richardmurray

This year's  Lena Baker Women's Health & Domestic Violence Summit will explore the mental health effects of continuous physical and psychological traumas that  plagues American of the slavocracy system (ADOSS) through the music of Curtis Mayfield (Jun 03, 1942 - Dec 26, 1999).   Mayfield was a prolific songwriter that wrote about  being Black in America and  black consciousness.   We will explore Mayfield's most iconic songs that  address internal colonization "We the People Are Darker Than Blue",    Identity production "This Is My Country", and "People Get Ready".   We will also explore the question,  "Is there a time to heal?" with Mayfield's  "Choice of Colors".

Min. Loretta Green-Williams
Summit Moderator
Postcolonial  Theorist  | Fd, CEO WOCPSCN

Special Guest Speaker

Denise Jackson

COVID: Mental Health of Domestic Violence 

Thursday, October, 27, 2022, 11 am est

Series One:  "We Are People  Darker Than Blue" When Colorism Destroys the Heart

Based on the lyrics of Curtis Mayfield,  this conversation will consider the difficulties of misogynoir, and colorism, among women of color. 

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2022 12-noon pm est 

Dr. Tamu Petra Browne
Growth & Innovation Coach for Women Entrepreneurs 
Thursday, October 27, 2022

Dr. LaTarsha Holden, MBA
  Leadership Consultant  | Author

Series Two:  "This Is My Country":  When They Share Their Care
This conversation will consider the physical and physiological trauma of racism and what it currently feels and looks like.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2022 12-noon est

Vaneese Johnson
Global Speaker | Author
Friday, October 28, 2022

Desheen-in-the-chair-683x1024_edited.jpg

D'Sheene L. Evans
 Visionarypreneur| Trauma Recovery Coach
The Trauma of Community
Friday, October 28, 2022
 

Series Three: "People Get Ready":  When Being Sick Is When You Are Sick-n-Tired

"People Get Ready" was released the year of the voting rights act (1965), Americans that were descendants of the slavocratic system were given reason for optimism. However, with the reversal of recent American rights, and new traumatic occurrences, how do the people get ready when the train is derailed? 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2022  4:30 PM EST
 

Special Guest Speaker
Lola Russell, Ph.D.
Health Communications at CDC and Prevention
The Intersectionality of Trauma:  Exploring the Patchwork of Being

Dr. Mustafa Ansari
Dean Afro-Descendant Institute of Human Rights  Chief Facilitator African Descendant Nation

Series Four:  "Choice of Colors":  When the Horrors of History Claim We Are Still Americans

The US big city hate crimes spiked by 39% in 2021*, and with one of the more horrific racial crimes, the Buffalo shooting, the conversation will center around healing processes.   Mayfield's "Choice of Colors" will be the foundation of discussion. We will consider the historic formations that has created the American construct of racism.  We will discuss what components towards racial healing can be considered. We will also consider how we can move forward, "...in order to form a more perfect union,..(Preamble of the United. States of America  Constitution, 1787)". 

Sunday, October 30, 2022 4:30 PM EST

Joan Babiak
Moderator
Attorney |Board of Trustees Member
Sunday, October 30, 2022
Dr. Camelia Straughn
Transformational Coach | Author | International Speaker 
Sunday, October 30, 2022

Lorlett Hudson FRSA
Leadership Coach | Working with African and Caribbean Leaders and Entrepreneurs 

Juneteenth 2023 review

This Juneteenth 2023 I asked the larger community to come up with a unique cultural tradition and none came forth. 

White people say : 1949-1973 displacement programs removed over a million people and two thirds were black. 

Name an idea for a unique Juneteenth celebration
https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/10318-juneteenth-2023-name-an-idea-for-a-unique-celebration/

Most Black Leaders didn't advocate for reparations even though most Black people wanted and that made the usa, but it came with a negative price for Black people
https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/10327-most-black-leaders-didnt-advocate-for-reparations-even-though-most-black-people-wanted-and-that-made-the-usa-but-it-came-with-a-negative-price-for-black-people/

Movement to return land taken from Black and Indigenous people in the U.S. gains momentum
Jun 9, 2023 6:35 PM EDT
As cities and states across the country consider various forms of reparations, California has led the way in returning land to the descendants of the dispossessed. This includes African Americans and Native Americans. But as Stephanie Sy reports, the wealth, the community and the opportunities lost are not easily recovered.

Read the Full Transcript
Amna Nawaz:

As cities and states across the country consider various forms of reparations, California has led the way in returning land to the descendants of the dispossessed. That includes African Americans and Native Americans.

But, as Stephanie Sy reports, the wealth, the community and the opportunities lost are not easily recovered.

Stephanie Sy:

The story of Bruce's Beach is a story about what could and should have been.

Over 100 years ago, an industrious Black woman in Southern California dreamt of owning a beach resort, but was refused whenever she tried. Willa Bruce eventually acquired land in Manhattan Beach, telling The Los Angeles Times in 1912: "I own this land, and I'm going to keep it."

She and her husband, Charles, built a lodge, a place where Black vacationers could enjoy a stay at the beach.

Patricia Bruce-Carter, Relative of Bruce Family: They were having a beautiful time, and they built it to share, because whenever people came to California, they wanted them to have somewhere to go.

Kavon Ward, Founder, Where Is My Land:

When I think about Charles and Willa Bruce, I think about entrepreneurs, I think about Black excellence, I think about community.

George Fatheree III, Attorney For Bruce Family:

The reality is, the Bruces and their patrons were wealthy.

Stephanie Sy:

A stately photo of the Bruces on their wedding day, decked out in finery, foretold the makings of a power couple. The display of Black success outraged the white neighbors and powers that be, says attorney George Fatheree.

George Fatheree III:

In the light of harassment, intimidation, violence, their business just got more and more successful, and until the city of Manhattan Beach hatched a scheme to take the property via a racially motivated eminent domain.

Stephanie Sy:

The Bruces' dream was stolen, their property essentially seized for a pittance in compensation, and only after they sued.

Kavon Ward:

This is it, I would say from right here to maybe this building here.

Stephanie Sy:

Community activist Kavon Ward first learned of the Bruces a few years after she moved to Manhattan Beach in 2017.

Kavon Ward:

This country often tells us that — Black people, that we're lazy, or we don't work hard enough, or all we have to do is pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. And here we are in the 19-teens and the 1920s, and this Black couple did exactly that, only to have their land stolen and to die as cooks in someone else's kitchen, when they had this whole beachfront resort here.

Stephanie Sy:

Ward began campaigning for the land to be returned to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce during the summer of 2020.

Less than two years later, she succeeded, with the help of Fatheree.

George Fatheree III:

For a century, our government at every level has enacted policies to dispossess Black people of the right to own property and create wealth. And what was so powerful about the return of the property of the Bruce family is, we see a path forward to finally counter some of those false narratives.

Stephanie Sy:

As unique and complex as the Bruce's Beach land back deal is, it does offer a path forward for other groups that might seek a return of land, not least of which are the original inhabitants of Los Angeles.

Before Spanish missionaries arrived, the Tongva roamed a 4,000-square-mile swathe of Southern California called Tovaangar stretching from the coast to the mountains.

Samantha Morales-Johnson, Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Land Conservancy:

We have been very systematically erased. We were enslaved. We have gone through about three waves of genocide.

Stephanie Sy:

Twenty-seven-year-old Samantha Morales-Johnson recently became the land return coordinator for a Tongva conservancy, a job she could only have dreamed of as a child.

Samantha Morales-Johnson:

This land was returned, which I was not expecting in my lifetime, let alone my grandfather's.

Stephanie Sy:

The one-acre property in Altadena was transferred last year by a Jewish landowner whose own family faced displacement and oppression.

Johnson said the protests that erupted after the police killing of George Floyd raised the nation's consciousness.

Samantha Morales-Johnson:

I think it made people more aware of all of the injustices that happen in America.

Stephanie Sy:

When Johnson was growing up, council meetings and holiday parties were held in a borrowed space.

Samantha Morales-Johnson:

I think it was a converted taco restaurant with, like, a little parking lot. There was no earth to even grow anything in that concrete building.

Stephanie Sy:

The Altadena property, which overlooks a scenic canyon, marks the first time in nearly 200 years the Tongva have legally owned land to use as they wish.

So, this is the white sage.

Samantha Morales-Johnson:

This is the white sage. This is the only place where we can plant all Native trees with full sovereignty and Native plants with full sovereignty.

Stephanie Sy:

Work is under way to remove the overgrown invasive species that were planted here. The old resilient oaks will remain. Eventually, the site will host tribal gatherings and offer educational programs.

Samantha Morales-Johnson:

So, the beautiful thing about this land is that there is a lot of hope for restoration even underneath all of the mess that we have.

Stephanie Sy:

So-called land back agreements are still rare. Other recent examples include the purchase of nearly two square miles of land for $4.5 million by the Esselen Tribe in Central California.

And the city of Oakland recently returned five acres of a local park to the East Bay Ohlone Tribe. In L.A., different Tongva groups are looking for more opportunities to reacquire land.

Angie Behrns, Founder, Gabrielino/Tongva, Springs Foundation:

It's not really just about the land. It's preserving what's left of our land.

Stephanie Sy:

Long before the land back movement had gained traction, Angie Behrns, now 86, fought to lease this two-acre property in West L.A. It was the early 1990s, and the Kuruvungna Springs, which had been the site of a Tongva village, had fallen into neglect.

A small museum on the land shows the journey.

Angie Behrns:

When I stood at that gate and saw this area, I was so upset. I couldn't believe it. That's an archaeological and a historical society.

Stephanie Sy:

The Los Angeles Unified School District, which owns the land and built a high school next to the springs, agreed to lease the site for $1 a year.

Bob Ramirez, President, Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation:

This is the medicine garden we have, which has many varieties of medicinal plants.

Stephanie Sy:

The president of the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation, Bob Ramirez, says the land is now abundant with Native plants and pristine drinking water.

Bob Ramirez:

Would you like to try some?

Stephanie Sy:

Yes, I would like to try some.

Bob Ramirez:

Yes.

Stephanie Sy:

Now is the time for the land to be returned, Behrns says.

Angie Behrns:

This is a sacred site. This is our place of worship. You have your temples. You have your churches. And what do we have?

Stephanie Sy:

But Ramirez says the "we" is debatable.

Bob Ramirez:

And there may be other people that say, well, wait a minute, if you're going to get that land, well, what about me? So it becomes contentious, I think.

How do you compensate this group and neglect somebody else? Is that fair? Is that just?

Stephanie Sy:

What is fair and just is also in dispute at Bruce's Beach.

Patricia Bruce-Carter, a distant relative of Charles Bruce, was at the ceremony in 2022 when county officials return the land to the Bruces' direct descendants. She thinks about what could have been if the land had remained in the family's hands all along.

Patricia Bruce-Carter:

I'm sure, at this time, there would have been multiple hotels and beachfront properties, and, I mean, just living the life.

Stephanie Sy:

A lifeguard administration center and parking lot stand where the Bruces' resort did. The descendants' lawyer, George Fatheree, says it would not be easy to develop.

And so less, than a year after the land was returned, the four recipients of the land decided to sell it back to the county for nearly $20 million.

George Fatheree III:

As an attorney, my responsibility is to advocate in the interests of my clients. As a citizen, as an — and as an African American citizen,I think that's an important question.

Who are the benefactors of restitution? Who should be the benefactors of reparations?

Stephanie Sy:

After her work getting the Bruces their land back, this is not the outcome community activist Kavon Ward wanted.

Kavon Ward:

I wanted to see strong, young Black entrepreneurs like Charles and Willa Bruce take up space here and be able to build and develop here, like the Bruces once we're able to do.

Community is what got the land back. So, yes, the family won, but the community did not.

Stephanie Sy:

The work, Ward says, will continue, the reckoning far from over.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy in Los Angeles.

URL
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/movement-to-return-land-taken-from-black-and-indigenous-people-in-the-u-s-gains-momentum

The War Between The States
https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/10332-the-war-between-the-states/

Cornell West and the problem with Third Parties
https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/10336-cornell-west-the-peoples-party-and-the-problem-with-third-parties-in-the-usa/

How a shipping error poisoned Michigan
https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2347&type=status

Work from Lilac Phoenix

I end with this paraphrase from Brenda stevenson < https://www.drbrendastevenson.com/ > from a PBS segment below, and a postparaphrase reply.  

It's a strange dance that we have with race in the USA. We come forward with many steps,, twirl around, and we are going in the opposite direction. So, this continues to happen. But I think everyone had to own up to the fact that we live in a racialized society. The ways in which we find ourselves or define ourselves as being American, in part, is to have digested some of that racism. So, no group is- does not have it. No group does not act on it. And we have to understand that and we have to have some real hard discussions with ourselves, our families, our communities, and with other communities about how we fit into this dynamic of race within our society. Do we perptuate racism, stereotypes, et cetera, or are we actively trying to recognize that we hold some of that within ourselves and that we act on it and we need to eliminate it, or at least get it to a level where we can all act towards one another with respect, dignity and equality? But it's very very difficult. It is bound in the roots of American society. And once you eat of the tree of the USA , it becomes part of you. 

For Juneteenth I have pondered freedom and the black community in the usa, and after various multilog side black people in various places I realize many, not necessarily most, but many black people are in denial about our village. The denial is through their preaching, and when I said preaching, I don't mean from a pulpit but in their desire for multilog that is inevitably dysfunctional. 
I repeat, when the usa was started three tribes in the black village in the usa existed. Enslaved to whites/Free fighting side whites against the usa being created/Free fighting side whites supporting the usa being created. 
Based on Sister Stevenson's quote, whenever a black person demands all black people in the usa are bettered for being in the usa, or nonviolence must occur in the black community, they are denying the internal reality all black people should know but don't because of the black tribes in the usa one common trait. NEarly all are filled with people afraid to admit the friction in the black community in the usa  based on the three original black tribes. 
Most free black people fought against creating the usa, and again after the colonies freed themselves against the usa hoping britian take over. That means most free blacks didn't accept the usa's constitution of any aspect of the usa culturally that so many blacks in the usa today say all blacks do or need to. 
And moreover, when the black community , as James Baldwin said of his father's religious community, has most who hate whites with a silent impotent passion. having black people who want to live with or comfort or find peace to whites or non blacks talk about why most blacks aren't engaged is a sign of their denial. 
The black community in the usa, has never done the hard work of reaching in itself, even while the whites watch and accept what its majority wants doesn't suit the desire its minority, that is in most positions of leadership want. 
Black people in the usa are individually freer in the usa than ever before. But, the Black Village communal desire isn't to be statian and most black leaders know it, and they don't know how to handle it, except to try and preach it away or hope some black person in the usa is born who can fit the usa's multiracial maze with their nonviolent, integrationist mantra while acquire or have the resources to guide the majority of black people with what black leadership in the usa usually doesn't have, opportunity, not talk.

How are you readers? On Earth day what do you think on the idea on all life on earth being children of Earth? 

Here are some dates you may have missed and can reflect on and some dates you can consider

April 4th - Linus YAle jr was born in 1821, he invented the cylinder lock, and you actually have used that lock a lot
April 6th - 1896 the first modern Olympic games occurred in Athens, Greece
April 8th- the birthday of Baseball Pitcher , JAmes Catifsh Hunter, 1946, he was the first pitcher since 1915 to win 200 games by 31 years of age. He told his wife when he became a free agent by court order: "We don't belong to anybody", two weeks later he became the highest paid pitcher or baseball player. 
April 9th - in 1981 the Nature magazine published the longest scientific name ever, a circa 207,000 letters long name of DeOxyriboNucleic Acid, or what some know as DNA
April 16th- Konwatsi'tsiaienni died in 1796, she was a Mohawk leader who sided against the Colonies in the war of independence but gained land from the british in what is not Canada
April 19th - Roger Sherman was born in 1721, the only person to sign the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution
April 20th- Christopher Robin Milne , friend of Winnie the Pooh, died in 1996
April 21st- Rome was founded by Romulus, friends of countrymen, lend me your ears
April 23rd- William Shakespeare was born 1514... William Shakespeare died 1616... All's well that end well
APril 24th- Rovert B Thomas the founder of the Farmers Almanac was born 1768
April 26th - the first weather report was broadcast in the usa  in 1921
April 28th - The first space tourist , carried on a SOyuz TM32 to the International Space Station occured in 2001, his name was Dennis Tito

Photo Story 
https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-good-news-blog-stories-through-a-year/?tab=comments#comment-894
Photo Story
https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-good-news-blog-stories-through-a-year/?tab=comments#comment-895
 

The art of lying:) from #Omarosa enjoy what is the lesson concerning the fury from black folk that lick white people's balls or the lies we tell, for she is trying to bring down the, i quote her, the most powerful man in the universe, and she has the audiotapes to try  https://photos.app.goo.gl/G9RxaEaqCzGNepML9

Huzzah!  So happy to announce this! ### “The Path of Pen and Sword” A workshop in creative writing and martial arts with   Steven Barnes WORKSHOP ON SATURDAY, JUNE 5TH, 12-3PM (Pacific Time) IN PERSON OR ON ZOOM The “Twofold Path of Pen and Sword” is also known as   Bun Bu Ryo Do —   “The samurai were successful for so long because they studied both cultural and martial arts. They mastered both the pen and the sword, making them formidable intellectual and military opponents.” The Chinese concept of the “Master of the Five Excellences” is looking at the same phenomenon, as is the yogic concept of the “Householder Yogi” who lives in the world of spirit while functioning superbly in the world of flesh. The truth is that there is much in common between the disciplines of creative writing and martial arts: both ask questions about personal identity and the nature of reality. Both demand energy, access to the unconscious mind (Stephen King’s “Boys in the basement” or Bruce Lee’s “It” as in the quote “I do not strike. IT strikes”), and in studying the one we can deepen our understanding of the other. This workshop, an expansion of the original Lifewriting specifically for writers and martial artists, will use two major tools: Joseph Campbell’s structure of the Hero’s Journey, and the yogic “chakra” map of human energy, as a launching point for a discussion and workshop delving into the nexus of breath, flow, focus, fear, commitment, and dynamic living. Come play with us!  No previous experience in either writing or martial arts necessary, but all levels welcome. Bring notebooks, loose clothes, and a flexible mind! STEVEN BARNES has published over three million words of fiction, including over thirty novels, episodes of ANDROMEDA, STARGATE SG-1, TWILIGHT ZONE, and THE OUTER LIMITS, including the Emmy-winning episode “A Stitch in Time.”  The creator of the Lifewriting system of writing and personal development, he has taught at UCLA and Seattle University, and lectured at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC In the martial arts, he was the Kung-Fu columnist for Black Belt Magazine, holds three black belts, has studied and taught Wu style Tai Chi for forty years, was voted into the Black Karate Federation (BKF) Hall of Fame,  was a senior Kali student under Danny Inosanto, and studied Pentjak Silat Serak under Stevan Plinck for almost ten years. When: Saturday, June 5th, 12 noon-3pm, Pacific Time   On ZOOM: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2461580494 / ID #:  246 158 0494                                                                     Or In Person: Taoist Institute, 10630 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601                   FEE:  DONATION BASED, with all proceeds going to the Taoist Institute               RSVP: Email: taocore@taoistinstitute.com / Phone: (818) 760-4219

Well... it is another Friday, another day to love, to Oxum, Oshun, Freya, or Venus, another day to Kizomba!
SOmetimes, you just dance to have fun and we see that in Irina dancing side José N'dongala, I love how the camera moved when he tried a trick.

enjoy a free read

https://www.kobo.com/ebook/the-nyotenda

JEsse Eisinger is a eporter for propublica, for the public, here is his ProPublica page, the transcript to the episode is below for those that want to read and not hear. To hear you can click the image above or the link append to the transcript

TRANSCRIPT

 NOW THEY ARE SOME OF THE WEALTHIEST AND MOST POWERFUL MEN IN THE WORLD.

JEFF BEZOS, MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, WARREN BUFFETT, ELON MUSK JUST TO NAME A FEW.

PULITZER PRIZE WINNING PROPUBLICA REPORTER JESSE EISINGER HAS DELVED INTO THEIR TAX RETURNS.

THESE BUSINESS MOGULS ONLY PAY A FRACTION OF THE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IF NOT BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF THEIR FORTUNE.

HERE WE ARE SPEAKING WITH THEM HOW THEY MANAGED TO LEGALLY WORK THE SYSTEM.

THANKS.

JESSE EISINGER FROM POE PUBLICA JOINS US.

THERE ARE ONLY TWO THINGS GAUR AN 250ED.

DEATH AND TAXES.

HOW DID YOU FIND THIS?

WE HAVE OBTAINED -- PROPUBLICA HAS OBTAINED OVER 15 YEARS OF INFORMATION, TAX INFORMATION, TAX RETURNS AND INFORMATION FROM SCHEDULES THAT GO INTO THE RETURNS FROM THINGS LIKE STOCK TRADING, GAMBLING THOUSANDS OF THE WEALTHIEST INDIVIDUALS.

THIS IS REALLY JUST THE 1% OF THE 1%. WE'RE NOT COMMENTING ON HOW WE OBTAIN THE MATERIAL.

WE'RE TRYING TO PROTECT THE SOURCE OR SOURCES.

WE ARE EXPLAINING THAT WE VERIFIED IT EXTENSIVELY AND ARE BEING VERY CAREFUL STEWARDS OF THE INFORMATION.

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THIS, THIS IS A FIRST OF YOUR SERIES OF REPORTS, BUT YOU SEE A GLARING PATTERN HERE.

MOST OF US ANECDOTALLY THINK, WELL, THE RICH PROBABLY HAVE BETTER ACCOUNTANTS, ET CETERA, BUT WHAT YOU'RE SHOWING IS A STRUCTURAL FLAW IN THE SYSTEM.

YEAH.

EXACTLY.

THIS ISN'T ABOUT EVADING TAXES EXOTICALLY AND ILLICITLY, THIS IS ABOUT ROUTINE AND PERFECTLY LEGAL TAX AVOIDANCE STRATEGY.

YOU DON'T NEED A FANCY ACCOUNTANT FOR THIS.

WHAT WE SHOW IS THE SYSTEM AND THE SYSTEM'S ESSENTIAL UNFAIRNESS, WHICH IS THAT AVERAGE AMERICANS ARE STUCK IN THE TAX SYSTEM.

WE HAVE NO CHOICE IN THE MATTER.

WE WORKED TO LIVE, WE HAVE TO WORK.

WE GET SALARIES AND TAXES GET EXTRACTED FROM OUR PAYCHECK.

THE WEALTHY, THE ULTRA WEALTHY ESPECIALLY ARE COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF THE SYSTEM ENTIRELY.

THEY DON'T HAVE TO TAKE INCOME.

WHEN THEY DO TAKE INCOME, IT'S IN THE TIME AND PLACE OF THEIR CHOOSING AND, THEREFORE, THEY CAN REALLY LOWER THEIR TAX BURDEN OR NOT HAVE A TAX BURDEN AND WHAT WE SHOW IS THAT SOME OF THESE GUYS, JEFF BEZOS, ELON MUSK, MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, CARL ICAHN, THEY ACTUALLY PAY ZERO IN FEDERAL TAXES IN RECENT YEARS.

SO JEFF BEZOS, LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT HIM FOR A MOMENT.

YOU HAVE A CARD ON YOUR WEBSITE.

IT SAYS BETWEEN 2014 AND 2018 HIS WEALTH GREW $99 BILLION BUT HIS TOTAL REPORTED INCOME, WHICH IS DIFFERENT THAN YOUR WEALTH GROWING, IS $4.22 BILLION, THAT'S ABOUT 4% OF HIS WEALTH.

AND ON THAT HE PAID $973 MILLION IN TAXES.

NOW, PEOPLE ARE GOING TO LOOK AT THAT NUMBER AND SAY $973 MILLION IN TAXES.

THAT'S A LOT OF TAX.

RIGHT.

WHAT'S THE POINT YOU'RE MAKING?

RIGHT.

IT DOES -- IT'S AN ENORMOUS NUMBER.

WE CAN'T EVEN CONTEMPLATE THAT NUMBER MUCH LESS THE $100 BILLION THAT HIS WEALTH GREW, BUT THE ESSENTIAL NUMBER HERE IS THAT IT IS A FRACTION, A TINY FRACTION OF HIS WEALTH GROWTH AND WHAT WE'RE ARGUING IN THE PIECE ESSENTIALLY IS THAT WEALTH GROWTH IS THE TRUE MEASURE OF HIS INCOME.

THE EQUIVALENT OF AVERAGE PEOPLE'S INCOME.

AND SO WHEN YOU COMPARE THAT FIGURE, THAT FIGURE OF ALMOST $1 BILLION TO $100 BILLION, IT'S ABOUT 1%. IT'S SLIGHTLY LESS THAN 1%. THE AVERAGE PERSON INCOME WHEN IT'S TAKEN OUT FOR TAXES, IT'S ABOUT 14%. SO THE AVERAGE PERSON MAKING 60 OR $70,000 A YEAR IS PAYING $14 IN TAXES EACH YEAR AND JEFF BEZOS ON THE RELEVANT FIGURE IS PAYING LESS THAN $1.

WHY DO WE THINK THIS IS THE RELEVANT FIGURE?

WELL, EVERYTHING EMANATES FROM WEALTH GROWTH FOR THE ULTRA WEALTHY.

THEY -- ALL OF THEIR POWER, ALL OF THEIR INFLUENCE, ALL OF THE WAY THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE LAVISH LIFESTYLES, JEFF BEZOS IS BUILDING A YACHT FOR HIS YACHT.

A YACHT THAT WILL TAKE HIS HELICOPTERS, WORTH ABOUT HALF A BILLION.

HE BOUGHT THE WASHINGTON POST FOR HALF THAT, $200 MILLION.

IT AFFORDS HIM POLITICAL INFLUENCE.

ALL OF THAT COMES FROM HIS WEALTH.

WHAT'S INCREDIBLE TO US, WHAT'S ASTOUNDING TO US IS THAT ALL OF THIS WEALTH GROWTH IS REALLY OUTSIDE OF THE TAX SYSTEM, ALMOST ENTIRELY BEINGS AND JUST NOT TAXED BECAUSE OF WHAT WE CHOOSE TO TAX IN THIS COUNTRY AND WHAT WE CHOOSE NOT TO TAX.

IN THOSE YEARS YOU HAD JEFF BEZOS FILINGS AND HE TOOK A TAX CREDIT.

IN 2011 HE REPORTED A VERY MODEST AMOUNT OF INCOME AND WAS ABLE TO WIPE THAT OUT WITH DEDUCTIONS AND BECAUSE OF THAT, HE HAD SO LITTLE INCOME HE WAS ABLE TO CLAIM THE CHILD TAX CREDIT FOR THEN 2 CHILDREN, $4,000.

SO HE ACTUALLY HAD NEGATIVE INCOME.

HE HAD CREDIT FROM THE U.S.

GOVERNMENT.

HE WAS THEN IN 2011 CLEARLY ONE OF THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD BUT EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS.

WHERE DO THE ULTRA WEALTHY GET THEIR MONEY TO SPEND, RIGHT?

I MEAN, YOU AND I HAVE CHECKING ACCOUNTS, SAVINGS ACCOUNTS, MAYBE A RETIREMENT ACCOUNT IF WE'RE LUCKY.

WE HAVE AN INCOME THAT COMES EVERY COUPLE OF WEEKS AND WE SAY, OKAY, THIS IS MY BUDGET.

IF YOU'RE SUPER WEALTHY AND YOU AREN'T GETTING AN INCOME, A LOT OF TECH BILLIONAIRES WILL ACTUALLY JUST WORK FOR A DOLLAR A YEAR, WHERE ARE THEY GETTING THAT MONEY?

YEAH, THAT'S A VERY GOOD POINT.

THEY DON'T TAKE SALARIES.

OSTENTATIOUS DISPLAYS OF SALARIES LIKE MARK ZUCKERBERG, SERGEI BRANDON.

WHERE DO THEY GET THE MONEY?

THE ANSWER IS, NOT FOR EVERYBODY, BUT OFTEN THEY'RE BORROWING.

THEY'RE BORROWING AGAINST THEIR STOCKS.

THEY PUT UP THEIR STOCK COLLATERAL AND THEY'RE BORROWING.

SOMEBODY LIKE ELON MUSK DISCLOSES IN A SECURITY FILING THAT HE'S PLEDGED TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF STOCK AND BORROWED AGAINST IT AGAIN FOR TENS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

AND THIS IS HOW THEY FUND THEIR LIFESTYLES.

THERE'S NO -- WE DON'T HAVE ANY EVIDENCE BEZOS IS BORROWING.

HE MAY BE, HE MAY NOT BE.

NOT EVERYBODY HAS THE SAME HYMN BOOK.

WHEN THEY BORROW THEY'RE NOT TAKING INCOME, THEY'RE NOT SELLING THEIR STOCKS, THEY'RE NOT PAYING CAPITAL GAINS ON THAT STOCK THAT THEY'RE NOT SELLING.

THEY'RE KEEPING CONTROL OF THEIR COMPANIES AND WHEN YOU BORROW, YOU DON'T PAY ANY INCOME TAX ON THE BORROWING.

SO IT'S A WIN WIN WIN IN ALL OF THE WAYS THAT YOU CAN IMAGINE.

SO IF I AM A BILLIONAIRE, I DECIDE TO GO TO A BANK AND SAY, YOU KNOW I'M GOOD FOR IT.

I'VE GOT MULTIPLE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN STOCK, WHY DON'T YOU JUST, WHAT, LOAN ME A COUPLE OF HUNDRED MILLION AT 2 OR 3% BECAUSE THAT'S CHEAPER FOR ME TO PAY YOU BACK THAN IT IS TO PAY UNCLE SAM IF I ACTUALLY CASH THAT OUT AND LOOK LIKE I MADE 200 MILLION?

YOU ARE THINKING SMALL, COUPLE HUNDRED MILLION.

CARL ICAHN HAS ESSENTIALLY SOMETHING LIKE A MORTGAGE FOR A BILLION TWO THAT WAS IN HIS TAX FILINGS, AND AS I SAY, ELON MUSK HAS TENS OF BILLIONS AND LARRY ELLISON OF ORACLE DISCLOSED IN SECURITY FILINGS YEARS AGO THAT HE HAD A $10 BILLION CREDIT LINE.

START THINKING A LITTLE BIGGER BUT, YES, BANKS ARE HAPPY TO OFFER THESE GUYS, THEY ARE GOOD FOR IT, AND THEY CHARGE RELATIVELY LOW INTEREST RATES AND YOU JUST ROLL OVER THAT DEBT ALL THE WAY -- SOMETIMES ALL THE WAY UNTIL YOU DIE.

WE'LL GET TO THAT IN A SECOND, BUT THE WHOLE STRATEGY IS ENCAPSULATED BY THE PHRASE BUY, BORROW, DIE.

THAT'S ED McCAFFREY PHRASE, HE'S A PROFESSOR FROM USC.

YOU BUY YOUR ASSETS, BUILD YOUR ASSETS.

OBVIOUSLY BEZOS AND MUSK BUILT THEIR COMPANIES.

YOU INHERIT, THE WALTON AND MARS FAMILIES HAVE INHERITED GREAT FORTUNES.

THEN YOU BORROW AGAINST IT.

THEN YOU CAN EVADE OR ESCAPE OR AVOID -- NOT REALLY EVADE BECAUSE IT'S ALL LEGAL.

YOU CAN AVOID TAXATION AT DEATH.

YOU CAN ESCAPE THE TAX MANEUVERS.

THEN ESSENTIALLY YOUR GREAT FORTUNE HAS BEEN ALMOST UNTAXED THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFE AND INTO DEATH.

HERE'S THE THING.

SOME OF THE PEOPLE THAT YOU PROFILED, YOU MADE BASEBALL CARDS OUT OF WARREN BUFFETT, MICHAEL BLOOMBERG.

THESE ARE PEOPLE WHO MICHAEL BLOOMBERG ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL CAMPAIGNED FOR CHANGES IN TAXES.

WARREN BUFFETT FAMOUSLY HAS COME OUT AND SAID THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE THAT I PAY LESS TAX AS A PERCENT THAN MY SECRETARY DOES, RIGHT?

SO WHAT DID YOU FIND ABOUT WHAT THEY'RE DOING LEGALLY?

YEAH.

WELL, THAT'S A VERY INTERESTING QUESTION, BUFFETT, BECAUSE WHAT WE FOUND IS THAT NO ONE HAS AVOIDED MORE TAX FOR AS LONG AS WARREN BUFFETT.

AND HE'S REGARDED AS KIND OF GRAND FAIRLY FIGURE.

HE'S BELOVED AND OF COURSE HE HAS COME OUT, TO HIS CREDIT, AND SAID THAT THE WEALTHY DON'T PAY ENOUGH IN TAXES, BUT WHEN HE'S TALKING ABOUT THAT, HE'S TALKING ABOUT IT IN THIS EXTRAORDINARILY NARROW WAY WHERE HE SAYS, TAXES ON INCOME ARE TOO LOW FOR THE WEALTHY AND CAPITAL GAINS TAXES ARE TOO LOW.

HE SAID I HAVE CAPITAL GAINS SOMETIMES AND I PAY A VERY LOW RATE COMPARED TO MY SECRETARY.

HE'S RIGHT, HE PAYS A RELATIVELY LOW RATE.

BUT WHAT'S REALLY EXTRAORDINARY ABOUT WARREN BUFFETT, HE TAKES SO LITTLE INCOME.

HE TAKES TINY FRACTIONS OF HIS ENORMOUS WEALTH.

NOW HE'S WORTH OVER $100 BILLION.

HE TAKES TINY, TINY FRACTIONS OF THAT IN INCOME AND PAYS A VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THAT.

WHEN WE MEASURED HOW MUCH HE PAID IN TAXES COMPARED TO HIS WEALTH GROWTH, HE ACTUALLY PAID 10 CENTS FOR EVERY $100 THAT HIS WEALTH GROSSED.

10 CENTS FOR EVERY $100 THE WEALTH GROSSED.

THE WEALTHY, THE TOP 25 PAID 3.40 DWZ FOR EVERY $100 THEIR WEALTH GREW.

THE RICHEST 25 PEOPLE IN AMERICA.

MEANWHILE, AS I SAY, THE AVERAGE AMERICAN WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT INCOME TAX, WHICH IS REALLY THE WAY THEY ARE TAXED, IT'S $14 FOR EVERY $100 THEY BRING.

IN YOUR ANALYSIS, THE 25 RICHEST AMERICANS SHOWED BY THE END OF 2018, THOSE 25 WERE WORTH $1.1 TRILLION, IT WOULD TAKE 14.3 MILLION ORDINARY AMERICAN WAGE EARNERS PUT TOGETHER TO EQUAL THAT SAME AMOUNT OF WEALTH.

THE PERSONAL FEDERAL TAX BILL FOR THE TOP 25 IN 2018, JUST THOSE 25 PEOPLE, WAS $1.9 BILLION.

THE BILL FOR THOSE WAGE EARNERS, THE 14 MILLION WAGE EARNERS PUT TOGETHER WAS $143 BILLION.

THOSE AVERAGE WAGE EARNERS ARE NOT ONLY PAYING A DISPROPORTIONATE SHARE OF THEIR OWN TAXES, THEY'RE PAYING MORE IN RAW NUMBERS AS WELL TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

ABSOLUTELY.

AND THAT ASTONISHING FIGURE WAS DONE BY MY COLLEAGUE WHO HAS WORKED WITH ME ON THE STORY, AND WE REALLY WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT THIS BASIC IMBALANCE, THIS STUNNING IMBALANCE WHERE THE ULTRA WEALTHY CAN DEVELOP ENORMOUS SUMS FROM WHICH, AS I SAID, ALL OF THEIR POWER AND INFLUENCE EMANATES AND ALL THEIR MEANS EMANATES.

THOSE 14 PLUS MILLION PEOPLE ARE INSIDE THE TAX SYSTEM.

THEY'RE PAYING THEIR FAIR SHARE.

WE HAVE STRUGGLED TO ADEQUATELY FUND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

PERIODICALLY THEY ARE CONVULSED IN FEAR MEDICARE WILL GO BROKE.

ROADS AND BRIDGES ARE CRUMBLING.

WE NEED TO PROVIDE NATIONAL DEFENSE.

IF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS CONSTRAINED BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WITH THE MOST WEALTH ARE NOT PAYING THEIR FAIR SHARE, THEN WE WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT THAT SYSTEM AND REALLY SHINE A LIGHT ON IT.

THERE ARE A LOT OF WEALTHY PEOPLE, WARREN BUFFETT INCLUDED, WHO SAY I DON'T WANT TO GIVE IT TO UNCLE SAM.

I'M GOING TO GIVE 99.5% OF MY WEALTH AWAY, PHILANTHROPIC GIVING.

I THINK I'M A BETTER STEWARD OF MY HARD EARNED MONEY THAN THE GOVERNMENT IS.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT IDEA?

HE SAID EXACTLY THAT.

I DON'T WANT TO HAVE MY MONEY BEING PAID -- HAVE THE DEBT PAID DOWN TO CHINA WHEN I CAN ALLOCATE IT TO SOMETHING THAT WILL DO MORE FOR SOCIETY.

ONE ANSWER IS, BOY, I WOULD LIKE TO ALLOCATE MY TAX DOLLARS THE WAY I WANT TOO.

I BET MOST PEOPLE HAVE PRETTY STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT HOW THE DUFUSSES IN WASHINGTON ARE SPENDING MY MONEY AND I COULD DO IT BETTER THAN WE DO.

THAT'S WHY WE HAVE ELECTIONS, WHY WE HAVE A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY.

WE HAVE A SHARED DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY TO ELECT LEADERS TO ALLOCATE OUR TAX DOLLARS THE WAY THE MAJORITY THEORETICALLY WANTS.

THE OTHER THING IS PHILANTHROPY DOESN'T SOLVE THINGS.

PHILANTHROPY FOR THE ULTRA WEALTHY ARE WAYS THAT THEY CAN PUT FORWARD THEIR OWN POLICY CHOICES, TRY TO DOMINATE THE CONVERSATION, HAVE DISPROPORTIONATE INFLUENCE.

SOMETIMES THEY FUND POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS.

SOMETIMES THEY RIDE THEIR HOBBIES AND OBSESSIONS.

IT'S NOT REALLY THE WAY WE WANT TO RUN SOCIETY.

IT'S A DISTORTION OF SOCIETY TO HAVE BILLIONAIRES AND ALSO BE SUBSIDIZED BY TAXPAYERS.

ONE OF THE PUSH BACKS IS GOING TO BE CORPORATE TAXES, RIGHT?

WARREN BUFFETT SAYS BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY PAYS A TON OF CORPORATE TAXES.

WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM HERE?

IF I HAVE MY MONEY IN THAT, MY CORPORATION IS ACTUALLY PAYING THOSE TAXES, I'M NOT TRYING TO STEAL FROM THE GOVERNMENT.

YEAH, THAT'S A VALID POINT AND THERE'S A LOT OF DEBATE AMONG ECONOMISTS ABOUT THIS.

WHAT I WOULD SAY ARE TWO THINGS.

ONE IS WE'RE IN A GOLDEN AGE OF CORPORATE TAX AVOIDANCE SO COMPANIES LIKE am*zon, APPLE, FACEBOOK HAVE GONE TO GREAT LENGTHS TO MOVE OPERATIONS OVERSEAS AND AVOID AMERICAN TAX.

SOMETIMES THEY ALSO PAY ZERO IN TAX.

SO, YOU KNOW, am*zon IS A TAX AVOIDER BOTH AT THE CORPORATE LEVEL AND AT THE OWNERSHIP LEVEL.

THE SECOND THING IS THAT CORPORATE TAXES DON'T SOLELY FALL ON THE OWNERS OF THE CORPORATIONS.

PROBABLY, THIS IS A MATTER OF DEBATE, BUT CONSUMERS PAY CORPORATE TAXES.

WORKERS PAY CORPORATE TAXES.

AT LEAST SOME ECONOMISTS THINK SO.

SO THIS IS SORT OF DISBURSED.

THAT'S NOT A DIRECT TAX ON THE OWNERS OF THE COMPANY.

NOT A DIRECT TAX ON BEZOS OR MUSK.

SO ONE WAY TO SOLVE THIS WOULD BE TO HAVE MORE DIRECT TAXES ON THE OWNERS OF THE COMPANY.

JESSE EISINGER, PROPUBLICA, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Article
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/top-25-u-s-billionaires-pay-almost-no-income-taxes/
 

In my experience, less than ten percent of the black writers I have talked to throughout my lifetime have read or written a screenplay. The question is why? 
I do not know exactly, I can not give a roadmap but I have ideas. 
I will go back... when I was a kid, multiple times my parents took me to see plays. August Wilson, Black theaters around harlem. They never took me to see a white play, defined as a play written by a white person. Sequentially, I saw black art not merely from one perspective. This parallels my constant rant on black fantasy, which sums up to , I was raised with black fantasy so I didn't see King Arthur or Beowulf or disney princesses or saturday morning cartoons as places that needed black fantasy cause I had it in the books in my home. 
I have the century cycle as part of my book collection. Why did I mention that? Many black people who say they love august wilson don't have his stageplays. August Wilson wrote the plays, in the same way Shakespeare wrote his and yes as a kid I thought of August wilson whenever we read shakespeare in class. My parents have two trains running and some others as singles, which i read during those early years. I have twilight zone scripts, which are,for me, invaluable in seeing technique for writing scripts/screenplays. 
Now my personal life means nothing to answer the initial question. 
I restate, why do less than ten percent of the black writers I talked to throughout my life, offline or online, not have read or written a screenplay? 
I know black writers offline who won awards for their work, made revenue from their work. I have made connections with black writers online who have varying levels of financial return or awards to their quality. 
I myself prefer writing poetry more than anything else. 
But, I have written screenplays, read them. 
Why have so few of my peers? 
While I ranted/provided background composing this I see two points that are undeniable. 
1.Screenplays are not finished products and black people in the arts in the USA, don't like that. Ownership is a big cultural idea in the black community in the USA. It stems from centuries of enslavement and nearly to centuries of abuse after enslavement. when an artwork is not finished, it is not owned. And no screenplay is ever finished, it is merely the template, no matter how elegant, for the video recorded interpretation by humans, what is commonly called acting.
2.Screenplays structure is a thin lattice over anything goes sections. Meaning, outside some basics, the monolog or multilogs , the definition of scenes are open in their definition for screenplays. Education for black people in the USA after the war between the states, ending around ten years,  was wholly funded by whites and mostly trade or skill based in definition. Why ? Cause white religious organizations funded the schools and wanted the bible to be the sole literary device for the black community. On the other side , in the same time period you had the reading schools were all age groups were allowed to learn to read. But, these schools were not interested in forming or creating a alphabet or literature for black people's various dialects of english. These schools were purposed to teach english as accepted by  the white churches that funded most of them, who desired the british english. Remember, during that time most white people were still in a literary love affair with britain. Sequentially in the USA, the black communities first educated group, comprehend most black people did not go to school of any kind, had a very rigid sense of literature or writing. This was not , let the gullah/geehce/creole/delta communities create a literature to be the foundation for the future. This was, learn queen's english, read the bible.  Rigidity was deeply set in how literature was learned in the black community. Tuskeegee or Howard are probably the most well known black colleges and the former was a trade school and the latter a seminary. NEither was a place where black literature or literature in itself was open to philosophical debate. Thus in modernity, the legacies of those educational cultures exist in the black community. When you hear a black say, as I have, that their parents didn't want them to be musicians or artists, or their parents wanted them to have a better work ethic. That philosophy to learning comes from the trade school, the religious school. Which is the founding place for all black fraternitieis or sororities. What does this have to do with the structure of a screenplay. LEarning for black people in the past 160 years, circa, is constrained. With poetry, whose forms all have rules, or prose, that has accepted structures, it is easy for the black educated populace to adhere to those rules. But, with a screenplay, you are not in error if you don't do it like another, and that simple truth, is uncomfortable for many black writers, who like to be right. If you are going to play the game, you have to know its rules and abide by them, but what happens when the rules are open for interpretation. Can you imagine, can you accept that? 
 

The Chinese Communist government is 100 years old, western european christian calendar,  this year. If you cut out governments in humanity that are not white european, which includes the USA/all of Europe which includes Russia/australia/south africa/all the countries of central or south america/mexico/canada by my assessment, where does China rank among the remaining countries? I say 1st. What say you? 
When you look at China's government, it isn't multiracial from a regional perspective, it is han chinese, it isn't welcoming to the foreigner or immigrant or other people native to china like the ugyars, muslims can come in china but no mosques are being built, latinos can come to china but no barrios or enclaves of another language. China is successful , lets be honest, but it didn't reach success by miscegenation or integration with others or in itself. 
When I look at black countries, whether in Africa or the Caribbean, and how they can improve... When I look at Black communities in Asia/Africa/the Americas/Europe and I think on how they can improve themselves even if they have a dominant white neighbor... I say to myself, how can the example of china be ignored. The truth is, the global community as a whole or in parts does the opposite.  The leadership of the global black community  in counties or communities chastize those in it who dislike the stranger. The strong institutions like the religious ones in the black community in any country welcome white patronage often while chagrin black empowerment that rejects white association. Nigeria is a country that boast many college educated people in the sciences, but Nigeria does not have an industrial base like china. 
What are your thoughts? 
 

Title: harriet tubman demon slayer cover

Artist: Derek Laufman

LINK

I saw this posted somewhere online

THE FOLLOWING IS MY REPLY

To me, the issue you raise is powerful. To be blunt, many in the industry, many fans, many et cetera oppose aging of characters in general and want ways to avoid aging, ala alternate worlds and dimension jumps because a central idea exists in comics in the usa. A comic imprint losses money if the title character is aged out. I will restate, taking away characters who were written long lived naturally, like kal-el or diana or thor or silver silver or similar in the us comic book world, can the comic book imprints of aquaman/batman/flash/greenlantern/shazzam/green arrow/zatana...spider man/wolverine/iron man/daredevil/hulk/captainamerica/luke cage survive if the characters naturally moved on and were replaced by this thing called time? I say yes. The problem is, most in the industry, most of their imbalanced research, many fans <can't say most> say no. Thus, the age problem in the usa comics industry. I argue, when we talk about characters changing in comics, that the absence of them changing naturally with time aids in their inability to be changed well culturally. I will end with Milestone. One of my biggest sadnesses is that Milestone chose that same model when they restarted their comics. I wish I had power or control to demand they continue those comics from when they stopped. Why not an older icon and rocket, with rocket who is human, not an older woman with a mature child. maybe she has already passed the mantle of rocket to her child. I think that is an interesting story, of an extraterrestrial , convinced to be a superhero by a human and continuing to be a superhero with the child of the human who convinced him , who he helped raise. I like that idea. No need for a reboot. What about a Hardware who is still working for alva industries but is a shareholder publicly, while privately still the superhero. What does that mean when one achieves a level of freedom as an engineer, which si what I felt hardware was about , but is not older and settled in? who are his villains? what about a family? What about an older static? living on his own? maybe a family? does he leave dakota? static was a teenager, does he leave dakota? What about hsi relationship to being a superhero? when I think of child actors and how many do not end up actors, I think that rejection of ones childhood job is alive with static. Shadow Cabinet is obvious? what intelligence agency ever stays the same over time. If anything the question is, where are the original members and how did they survive or get killed.? Xombi is much like the hulk in one way. How can a human man, with a condition that grants a sort of immortality survive as an outcast in humanity, forever, at some point, this human must be healed or this human must exist as an outcast on their own accord in the truest sense. And that connect to the natural immortals i mentioned above, at some point, they should , I have to leave? I never forget being told by a reader to a story I wrote, that superheroes don't want to give up superheroing? And I still think that is a false mentality. Just cause one has powers means they are infatuated with being a superhero. I think that is a lie, and explains the problem in superheroes is readership views towards what it means to be a superhero.. continuing... Kobalt, like any vigilante ala the punisher, suffers the most storywise. how does a street hero not get killed over time more quickly? i am not suggesting someone else can not pick up the mantle, but kobalt, punisher, come on, they haven't been injured very badly at least, in their entire tenure as a street hero? come one. And lastly, my favorite Milestone imprint, blood syndicate... What about blood syndicate! as an older gang ? the city has allowed this section of the city to be operated by them eternally. the bureaucracy of a city and their illegal existence alone demands a very lively existence that can't just be sunday mornings with the super villains for decades. so, time matters. I oppose faux immortality in my stories and I reject it when I appreciate others.

Why You Should Consider a University Press for Your Book
Updated: April 5, 2022
First Published: April 5, 2022 by Adam Rosen < https://www.janefriedman.com/author/adam-rosen/ >  

Today’s guest post is by Adam Rosen (@adammmmmrosen).

For many authors, there’s a certain template for book publishing “success”: signing with an agent, getting a decent advance, and watching the awards and social media followers roll in. Achieving this fantasy, as you no doubt know, is famously challenging—and arguably getting more so every year as Big Publishing continues to consolidate (to say nothing of recent employee turmoil).

While it’s an oversimplification to declare that the big houses stake too much on celebrity memoirs, former Trump staffer tell-alls, IPs, and other supposed sure bets, there’s more than a kernel of truth here. Platform and brand arguably matter now more than ever, especially when it comes to nonfiction.

Despair not, though. If you have a small platform and a big idea (and strong writing skills), there are other options. Enter the humble, often overlooked university press.

Within the past few years university presses have been publishing some of the most exciting, critically acclaimed trade books around. Last year, for instance, three out of the ten books longlisted for a National Book Award for Nonfiction were published by university presses. West Virginia University Press, which puts out 18 to 20 books a year and is the state of West Virginia’s only book publisher, has earned the sort of recognition and media attention you’d typically expect from a hip new indie press or house ten times its size. In 2020, Deesha Philyaw’s The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, a short story collection published by the four-person WVUP staff (now five), was named a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and earned a PEN/Faulkner Award, among several other prestigious accolades; last October it was announced that a TV adaptation of the book was in the works for HBO Max. The next month, Ghosts of New York by Jim Lewis, another West Virginia release, made the New York Times list of 100 Notable Books of 2021.

University presses have carved out a unique place in the trade publishing landscape, says Kristen Elias Rowley, editor in chief of Ohio State University Press, by providing an opportunity for “books that can’t find a home elsewhere.” This often translates to “projects that are either pushing boundaries in terms of form or content or voice. Projects that a larger press is going to say, ‘You know, we can’t sell 50,000 copies of this, so we’re not going to do it’ or ‘We don’t think this is mainstream enough.’” She points to two upcoming titles on OSUP’s catalog, cultural critic Negesti Kaudo’s collection of personal essays, Ripe (a Lit Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2022), and Finding Querencia: Essays from In-Between by Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, as examples. Both collections will be released through OSUP’s trade imprint, Mad Creek, this month.

Elias Rowley estimates that at least half of all university presses publish books by non-academics. While the core mandate of UPs is to advance scholarship through journals and scholarly monographs, they also have a mission to “put important literary or other general public or regional works out into the world,” she says. Of the 40 to 60 books a year OSUP publishes, roughly a dozen are trade books released through Mad Creek.

“It never seemed like the point was to be insular,” says Derek Krissoff, director of West Virginia University Press. “Part of the value proposition for [UPs] is building bridges that go out to other communities” beyond the confines of academia. In Krissoff’s view, this larger purpose gives university presses leeway to make decisions that are less commercially driven. “We’re very concerned about being thoughtful stewards of people’s resources, because we are part of the state of West Virginia. But we don’t have shareholders who need to be rewarded, and we can be a little bit freer in terms of what we choose to invest in,” says Krissoff. In light of WVU’s recent wave of success, this (winning) strategy feels more than a little ironic.

The backbone of many university presses’ trade programs is probably familiar: local and regional history, cookbooks, photography books, and other sorts of consumer-friendly titles with an obvious connection to the area or university. But many also offer a home for books that are niche, experimental, challenging in various ways, and/or just kind of weird.

I’d like to think of my own as an example of the latter. In February 2018 I put the finishing touches on my proposal: a collection of essays, from various contributors, on the cult film The Room, widely considered “the worst movie of all time” and a personal obsession of mine. My prototype was the Indiana University Press series The Year’s Work: Studies in Fan Culture and Cultural Theory, a heady series devoted to dissecting pop culture bric-a-brac. Its topics of focus ranged from the straightforward (The Worlds of John Wick) to the strange (Household Horror: Cinematic Fear and the Secret Life of Everyday Objects).

I discovered the series after coming across a 2009 entrant, The Year’s Work in Lebowski Studies, a deconstruction of, you guessed it, The Big Lebowski. The essay collection felt revelatory, offering enlightening historical and critical analysis that helped less-savvy viewers (such as myself) uncover the layers upon layers of meaning in the film, whether related to the Gulf War, the failures of the New Left, or the influence of literary critic Paul de Man on the Coen brothers (and, of course, nihilists and white Russians). It was often hilarious, but it took its subject matter seriously. For its efforts it snagged reviews in the New York Times and Washington Post.

A few of the agents I submitted my proposal to told me they liked my idea but the scope felt too narrow; one suggested I expand the focus to bad films in general. Alternatively, it was too academic. The bottom line was that they didn’t think they could sell it in its current form.

After several dozen rejections, I changed tacks and started submitting directly to university presses, who I knew were open to unsolicited queries and proposals. This time the feedback was more encouraging, but I still ran into the same problem, just from a different side: several editors said they liked my idea, but it felt too trade-y—they wouldn’t know how to sell it.

The sweet spot, it turned it out, was with an academic press with a strong trade arm who published on pop culture: Indiana University Press, i.e., the publisher who put out the very book I was meticulously, and possibly shamelessly, modeling my own book on. I ended up exactly where I began. 

Initially I was a bit surprised that they’d have me. I have a BA in political science, and while as a freelance writer I’ve written about pop culture (including a piece on The Room), I don’t have a film beat. And yet, four years later, I’m the editor of and contributor to a collection of essays about a film, a book whose vast majority of contributors are academics. Another, related data point: an author whose book proposal and sample chapters I recently edited has received an encouraging amount of initial interest from her first-choice publisher, a university press in her geographic area, despite not having a bachelor’s. But she does have excellent research skills and deep professional expertise in a field related to the topic of her book, an iconic bridge.

All of which is to say that (a) university presses are not just for scholars; and (b) many are far more open-minded than you may think—as I once thought.

If you are interested in submitting to a university press, Elias Rowley and Krissoff have a few suggestions. Given the unique focus areas and track record of each press, any place you contact should be a good match for your topic. Proposing a book about birding in Maine probably isn’t a great fit for, say, University of Nevada Press. That said, “fit” can be expansive, thematic as much as geographic. “I think what our books have in common is that they are grounded in place,” says Krissoff. “And it doesn’t always mean they’re grounded in our place, although a lot of our books are about Appalachia or about Appalachian topics.”

While having a decent platform doesn’t hurt, says Krissoff, it’s not necessary; he says he doesn’t look for an author’s metrics when he’s reviewing a project. If he likes their idea, it’s much more important that the author is willing to truly commit to the writing, revising, and marketing processes. “Platform is always a bonus and can really make a difference in the outcome for a book, but it’s not going to be the thing that makes me decide not to do a project,” says Elias Rowley. “I’m not looking for a bare minimum of certain kinds of requirements. I’m looking for [if] this is a book that should be out there in the world.”

To that end, Elias Rowley says that it’s rarely too early to get on an editor’s radar. She advises authors to reach out and connect with editors early on, whether it’s through email or in-person events like the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference. She’ll even respond to queries that are submitted before the proposal’s been written. This way, if she likes an idea and thinks it might be a good fit, she can help develop it from the beginning. “We’re interested in forging those relationships and having it be a collaborative partnership,” she says.

The downsides? University presses typically don’t offer an advance, and if they do, it’s probably going to be pretty modest. That said, if your book sells well, you earn royalties immediately, since you don’t need to “earn out.” As Belt publisher Anne Trubek puts it, “Advances are royalties. They just come sooner.” It’s also expected that authors supply their own index, which means either using software to do a bad job or hiring someone to make one (what I did). I also gave each essay contributor an honorarium.

So when my book publishes this October, technically I’ll already be in the hole. Will I sell enough books to break even? Hard to say. I do think it could be a strong backlist contender. As I argue in my book, The Room has become The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the millennial generation. There are (or were, before Covid) monthly Saturday night screenings of it around the world, each replete with a set of established viewing rituals. The film’s notoriety continues to grow alongside that of its eccentric creator, Tommy Wiseau. But this may be wishful thinking.

On the other hand, I already consider my journey a success. Having a book title under my name with a well-respected university press has brought me a level of professional prestige, boosting my credibility as freelance book editor and opening doors for various writing projects. I also have the satisfaction of having taken the germ of an idea, turned it into a proposal, wrangled together 16 smart (and, blessedly, easy to work with) contributors, and executed the entire thing into the form of a book I will eventually hold in my hands. And, certainly last but not least, I’d like to think I’ve played a small part in furthering the world’s knowledge of the worst movie of all time, which surely counts for something.

It’s not the typical publishing success template, much less a show on HBO Max. But it just may be good enough.

IN AMENDMENT

Why Your Amazing Writing Group Might Be Failing You
https://www.janefriedman.com/why-your-amazing-writing-group-might-be-failing-you/

Et Tu War
My Thoughts To The Article Below

The great Ali once asked, I paraphrase, why should I go fight vietkong for you when you my poser when I want a job, you my poser when I want rights, you my poser when I try to be happy.
I recall in a documentary on Public Broadcasting Station concerning the Vietnam war a man who fought for Vietnam against the proxy government set up by the USA in vietnam, that he was the only person in his building to return from going to the war.
What is the point? 
Any government that has to force or ask people who live under it to fight for it proves that government is failed. 
The reason why Black people had to be drafted is cause most Black people couldn't stand the USA and would never willingly take a bullet for a government that oppresses Black people. 
To the article below, I have never lived in Ukraine or Russia. I know no one in Ukraine or Russia. The article below can be a complete lie. 

But, if the article below has truth. 
It makes three things clear. 
The Ukrainian people are kin to Russian People. They are not distant. These two peoples are in the same way like the Union side the Confederacy.
The Ukrainian government has forced Ukranian people, especially men: to deny themselves, to deny their personal relationships to Russia, to deny their right to choose.
A segment of the Ukranian plus Russian people in the USA have a combined agenda that they promote which is telling a lie about the realities of this war, which the USA government supports for global order reasonings.

Some may suggest I am stating a civil war. I am not. No war is ever civil and that includes the war between the states. I am stating the russian-ukranian war is an intracommunal war, a war within one community. Sequentially, while the Russian sector is the agressor plus the Ukrainian is the subjected. Neither side is absent the other. It is the same thing when Hindus side Muslims fight in India. It is the same with the people of Hong Kong or Taiwan aside the People of Mainland china. It is the same with the people of north korea side south korea. One community can have striking parts and still be one community. The people of ireland are still british even though they bombed everywhere possible in belfast or england they could.

Now, why have I posted this in a Black communal online group. The question is how Black people see themselves under any government, but especially the USA. How many Black people if they had to choose will fight for the USA? I argue far less. Many Black people talk about enslaved forebears fighting to have the legal rights or communal equality to whites.  But I argue, for each enslaved forebear that wanted equality to all was ten forebears who wanted to merely break the skull of someone not black. 
When Black people speak of anger or violence being a problem in the Black community, I hope anyone reading this will ask themselves, how many Black people are happy? And if unhappiness is merely a potential reality, not a sign that the mind is unhealthy, then the solution to unhappiness isn't some pharmaceutical product or some talk with someone saying to another they are wrong, but an process that leads to what will make a Black person happy.

Last question, when the war between ukraine side russia is over, will Ukraine have to give up the weapons they were given by various countries? 

Photo description

Volodymyr Danuliv, a Ukrainian evacuee, at a center for asylum seekers and refugees in Chisinau, Moldova’s capital. He has relatives in the Russian Army and is determined not to join the fight for Ukraine.

Article

Ukraine’s Draft Dodgers Face Guilt, Shame and Reproach

April 10, 2022, 1:57 p.m. ETApril 10, 2022
April 10, 2022
Jeffrey Gettleman and Monika Pronczuk

CHISINAU, Moldova – Vova Klever, a young, successful fashion photographer from Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, did not see himself in this war.

“Violence is not my weapon,” he said.

So shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February and Ukraine prohibited men of military age from leaving the country, Mr. Klever sneaked out to London.

His mistake, which would bring devastating consequences, was writing to a friend about it.

The friend and his wife then shared the contents of that conversation on social media. It sparked an online fight that went viral, and Ukrainians all over the internet exploded with anger and resentment.

“You are a walking dead person,” one Twitter message said. “I’m going to find you in any corner in the world.”

The notion of people — especially men — leaving war-torn Ukraine for safe and comfortable lives abroad has provoked a moral dilemma among Ukrainians that turns on one of the most elemental decisions humans can make: fight or flee.

Thousands of Ukrainian men of military age have left the country to avoid participating in the war, according to records from regional law enforcement officials and interviews with people inside and outside Ukraine. Smuggling rings in Moldova, and possibly other European countries, have been doing a brisk business. Some people have paid up to $15,000 for a secret night-time ride out of Ukraine, Moldovan officials said.

The draft dodgers are the vast exception. That makes it all the more complicated for them — morally, socially and practically. Ukrainian society has been mobilized for war against a much bigger enemy, and countless Ukrainians without military experience have volunteered for the fight. To maximize its forces, the Ukrainian government has taken the extreme step of prohibiting men 18 to 60 from leaving, with few exceptions.

All this has forced many Ukrainian men who don’t want to serve into taking illegal routes into Hungary, Moldova and Poland and other neighboring countries. Even among those convinced they fled for the right reasons, some said they felt guilty and ashamed.

“I don’t think I can be a good soldier right now in this war,” said a Ukrainian computer programmer named Volodymyr, who left shortly after the war began and did not want to disclose his last name, fearing repercussions for avoiding military service.

“Look at me,” Volodymyr said, as he sat in a pub in Warsaw drinking a beer. “I wear glasses. I am 46. I don’t look like a classic fighter, some Rambo who can fight Russian troops.”

He took another sip and stared into his glass.

“Yes, I am ashamed,” he said. “I ran away from this war, and it is probably my crime.”

Ukrainian politicians have threatened to put draft dodgers in prison and confiscate their homes. But within Ukrainian society, even as cities continue to be pummeled by Russian bombs, the sentiments are more divided.

A meme recently popped up with the refrain, “Do what you can, where you are.” It’s clearly meant to counter negative feelings toward those who left and assure them they can still contribute to the war effort. And Ukrainian women and children, the vast majority of the refugees, face little backlash.

But that’s not the case for young men, and this is what blew up on the young photographer.

In mid-March, Olga Lepina, a modeling agent, said Mr. Klever disclosed in a text message to her husband that he had paid $5,000 to be smuggled out of Ukraine, and from earlier conversations she knew he had wanted to go to London.

Ms. Lepina said she and Mr. Klever had been friends for years. She even went to his wedding. But as the war drew near, she said, Mr. Klever became intensely patriotic and anti-Russian, and said rude things to her husband, who is Russian. When she found out he had avoided service, she was so outraged that she posted on Instagram the comments Mr. Klever made insulting her husband, and said he had spent $5,000 to be smuggled out of Ukraine.

“For me, it was a hypocrisy to leave the country and pay money for this,” she explained, adding, “He needs to be responsible for his words.”

Mr. Klever, who is in his 20s, fell deeper into an online spat with Ms. Lepina. She and others said he had made insensitive comments about the town of Bucha, the site of major violence and the town she was from. (The comments were made before the atrocities in Bucha were revealed). Mr. Klever was then bombarded with death threats. Some Ukrainians also resented that he used his wealth to get out and called it “cheating.”

Responding to emailed questions, Mr. Klever did not deny skipping out on his service and said that he had poor eyesight and had “been through a lot lately."

“You can’t even imagine the hatred,” he said.

Mr. Klever gave conflicting accounts of how exactly he exited the country and declined to provide details. But for many other Ukrainian men, Moldova has become the favorite trap door.

Moldova shares a nearly 800-mile border with western Ukraine. And unlike Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, Moldova is not part of the European Union, which means it has significantly fewer resources to control its frontiers. It is one of Europe’s poorest countries and has been a hub of human trafficking and organized crime.

Within days of the war erupting, Moldovan officials said, Moldovan gangs posted advertisements on Telegram, a popular messaging service in Eastern Europe, offering to arrange cars, even minibuses, to spirit out draft dodgers.

Law enforcement officials said the typical method was for the smugglers and the Ukrainians to select a rendezvous point along Moldova’s “green border,” the term used for the unfenced border areas, and meet late at night.

On a recent night, a squad of Moldovan border guards trudged across a flat, endless wheat field, their boots sinking in the mud, looking for draft dodgers. There was no border post on the horizon, just the faint lights of a Ukrainian village and the sounds of dogs barking in the darkness.

Out here, one can just walk into and out of Ukraine.

Moldovan officials said that since late February they had broken up more than 20 smuggling rings, including a few well-known criminal enterprises. In turn, they have apprehended 1,091 people crossing the border illegally. Officials said all were Ukrainian men.

Once caught, these men have a choice. If they don’t want to be sent back, they can apply for asylum in Moldova, and cannot be deported.

But if they do not apply for asylum, they can be turned over to the Ukrainian authorities, who, Moldovan officials said, have been pressuring them to send the men back. The vast majority of those who entered illegally, around 1,000, have sought asylum, and fewer than 100 have been returned, Moldovan officials said. Two thousand other Ukrainian men who have entered Moldova legally have also applied for asylum.

Volodymyr Danuliv is one of them. He refuses to fight in the war, though it’s not the prospect of dying that worries him, he said. It is the killing.

“I can’t shoot Russian people,” said Mr. Danuliv, 50.

He explained that his siblings had married Russians and that two of his nephews were serving in the Russian Army — in Ukraine.

“How can I fight in this war?” he asked. “I might kill my own family.”

Myroslav Hai, an official with Ukraine’s military reserve, conceded, “There are people who evade mobilization, but their share in comparison with volunteers is not so large.” Other Ukrainian officials said men ideologically or religiously opposed to war could serve in another way, for example as cooks or drivers.

But none of the more than a dozen men interviewed for this article seemed interested. Mr. Danuliv, a businessman from western Ukraine, said he wanted no part in the war. When asked if he feared being ostracized or shamed, he shook his head.

“I didn’t kill anyone. That’s what’s important to me,” he said. “I don’t care what people say.”

What happens when the war ends? How much resentment will surface toward those who left? These are questions Ukrainians, men and women, are beginning to ask.

When Ms. Lepina shamed Mr. Klever, she was no longer in Ukraine herself. She had left, too, for France, with her husband. Every day, she said, she wrestles with guilt.

“People are suffering in Ukraine, and I want to be there to help them, to support them,” she said. “But at the same time I’m safe and I want to be here.”

“It’s a very ambiguous, complicated feeling,” she said.

And she knows she will be judged.

“Of course there will be some people who divide Ukrainian nationals between those who left and those who stayed,” she said. “I am ready for that.”

Siergiej Greczuszkin contributed reporting from Warsaw, and Daria Mychkovska from Przemysl, Poland.

Correction: April 10, 2022
An earlier version of this article referred incompletely to the online dispute between Vova Klever and Olga Lupina. In addition to writing a social media post describing Mr. Klever’s avoidance of military service in Ukraine, Ms. Lupina also posted comments she considered insensitive that he made about her husband’s Russian heritage and about Bucha, her hometown.

Article Link

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/10/world/asia/ukraine-draft-dodgers.html

NOPE trailer, my thoughts, article

MY THOUGHTS
ok... What did i see... the main characters, kaaluya and keke palmer live in some western usa area, black cowboy heritage ok.. this is a financially base area. From a simple glance this is the intercontinental railroad movie, black horse riders, an asian with a cowboy hat on  so that is the human side... what is unnatural three things: a cloud that is very thick, and is being influenced. Dust clouds exists but they don't come absent a slow growth of dust. So a thick cloud on a sunny day at ground level at speed absent dust around is unnatural. Next is a body lifting from the ground straight into space. This reminds me of a film with julianne moore about a woman who is trying to remember her child and creatures foreign to earth actually control humanity and use it for experiments. In the film's case to see if the love of a child occurs before or after a child exits the womb. In the film whenever anyone became a threat the aliens lifted them into the sky like they are on a string. functionally a specific while potent  gravitional field is being generated. In my mind maybe a neutron array. but the kind of device to house such a system, right now escapes me. Last is the two fingered fist of a creature under a blanket/cloth/cover bumping fist to a human being. ... A sense of surveillance and a robotic system is present. ... so putting all these things I saw together... I think what we have here is humanity is under the control of creatures, whose descendency is unknown, maybe they are ancient pre humanity , like the guyver , or they are truly extraterrestrial. These creatures are looking for another creature, maybe it is related to them , maybe it is not , but it is also not human. And I think it travels by a cloud... in my mind I think of cowboys and aliens a little as well.  A story where the influence of the alien is one and done, no Nope 2 and Nope the return or Nope Nope. 

ARTICLE
'Nope': Jordan Peele explains meaning behind his mysterious new movie's title

LAS VEGAS – Jordan Peele is doling out a few more details about his cryptic new thriller. 

The comedian-turned-filmmaker behind "Get Out" and "Us" returns to multiplexes this summer with "Nope" (in theaters July 22), a sci-fi/horror flick starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun.

After premiering a terrifying teaser during this year's Super Bowl, Peele gave convention-goers at CinemaCon a clearer look at what's in store with the debut of the movie's first full-length trailer Wednesday.

Given that it won't be released to the public for "several more weeks," Peele asked the room full of theater owners and journalists to keep the trailer's secrets to themselves. But it's safe to say the new footage earned raves on social media, with people calling it "super cool," "ominous and creepy," and that Kaluuya and Palmer – playing scheming siblings who train horses – are "absolute stars." 

Introducing the trailer, Peele said he wants to "retain some mystery" around "Nope," whose plot fans have feverishly tried to decipher online.

"Some (theories) get kind of close," while others "are nonsense," Peele said. But he would allow that it's "definitely a ride," describing it as a movie for "the person who thinks they don't like horror movies." 

As for the film's monosyllabic title, Peele explained that it was inspired by the reactions he hopes "Nope" elicits. 

"I love titles that reflect what the audience is thinking and feeling in the theater," he said. "Especially Black audiences: We love horror, but there's a skepticism, like, 'You're not gonna scare me, right?' I'm personally going to thrive on the times I hear 'Nope!' in our theater (when the film is released)." 

Peele, who won the best original screenplay Oscar for "Get Out" in 2018, said he sees it as his "privilege and responsibility to try and make new films and tell original stories.

"Until someone tells me I can't, my plan is to bring these new ideas and new dreams and new nightmares to the big screen." 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/04/27/nope-jordan-peele-trailer-cinemacon/9561322002/

It is a video

MY THOUGHTS AS I WATCHED

everyone knows that the civil rights act was initially for the black community and became extended to all non white males, and with the immigration act the "flooding" was applied. It shouldn't be a secret.

But the sister's , the immigration lawyers, point is true. The south carolina guy was rude to her. Yes, illegal immigrants are used to do two jobs: block blacks , descended of enslaved, from a job plus also have a person willing to get a lower wage, who is most illegal immigrants. 

The lazy narrative is from white media. But, the USA is why countries around humanity are poor, or dysfunctional. From eastern europe to south east asia to west africa to the entirety of south america, the hand of the USA brews dysfunctional poor countries all throughout humanity. Thus drives their populaces desire to immigrate and no country accepts immigration like the usa. It is a perfect circle. 

The problem I have with the narrator is she is missing the point. She is focusing on the battle for jobs when the true issue is ownership. if Black people owned more then they will not have a problem with wages, cause more blacks are employed by... blacks.  If I own a movie studio , the scale of Disney, and I mostly hire black people throughout the labor sectors then that actually helps black people. 

Kinda Velloza is correct. Immigrants still pay taxes. 

The south carolina guy really doesn't like kinda velloza... it stings, I wonder if they know each other or met each other on the talk circuit before cause wow! 

She is black from guyana, you are black from south carolina, please find a room and have hot sex. 

To guyana, guyana recently found oil! but the government of guyana isn't some socialist, egalitarian government. It is like Gabon, or Angola, two other recent oil states that , yeah, black oil barons, but these countries don't have governments built on communalization. These governments are tribal in nature. full of clans who place themselves in halls of power. 

Of course, I have travelled to various places. I know for certain that many tribes in the village exist. 

I love how Tammi Mac doesn't use the word whites. I know this is fox. I am glad Tariq used that word whites. 

One point is, this show need to be on TVOne. I am not saying that I want the sister to lose her show, but part of the problem with black people is we have to use black owned media entities more. Even though the scaling of black media is too small. 

The issue of how Black immigrants from the caribbean or africa view the usa is complex. As people from fiscal poor countries, they adore the possibility in the usa. As black people, they respect the Black populace in the USA. As black people in a country controlled by white power, they know of the phenotypical bias but it is set in stone and has gone on for so long it isn't viewed as challengeable. 

Gregg Dixon is historically short. Black leaders circa 1860s , in particular the Black church, supported integration. They didn't fight for ownership. They didn't fight for all the things Tariq or Marcel suggested. 

The problem is complicated for the Black populace in the USA.  

I love how Tammi Mac admitted Black americans seperate themselves when they get those PHd's and all the panelist laughed:) which is telling.

I love how the freddi guy wasn't listening and blamed the biden administration for the trump, amazing.

Kinda Velloza's point is correct about immigration law. The rule of law is supposed to be a factor of peace. if the rule of law doesn't matter to those who are being influenced by the USA, which is illegal immigrants being detained then, it is a slippery slop. 

Yes, immigrants in latin america, can not walk to spain. And brasil... the flavelas in brasil isn't an upgrade to some one from central america.

The host forgot the lawyer came from guyana , not ghana. 

People come to the USA because most governments in humanity are controlled by clans. If you take out, China/Russia/USA/some western european governments, most other governments are run by clans.

The blood of the murdered native american by whites is actually the foundation of the USA, not the labor of blacks or the domination of whites or the dreams of other immigrants whether unwilling or willing. 

The problem in this show, like many of these talk shows,  is the points don't lead to solutions.

Gregg Dixon , who wants to be an elected official, but is part of a party of governance that he himself says is opposed to his position.  So what is the solution. Run independent or start your own party. He loves history. History proves the usa at one time had only one party, then became two and throughout its history has added more and more with varying success.  

Tariq Nasheed is clearly a DOSer, or I will use his term Foundational Black. But he is an artist, like myself. I am not knocking down being an artists. But, the artists with the most money in modernity, don't control the water, energy, food, construction. Foundational Black Americans need infrastructure support. As an artists, he can only get money for his work. Unless he is going to spend all the money he makes on infrastrcture needs, at best he is like myself at this moment, a charlatan. A pulpiter, which I can't stand, but is the truth. 

Kinda Velloza says the non immigrant Black populace has to engage more functionally to the USA. And let the immigrant community be. In her mind, Black unity is lose. She accepts the tribes in the village motif I usually use. All she wants is for the various Black tribes to stop attacking each other. 

Samuel Q Elira is a candidate as well, he wants to make things better. He doesn't have any answers. But he thinks Black people need to unite cross tribes in the village. As an elected official to prince george's , a majority black county I think. Maybe he can usher great inter black communication and effort in that county. 

I wish the host would had focused on what these people wanted and how to get there. I find most of these shows, not merely black social commentary but white or women or asian or latino or anybody, social commentary shows are focused on cross arguments, when I think statin solutions is a better use of time. 

I love how Kinda got the last word on the south carolina guy:) hilarious:) 

I laughed a lot, lovely. I love banter. 

CENTER FOR BLACK LITERATURE
A CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Killens Review of Arts & Letters
Fall/Winter 2022
Jubilee: A Celebration of Voices throughout the African Diaspora
Founded in October 2002, the Center for Black Literature (CBL) has been committed to its mission 
to broaden and enrich the public’s knowledge and aesthetic appreciation of the value of Black 
literature. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Center and as part of this commemorative 
milestone, the next issue of the Killens Review of Arts & Letters will focus on “times for celebration.”
Despite periods of despair during these past few years and the economic, social, political, and 
racially charged challenges we have faced, we will focus on life’s jubilant experiences. We will 
highlight moments of hopefulness and elevation for and of the global Black community.
For the Fall/Winter 2022 issue of the Killens Review of Arts & Letters, we are seeking short stories, 
essays, creative nonfiction, poetry, art, and photography. We are looking for content that reflects
the ways Black creatives from all parts of the world celebrate our daily lives, our culture, and our 
history in a contemporary world. Unless otherwise selected by the editors, we cannot publish work 
that has previously appeared elsewhere in print or on the web. Prospective contributors are asked 
to submit work that is aligned with the current theme (the themes are announced in advance).
- SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES -
(DEADLINE: AUGUST 26, 2022, at 11:59 PM ET).
Please submit to only one category: short stories, essays, creative nonfiction, poetry, art, 
photography, and interviews. We will respond to your submission within one month.
Notes for Submitting for the Fiction, Nonfiction, Essay, or Interview Category
1. Please submit one piece at a time. We have no set or minimum length for prose 
submissions. Average word count: 2,000–3,000 words.
2. Please use Microsoft Word format, letter-sized page.
3. Use one-inch margins on all sides. Line spaces should be double-spaced.
4. Use a standard typeface (e.g., Times New Roman) and use the 12-point font size.
5. Make sure the pages are numbered.
6. Include your name, title of the work, and page numbers on your submission.
7. Please do NOT submit book manuscripts.
8. Please include a two- to three-sentence biography. If the submission is an academic essay 
with references, please include a bibliography.
2
Notes on Submitting for the Poetry, Art, or Photography Category
1. Poetry: Please send up to three poems only.
2. Art and Photography: We welcome all types of visual and image submissions. Please 
include a short note about the context of the visual or image and title and/or caption 
information. Please include no more than six hi-res JPGs (at 300 dpi).
3. Email material to writers@mec.cuny.edu and to Clarence V. Reynolds at 
reynolds@centerforblackliterature.org.
4. Please write “Killens Review Fall/Winter 2022” in the email message’s subject heading.
5. Please include a brief introduction of yourself and of the work being submitted. On the first 
page of your submission be sure to include:
 Your full name
 Telephone number
 Email address
6. The Killens Review of Arts & Letters cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, 
photographs, or artwork that do not follow the guidelines.
The material in this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the CBL.
CONTACT US
Address: 1650 Bedford Avenue | Brooklyn, New York 11225
Email: writers@mec.cuny.edu
Phone: (718) 804-8883
Website: www.centerforblackliterature.org
ABOUT THE PUBLICATION AND ITS NAMESAKE
The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, of the City 
University of New York, publishes the Killens Review of Arts & Letters. It is 
a peer-reviewed journal published twice a year that features short stories, 
essays, nonfiction, poetry, art, photography, and interviews related to the 
various experiences lived by writers and artists of the African Diaspora, as 
well as the African continent. The aim is to provide accomplished and 
emerging Black creatives with opportunities to expand the canon of 
literature and art. The latest issue of the Killens Review is available for 
purchase today. Click HERE.
It is named for the late Georgia-born John Oliver Killens (pictured; 1916–1987). He was a renowned 
African American novelist and essayist and was a writer-in-residence and professor at Medgar Evers 
College from 1981 to 1987. Killens was also the founder of the National Black Writers Conference, a 
major program of the Center.
The Killens Review of Arts & Letters is supported by the am*zon Literary Partnership. For more 
information, visit www.centerforblackliterature.org/killens-review-of-arts-letters/
information 
https://centerforblackliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Killens_FallWinter2022_CALLfinal.pdf

MY THOUGHTS

At least, one problem in modern humanity isn't complicated. It is very simple. It is a question.

How do you get a humanity that has a tiered system of white christian male europeans on top by militaristic power to be a humanity that is tierless? 

The problem with said question is any answer or process requires a majority in humanity to want the goal. And there lay the true problem. Any action can be deemed to the goal or against.  Elements of the Nigerian government have made an action that can be deemed by some long overdue to Black empowerment, to African empowerment, to Nigerian empowerment. Others can deem this a part of the process to be tierless, a nonviolent action that is trying to bring empowerment to a region in humanity controlled by those outside itself to its detriment longer than anyone has been alive.

What is the truth of the Nigerian governments actions? The truth is , it is both. No one is wrong in however they assess it. But arguing between the assessors gives greater hope to maintaining tiers than being tierless. And, if tiers maintain the only question you need to know is which tier you will be in. If tierless, then all the minorities in every community in humanity wanting it lucked out.

Source: New York Daily News / Getty

OP-ED: Why Is Rikers Island Still Open And Why Won’t NYC Mayor Eric Adams Accept The Help He Needs?

Adams continues to oppose bail reform and asks lawmakers to pass more restrictive laws that would increase Rikers' already sky-high population, as well as appoint more “tough on crime” judges. 

Written By Olayemi Olurin

Rikers Island is out of control and New York City Mayor Eric Adams‘ actions suggest he would like it to remain that way.

Rikers is New York City’s infamous pre-trial detention center where Black and brown New Yorkers have been terrorized since 1932. A lesser-known fact is that the people held there have not been convicted of a crime, they many times simply do not have the money to purchase their freedom and fight their case from the outside.

New York City is one of the largest and most diverse cities in the world. There are almost 9 million people crammed into this little city, over 41% of whom are white. Yet over 90% of the people held at Rikers are Black or brown.

In 2019, the Campaign to Close Rikers emerged and advocates introduced a plan to shut it by reducing the jail’s population to 3,300 and closing the additional run-down city jails committing the same abuses against the people within it. A third measure would divert the $1.8 billion that would be saved annually by lowering the population to 3,300 into housing, healthcare, education, economic development and youth services in poor communities.

Adams promised that if elected, he would support former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to close the jail altogether and to create “systemic change.” Adams has now expressed skepticism about the plan to close Rikers by 2027.

His argument is that too many people are incarcerated at Rikers for them to close the jail by then … because where would we put all these people who haven’t been convicted of a crime while they await their trial. I imagine we could put them in the same place we put rich people accused of crimes—their homes—but let’s explore his argument.

Built to only hold 3,000 people, Rikers contains approximately 5,500 people. The packed cells and worsening deaths, abuse, violence and illness are also evidence of how cash bail has been weaponized against the poor to deprive them of their rights.

New York City’s landmark bail reform addressed this issue by eliminating cash bail for most misdemeanors, low-level offenses and nonviolent crimes. In turn, Rikers’ population was drastically reduced, a necessary step to closing the jail.

According to the New York City Comptroller’s office < https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/nyc-comptrollers-office-analysis-finds-bail-continues-to-drive-pretrial-detention-despite-reforms/  > , there was been essentially no change in the monthly percentage of people rearrested while released pending trial after bail reform. And yet, unfounded fearmongering by people like Adams brought about rollbacks that rose the population about 7 to 11%.

Adams continues to oppose bail reform and asks lawmakers to pass more restrictive laws that would increase Rikers’ already sky-high population, as well as appoint more “tough on crime” judges.

That is not the conduct of someone who has any interest in lowering the jail’s population to facilitate its closing, despite acknowledging it is already thousands of people too high and has caused deaths, violence, suicide and rampant abuse. He’s also fighting off calls for a receivership.

For the last six years, federal judge Laura T. Swain has tried and repeatedly failed to muscle New York City into getting Rikers under control. She even appointed a monitor for the prisons. Still, the city has demonstrably failed to comply with every mandate and deaths continue to mount. Advocates have asked the court to place Rikers under receivership.

A receivership would allow the court to appoint a non-partisan expert who is given wide latitude to address the crisis and be answerable only to the court, and not state and local laws and bureaucratic agencies, allowing them to make progress in ways the city personnel could not. Once brought up to constitutional standards, the control of Rikers would then return to the state and locality.

Under Eric Adams’ leadership, Rikers already has 15 deaths — just one death shy of 2021’s 16-person death toll, which was the highest death toll since 2013. People continue to be held in solitary confinement conditions despite a law outlawing it, which Adams dismisses as “restrictive housing,” and the level of depraved indifference on the part of the Department of Corrections has reached unprecedented heights.

Most recently, video footage emerged of three corrections officers standing and watching Michael Nieves, a man incarcerated in Rikers’ mental health unit, bleed to death for 10 minutes after slitting his throat with a razor blade he’d been given. Last week, a corrections officer placed Kevin Bryan inside of a staff bathroom where he hanged himself from a pipe.

In March, Herman Diaz choked to death on an orange while other incarcerated people unsuccessfully begged officers to intervene. Three months later, Antonio Bradley hanged himself inside a holding cell, But Adams chose not to inform the U.S. Department of Justice of the in-custody death, preventing the federal government from sending someone down to launch an investigation until much later.

“I don’t see that as a coverup or a violation of any rule,” Adams said, responding to allegations of a cover-up. “If it is, we will definitely correct it. But my understanding is that a place of death is where they died.”

You cannot simultaneously recognize that a jail is so out of control that it needs to be closed entirely and still insist that you’re capable of managing it. Yet, that’s the exact message Adams continues to push to New Yorkers.

The systemic change Adams promised must’ve been radical with depraved indifference to human life because not only have conditions at Rikers persisted, they’ve worsened. It’s time for Rikers to be placed under receivership.

Olayemi Olurin is a public defender, movement lawyer and political commentator in New York City.  

ARTICLE

https://newsone.com/4417432/why-is-rikers-island-still-open/

MY THOUGHTS

I want to first quote Olayemi

Over 30 people have died in Rikers since last year. Rikers was only built to hold 3000 ppl so why are are over 5000 people who haven’t been convicted of a crime being held there despite Rikers being declared a human rights crisis?

I said in reply to her

I read the article on @newsone  from @msolurin the statistical support she uses is verified beyond her and beyond satisfactory to her position on Eric Adams and Rikers relationship to NYC 

...

When Eric Adams campaigned for mayor he had one platform, one issue that gave way to no other. NYC is unsafe. The problem with that platform in a global city is the size of the city will always provide instances or moments, regardless of their statistic uncommonality(1/5) , that can be used to suggest a lack of safety regardless of the truth. Sequentially, once mayor, Eric Adams has in NYC's media a constant highlighter of instances. He has in NYC's population, a constant source of instances. He has in each of NYC's (2/5)various communities: black/white/christian/muslim/young/old or other constant support by some people who always view NYC as at the precipice of being swallowed by crime. Thus, even though you prove your position (3/5)through statistics others gathered honestly and your position shows a truth that is not contestable with common sense, the support for Adams position in NYC is too large for him to ever be swayed to change. (4/5)The only way Rikers or the legal system en large in NYC will be influenced more positively from the mayors office at this point will be a new mayor.(5/5)

In conclusion

 Olayemi's position is correct. But the problem is undoing it is more than merely policy. The populace in NYC has two group of people in NYC, both multiracial in composition, that give any elected official on a "keep nyc safe" platform solid support. The first is people who have a heritage of positioning NYC's biggest issue as crime. Various religious groups, community groups, primary purpose is the lessening of crime in NYC, even if the statistics show crime is lessening or crime is not as potent, said organization's goal is zero crime, which in a fiscal capitalistic city with more than one million is impossible, let alone ten million. The second is the financial profiteers to the industry of prisons in NYC. The NYPD profits with bigger salaries, which helps their larger union coiffeurs, or better facilities, let alone the various money the nypd gets in concert with illegal activity that is fueled with a large prison populace. The Real Estate industry profits cause their goal is a city of wealthy people, that is the goal for the real estate industry in NYC. But to achieve that, the city also needs poor people for various small labors that machines can't do. But, to be fair to the poor you have to lower the rent. If you keep the rent high, the poor in desperation will commit crimes. The legal system of the city acquires millions in bail money side other fees for the processing of the penal system. The various charity organizations that benefit from money sent to them with the size of the prison populace as a convincer to fiscally wealthy people who want to prove their goodness. Many profit off of the prison system in New York City. White/Black/Young/Old many and many other people have no desire to get rid of rikers cause the profit from it. And regardless of how they feel about Eric Adams, whether they like him or not, they will support their fiscal benefit. Eric Adams comprehended this when he initially campaigned for mayor and he knows the fiscal have's in the city are in majority supportive and the fiscal have not's , even if in majority opposed, can be ignored for the lack of a candidate who will have a platform based on what people like Olayemi suggest. 

To read more of my prose to socio-politics consider my pulpit, click the highlighted links below.

The Right To Bear Arms Link

The series: Link

Support article

NYC Comptroller’s Office Analysis Finds Bail Continues to Drive Pretrial Detention, Despite Reforms

March 22, 2022

Data Shows No Change in Share of People Rearrested While Awaiting Trial in the Community, Even As Reforms Reduced the Number of People Subject to Bail.

Comptroller Lander Calls for Albany to Reject Rollbacks and Instead Strengthen Implementation.

New York, NY – Despite reforms that have meaningfully reduced the number of people subject to bail, bail-setting continues to drive pretrial detention and syphons money from low-income communities of color, according to a new analysis from the NYC Comptroller’s office. The share of people released pretrial who are rearrested for a new offense has not changed following the implementation of bail reforms.
  
While judges set bail in 14,545 cases in calendar year 2021, down from 24,657 in 2019, defendants and their friends and family still posted $268 million in bail, up from $186 million in 2020. The data on the impacts of the 2019 bail reforms shows that, despite new requirements to consider the ability of defendants to pay in those cases where bail still applies, a full two years into implementation, the 2019 reforms have neither made bail more affordable nor prevented incarceration for those still subject to bail setting. 

Even as the number of people subject to bail has declined, there has been no increase in the number or percentage of people who are rearrested for a new offense while awaiting trial in the community. In January 2019, 95% of people awaiting trial in the community were not rearrested that month, while that proportion rose slightly to 96% in December 2021. Both before and after bail reform, fewer than 1% of people released pretrial, either through bail or otherwise, were rearrested on a violent felony charge each month. 

Rather than roll back critical reforms, the Comptroller’s office urged Albany legislators to strengthen implementation and invest in programs that prevent crime and promote community safety. 

“In a moment of real anxiety about public safety, the conversation on bail reform has become divorced from the data, which shows essentially no change in the share of people rearrested while released pretrial before and after the implementation of the 2019 bail reforms,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “Instead, what we see is a rise in average bail amounts and a continuation of bail-setting practices that extract money from families and deny freedom to people who are presumed innocent before trial. We should follow the facts rather than fear, and reject reactive efforts to roll back reforms that threaten the progress we have made towards more equal justice. Our system has put a high price on freedom and made bail a barrier to justice for those who cannot afford to pay.” 

The Office of the New York City Comptroller analyzed data provided by the New York State Office of Court Administration on bail setting and bail made, as well as data on pretrial release outcomes from the New York City Criminal Justice Agency during calendar years 2019, 2020 and 2021 to assess the actual impacts of the 2019 bail reforms and the 2020 rollbacks.

Key findings included:

• Since state bail reforms took effect, the number of people subject to bail has significantly declined but bail-setting still drives pretrial incarceration. In calendar year 2021, judges set bail in 14,545 cases, down significantly from 24,657 in 2019. Over 2020 and 2021, roughly half of defendants who had bail set were able to eventually make bail, although most defendants are incarcerated for at least some amount of time before doing so.
• The cost of bail increased. Bail reforms that took effect January 1, 2020 included new requirements for judges to consider a person’s ability to pay when setting bail. Yet average bail amounts rose, rather than fell in 2021, and people continue to be unable to afford the price of their freedom. In 2021, the average cash bail amount set at arraignment was $38,866, double the $19,162 average in 2019. While increases in average bail amounts likely stem from broad restrictions on setting bail for lower-level charges, bail law explicitly requires judges to consider the defendant’s financial circumstances.
• Commercial bonds that require high, non-refundable fees to private companies continue to be widely used. Of bonds posted in 2020 in New York City Supreme Court – the City’s trial court for felony cases – 57% of cases used commercial bonds. In 2021, defendants and their friends and family posted a total of $226 million in bonds, including commercial bail and partially secured bonds, up from $159 million in 2020 but down 3% from $233 million in 2019.
• Less onerous and punitive bail options, such as partially secured or unsecured bonds, were used less often than commercial bonds. Partially secured bonds accounted for 20% of bail postings in Supreme Court during 2020, and judges used the least onerous mechanism, unsecured bonds that require no money upfront, only seven times in 2020, down from 24 times in 2019. The average dollar amount of partially secured bonds posted in Supreme Court jumped substantially, rising from an average of roughly $11,900 from January through November 2019 to an average of more than $40,000 in 2020.
• There has been essentially no change in the monthly percentage of people rearrested while released pending trial after bail reform. In January 2019, 95 percent of the roughly 57,000 people awaiting trial were not rearrested that month. In January 2020, 96 percent of the roughly 45,000 people with a pending case were not rearrested. In December 2021, 96 percent were not rearrested — and 99 percent of people, regardless of bail or other pretrial conditions, were not rearrested on a violent felony charge.

The Comptroller’s Office recommends that the New York State Office of Court Administration (OCA) provide guidance and clear instructions to judges on how to assess a defendant’s ability to pay and mandate trainings on this provision of the law. OCA should direct judges to first consider an unsecured bond and justify on the record their reasons for not using that option before setting a partially secured bond.  

To significantly curtail the use of pretrial detention, New York should also advance strategies that address root causes of criminal legal system involvement, redirecting resources from the law enforcement and correctional systems to social supports that promote stability and safety and create economic opportunity, such as mental health care, substance use prevention and treatment, affordable housing, youth programming, and quality education. 

The full analysis report can be viewed here. <  https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/nyc-bail-trends-since-2019/ > 

Create a beast

ok

The template 

Layout your lair, coming soon

A bust of Nefertiti on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin in December 2012, during an exhibition marking the 100-year anniversary of the item’s discovery.Credit...Michael Sohn/Agence France-Presse, via Pool/Afp Via Getty Images

King Tut Died Long Ago, but the Debate About His Tomb Rages On

By Franz Lidz
Published Oct. 30, 2022
Updated Oct. 31, 2022

More than three millenniums after Tutankhamun was buried in southern Egypt, and a century after his tomb was discovered, Egyptologists are still squabbling over whom the chamber was built for and what, if anything, lies beyond its walls. The debate has become a global pastime.

At the center of the rumpus is the confrontational enthusiast Nicholas Reeves, 66, who shares a home near Oxford, England, with a nameless house cat. In July 2015, Dr. Reeves, a former curator at the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, posited the tantalizing theory that there were rooms hidden behind the northern and western walls in the treasure-packed burial vault of Tutankhamun, otherwise known as King Tut.

It was long presumed that the small burial chamber, constructed 3,300 years ago and known to specialists as KV62, was originally intended as a private tomb for Tutankhamun’s successor, Ay, until Tutankhamun died prematurely at 19. Dr. Reeves proposed that the tomb was, in fact, merely an antechamber to a grander sepulcher for Tutankhamun’s stepmother and predecessor, Nefertiti. What’s more, Dr. Reeves argued, behind the north wall was a corridor that might well lead to Nefertiti’s unexplored funerary apartments, and perhaps to Nefertiti herself.

The Egyptian government authorized radar surveys using ground-penetrating radar that could detect and scan cavities underground. At a news conference in Cairo in March 2016, Mamdouh Eldamaty, then Egypt’s antiquities minister, showed the preliminary results of radar scans that revealed anomalies beyond the decorated north and west walls of the tomb, suggesting the presence of two empty spaces and organic or metal objects.

To much fanfare, he announced that there was an “approximately 90 percent” chance that something — “another chamber, another tomb” — was waiting beyond KV62. (Dr. Reeves said: “There was constant pressure from the press for odds. My own response was 50-50 — radar will either reveal there’s more to Tutankhamun’s tomb than we currently see, or it won’t.”)

Yet, two years and two separate radar surveys later, a new antiquities minister declared that there were neither blocked doorways nor hidden rooms inside the tomb. Detailed results of the final scan were not released for independent scrutiny. Nonetheless, the announcement prompted National Geographic magazine to withdraw funding for Dr. Reeves’s project and a prominent Egyptologist to say, “We should not pursue hallucinations.”

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s onetime chief antiquities official and author of “King Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb,” said: “I completely disagree with this theory. There is no way in ancient Egypt that any king would block the tomb of someone else. This would be completely against all their beliefs. It is impossible!” (Dr. Reeves countered by pointing out that every successor king was responsible for closing the tomb of his predecessor, as the mythical Horus buried his father, Osiris. “This is even demonstrated in what we currently see on the burial chamber’s north wall — as labeled, Ay burying Tutankhamun,” Dr. Reeves said.)

Kara Cooney, a professor of Egyptian art and architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles, noted the fraught scholarly terrain. “Nick’s work is evidence-based and carefully researched,” she said. “But few Egyptologists will say it on record because they are all afraid of losing their access to tombs and excavation concessions. Or they are just plain jerks.”

Despite the setback, Dr. Reeves soldiered on. In “The Complete Tutankhamun: 100 Years of Discovery,” a freshly revised edition of his 1990 book to be published in January, he draws on data provided by thermal imaging, laser-scanning, mold-growth mapping and inscriptional analysis to support his fiercely debated scholarship. The provocative new evidence has bolstered his belief that Tutankhamun was given a hasty burial in the front hallway of the tomb of Nefertiti.

“Much of what Tutankhamun took to the grave had nothing to do with him,” said Dr. Reeves, who spoke by video from his home office. He maintained that King Tut had inherited a suite of lavish burial equipment that had then been repurposed to accompany him into the afterlife, including his famous gold death mask.

The father of Tutankhamun was Akhenaten, the so-called heretic king whose reign was characterized by social, political and religious upheaval. The 18th-dynasty pharaoh rejected Amun, Osiris and Egypt’s traditional gods in favor of a single disembodied creator-essence, Aten, or the sun disk. In the space of a generation, Akhenaten had created a city from scratch at el-Amarna for his new god, and prepared royal tombs for himself, his children and his wives, including Nefertiti.

After Akhenaten came an obscure pharaoh named Smenkhkare, whom Tutankhamun succeeded directly. Dr. Reeves has long held that Smenkhkare and Nefertiti were the same person, and that Akhenaten’s queen simply changed her name, first to Neferneferuaten, during a period of co-rule with her husband, and then to Smenkhkare following his death, navigating a period of sole, independent rule. To the boy-king would fall the burial of this rare woman pharaoh.

During King Tut’s decade-long reign, he appeared to have been largely occupied with rectifying the chaos bequeathed to him by his old man. But it would not be enough: Shortly after his death in 1,323 B.C., a new dynasty chiseled his tarnished name into dust.

Pyramid scheme
Dr. Reeves has conducted research directly in the tomb on several occasions over the years. He came to his theory about Tutankhamun in 2014 after examining high-resolution color photographs of the tomb, which were published online by Factum Arte, a company based in Madrid and Bologna, Italy, that specializes in art recording and replication. The images showed lines beneath the plastered surfaces of painted walls, suggesting uncharted doorways. He speculated that one doorway — in the west — opened into a Tutankhamun-era storeroom, and that another, which aligns with both sides of the entrance chamber, opened to a hallway continuing along the same axis in form and orientation reminiscent of a more extensive queen’s corridor tomb.

“I saw early on, from the face of the north wall subject, that the larger tomb could only belong to Nefertiti,” Dr. Reeves said. “I also suggested, based on evidence from elsewhere, that the perceived storage chamber to the west of the burial chamber might have been adapted into a funerary suite for other missing members of the Amarna royal family.”

To support his radical reassessment, Dr. Reeves pointed to a pair of cartouches — ovals or oblongs enclosing a group of hieroglyphs — and a curious misspelling painted on the tomb’s north wall. The figure beneath the first cartouche is named as Tutankhamun’s Pharaonic successor, Ay, and is shown officiating at the young king’s burial carrying out the “opening the mouth” ceremony, a funerary ritual to restore the deceased’s senses — the ability to speak, touch, see, smell and hear. The key, Dr. Reeves said, is that both of the Ay cartouches show clear evidence of having been changed from their originals — the birth and throne names of Tutankhamun.

Dr. Reeves suggested that the cartouches had originally showed Tut burying his predecessor, and that the cartouches — and hence the tomb — were put to new use. “If you inspect the birth-name cartouche closely, you see clear, underlying traces of a reed leaf,” he said in an email. “Not by chance, this hieroglyph is the first character of the divine component of Tutankhamun’s name, ‘-amun,’ in all standard writings.”

Beneath Ay’s throne name may be discerned a rare, variant writing of Tutankhamun’s throne name, “Nebkheperure,” employing three scarab beetles. This is a variant whose lazy adaptation provides the only feasible explanation for the strangely misspelled three-scarab version of the Ay throne name “Kheperkheperure” that now stands there, Dr. Reeves said.

He deduced that the scene had originally depicted not Ay presiding over the interment of Tutankhamun, but Tutankhamun presiding over the burial of Nefertiti. There are two visual clinchers, he said. The first is the “rounded, childlike, double underchin” of the Ay figure, a feature not present in any image currently recognizable as him, implying that the original painting of the king must have been of the chubby, young Tutankhamun. The second is the facial contours of the mummified recipient — until now presumed to be Tutankhamun — whose lips, narrow neck and distinctive nasal bridge are a “perfect match” for the profile of the painted limestone bust of Nefertiti on display in the Neues Museum in Berlin.

“There would have been no reason to include a depiction of this predecessor’s burial in Tutankhamun’s own tomb,” Dr. Reeves said. “In fact, the presence of this scene identifies Tutankhamun’s tomb as the burial place of that predecessor, and that it was within her outer chambers that the young king had, in extremis, been buried.”

Rita Lucarelli, an Egyptologist at the University of California, Berkeley, said she had been following Dr. Reeves’s old and new claims with interest. “If he is right, it would be an amazing discovery because the tomb of Nefertiti would be intact, too,” she said. “But maybe even if there is a tomb there, it’s not that of Nefertiti, rather of another individual related to Tut. We simply cannot know it unless we dig through the bedrock.”

The problem, Dr. Lucarelli said, is finding a way to drill through the decorated north wall without destroying it. “This is also why other archaeologists do not sympathize with this theory,” she said.

Dr. Reeves’s unsympathetic colleagues are legion.

“Nick is flogging a dead horse in his theories,” Aidan Dodson, an Egyptologist at the University of Bristol, said. “He has provided no clear proof that the cartouches have been altered, and his iconographic arguments as to the faces on the wall have been rejected by pretty well every other Egyptologist I know of who is qualified to take a view.”

The politics of heritage
Dr. Cooney, whose book “When Women Ruled The World” argues that Nefertiti may have been Tut’s grandmother, is one of Dr. Reeves’s few champions. “I am not one of the many scholars laughing behind their hands,” she said. “Nick’s theory is brilliant but easily discounted in a very political and nationalistic Egypt that has refused to give permits to Western scholars who disagree with the party line. Maybe there’s nothing beyond the north wall of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Maybe it’s Al Capone’s safe. But if there is something there, this could potentially be the discovery of the millennium.”

At least part of the backlash against Dr. Reeves’s ideas can be traced to the politics of heritage. The narrative that Tutankhamun’s tomb was unearthed by the heroic English archaeologist Howard Carter has long been openly challenged by Egyptians, who took the discovery as a rallying cry to end 1920s British rule and establish a modern Egyptian identity. Among Egyptologists today, the hot topics include the decolonization of the field and more inclusive and equitable accounts of Egyptian team members involved in archaeological excavations.

“Sure, some in Egypt take a different view from me, which is easy enough to understand,” Dr. Reeves said. A weary expression spread over his face. “Archaeologists in the U.K. would, I am sure, look askance at some foreigner sounding off on who might be buried in Westminster Abbey. But my sole interest as an academic Egyptologist, my intellectual responsibility, is to seek out the evidence and report honestly and as objectively as possible on what I find.”

Nefertiti’s burial is what the raft of new facts points toward when considered altogether, he said, and inevitably Nefertiti plus Tutankhamun is a big ask. “I can understand the skepticism with which my proposals have been greeted in some quarters,” he said. “And I initially shared it; I would spend a year testing and retesting my conclusions before feeling comfortable enough to publish.”

That was back in 2015, and Dr. Reeves believes the evidence now is stronger than ever. “Indeed, with the discovery that both cartouches of Ay overlie original cartouches of Tutankhamun, we have the veritable smoking gun,” he said. “To simply deny the evidence is not going to make it go away.”

ARTICLE
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/30/science/tutankhamen-nefertiti-archaeology.html

MY THOUGHTS

I am a Nefertiti fan. Considering Akenaton is known as a radical leader of the nile, in that he went against the heritage and formed a new culture, i imagine his wife is radical in thinking as well. I can see her preparing for her son's time. The white man miscomprehends. He doesn't realize that the damage of his community, that being white scientist in africa is so vast that he is not trusted he is not wanted. He wants to be viewed as content of character but that is something anyone native in egypt must have a hard time doing based on an extensive negative past. It is that simple, the individualism some in the scholarly community want demands ignoring human history or specifically, interracial history, which is mostly or overwhelmingly negative in humanity.
 

Any writers in here with zero or near zero drawing capability want a chance to have a complex logical process, commonly called, an Artificial Intelligence, compose a work of art for them?

I am considering making a group in deviantart for you writers. Writers who also draw, like me, your not welcome for now. For now, just the writers who can't draw

https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Dreamupgif-937250338

ART SUMMARY 2022

a selection for each month

January
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Holiday-Rex-DTIYS-B-W-905513401
February
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Valentine-s-Day-2022-Color-gif-906988319
March
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Ship-of-Fools-Legend-to-be-909901566
April
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/The-King-Of-Paradise-913395528
May
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Nanedud-feetorfins-917368124
June
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/AmpraehDTIYScolor-917892345
July
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Dreamdisappointvacation-coloringpage-923869468
August
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Invitation-A-Moment-In-the-LEgendary-Bloody-Melee-927346127
September
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/crystals-21-Witchtember-2022-930362174
October
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Chrissabugdtiys10k2022-Invitation-932158374
November
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Album-Yourself-Submit-935178300
December
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Suriel-of-Sylessae-BW-939310620
 

If you want to support my work financially consider the following

Poetry or more ebook
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/poetry-or-more-1
Ship of fools audiobook
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/ship-of-fools-legend-to-be

if you want to keep abreast to my work in the future, join my newsletter
https://rmnewsletter.over-blog.com/

KWL Live Q&A – Setting Up for Publishing Success: an AMA with the KWL Team
Setting Up for Publishing Success – Looking at the Year Ahead

The Kobo Writing Life team is excited to announce our latest Live Q&A on January 26th, 2022, from 12:00 PM-1:00 PM EST. KWL Director Tara will be chatting with all of our viewers, alongside author engagement manager and KWL podcast co-host Laura, about how to set up for a successful year of publishing in 2023. If you can’t make it to the event, feel free to comment on this post with your questions and we can ask them for you!   

Hi authors!  

In our first live Q&A of the year, we are going to feature Tara, Kobo Writing Life’s director, Laura, author engagement manager, and Rachel, promotions specialist, as they discuss relevant topics and answer questions sent in by all of YOU, our wonderful community of authors, regarding how best to set up for success in the coming year!

This AMA-style chat is a great opportunity to hear about developments at KWL, learn some new tips and tricks, and gain some inspiration for the publishing year ahead.

We’ll be discussing and answering questions related to the following:

How to make the most of your pre-orders
Reaching new readers – with Kobo Plus and OverDrive
Audiobooks and audiobook marketing
Setting up a successful release schedule
New series, new releases, and opportunities for new authors in 2023
Market research – staying ahead of the seasons
And much more!
We will also have time for questions at the end, so be sure to join the live event and bring your questions! And, as always, happy writing.
https://kobowritinglife.com/2023/01/13/kwl-live-qa-setting-up-for-publishing-success-an-ama-with-kwls-director-and-author-engagement-manager/
 

Finding Your Readers: a KWL Recap
elements
Using Patreon as an Indie Author with Lindsay Buroker
Finding Your Ideal Reader with Sue Campbell
Learning the Habits of your Readers with Emma Chase
https://kobowritinglife.com/2022/12/12/finding-your-readers-a-kwl-recap/
 

I have been unfortunate enough to see + experience alot of law enforcement abuse. 

I don't want to repeat myself . So I will focus on how Black people in the usa from the end of the war between the states reached modernity culturally.

Frederick Douglass side the Black church is the answer. 

At the end of the day, I realize , that the cultural trajectory of the majority, not all or me, in the Black community in the USA is a culture of individualism that Frederick Douglass side the Black church wanted when they started the Black community on this path with white financial support when the war between the states ended. 

The goal is for Black cops in mostly white law enforcement organizations to exists, for Black presidents in a mostly white country , Black Mayors in a mostly white city to exists, it isn't to deny, black cops in most black law enforcement organizations, or black mayors in black towns or black sheriffs in black counties. But the idea is for an individual allowance to exist in the Black community in the USA that will curtail Black communal strength, will curtail Black communal resilience, will curtail Black communal fiscal profit, but the goal is to get the majority of the Black community to be part of an aracial identity, an individual identity, that I argue has been reached. No, not all black people in the USA are philosophically aligned, but most are. 

The murder of Tyre Nichols represents the strength of the individual culture in the black community in the usa. These events will always occur for nothing is completely positive. All ideas have negativity, including nonviolence, including araciality, including miscegenation, including integrationists ideas like slavery... as well as militisms, or segregationists idea like Back to Africa. The question is, what are the negativities with an idea. 

The murder of Tyre Nichols represents an inevitable negativity from the individualism  which is the majority philosophy adhered to by Black people in the USA today. IT will happen again, as it already happened already. It must. 

But I think most Black people in the USA, which doesn't include me, support the individualism and with sadness or lamentations, accept the murder of Tyre Nichols as part of the price for individual cultural allowance, which I argue no community in the USA has stronger than the Black community in the USA, even if it isn't articulated. 

New York City Civilian Complaint REview Board 

202 New York City protest

https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ccrb/downloads/pdf/policy_pdf/issue_based/2020NYCProtestReport.pdf