Mel Hopkins

@Del yep that's the problem with capitalism as it's practiced here in the United Systems - The laws enacted restrict freedom of movement making it impossible for most to operate freely. Case-in-point - the shenanigans that Amazon is pulling to prevent advertisers to operate in their own interest. If not checked, this advertiser leaves money on the table every time.

@Troy Now that's down right creepy AND seems to violate antitrust laws even if the advertiser agreed to it in a contract. You can't contractually agree to something that violates the law. I'm not a trade attorney or any type of attorney but reading is fundamental - and breaking the law is just that - There was a case in 2013 that had non-compete terms and Federal Trade Commission struck it down... Your advertiser could be at risk of losing money and you too... (well not you because you don't sell books anymore but if your advertiser does than s/he may have a case because no establishment can force you to lose money. I'd consult with an IP attorney if I were her or him- Found a section pn the FTC site that sounds like what you've posted Refusal to Deal In general, any business — even a monopolist — may choose its business partners. However, under certain circumstances, there may be limits on this freedom for a firm with market power. As courts attempt to define those limited situations when a firm with market power may violate antitrust law by refusing to do business with other firms, the focus is on how the refusal to deal helps the monopolist maintain its monopoly, or allows the monopolist to use its monopoly in one market to attempt to monopolize another market. Sometimes the refusal to deal is with customers or suppliers, with the effect of preventing them from dealing with a rival: "I refuse to deal with you if you deal with my competitor."

ok here's the rest of the story. About a week before the election (2016) I was washing dishes, looking out onto the back porch. I happened to glance at my grill cover, and in it - I saw the outline of 45* 's hair and face in silhouette. I looked closer, then looked away hoping it would disappear. It didn't. I didn't want to tell anyone to look in the direction because I feared they would confirm what I was seeing. I didn't want to acknowledge it at the time and I didn't want to believe it - but I knew it was an omen. I knew then he would win the election - even though he shouldn't have. So that's the reason I stopped second-guessing myself. I can't explain it - I just know Intuition (Quantum Intuition) is real. Now I wish I would have said something - Observer Effects states once you look at the future -it changes. I'd think it's more like - once you acknowledge the future, it changes.

Predictive analytics, Blockchain, Big data AI and Machine learning Word on the street is if you don't know what these terms mean, let alone have them in your bag of tricks (skill set) you're career path has ended and you're now obsolete. Since 2008 and maybe before businesses are "relying heavily on data analytics". These businesses are doing more with less employees and if our current and future generations want to be gainfully employed they will need to know how harness data crunching technology. We keep hearing future jobs will be done by robots - well that future is now... What do you say, my psychic brother, @Delano ? You're our resident statistics and numbers man. How should this generation prepare?

33% of white America compared to 23% of black America has a post-secondary academic degree according to U.S. Census and National Center of Education Statistics. Therefore, a strong argument would be the majority of America is not interested in education...except books sales don't support that argument. We can get our books from so many different outlets now that some bookstores selling traditional ways are going to take a hit. But assigning behavioral traits to a group of people and attributing it to the demise of black booksellers is irrational. It's like saying people are no longer interested in wearing clothes so that's why Macy's had to close 100 of its stores. Btw, I still believe that book stores have to become inventive to get us back into the stores.

For a mere $75,000 a year, Detroit will have its own journalist telling its story. Aaron Foley, former editor of Blac Detroit magazine and author of "How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass", is the city's new Chief Storyteller. The Guardian reports this role may be the first of its kind to represent a municipality in the U.S. Foley says "local residents deserve better and more diverse stories about the reality of living in the city." According to the Mayor, having a chief storyteller will help Detroiters and their neighborhoods a stronger voice in the media.

Yes - this makes sense... I've been following my "first mind" more often than I used too. It's the second guessing that I'm better at ignoring now - because I feel it's filled with fear. Those "phantom voices" tend to lead me astray.

Fear is tool that provokes are real-life response. Fight or Flight... Prolonged fear leads to mental breakdown. It's not easy to just resist because most people are approaching psychotic breaks. Most people of EVERY color. We are not just humans; we are human animals and animals all react differently when they're afraid. Some animals play dead, faint and poop when they're afraid and there are animals that make themselves bigger when they're afraid and if pushed to their limit, they will attack. This is where we are today - you can't use a weapon without expecting a weapon to be used against you. Use of fear has pushed everyone to mental instability. Danger is real and it also provokes the same response as those experiencing fear... Fight or Flight. There is another way to combat danger and its through the use of CHAOS... Clear Head Assess Observe Situation then respond. Response requires training. Those who are in imminent danger are usually not of the mindset to survive the danger... especially those who have experienced duress due to prolonged fear. So first we must learn how to respond to a situation. However I suggest first locating the fire (the danger) because fighting smoke (fear) is a waste of resources.

How do you define success, @Troy ? I believe the exchange we had here in this thread was hugely successful. You heard me and I heard you! I'm thrilled at your response. In fact, I've been thrilled with your responses lately. I really feel like you hear me even when we don't agree 100 percent.

It worked; didn't it! You can write your tail-feathers off! whew!

@richardmurray I think negative/positive darkness depends on the feeling you receive after the experience.

Let's say, I'm a small business and I have $10,000 budget for online advertising... I decided not to hire a media company to buy my spots, ads and banners. I'm a DIY advertiser... When I go to SEMrush I only have 5 shots to look up websites before I have to subscribe... When I go to the site I see it ranks by organic searches... what I want to see right away, as an advertiser, is what type of traffic the site getting and where it is coming from - period. I get that you are all geeked about analyzing data ...and I ain't mad at that! Heck, my middle daughter is looking to get her masters in business analytics. She already has her bachelor's degree in Statistics, but we small business folks are only interested in getting the biggest bang for our buck and getting back to our business. We want to be where we can be SEEN; not get continue education credits. The thing is Troy, yes, it's always good to understand the stats. I even follow you to the sites that unpack the stats - heck, I even took a few basic google analytics courses - so I can pull back the curtain and have a basic understanding how google works. But the average person isn't interested in all of that... the average person wants something very simple. So it's our job to make it look easy. The most successful companies in the world have figured that out. And there ain't nobody more geeky than me... And even I finally get it. So having said that, without making eyes glaze over and roll back in the head - How does SemRush make it easy for platform owners to sell ad space on their websites to potential advertisers.

PREACH!!!! This is so good @Cynique !!!! <3

@Pioneer1 do you ever use a search engine before you come up with your "next step" ideas? It doesn't even have to be google... use Troy's Huriasearch I only use black hair care products made by black women. It's not even hard to find anymore. If you don't buy direct you can find them on the store shelves. One website list at least 55 black-owned hair and beauty product companies ..A lot of them are founded and run by black women. Anyway, don't just stop at Madam CJ walker there was also Sarah Spencer Washington and her Apex Systems https://www.sswmovie.com/

@NubianFellow A tinge? My post is dripping in it!

My pleasure. I added the links to my original post. @Del love this... @Troy Yes, Alexa is my choice because of the traffic they get via google... When people are looking at your site - the first place they go is Alexa ... Most people aren't savvy when it comes to technology statistics...(Hell, most people don't even know HOW to read statistics) so believing is seeing and Alexa has that on lock. But anyway when you look and compare to other market researchers such as Nielsen and ComScore their rankings of websites are about the same.

Yes Amazon ships directly but the sellers have an account. My friend is a seller and just ships his stuff to amazon. You know about FBA right?

@TroyDo you mean you don't know any black women who are technically oriented that don't have their own websites? Or do you mean you don't know OF any black women who are technologically-oriented ...If it's the latter I can share with you 3 black women silicon-valley darlings who own/founded/and are running 3 very popular websites... 1 (Blavity.com) ranks 13,000 in the us and 36,000 worldwide; another is Awesomely Luvvie 41,000 us and 199,000 worldwide who runs Awesomely Techie and The Wealth Factory I subscribed awesomelytechie - I like her approach as she gets to the "why" behind the stats.

I asked my friend to tag me if she writes a review. If she does, I'll link you to her website.

Didn't you just give away a ton of books? LOL... Actually we no longer have to rape the land for books - especially now that digital is an option. I've forced myself to go that route - we need the trees to breathe. I'll check on that facebook link Maybe She didn't and that's a reseller - notice what the verified purchase comment indicates. My book is no longer available through Amazon - nor is the kindle version and now it retails for $85 ...

A few weeks ago, one of my facebook friends received her copy and posted about it. This was the first time I heard of it. And this seems to be the trend of books lately... Seth Godin, the marketing guru, 800 page book retails for $189 plus shipping and handling and that is the cheapest I've found so far and his doesn't even have record albums.. There's another "pop culture" coffee table I saw on depop that retails for $400 ... I've received beautiful coffee table books as gift. I have a gorgeous Maya Angelou coffee table book but I doubt if I'd purchase one. I'm becoming mindful of clutter and consumerism. Beyonce's BeyHive" ain't no joke and apparently they have cash to spend too!

@Cynique who knows maybe Nubianfellow has it point. Maybe it's the black woman's hair that is the key to black people's success.. My friends call my family the hair bear bunch because we have very long hair that grows from our roots... (see my profile pic - yep that's mine) So, maybe because we don't have weaves it allows us to communicate with directly to the Universe from which all our blessings flow you know god gave it to us for a reason. ...And it makes us super smart so we don't have ever worry about being in the bottom 20% of those poverty-stricken folks. We don't need weaves, because we love showing off our beautiful locks, because, well who doesn't love our hair. By the way loving your hair, automatically translates into us loving ourselves because hair is the major key.. And, of course we attract men who are not deadbeat dads. Because of our flowing Rapunzel-like locks we attract the men who have the most money, best character and family adhesiveness ... As for the men who feel it's ok to lie down create babies and flee the scene. Well, we all know they got that way because of some weave-wearing black woman - who didn't cheer them on when they did something you know, mediocre.... I just can't.

But you don't know. She may not even know. She knows to avoid it but it maybe buried so deep - she's unaware No. But I do ask a lot of questions. I gave birth to my three daughters - and I raised them...and even today, they'll say things that are amazing with a totally different spin on a subject than I would ever imagine. I really do probe. I find sometimes people don't know their own answers until they're asked. I agree with you on being mindful the use of resources to remove the statues but at what cost should they remain? For example, I don't think I've heard of that monster (gynecologist) but in all my life I've never visited a white male OB-GYN... my three babies were even delivered by a black woman obgyn... If someone would have asked me why - I would've probably said I feel comfortable with a black woman doctor. BUT WHAT IF I had heard that horrific story in passing and buried it. This is why I don't "write" verses for people - unless they're in a book. I ask. I'm a firm believer that we give our energy to inanimate objects that should not have it. Think about how much unwitting energy that monster doctor received simply because most people didn't know of his deeds yet walked by him everyday. Yes, those horrific symbols, sucking the life out of folks, need to go. #byefelicia to all of them.

Me too! And I was also referring to the your response to the literary angle too. Many fairies in various parts of the motherland (Africa) had different powers too - some would bring happy endings especially to young girls... and there were other fairies that would act as shapeshifters and their outcomes would depend on if their spirit and the spirit of the story. My stories tend to be bittersweet. I've tried my hand at writing HEA romance but it tends to turn dark. I do like reading /watching HEA romance. As for my own HEA , I haven't had one but I have lasting friendships and wonderful experiences.

@Elva D. Green of course, it is! where would society be without its optimists. By the way, I'm the " pragmatic" Pleased to meet you!