aka Contrarian

Too bad this "guilty" verdict just solidified the support of Trump's diehard following. They don't even have to come up with a valid rebuttal to his conviction;all they have to do is recite the same ol litany attributing the "guilty" verdict to Trump being a victim of a political "witch hunt" whose outcome was "rigged". There is some consolation, however, in the fact that a black District Attorney was instrumental in sending the message that "nobody is above the law"! Meanwhile, the Democrats are struggling along, stuck with a bumbling old 80-something presidential candidate, who offers little incentive to reject Trump who appeals to a sizeable portion of middle Americans who want this country to go back to being a bigoted, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic, gun-toting, history-denying, super patriotic bastion of religious hypocrisy. Throw in those voters tired of senseless expensive wars, inflation, and the cancel culture, and democracy's jeopardy is increased as a dictatorial crook begins to look like a tolerable alternative. Women of America and their determination to control their own bodies may be who turns the tide... The night stalking "Contrarian" has spoken. Back to the peanut gallery...

Considering how he is so quick to chide others for their petty bickering, I am stunned by Stefan's "picking a fight" and engaging in an exchange of insults with ProfD whose non combative civility I have always appreciated, along with his articulate and informative postings that are always laced with a hint of humor. Most endearing of all, unlike the mercurial Stefan, ProfD has the good graces to not take himself too seriously, which is why I especially feel compelled to come to his defense even if, as demonstrated, he is perfectly capable of defending himself. When all is said and done, we are all just voices in the wind and life goes on.

@Mel HopkinsOf course you are correct. Pay me no mind. Just making a nuisance of myself by playing the "contrarian". I have this pesky habit of needling people so I can educe an intelligent rebuttal from them. It doesn't always work, but I can always depend on you to enlighten me. My exploration of existentialism has advanced into a flirtation with nihilism so I often find myself lapsing into a "who gives a damn" mode when it comes to this f**ked up world. I know that I know nothing.zzzzz

@TroyI hope you are right. Thank you for your insightful analysis of America's current state of affairs. Whatever happens will have very little impact on me. It's quite possible I won't even be around when the next POTUS is elected. But I do have 8 great-grand children... And you know me, I don't really care whether or not America remains a united country. I can't imagine anyone wanting to continue being a countryman of the Fox News crowd who supports Trump. I have always, dating back to the 1950s, had an aversion to right wing Republicans, black ones in particular, so i am not an objective Independent. Progressive "woke" left wingers also get on my nerves. I remain a moderate liberal Democrat, and in order to avoid another hissy fit from Stefan, I am done commenting on this thread. Back to the peanut gallery. Whatever will be, will be. Whoever is "up there" controlling the action in this game of life must be having a really good laugh.

@Troy I'm curious. Considering the very real possibility that Trump regains the presidency, how do you figure the future looks good for the black race? And what black folks are you talking about since you subsequently say that things will be worse for the middle and lower classes?? And how long do you think your perception of this being a Gilded Age will last with the chance of America being ruled by a despotic dictator like Trump who many predict will usher in a fascistic theocratic government? Even if Trump loses, America will remain deeply divided and turmoil will be rampant. Imo.

@Stefanl've retired from telling Black folks what they need to do. Since there is no collective black consciousness, giving any such advice is an exercise in futility. I'm just a spectator, seated in the peanut gallery. For 50 years, I have somehow managed to stay under the radar. Having thus far failed in your mission to reform white folks, feel free to join me. @Delano It's hard for Idealists to accept the reality of Life not being fair.

@StefanYou'd be surprised by how many people here don't keep up with pop culture or watch mainstream news. They think it's a waste of time. Did YOU know Beyonce nrecently released a country western album? Next time I'll start my own post for folks who are up for a little comic relief from the grimness of what is available through links supplied.

@StefanAll the examples you mention, along with the cat fight between Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia's Congressional Representative for white trash and 2 of her black female colleagues, are a sad commentary on what America has come to. During the course of an exchange of insults in the midst of a Congressional committee hearing, one of the sistas unleashed a barrage of adjectives describing MTG as a "bleached blond," with a "bad built butch body" after the Georgia cracker questioned whether her adversary's false eyelashes would interfere with her reading a report. Of course all hell broke loose within the hallowed halls of the U.S. House of Representatives! The Supreme Court is so tarnished by its bribed traitorous conservative Republican Justices that it has lost all credibility. Elsewhere, in a show of support for their disgraced presidential candidate (who's leading in the polls,) Retrumpican officials show up at his trial for using illegal funds to pay hush money to a porn star. Meanwhile, the dates have been set for Presidential debates between 2 doddering old has-beens to determine who can - best finish a sentence. This once proud nation has become a global laughing stock! Maybe Puffy should run for president and select "good ol girl" Beyonce as his running mate. Could things get any worse? God Bless America? I don't think the good Lord got the memo.

@DelanoThat's really amazing. Not only the content but also how AI assembled it. I had no preference as to which version I liked better. As you know, I have always had trouble wrapping my brain around your recreating the past through numbers, but Chat GPT did make it a tad easier to understand.

@Delanoyour feedback was very on point and relevant. I did get very creative with the crystals I encircled my little pyramid with because I wanted to align them with the energy pyramids supposedly radiate. Also, I chose the screen names "Cynique" and "Contrarian" for a reason. I have always had a compulsive tendency to take the opposite and often unpopular view during discussions because I fancy myself an iconoclast. Maybe it is more to it than that. As you speculate, my unorthodox views might stem from meditation during which Ive gotten into the habit of thinking on another level. And, yes, I was excited after I got my Canon desktop word processor way back in the '90s, wĥen I purchased it on a whim after I had just acquired an OfficeMax credit card! I knew zilch about this device but gradually through trial and error I mastered it, becoming very attached to it, loving how it enabled and facilitated my book writing aspirations. It was almost like an alter ego... You have always been my Guru, Del, the "teacher who appears when the student is ready", and I thank you!

I wondered the same thing about my old school, the University of Illinois. No demonstrations taking place on the campus of this huge midwestern college which is typical of the Big 10 designation it is a member of. Unlike its fellow Iliinois members, the University of Chicago and Northwestern, who have both staged protests, not a peep from the U. of I. Located in central Illinois, drawing students from all over the state, Illinois has always been a meat znd potatoes institution, its student body middle class, both urban and rural . Most interesting is that it has always had a substantial Jewish enrollment. Whatever the case, as ProfD and Troy have suggested about other schools, the "fighting Illini" apparently have more pressing things to command their attention.

@DelanoI agree with what you said about me drifting into other realms. There are just too many otherworldly things that happen to me at night, and in "dreams". And then there are the different versions of a single event that exist in my memory of the event. I wonder if I opened up some kind of a "portal when a couple of years ago I surrounded the tiny pyramid I had on my night stand with several crystals, mistakenly thinking this arrangement might create some good vibes. I just recently removed this dispIay when I began to suspect it might be dangerous. Am I crazy - or what ??? (When I re read what I just recently posted on other threads, what I was saying didn't make a lot of sense in this realm)

Since everybody is technically descended from Africa, then nationality is irrelevent to the esoteric knowledge which the human brain siphons from the omniscient realm of the universe. But the same brain is also inhabited by the ego, which craves acclaim, so mankind quibbles about who should get credit for that which was just waiting to be channeled. Incidentally, the above was just a thought which my brain drained from somewhere. This has been happening to me a lot lately. It's like what my psyche would be doing if I was smoking weed. I compulsively write things. Anybody got a theory as to why, at age 90, I am experiencing this automatic writing phenomenon which usually overtakes me in the wee small hours of the night. I wonder if the keyboard on my phone is like an Ouija board... And does anyone know anything about the African tribe who plays checkers - or maybe chess real fast because they can instantly visualize what the outcome will be if they make a certain move? Here's a picture of me standing under a tree, waiting for an acorn to hit me on the head and trigger a brainstorm, ala Chicken Little.

Truth be told, average white and black folks don't really like each other too much.They just tolerate one another. The ones who resort to gun violence to display their hate are usually mentally unstable whites. But harboring contempt and mistrust for whites is second nature to most Blacks. If Donald Trump wins the presidency, it will be due in great part to white racism. Even so, bi-racialism seems to be the wave of the future and is generational. So maybe things will sort themselves out. Who knows what lies ahead? Seems to me, that since the solar eclipse, the sun appears to be shining brighter. And the latest displays of Northern lights were especially vivid. The new format on this site, has me entangled, however.

The longer I live, the more inadequate I feel when trying to capture things in words. To me, Love is too multi-faceted and layered to be coherently defined. An emotional ink blot to be silently interpreted . One person's sigh, another's yawn. Here then gone.

@tipsyturvSeems like you've decided that the darker the skin tone of African Americans is, the worse they are treated by society, and you feel no kinship with anyone who has less melanin than you. I'd submit that white society is not that concerned about how light or dark skin is when it comes to racism. Maybe your friend's empathy is just a symbolic gesture. And perhaps you are being overly sensitive. Ironically, colorism still exists within the black race, - and you are proof of it.

Hummm. "mixed" is not the word that comes to my mind when looking at that picture. Nor would I call Kelly Rowland "dark-skinned". Descendents of slaves are all mixed and they come in many shades ranging from high yellow to deep brown. Facial features and hair texture are also traits that figure into the equation. None of this, however, matters to white folks who have an affinity for the word "nigger". Typically, "Afro-Americans" tend to use their own skin color as the criteria when categorizing others of their race. This is a very subjective measuring stick and varies from person to person. So it's all about opinion. Dating back to the time in the mid 1960s, thanks to Malcolm X, the term "negro" was replaced by the title "black" which previously carried a stigma. This was when the concept of blackness being "a state of mind" was introduced. I'm not sure what the current mind set is...

Can we assume that the individuals in question became outstanding after they finally learned to read, not in spite of not being able to read?? I could see the latter being the case when it comes to the Arts, but not the Sciences.

l@Troyas far as happiness goes, any technology that replaces tedious drugery can be a temporary fix. But technology that usurps creativity can replace the joy of discovery. Children, in particular, need to be outside running free, interacting, and improvising rather than being as they are today, cooped up inside, preoccupied with computerized devices. AI is a convenience that saves time to spend on leisure. But It does so at the cost of the creativity and spontaneity which can give rise to enjoyment and - happiness! What if, as ProfD hints, AI comes up with an artificial companion, - an android to satisfy all of our needs, an all-purpose mate. The worst case scenario could lead to humanity becoming obsolete, its members ultimately having no use for each other; science fiction becoming science fact! We may have to find a way for artificial Intelligence to keep itself in check...

You best believe that if that 77 year old woman, who can "look up" longer than a man can "look down", is of a mind to have an active sex life, she ain't looking for no 77 year old coot trying to hold it together and pull it off, Ideally, she'd be just fine with a 30- something hottie right out of her fantasy, with a body to die for, and a "size matters" probe that searches for love in all the right places, viagra personified, a human vibrator, a - well you get the idea. Misogynists, indeed. Don't get me started...

Actually, everybody is illiterate before they learn to read. There's nothing extraordinary about learning to read, and no stigma justified in not yet learning to read. Nor does it matter if your education is informal. Education is education. Moreover, people don't really need to be able to read in order to learn the lyrics to a song. Just like they don't need to know how to read in order to talk. All that's necessary to do these things is to be able to hear and remember. Being able to sing in spite of being illiterate is actually no big deal. Being a good singer is a gift.Talent is innate. Ideally, however, children should be taught to read and comprehend in order to become well functioning adults. When schools fail to adequately develop this ability, then we're in big trouble. IMO

Yeah, black music promoters were very good students of white entrepreneurs. The popular girl singing group TLC claimed that their manager, former R&B artist known as "Pebbles", cheated them out of millions and they took her to court. Just recently a claim was made that Puff Daddy learned everything he knew about controlling and exploiting musical talent from Clive Davis, who was Whitney Houston's Svengali. (Rapper mogul Shug Knight didn't need a white role model to emulate when it came intimidating his stable of performers.) Joe Jackson spent years trying to extricate his kids from the grip of Berry Gordy. Marvin Gaye also had a contentious relationship with Gordy stifling his career. Prince, of course, considered himself enslaved by Warner Brothers even if he was a control freak, himself, when it came to his proteges. Little Richard was someone else who said he was a victim of the satanic music management he sold his soul to. There's no business like show business when it comes to being taken advantage of by behind-the- scene parasites who come in all colors. As for Farrakhan, I always wondered what he did to deserve his life of luxury and status, other than to tell black folks how misguided they were, and give a marathon Founders' day speech every year, spewing anti-semitism. And, if course, meekly going along with the decision to put super star Malcolm X away.

@ProfDIn what area is the man who wrote the Gettysburg address considered to be illiterate? What does RKelly being able to sing have to do with his not being able to read?

@ProfD You owe me no explanations. As I said, you and I view the subject at hand through different lenses and your responses proved this because you misinterpreted many of my observations. in particular what I said about Democrats wooing Blacks being like a husband courting his wife. Which simply meant it wasn't necessary to court her because he was already married to her, not the scenario you created to tailor your response to. And, of course, we disagree about whether Blacks are sitting at the table with white Democrats because you insist on underestimating local politics. I repeat: you and I view this situation through different lenses. So be it.

These protests are apparently inspired by the college student demonstrations of the 1960s. But, to me, they somehow have a false ring to them. Some participants are too overwrought, taking themselves too seriously, actually believing they will win people over by blocking traffic and parading around with signs while injecting the unrelated issue of free speech into their action in order to ennoble themselves. White kids finding a cause to embrace that will make them feel good about themselves. Glad black students have refrained from joining in. It is a tragic situation, taking a toll on innocent lives but there are no good guys in the equation; Just fanaticism gone amok, - reeking with religious overtones.