much better! Okay, so in the recent past, I was surprised to learn and understand that long before UK gained much power, the central regions which included Germany and the Balkans was considered to be the power of Eurasia. I learned that Germany and Austria was like, the head. And somehow after the Crusades and later Hungary went through a decline, eventually, France, England and other countries in the west gained power. So now, you've made me so happy because I understand much better how the world wars came about! Germany and Italy began to compete! This makes so much sense! Oh! Thank you again! And yes, I did read about the mountains in the Horn of AFrica and about Eritrea being mountainous, but I did not realize that Ethiopia was also mountainous. LOL @Pioneer1 Mussolini did not have a problem being a supremacist! Later, he joined up with Hitler.

@Chevdove the italians invaded for the same reason germany or austria hungary hd similar plans and eventually invaded their european neighbors or made war machines. The Ottoman empire plus Russia are other stories. Spain/England/France/Holland/Portugal for hundreds of years , since the 1400s had gone outside of Europe and dominated non european peoples. Making huge fortunes for each of their fiscal elite beyond their dreams, manipulating < in some cases terminally or permanently> all non european peoples, all non european peoples. But in Europe their neighbors in the center: italy/austria hungary/germany all looked with envy or desire. Italy's ethiopian campaign or Togo to germany are examples of this desire<italy's case> or sated envy<germany's> playing out. Which couldn't be enough and led to the commonly called world wars, I personally call that war, the war of european empires. All in humanity wasn't at war, european empires were and at the time of the first war of european empires an overwhelming majority of governments outside Europe were controlled or managed by England/Spain/France/Holland/Portugal/Italy/Germany/Austria-Hungary/Ottoman empire <whom I consider european albeit muslim> / Russia <whom I consider eurasian at its heart>/USA <a european country not in europe> . Few governments were not completely controlled or managed by one of those European powers. Ethiopia was one of them, Japan was the other. All others were completely controlled like china or brasil , or managed like a haiti or egypt. Italy in its desperation to be a european global player gambled. The worst time to gamble is when you are thinking desperately. Ethiopia unlike any other government in Africa had a few things that made it unique in all of africa. One, unlike most of Africa which is usually plains or hilly, Ethiopia is very mountainous. And absent modern, 2023, air warfare possibilities, mountainous areas are huge deterrents. The mountains will force any large ground assault to break up and that weakens it naturally in the favor of the defending position. So, when the muslim imperial growth in africa started, before the christian imperial growth, Ethiopia had learned to protect itself and because of ethiopia's bordering islamic empires, they were aware of all the latest militaristic inventions, like the gun or tanks. And when the christian imperial growth started in Africa, ethiopia was already more prepared and even had a native christian heritage. So italy to be blunt, made a bad gamble, bad leadership, and paid for it.

Troy Would you pass the brown bag test? It depends on what was in the bag before they used it. You know how those greasy chicken wings from the 'hood will change a paper bag from light brown to dark....lol. Mel Yes he would! In my mind’s eye he has those freckles too Girl you crazy....lol. No "freckles" this way. Biological evidence indicates all modern humans originated out of Ancient Africa Western scientists claim humanity came OUT of Africa. My research points to human beings originating in Middle and South Asia and branching into different directions including down INTO Africa. richardmurray Frederick Douglass had an overwhelming majority in the black community, over ninety percent, that was truly monoracial in many racial ways Are you sure this was the case? I'd be willing to wager that back in the 1800s most AfroAmericans were so rural and illiterate that the majority probably didn't even KNOW who Frederick Douglass even WAS at the time. Some educated ones did....but most of the ones working in the fields didn't. And probably didn't know who Lincoln was either. Outside of the liberal White class, I'm guessing most of Douglass' human support came from EDUCATED Black society. But not the Black masses in general who were largely local and uneducated.

@Pioneer1 In my mind's eye I always envisioned you as more Kalid Muhammad than Master Fard Muhammad in the completion department. Would you pass the brown bag test? LOL!

Mel While I await your great responses...lol............. I too have noticed that among AfroAmericans it's usually the lightest skinned people who tend to shout the loudest about Black power and Black pride and promote Black consciousness. Not only do you have Malcolm but look at Minister Farrakhan. There are many reasons for this but I believe among them are: 1. As I already pointed out, because of the subconscious conditioning of our people....light skinned people often tend to be liked more not just in their families but in the community in general. They grow up being called "cute" and get more attention than the dark skinned children and this high esteem often carries over in life. So they learn they have more power and influence.....if they choose to use it....to get things done. 2. Althought most White folks treat AfroAmericans the same, I've noticed that many Latinos and Asians will treat a light skinned AfroAmerican a little better than the dark skinned ones too! Just adds more to the self esteem. 3. Most light skinned...and especially mixed....people seem to have a constant need to PROVE their "Blackness" so I guess you can say we often go out of our way to show how "Black" we are. I'm not VERY light by the way....more like T.I. or Redd Foxx's color. But I'm light enough to be considered light skinned by most. Today, neanderthals are allegedly extinct. They didn't go extinct....they just got KILLED off or BRED out by the more civilized generation of White folks after them. Neanderthals are just DEGENERATED White folks who turned savage while they were stuck up in the caves and mountains of the Caucasus. When we drove them up into the Caucasus and trapped them in with walls (like the Wall of Derbent and Great Wall of China) and they were deprived of access to civilization they went savage. Started eating a lot of raw meat, lived naked in the elements, and started having sex with their own family members. CENTURIES of this produced a DEVOLVED and malformed people whom we call "cavemen" and "neanderthal" today. Nothing but degenerate White folks who went wild. That's why you can't find traces of neanderthals in the Americas or Africa....only in Europe and central Asia.