ProfD

Much respect to the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We owe a debt of gratitude for effort and sacrifice to the struggle. Glad we honor him.

Shortly before leaving office, in his finite wis-dum, former POTUS George W. Bush admitted the economy was a house of cards. Sure enough, the house of cards was on the brink of collapse in 2008. Former POTUS Obama strolled into office and bailed out the banks. How? POTUS Obama certainly didn't reach into his pocket fresh outta Chicago and give cash to the banks. Nope. Under the Obama administration, the government just moved the goal post i.e. print more money and adjust interest rates. Here's a sure fire way of knowing national debt is arbitrary and paper money only exists up to what you can get out of an ATM. If a billionaire asked that their net worth be delivered to the house in the form of paper money (dollars), there wouldn't be a Brinks truck filled with a pallet of fresh bank notes. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing would just produce bank notes with whatever denomination the billionaire wants to use. It would essentially be the equivalent of a paper check. National debt and currency isn't really worth the paper on which it is printed. It's all made up. You could literally wipe your azz with a billion dollars if that toilet paper is assigned a value.

My response in that regard was not directed at your initial thread. Topic worthy of discussion. For clarity, I should have quoted the post to which I was responding. Otherwise, Israel as a Middle East presence backed by the US has been grown folks business for 3/4 of a century now. Israel can do no wrong especially as long as the US can rely on them to maintain and further its interests over there. As a result, the US will expend American taxpayer dollars and human capital to insure the stability, prosperity and protection of Israel. As an AfroAmerican, maybe I'm jealous. As Ice Cube said in Boyz n da Hood about the relationship between his mother and brother, "she loved that fool more than she loved me."

National debt is more like a credit card with no real limit and zero interest and monthly payments being optional. There are media programs that discuss about economics (debt, spending, inflation, etc.). For some reason, they do it in such a way that's like explaining differential equations to 1st graders.

Interesting that Black folks should be concerned with the Middle East and other world affairs when 1) AfroAmericans cannot get America to atone for slavery and 2) predominantly Black countries cannot keep white countries from taking their resources and relegating them to 3rd world status. Israel has been a US favored state since 1948. The US has committed to never let them suffer and to support whatever they choose to do in that region. That's why nobody talks about the human rights abuses Israel commits against Ethiopian jews. The whole idea of loving the oppressor and/or being empathic to them is insanity. As it relates to AfroAmericans in the US military, they voluntarily signed up to kill or be killed on behalf of America's interests.

Oh yeah....if that's who you're referring to in all of this...that's what I call a stupid fool. For comedic entertainment I watch the crime channel. Again, there's no shortage of stupid fools of all stripes. Interestingly, the white stupid fools assault the police and don't get shot. In fact, the police beg and plead with the suspect(s) not to make them shoot.

Ireland was neither enslaved nor oppressed by England. Some Irish folks no longer wanted to live under monarchy rule. As @Pioneer1 mentioned, both parties were white folks. in the case of Ireland and England, it was a dust up between cousins. i understood the point you were trying to make. I didn't read anything into it. That doesn't stop me from a tangential discussion.

It helps to know the historical relationship between Ireland and England and the politics of that conflict. Black folks cannot use the IRA as a blueprint to force the US to change.

Understood. I will keep that in mind for future threads. Thanks for the explanation.

Correct. Stupidity as a form of intellectual deficiency used to be called mental retardation. Of course, that's politically incorrect nowadays. It can be argued that people who do stupid things are mentally retarded but that's usually an insult moreso than an indictment of their intelligence. The stupid I'm referring to in terms of poor decision-making isn't tied to intelligence or a lack thereof. Several factors have to be considered. To answer your question, I do not believe there is a higher rate of stupid people within our AfroAmerican community compared to Caucasians or any other group of people. I've traveled around this country enough to have seen for myself and know better.

Yeah. For whatever reason, @richardmurray doesn't provide a link to articles in the thread itself. Gotta go to his page in order to read it. As a result, some threads I don't even bother to open and/or engage in discussion.

Despite its warts and flaws, the US is a well-oiled democracy that allows its citizens to believe it's the land of opportunity and freedom. Other countries admire it. As a result, the US seems to be a place that only a few of its citizens want to leave and an attractive destination to immigrants looking for a better life. Don't feel too bad for Nippy from the block. She knows how to run her program.

Understood. The system of racism white supremacy is the most powerful force on the planet. Otherwise, It's not about individual white person having power although they might have access to and/benefit from it. But, I can see your rationale for not even wanting to give them that much credit i.e. supreme or superior.

Self-immolation i.e. setting oneself on fire is a form of protest. The person in the pic was such a burn patient.

Nippon is the name on her birth certificate but out in these streets that bottom broad has been going by Japan for many decades now. She's made a lot of money on the block too.

Intellectual deficiency and stupidity are not synonymous. In fact, they claim it's insensitive to label someone stupid just because they are Intellectually deficient i.e. slow. I'm sure you've heard and/or seen smart people doing stupid stuff. Sometimes, it's a challenge to them. Fun and games. Entertainment. Drug and alcohol abuse is a form of self-medication to compensate for other problems in their lives. Despair and hopelessness and mental illness are very real. Don't get it twisted...I know there are Intellectually deficient and stupid human beings who are running around out in these streets. I will never believe AfroAmericans have cornered the market and sewn up intellectually deficient and stupid. I've seen equal amounts of it in all camps.

Despite being the world police, the US military is not being stretched thin or tested by the countries relying on it. Technologically, the sheer power of the US military is unfathomable. It's way beyond anything the Romans could have ever imagined or dreamed up. The whole concept of the United Nations is that a level of conflict on the scale of a world war never happens again. As long as all countries with people of color do not unite and try to overthrow the system, there's no reason for the US military and its allies to act or fail.

Prince Harry got a $20 million dollar advance for this book. It has already sold over 1.4 million copies. It's an autobiographical tabloid. Without turning a single page, I can state that book is not a literary masterpiece. It is the book equivalent of a McDonald's Happy Meal.

It has already been established that the USA is the apex in the grand scheme of things. @Pioneer1 just nailed it. Those who would like to cheat are welcomed to try it at their own peril.

A government doesn't have to be a pimp or whore but if one needs protection or finds itself protecting others, prostitution might occur. When someone or a community is abused by their government, they should go to war for their independence and/or rights. Please enlighten me bro as to why you hate the term and how you would describe it.

It doesn't take a PhD in economics to see that debt is an arbitrary construct. Considering how debt ceilings and spending limits are raised on a whim and markets are indexed and currencies manipulated accordingly, the whole thing is a house of cards. It's a global casino. The United States runs it and makes up the rules and is the biggest player in the game and has the muscle to put down anyone who decides to call in their markers. I love the board game Monopoly. Using it as an example, imagine if one player had the power to decide the value of every property on the board and the money in the bank at any given moment. Now, a few cooperating players go along with the game because they're still winners according to their needs. As more players join the game, it becomes a pyramid like ponzi scheme. A proverbial house of cards. In a Bernie Madoff type ponzi scheme, the investors lose everything and the top guy goes to prison. In the global casino game of Monopoly, the house always wins or else everybody loses. The muscle backs it up.

India became independent of Great Britain in 1947 and became a republic in 1950. However a country chooses to be a whore or pimp is their choice to make. Under a Look East ideology, India maintains a strategic relationship with Russia who provides them with military arms and oil. But, India isn't beyond doing business with a host of suitors including Japan and China and the United States. India has to rely on outside support in order to maintain its population of 1.2 billion people. That's a whole lot of mouths to feed. I do not believe anybody should have to accept a poor life especially in a developed country. There's more than enough food and resources to take care of every human being on the planet. India still practices female infanticide and foeticide. Nobody should have to kill another human being especially not their own offspring in order to survive. Human greed and corruption leads to the social ills that plague humanity including poverty, disease, crime, drug abuse, food insecurity, malnutrition, starvation, etc. I do not believe any Asian country alone will topple white supremacy. I think it is more likely that white folks will blow up the planet before they relinquish power to any people of color. In fact, the Cold War ruse between the biggest pimps on the planet, the United States and Russia is really a show of strength and power to keep non-white countries in check. India is a fat whore but she knows her place in the grand scheme of things.

@richardmurray, I'm not surprised that you oppose my position. It's all good. I expect it. Human greed and corruption is the true source of conflict and confusion in most countries. Corrupt leaders control resources including human capital and spread the wealth among their families and friends. Tunisia isn't too poor. They rank as the most competitive economy in Africa with a GDP around $41 billion USD. Not bad for a country with a population of 12 million people.

There's a certain fascination with and thrill some human beings get out of negative behavior. That *successful gangster* is the personification of Robin Hood.

It is awesome that the Bruce relatives (great-grandsons) were able to reclaim their family land. Unfortunate that they had to cash out because they could not do anything to develop the land. Hopefully, the Bruce's will use the $20 million as seed money to build generational wealth for their heirs.