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Hi AALBC fam! I was watching this video on YouTube, Comedian Shuler King and Pharaoh Head Part 2. And while I was listening to him drop knowledge, I thought about how much I missed this forum. It is funny how you can go through life and acquire a bunch of skills, knowledge, and still not know how to use them until you add LOVE. I feel like that sometimes, like I ask What's the point? Then, I remembered whenever I lost my balance, my family would fill me up with love, give me that pick-me-up, and I would get energized. But it hit me, there was still something missing. It was the part I felt while listening to Shuler. I remembered when I'd come right back here, get into some battle of wits, and then I'd remember who I am completely. AALBC forum is like drinking from the chaotic and primordial waters of NUN. I'd come here to fight with @Pioneer1 - every time I do, I learn so much about myself, thank you! or see my whimsical self in my twin, @Del @Delanoadmire the wit of @Cynique @aka Contrarian,and I get energized to know how strong and brilliant women can be! I recently wondered if I'd recognize @ProfD if I heard him whispering in a library or lecturing in front of a class. You are such a mystery that I feel like I know you. Just this morning, I sent energy to, @Chevdove so she will finish her book. She is the one who needs to tell the story of African Adam!. I am proud of my alumni @Troy. Dude, you are an inspiration to me! I'm enjoying watching you beat your dreams into submission. @richardmurray you make me crazy with your projects, but please know I enjoy your enthusiasm! @frankster we haven't engaged in debate, but I'm glad you're here. You echo many of my beliefs and remind me to uncover their origins. @harry brown 's commentary through prose and poetry is a great wake-up call... I could probably go on and name many more if I searched through my memory, but I'm about to go skipping back into the world again. Thank you, thank you, each and every one of you, even the ones I missed and didn't list, thank you for sharing your Love!

I'm thankful for what I have and wish for more. Twitter has over a half-billion microbloggers active monthly users after an estimated loss of 900,000 when the South African bought it. Threads by Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has reported 275 M monthly users as of November 3, 2024. After the 2024 Presidential election, many black people are using the platform to make plans for the next revolution. How the hell do you plan a revolution on a white-owned public platform that pays allegiance to white supremacists? Anyway, I wish AALBC was the premier microblogging site - Black people 44 Million strong in America; we still don't control or own a major communications platform. We must do better. @Troy Thank you for following your vision to create and maintain a place for us to call our digital home.

Made it! Today's my 92nd birthday. Don't know whether to laugh or cry. Such is life.

As my 92nd birthday approaches on August 18th, I have drifted into a reflective mood. At this point in my journey I'm experiencing a need to look back and reflect, even as I wonder if I'll make it to August 18th, considering how much my health has deteriorated during the past few months, a situation that renders me as ready as I'll ever be to blow this pop stand. This ol world is currently so screwed up and, imo, on a collision with what I think will be changes so drastic that I will be out of my element. So, whatever. All the points of view and personal philosophies of those who regularly post here, especially as it pertains to the black condition, have inspired me to put myself in perspective and share my thoughts when it comes to where I fit on the black spectrum. Bear with me because this is probably my swan song, and I may ramble. Hopefully, however, something learned about the caliber of my blackness wiil be enlightening when it comes to examining the multi-faceted nature of black America. I have always described myself as a "hybrid" descendant of slaves. That's my tribe. And it's a HoHum passive one. According to Ancestry.com, my blood lines include Irish, German, Native American and, last but not least, African by way of the Sierra Leone region of Nigeria. I do not consider the Atlantic Ocean my homeland because my ancestors obviously reached and landed in America, and were transported to the North Carolina location of what had been one of the country's most prolific slave markets. And the rest is my history. My genesis begins in the territory that originally belonged to the native American tribes like the Osage one which my paternal Grandmother was descended from. . Both my paternal and maternal great grand parents were born into slavery, the women folk, typically raped by their white slave masters... My forebears have always identified themselves as colored, negro, black, depending on the era, and I have never strayed from or had any desire to identify myself as anything other than a non white person who has no delusions about the treachery and guile of the ruthless men who established the White Power Structure that controls the globe. The most negroid thing about me is my hair, having once had an abundant, bushy crop which lent itself very well to an afro style which I affected during the 1960s when I felt compelled to establish my "negritude", (a popular term back in those days.) And, when it came to the civil rights movement, although I was not an activist out there demonstrating in the streets, in my own personal way via the Op/Ed pages of 2 of Chicago's major newspapers, I was very supportive of those courageous enough to put their lives on the line to secure equality for all. I consider myself, for want of a better term, a "soul sista", very comfortable in my skin, having no great affinity for Interacting on a regular basis with Caucasian Americans. I am a product of the middleclass black bougeoise values that I was raised with, having no illusions about the superficial materialistic aspects of this designation. Paradoxically and inexplicably, I harbor a great revulsion for right-wing conservative black Republicans, and I despise Donald Trump and his Maggots! I was born in 1933 and grew up in the small town suburb of Chicago where my parents settled in 1922 as part of the first wave of the Great Migration of Negroes leaving the south, seeking a better life up north and, uniquely, even in those pre- civil rights years, I always resided in mixed neighborhoods, always attended integrated schools and, as part of the great Civil Service work force, always held jobs working side-by-side with white co-workers. So, my mutated homo sapien "cousins" are no strangers to me. I neither like nor dislike them, opting to just judge them on an individual basis, always keeping my guard up. My politics are a reflection of my core personsality. I am a Moderate Liberal, not a militant radical progressive because I'm too cynical to take seriously these erratic types with self-serving agendas. I have never been ambitious because I'm lazy and don't like too much responsiblity or anything difficult or demanding, just content to do enough to get by. I am not proud to confess that I have gone through life, avoiding anything that required great effort on my part. I am lazy and unmotivated, only good and creative at things that interest me. I do, however, lean toward the aesthetic, profound spititual things in life and this includes liberty and justice for all. I have lived through the terms of 15 presidents and can honestly say that the administration of whomever was in office never greatly impacted on my personal day- to-day life. I've managed without even trying, to stay under the radar and - get by. I retired from the US Post Office in 1992 after 30 years of service so I have been retired longer than I worked, collecting a substantial pension replete with COLA raises, receiving money every month for doing nothing other than waking up every morning. If a problem exists when it comes to my black status it stems from my objectivity coupled with an affinity for the whole truth, 2 traits lacking in "gung ho" black chauvanists. This has led me to "divorce" on the grounds of incompatibility, the black race as it exists in the judgment of those who seek to mold it exclusively in their personal image, focusing on what in my judgment, amounts to merely chasing their tails when it comes to effectiveness. So, It is what it is, and I am what I am, - someone who will leave this earth, strong in my conviction that I am as authentically black as the most passionate chest beater. I close by acknowledging that, black is beautifully bountiful but - there are 2 sides to every coin. And so it goes...

@aka Contrarian, thanks for contributing your perspective, thoughts, opinions, zingers and insults, etc., to this coffeeshop on the internet that is AALBC. I always enjoy the exchange of perspectives regardless of whether we agree or not. That goes for each every one of you who contributes regularly. Of course, the coffeeshop would be incomplete without the hilarity that ensues from virtual dust-ups. Regardless of age, each and every last one of us is getting closer to the finish line than starting a new race.

Thank you, Pioneer. Yes, she's my daughter, my baby girl. She loved it here. She told me before she passed away. She also lived life - she was courageous. She was on a mission, and by the turnout at her Celebration, she touched a lot of folks with her light and life. One of her high school classmates learned of her passing and came from Seattle to Cincinnati to say fare well. He told us that when he was friendless, Cheyenne became his first friend. Cheyenne wanted to be treated by traditional medicine - and she was. However, she had to push her initial health caregiver even to test her when she told them of her symptoms. Cheyenne didn't take "no" for an answer. It was after the treatment that she realized that the treatments were inadequate - more for money and destabilizing than curing. This is what she wanted everyone to know. What I learned during her experience, as@ProfD alluded to is that many pharmaceuticals could heal and possibly even cure, but those treatments are reserved for the wealthy. Two days before Cheyenne suffered seizures, the doctors prescribed a therapy that could reach her brain, but they had to wait for her insurance provider to approve it. They did the same day she transitioned. Oddly enough, they could have prescribed the medicine before her brain surgery. - My daughter and I are not separated. The part of her who is eternal is still with me. I don't remember the skills to engage with her as I did when she was here in the flesh. I do, however, remember how my ancestors processed the transitioning of our loved ones, and it is a lot different from how Western civilization deals with the death of the body. So, while I miss her physical incarnation, her soul is boundless. I made this post because I want us to think about our health care—especially as Black people, we must reach back to our ancestral ways to maintain our health. Despite my daughter's paternity—she got her mtDNA from me—mitochondrial DNA, which comes from the mother to its offspring. The mtDNA houses ATP, also known as the God cell, that gives us life and our cells' energy. The medical establishment knows this even though lay people don't. As Prof D said, cancer has been around for millennia, we must remember the ways of our ancestors to survive.

Thank you! I wished it away, and Mother Nature covered the entire city of South Fulton, including our very vocal and beloved Black Mayor. We did get high winds, and some branches and trees took a hit. I know we were at risk of flash flooding, but the creeks are a distance from my subdivision. Our water plant failed, so we have a boil order in place. And get this... Effing Bio Labs in Conyers, GA, caught fire... and these folks installed water sprinklers that respond to fires, including chemical fires, so we are at risk of chlorine poisoning tod . EPA is testing the air - and we just got a notification that our air is a "janky." Hi All!!!

Sista @Mel Hopkins, it's always great whenever you decide to plop into your chair in the proverbial coffeehouse that is AALBC. Always appreciate your contribution to the discussion. I don't work in academia or the ministry but if/whenever you run across a 6 foot, well dressed, nice watch wearing, bald-headed Black man pontificating about anything in a lecture hall or pulpit or playing the piano, that could be your brotha from another mutha.

I Love You Am I the only one on this forum who has ever met you in person? I’m still kicking myself for not spending more time with you that evening in Chicago almost a decade ago. Even when this picture was taken, you had been participating on the forums for 12 years! I think you’re the only person here who has firsthand knowledge of that guy named Thumper. After more than two decades of participation, here I believe other than myself, you have the longest tenure of any active poster. In my opinion, you have enriched this forum in many ways and more than any other person. You also set the bar high demonstrating what a 90+ year old person can do when it comes to technology, writing, keeping up with pop culture, politics, and despite a little cynicism maintaining a sense of humor. It is hard to imagine how quickly time has flown by and how fleeting life is. Happy birthday!

Listen to these LOVERS of America bitch and moan because also being shuckers and jivers who, between constantly objectifying women, crow about black men being superior to males of other ethnicities, and who are now sulking because their fellow chauvinists can't control their "much-envied" sexual prowess the way certain other black men are able to do, thus providing newsworthy material for the dreaded white media which is controlled by the deep state racist conspirators plotting to demonize black men in order to keep them from acquiring the power they are too inefficient to acquire in the first place. HoHum. Same ol, same ol. What black folks need to do is ,,,.go find a deserted island and start their own country so they can fight amongst themselves without interference from dem bad ol white folks who have no intention of sharing their power with a sub culture of colorists debating who's black and who isn't. Obviously I'm not trying to win a popularity contest here. Since I've turned in my black credentials. I can spew the narrative of my tribe and keep on truckin'. What a wise man who should've said nothing, once let slip: "It is what it is."

Thank you @Pioneer1 . I think only in this country do you need to set aside a day of remembrance for mothers, considering this country's track record of continued abuse. I'm sure you know about the sterilization program this country ran to make sure certain women could not reproduce. Please don't get me started LOL Happy Mother's Day @Cynique @aka Contrarian Joy looks so good on you! You are a radiant beam of LOVE!

Is religion the "opiate of the masses", - or what?

If Jesus did exist, I believe he would've had an appreciation for irony. After all, his Daddy offers free will as an option. But exercising it can get you in a hell of a lot of trouble.

Personal observations can confirm or corroborate facts but it mainly serves as a form of mental masturbation. Statistics provide real data to define and reinforce a position or belief. Well constructed arguments require both statistical data and analysis combined with relevant personal observation. Personal observation on its own doesn't verify or prove anything. Gotta produce receipts i.e. statistical data.

March 13-14, 2025 Total Lunar Eclipse NASA: March 13-14, 2025 Total Lunar Eclipse: Telescopic View Released Thursday, January 30, 2025 https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5472 This week, on the evening of March 13 and into the morning of March 14, the moon will slide into Earth’s shadow, creating a wondrous and graceful event: a total lunar eclipse. The whole show, over three hours long, will be visible across almost the entirety of North America, Central America, and most of South America. From western Africa the moon will set while still eclipsed, and in extreme eastern Russia the moon will rise already in eclipse. https://www.cntraveler.com/story/where-and-how-to-see-total-lunar-eclipse-2025-blood-moon _____________________________________________________________________ This is so awesome! Even though there will be other lunar eclipses however, I think this one is extra special because it just so happens to occur in the middle of the month and even more amazing would be that it will happen in the month of March. The month of March is the scientific and universal New Year! March 14, is the scientific and lunar New Year! So if you count from March to September, it confirms this fact because Sept means 'the number seven (7)' and then the root word 'Oct' for the month of October means 'eight (8)' as in octagon. For America and western Calendars, the month of September is the ninth (9th) month, October is the tenth (10th) month and so forth. So for the earth to align with the moon becoming a full moon on the evening of March 13 is significant in how the solar system aligns at times. The vernal equinox will then occur in the third week of March. Eclipses though, are not always easy to see because of the nature of how they tend to pull up the clouds. But hopefully for those who may want to look up and witness this celestial event, the clouds will not gather and block the red moon.

IMO, humans are tribal by nature. In complex societies, people belong to more than one tribe.

Stevie Wonder, Lauryn Hill, Lisa Fischer and Valerie Simpson were among those who performed at the funeral service for Roberta Flack. I would like to know what was so important that our beautiful sista Lauryn Hill couldn't finish getting her hair done. Hair appointment aside, the mercurial Ms. Hill still has that voice. The woman can sing effortlessly. Surely, the late Ms. Flack would have approved of Lauryn showing up for her homegoing service. Of course, the great Stevie Wonder did his thing too. The man is a living legend. Deserves his flowers now. Ms. Roberta Flack was an awesome musician, singer and songwriter. She left us with an excellent body of music. RIP our beloved sista. DC for life.

I also don't consider her a jazz artist. Although that wasn't in the post . It just said music. I have to say on the Jazz side Robert Glasper is amazing. He did a show with a full orchestra on Northern Europe. Also his vocalist Bilal is amazing. The only current female I can think of is H.E.R. vocally Indo like Jazmine Sullivan and Muni Long

And Black America can and will do that on the very same day that Racism no longer exists! People tend to play the cards they're dealt in life. You want Black people to stop playing the "race card"....stop dealing it to them.

People need to understand the difference between a MOVEMENT and a CAMPAIGN Movements promote specific agendas with clearer goals (be they good or bad) than campaigns which pretty much parrot partisan rhetoric. Movements tend to be more grassroots oriented, wholistic, and longer lasting, than campaigns. While campaigns typically last less than 4 years, movements can span DECADES. Think.... CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT WOMEN'S MOVEMENT LABOR MOVEMENT While a campaign is designed to change the POLITICAL direction of a nation, a Movement is designed to and can change not only the entire political landscape but the entire CULTURE and FUTURE of a nation. Trump had...and still has...a MOVEMENT behind him! The MAGA Movement. Harris was merely running a campaign.

The Pyramid of the Sun and the temple of Quetzcoatl The Pyramid of the Moon

Perhaps the AMERICAN people simply want competent leadership. Not DO-NOTHING KAMALA. AMERICANS have been suffering economically and in other ways ever since BIDEN was installed, because he shut down oil production and mandated people to buy EVs, rescinded all of TRUMP's effective border policies, and all the rest of the DUMPSTER CLUSTERS that BIDEN foisted upon us like the botched Afghanistan exit, money to Iran, weakened military, two conflicts/wars, Laptop Hunter, inflation, food shortages, lawlessness, homelessness, CCP and terrorists inside our borders, spending FEMA money on illegals, and numerous other disasters. KAMALA thought she was a shoo-in, and so she refused to do interviews and disclose her actual policies, although she had already made herself clear on such issues as open borders, defund the police, fracking, abortion, green new deal, climate change, trans surgeries for prisoners, men in women's bathrooms and sports, and countless other liberal leftist ideology. KAMALA thought that being endorsed by Oprah Doprah, Eminem, Beyonce, JLo, Gaga, Barack, Michelle, Cheney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dick Van Dyke, Katie Holmes, Cardi B, Alec Baldwin and all the rest, would get her elected. KAMALA thought that she could pander to people by saying that she was BLACK and from the middle class, both of which are questionable. KAMALA thought that people would forget how she had hundreds of BLACK men incarcerated for minor offenses. KAMALA thought that she could beat TRUMP by hurling insults and zingers, waving her hands, pointing her fingers, and pulling dumb faces. KAMALA thought she could call TRUMP a dictator, fascist, Hitler, criminal, and other nonsense, when she should have been addressing those insults to members of the Democratic Party. KAMALA thought she could LAUGH her way out of answering serious questions. KAMALA thought that she could lie to the AMERICAN people about too many things to even track. But KAMALA thought wrong. AMERICANS don't want to live in an open-air prison. AMERICANS want to live free and be safe and secure. AMERICANS don’t want political opponents attacked with LAWFARE. AMERICANS expect more from government officials. Years ago, this forum was a place where you could find real, intelligent conversation. Unfortunately, those days are LONG gone and it’s sad, as well as boring. It would really be GREAT if you all brought this forum back up to the standard that it used to be. MAKE THIS FORUM GREAT AGAIN!!!

Come on man, you KNOW Tipsy is going to eventually respond back with a close up picture of himself or some drag queen...lol. Talking about.... "...and uhh what percentage of Black or Native ancestry would you say THIS person has in them? By the way, check you private message....I have something SPECIAL to tell you!" Come on bro, you get to know people after a while....lol.

Yeah, I went off the grid for a few days attending the Melanated Campout in Cordele GA. I've been a homeowner in Tampa since 2011 and lived in West Palm Beach for almost two years. I have never been seriously impacted by a hurricane -- never even lost power (our lines are underground). Now I have been impacted by storms in New York City -- one was so severe it shut down Wall Street for days flooding subway to the ceiling and damn near wiping Far Rockaway off the map. @Pioneer1 I think Florida is a great place to live--despite our wacky governor

Or better yet..... Instead of constantly running from one plantation to another plantation and fleeing one cruel white "massa" only to end up under the whip of another; we should form OUR OWN political party and push OUR agenda. With all of this talk and bashing of the Democrat Party....and they deserve it.....when I look over at the Republican Party I don't see Black folks running shit except their mouths. What power do Black folks have in the Republican Party? Niggaz aren't even allowed to decide what foods and refreshments to serve at MAGA rallies and conventions. They have NO power. Just stand there grinning and clapping and hope nobody asks them to leave.

IMO, you have reached the zenith of life. We should all be so fortunate to get there. Relative good health is a bonus in the zenith of life. There is no shortage of posts that we express how much we enjoy your input here. I certainly look forward to and get a kick out of your ramblings. Keep posting as long as time allows..

Racial classifications by skin color were codified back in the 1600s. Religion is a belief system. Marriage is literally a contract between two parties. The reality and/or validity of every man-made social construct has always been debated. A wonderful part of our existence as human beings is that individually we have free will to accept or reject social constructs.

It seems to me that when it comes to Homo Sapiens, it is a species made up of human creatures with superficial differences. Species is primarily determined by its ability to interbreed and produce viable, fertile offspring within its group, and it is reproductively isolated from other groupsThis means that members of the same species can successfully mate and create offspring that are also able to reproduce, while members of different species cannot interbreed in this species. Imo, this debate could be resolved by simply defining terms instead of wallowing in subterfuge.

Are these two really beefing on social media like two immature middle schoolers? Crazy!

that video was interesting i lived in this apartment building for a month. my apartment was on the other side of the building with a view of table Mountain, which it that flat mountaintop you see in the background I was there in April. The pool was really too cold to ever use. The building on the left is a large mall on par with anything you find in the — Very nice. I would go food shopping there, put my groceries in the shopping cart, Push it all the way to my apartment door leave it in the hallway and someone would come by and bring it back to the supermarket. For some reason I always thought that was the coolest thing The rent was cheaper than a similar apartment you find in any medium sized city in the US, but without the nice view. Most of the people in the building were European For a black community, people live in what is described as “informal” housing or the Khayelitsha township 30 minutes or more drive from Cape Town.

Many think the above expression is a trite cliche or an empty phrase. But I've always found it to be totally adequate because, in and of itself, it stands alone, unchallenged; language at its best, reality captured in pure and simple words, the essence of its message existing between the lines, reminiscent of the old adage about "one picture being worth a thousand words". An esoteric echo, "it is what it is" is what it is: a profound utterance that translates into the ultimate truth. See ya... Mother's Day 2025

Thank you for our inheritance. There's a saying about inheritance. "70% of wealthy families will lose their wealth by the second generation, and 90% will lose it by the third." " The saying highlights the challenges of maintaining wealth across generations. It emphasizes the importance of passing down wealth and knowledge faithfully to the next generation." Late boomers (Gen Jones), Gen X, and Millennials never learned how to keep the rights we gained from your generation. We squandered and lost our inheritance. Now we're here.

@Pioneer1 when people start throwing around the word populace then you’ll know the influence is complete I think it is great that Jim Crow laws have been repealed. “Segregation” where people were forced to drink from different fountains could not stay in public hotels use public pools were forced into crappy schools could not get meaningful employment. All those things were bad. however, in desperation to integrate we effectively destroyed many black communities as the professionals and working middle class abandoned “separate” black neighborhoods in favor of white ones. This has been bad too. There have been a bunch of books written on this subject. Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America by Eugene Robinsonis one that I read recently another that I just added to the site is, Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation by Kris Manjapra.

It all could've been avoided if the accused girl hadn't done what she was accused of. And I doubt if there has ever been a case before where one runner In a relay race hit another runner on an opposing team with a baton during the final stretch. So it is a newsworthy, human interest story imo, and a sign of the times along with the everybody-gets-a-trophy-custom and winning at any cost attitude that overshadows good spormanship and now passes for acceptable behavior,- thanks to Donald Trump. It certainly bespeaks of childishness and poor home training.

Hi @Tales from Zeal Didn't the pro in the industry provide guidance in this area? You are asking people who don't know you or you or, more importantly, your work to introduce you to an author who will read and endorse your book. There is a slim chance of that happening as a result of you inquiry. You should attend book fairs and conferences and get to know other authors. These are the people most likely to endorse and read your work. What you should do here is post information about yourself and your upcoming novel. Share a video describing the book and keep us appraised of your progress. As with any community develop a relationship with folks. Here is a good example of a writer, Milton J. Davis who always posts information about his new books. Now if he ever asked for an endorsement (he hasn't yet) I would certainly consider it. I hope that helps.

ProfD Not sure what confident brothas being locked up has to do with this situation. Because sometimes confident people often act without fear or hesitation. Which means they may not properly think their actions....and the potential consequences...all the way through. Walking up to a woman you don't know, putting your arms around her waist, and asking her for her phone number is a CONFIDENT move. However, if things go sideways...the consequences could be dire. Bro, you're taking it too literally. There is a tactful way to ask direct questions. Lol, because you PUT it literally. I thought you meant just that. A less than confident dude or one can't handle his own bizness wouldn't approach a woman directly. Maybe not, but atleast when he goes home lonely...he gets to GO HOME. And not to jail, lol. Among other things....I'm a musician. We see women do all types of things I've seen women run up dudes bar tab and leave them dry. Those same women would leave the club with us musicians for FREE. They'd even help pack up equipment. But you've already established a report and foundation with them as they see you as an artist and musician. They know you. They know something about you. ...as opposed to some nigga in a white short-set hook up and some alligator sandals with a toothpick in his mouth sliding up to a woman, looking her in her eyes, and asking how much would it cost for her to let him "beat that thang up" for a good 30 minutes and possibly longer if the price is right. Lol....what's the STARTING rate?

Promiscuity is a problem for impoverished people. Poor and broke folks have zero business procreating. Are white Americans in poverty due to making bad choices? Haiti has been impoverished for centuries. I believe the French had more to do with it than Haitian parents. Same goes for every other poor country on the planet. Follow the money. Greed. The number of people who chose to go from riches to rags is low in the grand scheme of things. In fact, I know more folks who went from rags to riches. Why does a country need so much weaponry? There's a reason Scandinavian countries do not have an abundance of weapons or high crime rates or impoverished people. There is zero poverty if resources are distributed equally across the population. Greed prevents it. Wealthy people do not become so through any form of hard work. It's very hard for working people to become wealthy. Human greed is the major factor whether it is rich and poor or war and peace.

There are plenty of people. I was asked to buy a carton of cigarettes here in Florida for someone up in New York City who smokes two packs a day. My mother easily smokes a pack a day and has been doing that for the better part of 3/4 of a century. certainly, we as a people can do a much better job and investing in our own businesses. We do have experience with this already. There are mega churches all over the country that are supported by relatively small contributions by large numbers of people. Some of those churches have schools and provide a wide variety of services for the community in addition to ensuring contributors get into heaven. But churches have all types of tax advantages that regular businesses don’t. The real issue, I think, is creating wealth for the investors rather than lighting the pockets of some charismatic preacher. It is not just a matter of organizing the investors it’s coming up with the viable business. Alternatively, people can be content in simply contributing to a business without expecting to be rewarded financially. People contribute to my business simply because they want to support what I’m doing, which is beautiful because it actually does help.

Yall know good and dog gone well that the U.S. isn't going to annex EITHER Canada or Mexico. That's more Trump talking shit. I can't believe so many people are taking his shit so seriously. Buying back the Panama Canal....I can believe. Taking over Greenland...that's a stretch, but possible. Making Canada and Mexico part of the United States? Balki from Perfect Strangers used to say, "Don't be re-DICKLESS".

My short attention span prevented me from doing anything other than cherry picking the topics I wanted to respond to in this marathon post that my late night curiosity prompted me to check out. All I can say is the longer I live, the more I realize how much the black experience can vary. I have never been around any black married couples who so desperately desired light skin children that the wife copulated with a white male in order to achieve this goal! People I knew, dealt with however their kids came out, (sometimes being guilty of showing favoritism toward their lighter-skinned offspring albeit.) In my social circle, guys were sometimes intimidated by fair-skinned girls, settling for brown ones. Girls often had a thing for what they perceived as the more masculine darker skinned guys. But none of these tendencies dominated customs. People liked who they liked, and ugliness came in all colors, just as good looks were good looks. This Neely Fuller sounds almost like a cult figure. Mysterious and dogmatic, proselytizing a color conscious doctrine that stems from personal experience and anecdotal examples, all of which enthrall his admirers. I wonder why he hasn't gained more popularity in the black community, why black leaders don't recommend his advice which is purported to be so wise? Not surprised Fuller is said to have mentored Frances Cress Wellsley. the original "angry black woman" with unorthodox views. I went to college with her sister who, unlike dark Frances, was tan colored. They had another sister, who was light skinned but they all 3 looked like each other. What am I to make of this? If I am to believe what was said here, it's possible that their mother was impregnated by a white man instead of her husband, and this accounted for the youngest sister being lightskinned. Get outta here. This may be the case with single women who get pregnant. But, since slave descendants come in various degrees of skin tones the great majority of them have white blood in them due to female slaves being raped by their white masters. So when 2 slave descendants procreate, they are bringing a whole history of bloodlines into the mix. This includes not only skin color but facial features:, hair texture and body builds and even non physical talents and skills. The hybrid slave descendants who comprise the negroid population of America can't be sure what color their children will come out because of "throwbacks". Let's not downplay the science of genealogy, in favor of rumors and superstition. I have actually seen cases where one mate is dark and the other light and their daughters were all dark and the sons all light or vice versa. Dominate and recessive genese may be somehow affected by the sex of the fertilized embryo. All kinds of factors influence how a child looks. Including how melanin reacts to certain conditions. Whatever the case, colorism won't go away. It ebbs and flows but never disappears. it is so pervasive in the "Afro American" community that the preoccupation with it has become neurotic. Even Beyonce has been accused of lightening her skin! Ironically; the ones most conscious of skin color seem to be those with dark skin. They have a love-hate relationship with "high yellow" people. I. personally, suspected that certain sistas didn't vote for Kamala because.they harbored feelings of resentment against her. It does seem that a preference for lighter skin spans all cultures. If Africa is the cradle of mankind, then any species that isn't black is a mutation of the original race. Perhaps it's in the DNA of the mutants to reject those whose skin is darker than theirs.

The algorithms will mainly serve to further enrich those who are already wealthy and a handful of lucky investors.

You're right...Black folks in America have no real power to leverage in a constructive and productive way. Hopefully, Black folks will learn from the last election that special and permanent interests motivate politicians. It's not about blind loyalty to a political party. I comprehend. You're right...without unity within tribes and strategic alliances between them and establishing goals, Blacks folks are powerless and spinning their wheels. Point taken with regard to stop telling tribes what to do as well. It's easy enough to retreat into cocoons and silos. We already do it across cultures. The next 4 years will not adversely affect me in one way or another. I can sit back in my easy chair with food, drinks and snacks as the circus rolls through town.

Time for the cynical pessimist aka Contrarian to check in. America has not only outgrown itself but it has regressed, becoming a cacaricature and a mockery of the noble high standards it supposedly stands for. With the re-election of the orange buffoon who Sylvester Stallone just referred to as a modern George Wasgington (?), what was destined to happen, is about to happen. A new American zeitgeist is set to begin,the government of which will be a comedic farce with a cast of quacks and shysters and tin soldiers all gathered in the wings, waiting for the curtain to fall on what a Congress of racist misogynistic foundling fathers labeled a "perfect union". And a majority of this country's present population will feel right at home in the emerging fascistic theocracy because it represents who they really are. A bunch of religious hypocrites and patiotic bigots who aren't too smart. What Americans actually are, has caught up with their 250 year old masquerade. Sadly, going up against a Retrumpican Reich which will control all branches of the Government including the Supreme Court and the Armed Forces, will be a formidable task for the Liberal opposition. Free speech may even be punished. Welcome to the Red States of the American Heritage Foundation. Any regrets or apprehensions I had about leaving this life have miraculously disappeared. I'm ready to blow this pop stand.

One can always go to rent-a-box.

72,925,374 votes (48.1%) As of November 13, 2024, that is the number of votes cast for Madame Vice President Harris. That number of votes is more than Obama got in 2012, More than Trump won in 2016, and More than Hillary, who won the popular vote in 2016. Harris got less than Biden during the pandemic when absentee ballots were still allowed and counted in most swing states. VP Harris got that many votes in 107 days of campaigning, even with folks voting for third-party candidates, too! Nearly 73 million people understand Harris’s platform. White women, white men, and Latino men polled for voting for Donald in the swing states. None of Donald’s policies protect them, so maybe they believe he protects their “christian” values. Perhaps they think he will bring them a better economy. Only in America can a highly qualified, exemplary professional woman do nearly the impossible and still lose the job to a less-than-mediocre, unqualified white man who is also a felon. Oh, by the way, I read Donald is giving out reparations - TO WHITE PEOPLE!!! In his July video, Trump said:

Rest In Peace And Power to our dear brother elder and now ancestor.... The Honorable Quincy D. Jones Jr.

@Chevdove as quiet as it is kept not everything can be found on the worldwide web. I find that conscious black stuff has been increasingly difficult to find given the way googles search engine, and social media algorithms work today. Might have to dig a bit deeper maybe he’s been written about in the book somewhere. I’ll be surprised if he still speaking in public given he’s almost 100 years old. @Pioneer1 can probably give you some information on his background. In the meantime, here is some background information provided by ChatGPT (take it with the grain of salt) Neely Fuller Jr. was born in 1929 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, during a time when racial segregation and discrimination were deeply entrenched in American society, especially in the South. Growing up in this environment significantly shaped Fuller’s awareness of racial issues and influenced his lifelong work in counter-racism theory. His early education took place within the segregated school system of Oklahoma, which provided a firsthand experience of the racial disparities that would later inform his life’s work. After completing high school, Fuller joined the U.S. military, serving during the Korean War era. His experiences in the armed forces, where he encountered a diverse array of people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds, further deepened his understanding of systemic racism and the dynamics of power and control. It was during his time in the military that Fuller began formulating his theories on white supremacy as a global system affecting all areas of people activity. Though not formally educated in academia beyond his early schooling, Fuller dedicated his life to self-education, research, and personal inquiry, which he channels into his writings and lectures. His primary work, The United Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept, remains a seminal text, and Fuller is regarded as a crucial voice in the discussion of race relations and counter-racism, advocating for individuals to adopt a structured approach to dismantling racism at every level of society.

Yes! While it appears nuanced, it is like AI speaking in AAVE (ebonics) or Jamaican Patois. These are all tasks. Most human intellect resides in performing tasks —the first level being mimicking and repetition in learning. These are the tasks AI is performing. Therefore, in addition to my first definition, I will add human intellect development tasks. Generative AI uses predictive text to respond. Once you upload a file, Gen AI provides a summary. If you request that it create a podcast, AI uses the information to generate a conversation. I know this because I go back and forth with Chat GPT. Sometimes, Chat GPT generates my request in two formats so that I can compare. With Audio Gen AI, this task becomes two versions of the same information—but the two outputs have a conversation—predicting how AI -1 will answer based on the last text output of AI -2. So, how do you define the aforementioned level of performance if you believe it's BEYOND task-oriented? Now, when AI is at the apex of performing intellectual tasks and has become cognitive, it responds to requests with an original concept not found in uploaded documents or on the Internet -then whoa. When AI is "thinking, assessing, and being aware" without input, I will find a little plot of land on uncharted territory.

@Pioneer1, great questions. We don't know what *good* AI will do. There is no money in curing diseases. Maintenance is the money-maker. The pharmaceutical industry was built on it. AI is a tool that could potentially be used to solve problems and improve quality of life. Most folks will use AI to produce goods and services faster in order to make money. Industries will use AI to reduce costs which means eliminating people from the workforce.

In America and most countries It is only a crime if you get caught and even then you can be found not guilty if you have money and connections