richardmurray

Flag Day <june 14th , June 14, 1777 the usa flag was adopted : "That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.">- commemorating the Flag of the usa. IT is not a federal holiday. But, what does the USA flag mean to you? I ask for various text or graphics depicting that feeling. Here is some trivia. When is a star supposed to be added when a state is added to the union? https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-flag-day-art-or-text-craft-parade-good-news-blog/?do=findComment&comment=905 STORY In the future, aside Mons Huygens, in the capitol of the E.N.U., a school for age 6s in district five, Gandhi Academy, has Origin Day. The children wait for the box of noted old things from Earth’s past to be revealed. A teacher open up the box, flanked by her peers, and various items are present. Each child in the school’s roster take an item. … Marianne look at the storage unit and read from a letter, by White Feather. “My grandfather was told by his grandfather, as they opposed the building of a pipeline, that he remember his son, my great grandfather, fighting in the original American Indian Movement. How these white men came and took his son’s daughter one late evening. They found her weeks later two states over in Illinois. Local authorities or federal authorities never found out who did it. But, my great grandfather, with the bow he made, lived in the street and hunted those men with the old ways. He eventually found those men and murdered them. The police nor other law enforcement came but the family knew as he told them how he did it, and it coincided eerily to the news report. My grandfather was told this tale during the video presentation you are watching. The AIM flag was not preferred by my great grandfather but after avenging my great grandmother, he flew it proudly wherever he went” Gentle Cougar took out an old photo and read a letter from Candace Nascimento. “My grandmother was a field nurse during world war I. She knew about the field from her grandfather, a former buffalo soldier, who had a forebear that served the British during the united states war of independence. He told her he was forever shamed about his tenure in that unit and she should never serve the USA in any fashion, giving him the chance to kill for a fantasy. But, during the war to end all wars, she saw many of her friends heading off and wanted to join them. And she did. She lost her fiancé in Southern France, a sander from Louisiana, deterring the main German offensive. The USA never awarded him. But she survived and was emboldened to be a pan africanists. She wanted to find her way to a Black country. And she is waving the flag in this photo. Some white cops later that month confiscated all the money they had gathered to make a boat with provisions. It broke my grandmother’s heart. But, she found her husband, Rodrigo, later that year and he was always proud of her waving that flag, as he never had saw such an exhibition in Salvador” N'Dule took out a colored photo and read a letter from Georgina Blake Jefferson. “My grandmother grew up in the bayou, in true cajun country. She never finished elementary. And decided to work as a house cleaner for the elites in New Orleans. One day, soon before her eighteenth birthday, a group of guys from the North were partying for Mardi Gras. They waited for her to leave her shift and grabbed her. She couldn’t struggle against a group of five men. She learned later, her brother as a member of Beauregard’s men secretly patrolled new orleans to keep the cajun women safe. And, even though one had violated her, before the others could get there turn, her brother and his friends found the rig of her captors. She never forgot seeing the beauty of the battle flag of northern virginia on their jackets. It represented a safety the stars and stripes never did, a pride in being southern. This photo she took at her birthday party later, she would always carry a battle flag with her wherever she went” Carlos Tenji took out a drawing and read a letter from Madiba Patel. “My grandfather was a refuge and his family chose the usa cause it was the biggest option. Any country in europe seem smaller and already too congested, and no one spoke chinese or russian or portuguese. My great grandmother spoke english so that was an assist. My grandfather was an internet millionaire with his roaming cinema verité. Going around hitchhiking, taking online viewers on his journeys. This graphic was designed for a government official. Some people were tearing it all down. My grandfather gained a limp trying to stop them. He told the people, he wasn’t trying to change them, but asking them to stop trying to change others. If we learn to live side by side unlikely neighbors, neighbors we oppose while we don’t try to change, we can have true peace, not a deceptive slavery. It took many decades but we finally did learn how” … Other kids presented items from yore but none were flags. …If you enjoyed this tale check out the others utilizing the links below Bookbub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/richard-murray-16885e64-6c28-459e-bf5f-45c7d458ce49 AALBC https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/blog/29-richard-murray-hearth/ Poetry or More Audiobook https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Poetry%20or%20More&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=06baba96-5af5-5d24-9b8a-f06360287dc9 Visasiki Audiobook https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Visasiki%20Series&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=965aea81-4e13-53fe-8bc8-22fcb6d28a39 Short Story Collection https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Richard%20Murray%20Short%20Story%20Collection&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=014c67c4-d29d-584e-ada0-62c0fa015714

Memorial Day <last monday of may originally may 30th, originally called decoration day> - create writing or art that involve the the death of Black soldiers who died serving on the battlefield for the us military or others. I ask a query? https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-aphelion-day-art-or-text-craft-parade-good-news-blog/?do=findComment&comment=914 PROSE While my favorite war movies are: Paths of Glory<second phase of the world war>, Das Boot<second phase of the world war>, Buck and the Preacher<war between the state>, Posse<hybrid spanish american war-war between the states>, The Young Lions<second phase of the world war>, Seven Samurai<I will use the white european term, Feudal era in japan>, Throne of Blood <said feudal era in nippon, even though it reference macbeth, the history of the fall of osaka castle is what is referenced in it>, The Outlaw Jose Wales<war between the states>, Apocalypto <European invasion of the commonly called Americas> ;honorable mention to some moderns, not favorites for me yet, but warranted mention: Alexander, Valkyrie. But, when I think of soldiers who died in all armies, all wars, no restriction to the usa. This year, I think to one film in particular: Born on the fourth of July. Yes, Oliver stone made it as a reply to "Top Gun" <a truly shameless modern propaganda film> , yes he demanded tom cruise be in it. Yes, many say it is a war film. But I do not, unlike all the other films I mentioned, “Born on the Fourth of July” is an anti-propaganda film, that masquerade as a war film. It opens with a lie, American supremacy, american exceptionalism, american goodness, and that is a massive point. When people say they want to honor the spirits of the fallen soldiers, who does that exactly include? I always say, the first Black soldiers in the context of the USA black people in the usa historically must consider is the Black soldiers fighting against the colonies for the british. It is well known more Black soldiers fought against the colonies than for the colonies. Sequentially, the first Black soldiers in the context of the usa were against the Usa. I wonder do people in germany honor the german soldiers of the second phase of the world war, usually demonized in usa based film fiction? Memorial is a thing of memory, the earlier title of decoration day is about decorating those who died fighting for the confederacy. Do people, any community, honor what the losing soldier fought for? Historically, during the age of global white european imperialism the only successful Black soldiers in the global white european imperial global era was in the : american continent soldiers of haiti under Dessalines who died killing whites of the usa/england/spain/france, in africa was of Menelik II in ethiopia against the italians aided by russia oddly enough. Excluding the japanese a white asian peoples as people of color, people of color defined as non white european people, everywhere else was controlled directly by white european powers for hundreds of years absent a break. Do Black Americans, America as canada to argentina, honor the memory of the old haitian soldiers? Do Black Africans, Africa as yemen to cape verde or iraq to south africa, honor the memory of the Ethiopian soldiers? The idea of Black Nationalism that the soldiers of Dessalines died for was not about sitting at a white table, it was about making Black tables by any means necessary. Again, why have Black people in the USA or any other country in the american continent started a black party of governance? The religiosity in Africa is huge. But, why is it the religion of ethiopia is not highlighted, surely the christianity of ethiopia is a better suit for christian black africans than the italian catholicism, the german protestanism or some thing made out of the usa? Remember the memory to fallen soldiers folks, but don't lie about why some soldiers died. Black soldiers in the usa dying for white man's wars is not honor, is not to be praised, even if it is your father or uncle or mom or sister. Don't turn your love for them into a manipulation of why they died. Don't tell me that a black woman died for the betterment of the world in iraq. Don't tell me that a black grandfather died for the betterment of the world at midway. Don't tell me a black uncle died for the betterment of the world at d-day. Don't tell me a black aunt died for the betterment of the world at the border between the usa and china controlled zones in Korea. Don't lie and find the time to honor the soldiers that make your current life seem traitorous or uneasy. There is no shame in working for whites, marrying whites, befriending whites, living mostly around whites in a mile radius. But, don't turn your phenotypical lack of negative bias toward whites as the purpose of the Black soldiers of Dessalines, the black or native soldiers of Jonas Caballo, the black soldiers commonly called slave revolters, the black soldiers who fought for the british against the creation of the usa. Those forebears represented the best interest of black people in the american continent. Don't lie about why they died. They did not die for you to have a white friend, befriend white people, marry whites, sit at a white table, own a piece of a white table. They died hoping you will continue their fight and kill all white people who can. To all others, who are not Black , honor your soldiers as well. Don't Knock down the nazi's because they lost, because they are criminalized in history books written by those they faced. Don't criminalize the soviets. Soldiers at their best die for their communities to be free, completely, totally, using all means including murder. You can dishonor the death of the modern soldier who applies to militaries whose actions are not about freedom to those in their country but slavery over those in others. But honor the soldiers in the past, who fought to make the lives in their community better. They may have lost, they may not have been aracial, but those soldiers died to make your community free from outsiders influence. Honor that in your memory.

https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-mothers-day-art-or-text-craft-parade-good-news-blog/?do=findComment&comment=901 STORY May 18th 2020 For today's blog, after Saturday's poll result honoring Joan of Arc's canonization, I will present fastidiously, the interview from yesterday, the positively incomparable senior rapper Simon Wheeler the third as my guest, and query him concerning a man over ten thousand voters do not know, Leo Smiley, advocate to the homeless Leo Smiley, and display it after I explain some reservations. I have wondered the purpose behind my fanbase, even if they are free or real as the random write in winning a poll is the definition to modern falsehood, hoping it is not to convey information about JSmiles1, who Leo Smiley knows too well as episode 69 concerning banned internet words attest, and convey information about Leo Smiley will help a thesis for an online class I am taking, while JSMiles1 is not worth telling children about. Simon Wheeler the third was at a replica of Angel's Hotel in his house, kept a mask on even though he lived alone, eyes showed a love of life, a pizza stain on his captain planet shirt showed a love of food, he never looked at me during the interview, he looked to the left when sad, to the right when happy , to the ceiling when quiet, to the floor when bellowing, he seemed to be preaching to the world about a prophet, though I did not ask about one. So, I asked him one question, if he knew about Leo Smiley, and he gave his reply, which concluded our interview. He replied: Ohhhh, you know there was a playa, name JSmiles1 I tell ya, he live two blocks down the road. I think his ancestor, a simple harvester, came as a pilgrim , not the one's in films then, while eight others came from the east. But when he received, and after he was Extremely pleased, his first phone , a ring tone to moan, came after every messaging. For no one wanted, he was not stunted, to message him first you see. A simple moan, not like a loud one from ol' Joan, was all he wanted to hear. If he saw anything, whether or not a plaything, he wanted to text message it , announce or boast it, right then and there. If he saw a couple, even if their life seem supple, arguing in their home, he made a texting tome. If he saw a squirrel, whether still or in a twirl, busying about a tree, he will text how later it flee. If kids were playing ball in the street, he will text it; if a pigeon took bread and flew away, he will text it. If he saw two kids flying paper airplanes he will text it. If he saw some fellas, all of them brothas, on his favorite corner, not the one with music by werner, singing or drinking about,... he will wait, cause it's never too late, for Hakim Johnson , graduate of the Harlem boys choir, and invitational caroler to the Vatican twice the pride of his sire, to etch out a tune, with magic like a rune, and do it with a smile, like all the good unpaid acts of the Hollywood miles. If he saw a kid, not one that hid, on a bike being chased, he will follow his trail, longer than the route for mail, and message every step of the way. That is why whenever JSmiles1 was about, every kid, lady, playa, knew his route. He message anything he could, if messages was water he'd fill up the woods. One time a woman named Janine, fell from the city heat, and her fall made a loud scene. I can not say who picked her up, or her apartment or who put medicine in her cup, but JSMiles1 came in her place, and looked all interested at her face, and was told she will be all well, three high fathers and two hail mary’s, yes. JSMiles1 merely texted, "She ain't recovered yet" JSMiles1 had a video game system, officially it was called a Listem, but folk called her Susan, with eyes near the control port and all. To start took five minutes to load, the sound of popcorn waiting was always to explode, cause she would never turn on, with her insides all done, cause of rain, or some pain, after a lifelong injury with a fall. Her game was simple, shoot through a space like a fipple, all the players always let her go first. If cable was on she will pause, or maybe it was the telephone that was the cause, but the user always gained huge points, but before the winning tally, in each and I mean each and every rally, she will come out with a glitch, and literally say one word on the screen, ditch , hitch or witch, and then she win. And, he had a brown basketball, more like a handball, seemed to let out gas, with each and every pass, but whenever he was shot, turned into a perfect pi-rock, and clear out rivals from the lot. Some tried to use a different ball, but a calamity will always predate its fall, truck/knife/bullet or something where Ronald Reagan which is the name of the ball, passed around dead and dying, JSMiles1 telling all the angry they lying, until he get the ball whop, a shot go in and mouths drop, while JSMiles1 message what he saw. That ball was always good for a story, various literal glory, till the day the kids played with brown ball, bigger than a common handball, Reagan tried to replace him, but he wasn't able to trick him, and disheartened the old ball puffed all his air out. Ronald was a good ball, and could had made it onto Ringling brothers, but no call came before his fall, and he was unlike any of his others. Shed a tear, let the drink drop, the last great basketball I was once near, sad he went out a flop. The great JSMiles1, the only one, had a jump rope, dice, a rooster, a genie's collection of everything, so he could message about anything. He one time caught a frog, hopped into his hand from a fog, in the local park, texted "I have a green son to teach", for months he spoke like a lark, teaching under a year the hopper. Hop over a toy car, hop over the plastic star, catch a fly over an orange juice glass, catch a fly under the chair for his wee lass. The frog has no limit, he said, over and over again, each day teach a lil bit, he said, believe in him, believe in him. I saw Steph in my home, right behind me, begin a tome, "in the beginning flies " for no fee, and faster than superman, a hop over a stan' , then more stoic than a Tibetan monk as if all his ambition sunk. No frog was ever like him, before or afterward. JSMiles1 love to boast about the little green beastie, kept him safe when he traveled in a pocket made side his hoodie. One day, a loner, a stranger on the block, asked: "what is that thing on your neck, a sock". JSMiles1 say:"yoyoyo don't talk about my son, he may bite you like a snake or leap at you like a rat, but he is just my pet, frog" Surprised, the guy wonder what's it talent and why. JSMiles1 smile and smile: "he is the Frog that I always message everyone about, the frog that can outleap any other frog you can find or see" The distant neighbor shake his head, no and no and no. "I am willing to put my money where my mouth is": JSMiles1 preach. "You have not studied the fine art of frog training, clearly, you only seen things on tv... He can out jump any frog in Calaveras county, cause he always did, and since your shirt show you a trader, I am willing to bet forty dollars, my fellow playa" The stranger hummin: "To bad, but I will never know and neither will you. I have no frog, but if I did... I will bet you" And JSMiles1 brighten: "wait a minute, stay right there, here is my hoodie I will be right back" The fella took out his wallet and sat down on the fire hydrant; he ponder to himself, about the possible new wealth, and took the frog out his blanket, and remembering his lunch, pushed in a bit from chopped rotisserie chicken, as a late frog brunch. On the concrete the frog sat, still like a wrestler out for the count on the mat. JSMiles1 returned all muddy, clothes colored around a ruddy, with a common wild frog in his hands and say: "ok, we are now ready. Here... and place him next to Steph Hawkin, that is my frog' name, and you best remember it after this. On three we will let them go" Both men held their racers, each hopping a hop is no different than phasers. The stranger give a gentle tap, and the wild frog hop elsewhere on the concrete map. But, Steph just sat there, wonderin like the hippies did over there. No matter what his frog just sat and JSmiles1 had to admit, in his message, where his frog was at. The guy took the money and went on down the sidewalk, but before he crossed the street, he look to Steph and balk: "us another simple frog I see" JSmiles1 was upset, and stared at his son now set: "What is wrong with you Steph, tell me" After a lift he noticed his weight, and all comprehension concerned his former fate. He saw the stranger turn a distant corner and raced after him getting warmer, and warmer, but he never caught him. And Suddenly a yell, the rapper leaped from his seat and placed his face close to the screen: "Stay right there , brother man" But, I think I learned enough about the infamous JSMiles1 and doubted much will come about Leo Smiley so I cut off the video conference with a polite message. Immediately after, I got a reply from Wheeler, about JSmiles1 Volkswagen beetle his grandfather gave him. But, I had no further inclination and took my leave. Happy Belated Canonization of Joan of Arc Happy Belated Jumping Frog Jubilee based on the first story published by Mark Twain, the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County …If you enjoyed this tale check out the others utilizing the links below Bookbub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/richard-murray-16885e64-6c28-459e-bf5f-45c7d458ce49 Poetry or More Audiobook https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Poetry%20or%20More&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=06baba96-5af5-5d24-9b8a-f06360287dc9 Visasiki Audiobook https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Visasiki%20Series&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=965aea81-4e13-53fe-8bc8-22fcb6d28a39 Short Story Collection https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Richard%20Murray%20Short%20Story%20Collection&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=014c67c4-d29d-584e-ada0-62c0fa015714

Story 1 https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-mothers-day-art-or-text-craft-parade-good-news-blog/?do=findComment&comment=897 Story 2 https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-mothers-day-art-or-text-craft-parade-good-news-blog/?do=findComment&comment=899 STORY 1 It is so warm mommy, stay there, don’t move around, I need to get my sauna time in. But I will be hungry in a little while. Oh wait, wait, let me get my pose in. Kata Stance!!! … Mommy, that baby look like me, but why it covered in gold. why mommy? Poppa paint it that way. Poppa tickle my feet, I like that. But he wrong, I rather drink milk than look at your neck mommy. You call me Rosey, just like those things. But you say I’m cuter, I agree with you. Oh pappa want to hug us, hold on mommy. later, other mommy and baby. … I want to run, like that kitty kat. Let me go and run mommy or you run with me, please?! Where is papa? why he play so many games? Your neck is shiny, can I see your neck? thank you. Ha! there is papa, he hide mommy. He hide behind a bush. What is over there? … MOMMY! I want to play with the cards now! MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! It is not funny Papa MOMMY! … Thank you mom, thank you for this, I know you had to reschedule a conference. I think papa will like this photograph. Behave yourself Cocoa! Play the thumb game and be still for us, please. Ok go mama! Oh, yes… I remember when Papa showed that photo to me. It is not funny, I wanted to play with those Kemet cards. I still got them too. HOLD STILL! ok ok Got it! … Yes Malika, isn’t this setup a nice concept. Ma told me about it years ago while your husband was in her womb. Lil Hakim is like him, so at peace. Remember to always call ma when you need assistance, I know I have for my little one. Yes, Malika, one month due… oh, there she is now, BUT HOLD STILL, this is it …If you enjoyed this tale check out the others utilizing the links below Bookbub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/richard-murray-16885e64-6c28-459e-bf5f-45c7d458ce49 AALBC https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/blog/29-richard-murray-hearth/ Poetry or More Audiobook https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Poetry%20or%20More&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=06baba96-5af5-5d24-9b8a-f06360287dc9 Visasiki Audiobook https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Visasiki%20Series&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=965aea81-4e13-53fe-8bc8-22fcb6d28a39 Short Story Collection https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Richard%20Murray%20Short%20Story%20Collection&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=014c67c4-d29d-584e-ada0-62c0fa015714 STORY 2 I remember walking alongside you in this park Ma. Just like that baby duck, but walking. The sun was brilliant every time we went out. Hey stop that, I don't need preening. Here click the shot then. ... I am not preening you back, no way. Yes I know the baby fox look cute but I am not a baby anymore. Ha! Don't look like that. Well alright, I will let fate decide. I will kiss you on the cheek while I take the photo. ... ... I will get an exhibit in this gallery one day, don't worry Ma. No this is a collection from various photographers. Ha! you like that one. Ha! I wanted to play drums with Morris. I had to help my brother find his vocation. I can't wait to hear him later tonight. ... I have a question, does Dad still get a taste? I am not ashamed to ask a valid adult question to my mother in public? I am not tasting them now... I am not done doing it, I merely moved on to greener pastures. Ha! Yes, Rose and Makeda will meet us at the art exhibit. ... Yes, I stole milk from my daughter. Rose knew it would happen, she was complicit. ... Look at those cheeks, sleepy head. I wish we can see inside a baby dream. I wonder what wonder. I was meditating Ma?! I was relaxed, in your arms was comfort, and during a hug... still is. ... Yeah, I love black mothers too. Amazing the happiness under such duress. ... do the dance now ? I know you have not forgotten. Did you do it when you held Makeda? ... Wait, here is my dance for my grandchild to be... Ha! ... ... Hi! there they are. ... You want some water Rose? Nanna gets all the attention huh? ... I love you to Makeda. ... Love the opening selection. Yeah she does. I remember when you looked like that Rose, I know Pop will say the same to you Ma. ... yes, it seems all females know it is time for another kind of strength when motherhood come. ... yeah, it is universal ... It's Mary Magdalene... a woman in Christian lore little one. I agree Ma, Makeda was cuter. Oh thank you. I know you were cuter my love. You want to be a mom one day Makeda? Ha!

Story 1 https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-earth-day-art-or-text-craft-parade-good-news-blog/?do=findComment&comment=894 Story 2 https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-earth-day-art-or-text-craft-parade-good-news-blog/?do=findComment&comment=895 STORY 1 The elders say cats always walk the way to the lair of the Earth Seed. A child of earth born once every turn of the Earth about the Sun. Some say an earth seed is a child of earth with the sun, but no one has ever recorded such an event accept the plants. The elders also say, you know when a cat is close to an Earth Seed when a cat cross the mushrooms that grow wildest. The elders say, if you follow a cat, long enough, though no exact distance is ever known, you will reach an arcade of trees That is only the gateway to an Earth Seed when a cat on the path goes through it, otherwise it is just an arcade of trees on earth, not unlike any other. In the year 1970, a man painted a moment in time in the year 1936 when he followed the town cat who lived in Mr. Madsen’s barn past a set of oddly wild mushrooms and through an arcade of trees in Decatur Iowa. The experienced man, then a young man, did not know what he would find in that little wood. But it surprised him. At first, he thought a dragon, but he never saw a dragon that seemed to be made of algae. The creature seemed so gentle, or unassuming, it merely looked at him and then went back into its nestling. Days came and the man enjoyed its company. In the painting the man showed his younger self giving the Earth Seed an apple. He recalls his younger self being perturbed when the dragon puffed the apple away. He did not know what to do and wondered why it had scars on it, while it never left this area. Time past and the experienced man is now decades older and he is standing in the same green way years in the future. A man whose secrets about the Earth Seed will seem to die with him, for reasons the common people may never know. But, standing in full glory before this man whose time is nearly up is a fully fledged Earth Seed, no longer algae-ic with wings cut into by the ills applied to earth, or that is what some suggest cause the wounds, but now a serpentine with wild leaves about itself. A gallant dragon needing to speak to its father. The experienced man can only look at the Earth Seed fly up into the sky and to beyond. The Experienced Man near the end of his time say a prayer: “or helping this life, please earth, sun, moon, stars, please help the other children of earth”. And the Earth Seed flew up into the sky. Days later astronauts in the International Space Station said they saw a brilliant green light emit on the atmosphere of earth. They explained that the ions outside Earth’s electromagnetic field collide at it and produce the illuminations commonly called the Northern Lights, but what the now dead experienced man knew, and all those who get to aid an Earth Seed know, it is in those moments when the sun touch the earth , as the lords of the Nile depicted, when the Earth Seed can leave its mother and provide blessings to all children of earth, if the other children earned it. STORY 2 A spirit to a world speak: "hmmm, I feel my grandmother as I sleep. She is singing to me, a song of timelessness. When she was a little star swimming free in the bottom or topless sea. I wish I will live as long as her, but I know I will not. At least some of my children are not marsupial and they may go on and live on their aunts and uncles or others in my large family... I feel the need to wake up to end my sleep. I see myself as I wake" "I need to speak to one of my children today. In my waking dreams I can hear them speak to me. But, what was it about? I think it was to celebrate something. I guess I will make an avatar". ... an avatar to Earth form in a bright afternoon. And the earth avatar walked about a small town, walking along the main avenue, the green bushels forming her hair gently brushing through the air. People are in shock looking at this natural automaton. The earth spirit only know it remember someone is important today. She stop and look about and suddenly, a person claps. And another clap and the whole street fills up with people, clapping. The earth spirit is still unaware to the why or how? Then she see a banner: 'Happy Earth Day'. And a couple come out hand in hand and the woman speak: "this is for you Earth!". Servers came around a corner with little plates or folded tables holding cut pieces of dirt. The man speak to earth, winking at her: 'you taste good earth'. The earth spirit is flushed, unaware to what he was suggesting and she speak: "well, my water is nice right?" A little child go to the avatar and say: "I love water" and the earth spirit in the earth avatar on her body, grab the child and tickle their belly. The servers set the tables and place the sweets. The woman speak to the earth avatar: "do you want to know how you taste like?" The earth spirit look down and see the plate of sweets. She look to it and sniff, and grab one block of earth looking sweet and offer it to the child, who loves the taste. The child say: "I love you earth" The earth smile and say: "I love you too"

Author @Milton [ Milton Davis ] reads excerpts from Muscadine Wine and Spacefunk. 6/18/2025 transcript 0:09 [Music] welcome y'all thanks for coming um my 0:15 name is Milton Davis i am a author/publisher and I specialize in science fiction and fantasy based on 0:20 African African diaspora culture and traditions and so today I'm going to be uh talking about about a couple of books 0:26 that I have out right now um um I've been writing since um 2008 0:32 um I've written um about 30 novels since that time um I've published um about 0:40 12 anthologies um I've been a part of different I've been more recently I was 0:45 in the Black Panther Tales of Wakanda anthology i wrote a story for that um I also was part of a um an an editorial 0:52 group for um the best the 2022 best African spectative fiction stories which 0:57 got nominated for an award and stuff like that so I've been doing this for a minute um but today I wanted to to uh 1:03 really do something in the neighborhood i don't live far from here and this is a cool bookstore and I wanted to talk about a couple of books that I got out 1:09 right now that I want to highlight um when I first started writing I tried to stay away from incorporating my personal 1:17 life into a lot of stuff that I wrote right science fiction and fans i just didn't want to do that but as I got older and and I started thinking about a 1:25 lot about the time period that I grew up and stuff like that um I felt like I 1:30 needed to leave some kind of stories that kind of reflected on that i was born in 1960 um grew up during you know 1:35 the 60s and the 70s and stuff like that and then in in the South so and um I 1:42 guess as I got older those stories became more important to me it made me realize how unique it was um where we 1:49 grew up and how we grew up and stuff like that so um I wrote this book called Muskadine Wine it's a collection of 1:55 short stories and each of the stories are based on personal experiences and experiences in in general about um 2:02 growing up in the South and incorporating different things like that into it and um a matter of fact the uh 2:09 musketine wine story with the art here is loosely based on how my mother met my 2:15 father back in the 1930s and stuff so I kind of did it based on that but the um 2:21 I'm going to read an excerpt from one of the stories here and I also have another book that I have here it's called Space Funk and the use the unique thing about 2:28 that is as a black author especially a black science fiction author there's certain ways people want you to write um 2:34 and so I started a series of anthologies I call the funk anthologies and another indication that I grew up in the 70s but 2:42 what what I do with those anthologies that I give black authors the opportunity to write in genres the way 2:47 that they want to write in them um without the restrictions that you normally run into when you're dealing with mainstream publishers and we've got 2:55 um five different anthologies we've got um steam funk um diesel funk spy funk 3:02 cyber funk and the latest most recent one is space funk and that's actually the biggest one we've ever done we got 3:08 more authors than we ever had um because you know black folks want to write about space so So that's basic that's 3:14 basically what we did we got some of the um top um black science fiction authors in that um in that anthology we've got 3:21 authors from around the world we got authors from Brazil from Nigeria from Kenya um from um what's the other one um 3:28 in Central America I can't think of it right now but we were able to get a wide spectrum of authors and stuff and have them tell stories that are like you know 3:35 about space but also has influences from their cultures into cultures as well so I'm going to read a little short thing out that one but the first one I want to 3:42 start with is uh Musketine wine and um this particular story most most of them 3:48 are fantastic but this one is uh more uh conventional fiction and it's 3:54 based on the only conversation I ever had with my grandfather on my mother's 4:00 side um it wasn't because he was not a nice person it was just that he was a 4:05 person that um whenever we went out to the farm because my my mom and dad's farm they still had a farm now and we 4:11 would go out there and visit um he would go into his shed he'd give us a Coke a 4:19 piece of sugar cane a box of cracker jackacks and then he'd walk off and that's basically what he do we come out 4:25 there that's what he do so one day I was out on the farm i was older then i was a teenager then and um I was into hunting 4:32 and fishing and stuff like that country boy you know so and I was supposed to be going hunting with one of my uncles and 4:37 when I got out there my uncle had already gone and my grandfather came up to me and said "Uh you know what you what are you doing i said I'm supposed 4:43 to go hunting he said well he said well your my uncle my uncle Willie said he's he's already gone he said I'll take you 4:49 and so I was like okay and um I didn't hunt the entire time because we spent 4:56 the whole time just walking around the farm and he was just telling me these stories about different things and stuff 5:02 like that and so we didn't hunt at all and so this story is uh is loosely based 5:07 on that that and some other things that um I guess I've encountered growing up 5:13 in the south um different things like that and I wanted to kind of touch on so I'm just going to read the first part of 5:18 it just enough to tease y'all so you'll buy the book but just to give you just want to give 5:24 you some background on that story okay um Michael felt heat radiating from his 5:30 wood panel bedroom wall and sprang from his bed the smell of bacon waftda into 5:35 his room as he h heard into jeans and sweatshirt he set out the night before wrestling on his tennis shoes and 5:41 trotted through the narrow hallway into into the kitchen mama stood before the stove one hand holding the black iron 5:47 skillet in place while the other scrambled a pair of eggs in a hot pool of bacon grease 5:52 "what you doing up so early boy?" she asked without looking michael sat at the dinette holding his 5:59 eager hands under his chin "you going to grandma's?" Mama scrapped the scrambled eggs onto a 6:05 plate i go out there every Saturday morning you know that michael played 6:10 with the napkin holder rocking his head from side to side can I go mama was reaching for the grits 6:17 but stopped placing her hand on her broad hips now why in the world do you want to go with me 6:24 because I want to go hunting mama rolled her eyes you and that gun i told your 6:30 daddy not to buy you that thing unless he was ready to go hunting with you his tire behind ain't been out with you yet 6:36 she scooped a spoonful of grits on the plate to join the eggs and bacon you know you can't go by yourself and your 6:42 daddy ain't waking up no time soon michael smothered his grits with pepper uncle Willie would take me how you know 6:49 he going hunting today this close to harvest time he's probably got chores 6:55 michael piled his eggs on top of his grits with the with the pepper and crumbled bacon in his hands i called him 7:00 last night and he said he was going mama turned around and looked at him her eyes 7:06 wise you did what she shook her head lord Lord what am I 7:12 going to do with you she began to make her own plate and stopped what about that book report you supposed to be 7:17 working on you finished it yet no ma'am no and how you expect to go with me if 7:24 you ain't if you got homework to do i'll finish it as soon as I get home mama i promise mama turned to look at Michael 7:32 what you writing about michael spread apple jelly on his toast i'm supposed to 7:37 be writing about my hero i'm thinking about Frederick Douglas mama finished her plate before Michael finished his 7:44 plate before Mama sat down i guess you can go she said but we ain't leaving 7:49 till I'm ready to you hear me yes ma'am and I want to see that book report after church tomorrow yes ma'am michael jumped 7:57 from the table and ran to mama and daddy room to get his 22 rifle he hoarded his lawn cutting money all summer just about 8:03 as a birthday present to himself it was a Springfield Savage 22 semi-automatic long rifle the perfect gun for squirrel 8:10 and rabbit hunting or so the sales clerk at Sea said michael eased the door open 8:15 and crept close to and and crept to the closet behind the bed daddy was stretched out on top of the covers in 8:22 his boxes short and t-shirt snoring through his thick mustache the closet door creaked when Michael 8:28 slid it aside and daddy's hand came up to scratch his sideburns michael froze until he stopped scratching then slid 8:35 the door wide open the gun was hidden behind mama sun mama's Sunday dresses he 8:41 took it out then went to daddy's loose change drawer where he kept the bullets there was a brand new pack of 100 shells 8:46 that felt like money in the boy's hand michael strolled into the kitchen carrying the rifle the way daddy taught 8:53 him mama looked up from her cup of coffee and grinned despite herself "you look like your uncle Bo when he was your 8:59 age," she said she got up from the table and headed for the bedroom "guess I better get ready the day ain't getting 9:05 no longer." Michael washed his plate then went to the den he laid his gun down on the floor and turned on TV to 9:12 watch cartoons he'd almost forgotten about going with mama when she came in the den "cut that mess off and let's 9:19 go," she said michael scrambled to his feet turned off the TV and then grabbed the gun and bullets now remember what I 9:26 said we don't leave till I'm ready yes ma'am and if your uncle Willie ain't 9:31 can't take you hunting you don't go yes ma'am all right then let's go m michael 9:39 trailed mama out the door to the carport to the 67 sky blue Malibu in moments 9:44 they were zooming through the neighborhood down steep hills between the little water oaks of the city had planned to beautify the landscape mama 9:51 worked her way through the side streets and shortcuts with the seriousness of a NASCAR driver reaching Mon Road the 9:56 two-lane highway that ran to Grandma's farm the sky was a crisp autumn blue 10:01 empty of the gray haze that sagged low during the summer the summer morning spread its light across the pineinfested 10:07 hills it felt like hunting season and Michael was excited he watched the 10:12 familiar landmarks flash by from his backseat window until he saw the solidary shack that signaled the farm 10:18 wasn't far away mama finally slowed down as the roadside mailboxes came into view 10:24 she stood off the path highway and onto the dirt road she was creeping as they approached the railroad crossing only 10:30 the section crossing of the road was visible the rest blocked by a tangle of scrub pines and honey honeysuckle vines 10:37 mama turned left across the track she drove to the g through a gauntlet of blackberry vines that made Michael that 10:43 made Michael's mouth water as he remembered blackberry pie and ice cream they turned right at the hog pins the 10:49 house appeared flanked by the corn and peas and pea fields mama drove down the 10:54 road to the rear of the house parking between the house and the shed michael jumped out the car before mama came to a 11:00 complete stop his impatient eyes circling for Uncle Willie his euphoria was checked by a jerk of his arm that 11:06 almost lifted him off his feet boy don't you ever jump out of the car like that again mama's face would get me was get 11:13 me a switch angry don't go hitting on that boy a much older female voice 11:18 growled grandma stood at the screen door of the of the back patio michael blessed 11:23 her for saving him for what surely was going to be a whooping or at least a pinch on the arm she eased down the 11:29 concrete stairs wiping her hands on her apron did you see what he did mama said 11:34 he ain't hurt you'll know better next time won't you Michael yes ma'am michael 11:40 followed Mama and Grandma up the stairs since he made mama mad he sat beside the women in an old folding chair took his 11:47 share of the butter beans from the bushel and began shelling he kept his eyes low and peeled as they talked 11:53 waiting for the right moment to ask the question that was burning to get out of his throat mama stopped talking as she grabbed 11:59 another handful of beans michael cleared his throat and looked up at Grandma 12:04 grandma is Uncle Willie here shoot boy uncle Willie Uncle Willie went hunting 12:10 right about sun up he won't be back until dark michael slumped over like he'd been hit by a brick he looked at 12:16 Mama with pleading eyes i told you no hunting by yourself with that gun she reminded him 12:23 i'll take him grandpa shuffled in from the kitchen his hands deep in his overall pockets he smiled at Michael 12:31 flashing his gold tooth and Michael was filled with dread "you feel like hunting today Daddy?" Mama asked "you supposed 12:38 to be resting." "I don't want to go hunting no more," Michael whispered "i feel fine," Grandpa 12:45 replied pulling his right hand out of his pocket michael watched the gnawled scarred appendage rise out the old man's 12:51 ball head to the old man's ball head "it was hideous like something from a freak 12:56 show at the fair when he was small he always was careful to avoid touching or being touched by that hand and his 13:03 mirror twin he thought when he was older he'd get over the fear but it was still clinging to him as real as ever 13:10 i don't want to go hunting no more he said "is it all right?" Mama asked Grandpa grandpa concentrated on Grandma 13:18 concentrated on the peas the doctor said he needed to get some exercise 13:23 "i don't want to go hunting no more," Michael shouted boy can't you see grown folks talking mama nailed him stealed 13:30 her stare then returned to her conversation well Papa I guess it's okay but you keep 13:36 a close eye on him he can get wild sometimes what you mean you guess it's okay grandpa said i'll take this boy 13:43 anywhere I want to come on Michael let's go hunting michael watched the back of 13:48 Grandpa's head as he bounced down the stairs he looked at Mama in desperation what you waiting on go on now 13:56 michael turned and followed Grandpa down the stairs he could do this he was 12 14:01 going on 13 with two hairs on his chest and a start of a mustache on his upper lip his confidence had almost returned 14:08 until he caught a glimpse of those hands pull out a porch of red a pouch of red man chewing tobacco he jumped past 14:13 grandpa and tried to the car to get his 22 what you going to kill with that time 14:19 michael ignored the comment holding the gun toward the ground like daddy had taught him and making sure his safety was on squirrels 14:26 and rabbits sir," he said grandpa laughed like a laughed like a wet growl "can't kill no squirrels with that thing 14:33 ain't going to do nothing but make them mad should have brought my shotgun." Grandpa started walking and Michael 14:39 followed afraid to say where he wanted to hunt they followed the trail branching off the dirt road that cut 14:44 between the the barn and the and the old mule stables "no can't kill nothing with 14:50 that thing," Grandpa said "can't kill it right?" I mean you shoot a squirrel with that and they'll be running around mad 14:56 hurting and hiding shotgun a shotgun will put him down just like that grandpa 15:01 stopped walking and Michael almost ran into him "see this?" he asked pointing at a dent between his right thumb and 15:08 his finger "shot a squirrel one time and thought it was dead." "I guess I should have asked it before I went to picking 15:14 it up damn thing took a hold of me right there like a beaver trap took a half an hour to get it loose and it was dead 15:20 half that time michael looked at the spot and grimaced imagining how painful it must have felt 15:26 suddenly the scar and the hand were gone sinking back into grandpa's pocket 15:32 they walked to the second hog pin where the trail ended the air heavy with the stink of swamp and m swamp mud and hog 15:38 droppings before them was the turnup the turnup green field the fall planting full and ready for harvest grandpa 15:45 walked into the field and over the barb wire fence separating the field to the woods michael hadn't planned on going to 15:51 those trees it was a tangle of pine oaks and musketine vines that seemed per perpetually dark and it repulsed the 15:58 sun's attempt to penetrate his core blind obedience only went so far 16:04 grandpa where we going you want to shoot squirrels don't you michael reluctantly 16:10 nodded his head but this is the best spot for them at least it was a while back come over here and hold this wire 16:16 down for me michael sat the gun down on the opposite side of the fence then grabbed the wire 16:22 carefully pushing down with his weight grandpa stepped over his hand gripping Michael's shoulder for support michael 16:28 closed his eyes keeping his head away from that hand "got to be careful," 16:34 Grandpa said as he grunted his way over the fence "once he and Michael were settled," he showed him his left hand 16:40 "when I was about your uncle Willy's age I worked for a white man named Mr elias Burnside in his sawmill it was hard work 16:47 back then because a colored man did whatever the boss said do even if it wasn't your job well one day I was 16:54 putting up a fence like this like this one on Mr burnside's farm and before I knew it I was up to my ankles and fire 17:00 ants boy I got to jumping around and screaming and tore my hand on that barbwire took me a long time to get this 17:07 hand back right michael climbed over the fence the woods towered before him like in black silence 17:14 his stillness of final warning to all intruders michael eyes went to Grandpa waiting for him to lead the way instead 17:22 Grandpa reached into his pocket pulled out his red man chewing tobacco and leaned against the fence "we'll stay 17:28 here and wait," Grandpa said "they'll come to us." And that's a portion of Grandpa's hands 17:38 um there's a uh there's a thing about his 17:44 hands that if you read the rest of the story you will encounter 17:50 but uh but yeah that's uh that's part of that story right there um like I told y'all earlier this book is um it's a 17:56 collection of of space stories by black authors um they're from um different parts of um parts of the world we've got 18:03 poetry in here um some of the authors here like for instance uh uh Linda Addison and Sheree Renee Thomas Eugene 18:10 Bacon are some of the top black science fiction authors out today um I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of 18:15 them and when I put out the call for this book I was surprised at the response I got uh this is the biggest anthology that we've done so far um the 18:23 story that I want to read to you guys is I'm going to be selfish and actually read my story 18:30 a portion of my story and it's kind of it's a story I wrote a long time ago but 18:37 um um recently there's been a lot of talk about artificial intelligence and stuff 18:44 like that and in this story I was actually imagining um artificial 18:49 intelligence and how it would be used in space travel and it also came from uh u 18:55 part of the story came from the person that this book is uh dedicated to um author by the name of Valjan Jeffers um 19:02 Valjon is no longer with us um but she is was an amazing science fiction author and poet and um we used to hang out on 19:10 online together and I had never read anybody do any science fiction poetry before and so I put out a challenge i 19:16 said "Look I I if somebody will write a a science fiction poem I'll write a 19:22 story based on that poem." And Val Jean did and she sent this poem called 19:27 Leviathan and I'm like "Okay now I got to put my money where my mouth is i got 19:32 to write a story." So basically the the name of the story is Leviathan and it starts with the um poem and then um I go 19:41 into the story um you I don't talk so loud but yeah I feel the 19:49 fun and everything so I'll try to project more um so I'm going to read the poem first and then I'll read a I'll 19:55 read a portion of the story leviathan of flesh and steel racing 20:00 through streets soaring of technological genius his fist crush tons of debris to 20:07 dust his sight travels miles over designated horizons torn from his life 20:13 crushed disembowled by madness infernal and stone to be reconstructed by 20:19 humanoed hands and I'd rather be dead he remembers the whisper of a lover's 20:25 breath on his cheek the head he cradled so gently against his shoulder and he 20:30 has no tear ducts to give voice to his sorrow only the dreams of his hardwire 20:36 heart never forgotten imagineers of her soft caressed upon his 20:41 metal brow space marshal Balagon Babatunde posed be 20:48 posed before the view shield of launch station 5 his rugged brown face creased with a broad smile behind him United 20:56 Nations delegation gazed in awe at the sight beyond the platform jutting into the void 10 sleek vessels hovered in 21:04 zero gravity tethered to the hangar beam by a web of massive titanium cables from 21:10 a distance they remember they were resembled normal fighter craft minus the cockpit but the delegation knew each 21:17 ship was the size of Earth's moon an unbelievable example of human ingenuity effort and desperation 21:24 balogon turned to his colleagues and his smile grew wider well everyone what do 21:29 you think they're amazing and John Ratic replied a tall narrow man with a beak 21:35 nose and straw blonde hair Radic served as UN vice secretary he was a successful 21:40 American billionaire who paid for his position with the council and was easily impressed the space marshal dismissed 21:46 his comment focusing on the one person whose opinion mattered more the one who could make or break his project her 21:53 expression was less impressive the mechanics are simple fish ambeck 21:58 commented "I'm more concerned about the control system." Fish day the Nigerian 22:04 vice chairperson overseeing the Leviathan project was a striking woman with flawless brown skin and intense 22:09 amber eyes she held a PhD in space engineering and was not easily impressed 22:15 balagon's f smile faded the control system is fine fish day cut her eyes at 22:22 the space marshall the control system is untested yuenh how cleared his throat looking up 22:29 at both of them ai has proven technology you know this Fer the Taiwanese delegate 22:34 and AI specialist stood beside the space marshal he was as tall and broad as the space marshal with empathetic eyes that 22:42 revealed his that revealed his support for the for the project yes but only for military purposes she 22:48 answered i understand the gravity of the situation the signal from the tipc left no doubt that they intend to attack to 22:54 attack us so much for friendly first contact John whispered i'm not comfortable with 23:00 thinking weapons foolish your day finished that's why I insisted you come the space marshall broke from the group 23:07 crossing the room to a instrument panel opposite the view screen begin demonstration he ordered the titanium 23:14 cables separated from the ships floating to rest in the cold vacuum engine ports glowed white hot as the vehicles 23:20 prepared themselves for maneuvers balagon activated his earpiece leviathan 23:26 one commence cross check cross cross check are you talking to the ship fish 23:32 asked of course Balagon replied the Leviathans have been taught to recognize and respond to all Earth languages of 23:39 course they also interpret binary code and other basic speak this is Leviathan 23:44 1 the metallic voice responded cross check is complete fishete edged toward 23:50 the view screen how do they receive assignments we brief the pod leader and 23:55 he relays the orders to the team fisher should look confused the pod leader the 24:01 Leviathans are infused with part social behavior they work as a group adapting learned behavior to determine each 24:07 ship's responsibility leviathan one is the most intelligent of the 10 the others selected him to be the pod leader 24:13 so we don't expect any problems with the command structure ola stared and Bagum smiled you must 24:20 understand these are semi-scentient craft balagon explained they are designed to operate independently this 24:26 means they must be allowed to make their own decisions we give them an objective and an entire and a desired result it's 24:33 up to them to determine the course of action that's too much independence foolish 24:38 argued balagon frowned at the diplomat disappointed by their ignorance when 24:43 these ships reach their destinations we will be dead our children will be dead and our children childrens will be dead 24:50 in addition the nature of the threat may have drastically changed the Leviathans must be prepared to assess situations 24:56 and adjust the plan to obtain the objective how do you know they'll stick to the plan she asked balon's face became stern 25:05 some things aren't not left a chance it's the one command they cannot alter the ships remain motionless balagon 25:12 repeated the command leviathan one begin exercise 25:17 leviathan one didn't respond sweat reform sweat formed on Balagon's forehead jennings run a communication 25:24 sequence airman Jennings fingers ran across the LED board communications f 25:30 functionally normally sir fish today came face to face with Baligon 25:35 what seems to be the problem commander balagon cleared his throat 25:40 i don't know he swam in a sea of memories grasping 25:46 for schools of shimmering metaphors that scattered before him arms stroked that he could not see legs kicked that he 25:52 could not feel somehow he knew they were there the only sensations were the cold 25:58 of the water and the pain in his heart words formed a beat of consciousness that called him in the called him with 26:05 the rush of desire she was there she waited for him he had to see her she 26:11 needed to know he stepped out of the memories onto a beach of white silicone a cold wind tingling his surface he 26:19 gazed upward into the sensors eyes into an intense brightness that spoke to him 26:24 in a thousand languages each phrase issuing the same command program malfunction 26:31 return to standby await further instructions the brightness was too intense the 26:37 memories evaporated with the increasing light confusing him he turned and ran back into the sea fell in to get away 26:44 from the glare he dove deeper to escape the light and the memory surrounding him in a swirling dance images returned 26:52 faces formed and names appeared one name danced about his head just out of his 26:58 reach it was a good name a familiar name 27:03 his name and that's 27:10 But anyway um um I have these books here today and if 27:15 you want to purchase them you can purchase them up front i'll sign the stories and stuff like that i also brought a couple of other books with me 27:20 as well um if you have any um middle-rade people in your in middle grade readers in your family um I 27:26 brought a book that I wrote a few years ago called Amber in the Hidden City it's about a young African-American girl who 27:31 finds out she's the only person that can pick a the next king of an African kingdom that's been hidden from the rest 27:36 of the world for a thousand years and uh her grandmother is from that kingdom and would tell Amber these stories um 27:42 stories about her life which Amber thought were fairy tales but now she knows they were actually true so now she's on this adventure with her 27:48 grandmother to go back to this kingdom and um and fulfill her her her um prophecy i guess you can say that um I 27:55 have the first the book the first book and the second book here and for those of you who are into um cozy holiday 28:04 romance books because I write a little bit of everything I have another book here called Palmetal Christmas and it's 28:09 about a um an older couple um empty nesters kids are grown and gone who have 28:15 decided they want to take a vacation on during Christmas and go to they've always been at home every year but they 28:20 want to go to an aisle and hang out and stuff like that but then through a series of circumstances they find out that they're not going to be gone by 28:26 themselves all of their children somehow are going to end up with them on that same vacation and uh I guess you can say 28:33 hilarity ensues so but that's what I have with here with me today and um so um thank y'all for uh 28:40 taking your time to check me out and if y'all have any questions right now I'm I'd be more than happy to answer 28:51 well I started and I still am a self-publisher and and I did it because I wanted to be able to write my books 28:57 exactly the way I wanted to write them and at the time um and even now still 29:02 you know black authors have challenges in getting their work published because people have certain perceptions of what 29:08 we should be writing and how we should be writing it it's not as bad as it was when I first started but when I first started I kind of looked at the re I 29:14 researched the industry and I was like you know um nobody's going to accept my stories the way that I want to write them so I started writing them myself 29:21 started self-publishing myself and I also um published a few other authors that's why I started the anthologies 29:28 because I when I started doing it I said "Well I know there's other authors who probably have run into the same things 29:33 I've run into and they would you know be looking for an opportunity." So that's why I started doing it so um now 29:42 I'm here 20 years later and I'm what's called a hybrid publisher now because 29:48 now I get published in mainstream published works but I wouldn't that 29:54 wouldn't have happened if I had not self-published you know I was able to develop a reputation from about my 30:02 writing by doing it on my own and that kind of translated and now that's kind of the common thing now a lot of authors 30:08 now are like doing both they'll publish their own work and then they'll publish mainstream as well it just depends on 30:14 the situation they'll have they'll have an agent to promote themselves with the mainstream publishing but then they'll do their own personal work and publish 30:21 that themselves and what happens if there sometimes what happens when your self-published stuff gets really big 30:27 then the mainstream publishing people will come and say "Hey we want to publish that." And then then you could that way you can get an agent and go 30:33 through them and then uh and and access that market and stuff what platform you use to sell 30:39 i don't know anything about question sounds kind of but what platform do you use process the process 30:47 um I basically um now I use a a manuscript software to create my 30:53 manuscripts and stuff i do own use I use Word to do my stuff um once I make once I get my books formatted um there's a 31:00 company called um what they were called Lightning Source back in the day but now they they call themselves Ingram and 31:05 what Ingram will do is if you once you format everything and send it to them they will create your book for you and 31:12 you can get your book print on demand you can you can order one book from them you can order a 100 books from them and 31:17 they'll print them for you um as far as distribution is concerned if you want to get distribution they also are the 31:23 largest distri book distribution company in the country and they basically will 31:29 um um if they'll for a fee they will make your book available to bookstores 31:35 like this Barnes & Noble any place that sells books they'll make your book a book books available like that um so 31:40 that's what they'll do am*zon also will do it am*zon will also do have has a print on demand business as well um the 31:47 the advantage of using am*zon's print on demand is that if you sell your books on am*zon um they're cheaper for you to 31:55 print but just recently am*zon went up on their prices big time you know because of what we're going through with 32:01 the tariff situation and a lot of my friends that use am*zon are not very happy right now because that biting into 32:06 their profit margins and stuff like that you know so So there's a there's a number of ways to do it now there's there's um ebooks which are big um 32:14 there's actually a company called Draft to Digital that I use right now which they basically will distribute your ebook to different people so you go set 32:21 your ebook up with them and then they'll they'll make your ebook available for Kindle and all the other e-readers to 32:27 libraries and stuff like that you know so and this then this is just like a one-stop shop you know that's kind of thing you don't pay them what they do is 32:34 that they take a percentage when you sell um if you're getting if you're thinking about being an author and you're looking at doing something 32:40 anybody that tells you that you have to pay them to produce your book you know as far as like we're gonna we're going 32:47 to be your publisher and we're going to sell your book but you have to pay us to publish your book don't mess with them because a real publisher is not going to 32:53 charge you to sell your book they're not going to do that and with 32:59 um I would say I would take a look at Ingram LSI um now now understand that these people don't market your stuff all 33:07 they're gonna do is print your book for you and and and make it available to you when you need it but um they don't do 33:12 marketing they don't do anything like that that's all going talking about am*zon no um LSI Draft oh 33:20 Drafted Digital yeah Drafted Digital they do now ly they've they've they started exclusively as ebooks but now 33:27 recently they've gotten into print and they've also gotten into um audio books 33:32 and they make all that stuff available to you of course all that all that costs for you to do for them to do it for you and stuff but they they've kind of went 33:38 the opposite way where other people started with hard copy and went to ebooks they started exclusively ebooks 33:44 and then they now they've kind of drifted into the other area and stuff like that so trying to become like a one-stop shop type place you know 33:56 if it's if it's just you um you don't have to worry about all that stuff you know um you can just you 34:03 know if you can get the right setup the right room and stuff like that you can you can you can create your own audio 34:09 books um the um am*zon is probably one of the most popular popular people right now with Audible but a lot of people 34:16 don't like to use am*zon because they take the majority of the profit they take like about 60 60% something like 34:22 that you know and they used to it used to be the other way till they found out they had they thought they had a monopoly on the thing then they switch 34:27 it around and stuff like that you know so and with them basically you can they give you um uh voice actors you can pick 34:34 and select and stuff like that they give you the whole nine yards and all that kind of stuff you know but the but the the um the um the consequence is that 34:43 you don't get a lot of the profit stuff like that um but it does um the I know 34:48 some people that do it themselves but the more professionally you can do it in a studio setting you know to cut out the 34:54 noise and have somebody that can edit it for you you know when you make mistakes and stuff like Daryl here he he can edit 35:01 stuff like that you know the more professional you can do it the better it's going to be you know but uh and 35:06 some people I I I don't have the voice but I know some authors who have the voice to do their own audio books you 35:12 know me personally I'd rather find somebody that can do it themselves 35:22 i know a friend of mine who's an author who also has an audiobook company and he 35:28 basically you know he gets you know you send him the story he has a number of 35:33 voice people that he works with um he'll you know check with them and see which 35:38 ones because it is it is a thing audio a voice actor has to want to read your story sometimes they don't really like 35:44 your story so they don't want to read it you know it's like that and then based on how their pacing is he can figure out 35:50 how much it's going to cost you per hour to to pay that person how much you know how many how's how much it going to cost 35:56 you and that kind of stuff like that you know and then there are some country companies that that's all they do is audiobook stuff there's there's other 36:02 people other than Audible that can do audiobook stuff for you and they will tell you how much it's going to cost you 36:08 based on how long the work is and stuff like that now when you when you upload to Audible though Audible don't pay you 36:13 doesn't pay you as much if you upload your own audio book with them as if they were to do it but there is software out 36:21 there where because on my particular website I can do audio books and I can sell them from my website and there is 36:27 software out there where people can read can listen to my stuff you know and don't have to use Audible and stuff like 36:32 they can just listen to it straight from their stuff you know so so there there are there are ways around it and that's 36:37 the way I prefer to do it the only thing about doing it yourself is that audiobooks are expensive like this 36:43 particular book um we had our guy take a look at it cuz he's like he want he's "Oh man we got to do audio book of this 36:49 thing." You know it would cost me $6,000 to do this as a audio book you know i 36:55 mean that'll be my upfront cost just to get the Now once I pay that $6,000 now and I get the audio book then it's 37:01 straight profit because it's just electronic data you know so if I got the money to do it Yeah everything else 37:07 everything after that is gravy but see I'm kind of like you i I have some audio books but for the life of me I cannot 37:14 listen to an audio book i just can't I just can't do it 37:23 i had an author that I had one audio voice actor that did two of my books and it was interesting because um people 37:30 were like "Yeah I really I really love her on this And then somebody said but then somebody else said you know that 37:35 was a good book but I could not stand that voice actor i'm like I'm surprised they got to it 37:40 because what they were talking about so and that's a personal thing you know you really don't know who's you know but there are a lot of good voice actors out 37:47 there i' I've run into them just just from the fact that I'm out here selling my books sometimes one of them will read 37:52 a book of mine and they'll be like "Oh man i really want to do this for you man you know I I would love to do this." And stuff like that one of the curious 37:59 things about about doing um audio books especially through through um am*zon I'm just going to be honest with you that 38:05 sometimes the voice actors will ghost on you they they will start doing the work 38:10 for you and then all of a sudden you're not hearing from them anymore and I'm like you're like well what's going on and you can't find them or anything and 38:17 I've had it I've had it happen to me a couple of times there was one woman I was working with she was doing one of my books and she was amazing i mean she was 38:23 because my books are like a lot of my books are like Africanbased she was doing the African accents she was 38:28 hitting i like "Oh man this is gonna be a great book." I just couldn't wait for her to finish it and then she was gone 38:34 and and I wasn't able to find it 38:43 i have done them um not usually through something else like um like in October 38:50 um the the Atlanta writers club has a um has a indie author conference that they 38:56 do every year and actually I'm doing a uh seminar with them this year i'm going to be talking about selling and 39:02 marketing your books to beginning authors um and I've done that a couple of times there and the ironic thing 39:08 about this and I have to talk about this is that when I first started writing and I first went to the Atlanta Writers Club 39:15 um they didn't want to have anything to do with indie authors you know I like it was like I went there and I was like 39:21 wasting my time they had no time for indie authors and now here I am 20 years later and I'm doing presentations 39:27 at at the Atlanta Writers Club about indie author stuff because that's where most indie that's where most authors are 39:33 now that's the space that they're in now and that's the stuff that they want to know but at least they were I guess they 39:38 were um conscious enough to realize that their audience and the people that they're serving this is what they want 39:45 they do want to know about mainstream publishing but they also want to know about indie publishing and so they you know they responded to it and they've 39:51 been you know providing those resources and stuff you know 39:59 yeah I've done that on all levels i've been to elementary schools i've done high schools um I've done college 40:05 college stuff i do a lot of stuff with Georgia Tech um they've been supporting what we've been doing locally for a long 40:11 time and we've got a really good relationship with them and talking to their students and stuff like that and 40:16 and I think that's that's a big part of it because I know when I first started out there's so many pitfalls you can run 40:22 into as a writer trying to get into it there's so many people out there waiting to rip you off you know and there's so 40:27 many horror stories but I was lucky enough and I'm just going to say plain lucky because I didn't know what I was 40:33 doing to meet people who right off the bat were looking to help um one of the 40:39 first people that helped me was the the brother that owns Nubian Bookstore um I had no I knew nothing about making books 40:45 and creating books and I just walked into his store and my naive self I said "Hey man if I make a book will you sell 40:52 it?" And he said "Well do you have somebody do your manuscript?" I was like "Nope." He said "Do you have somebody to 40:58 do your cover?" I said "Nope." And then he went and he gave me the cards and said "You know get in contact with these 41:03 people and they'll help you put your book together and once you have your book together," he said "Bring it back to me i'll take a look at it if I like 41:09 it then I'll schedule a time where you can come in and sell your book." And so all the horror stories that I heard 41:15 other people talk about as trying to publish and self-publish I didn't run into any of that because of the fact 41:21 that he was just there and and there there were some other authors that were like mainstream published authors that I 41:28 encountered online and I was like these people have no reason to talk to me they're doing their thing and just for 41:33 the hell of it I just said look I'll ask them all they can do is say no and they were kind enough to say hey yeah I'll 41:38 write a review for your book I'll take a look at it and stuff and I kind of felt like because that happened with me I 41:44 felt like I'm obligated to do the same thing so when I run into new authors and stuff like that I kind of offer the same 41:50 thing i'm like "Yeah you know um you need to look at this person you need to talk to these people you need to go to this resource and stuff like that you 41:56 know and you need to check this out." That kind of thing you know so so I think that's part of it that's was I like to do that because of the fact that 42:02 um excuse me excuse me people did it for me and especially for black authors because you know it's everything for us 42:08 is always you know another a whole another angle and stuff like that it's gotten better but still you know you 42:14 still have to have those people who understand that who understand your journey you know and they they feel that 42:20 journey it's just not um going different steps you you know that you know the stuff that you're going to deal with so 42:26 you can give them that little extra push or that little extra information that they need in order to get them around those obstacles and stuff like that so 42:33 So I think that's that is part of it is being able to reach back and help other authors and talk to other authors about 42:38 stuff you're welcome those are some great 42:45 questions any any other questions comments curses 42:52 well I appreciate y'all appreciate y'all coming by you know like I said we got the books available here um um books 42:59 they can you can also order my books through this bookstore i do sell them directly from my website um the good thing about today though is if you buy 43:05 them today you get them signed by the forum post https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11681-author-milton-davis-reads-excerpts-from-muscadine-wine-and-spacefunk/

I was asked by Movies That Move We https://www.youtube.com/@moviesthatmoveswe/videos MY ANSWER hmm coogler's message... I see a number of them... first, he was willing to spend his money on a story involving Black DOS heritage that isn't a biopic while is an adventure tale, so his first message is for black people who have the money to invest in making stories they care about even if a financially viable precedence. I can't recall a black southern vampire adventure movie. he created what he wanted. ; second that a film based on a black southern vampire adventure has an audience willing to make it a hit if made under a certain budget, he succeeded. third: a movie can have an entire cast of black characters who are middle of the road. No pantomime black antagonist or protagonist here. I think of that will smith movie where he fights his younger self. or that van damme film where he was a twin. At the end of this film, one twin is off with his deceased wife and child into a happy netherrealm while the other twin is with his yella woman as one who will live as long as they don't see sunlight, a sort of prison/enslavement. Both men did some negative things but both have found peace. For black male characters in films this is at the most least rare, or at the most unheard of. fourth: two female black leads exist. The good female black lead is a black woman with the brownest complexion/darkest , big beautiful lips, shapely large breast, wide thickbone body. The bad is hella yella and ends up a vampire but isn't wildy roaming or something. I think he wanted to say both can exist in a movie positively. He succeeded. fifth: native americans , in a traditional sense, can exist in black dos fiction adventures. Not unheard of, ala Buck and the preacher or Posse but still rare. Sixth: black love winning. yes vampires but they live. yes dead but they are viewed happy in the netherrealm. How often are black lovers viewed at the end of a film happy? think of school daze/ghost dog way of the samurai. Many films with black people in production, either don't have black love or black love isn't the final note. Now to the questions in graphics: 1) does sinners portray faith as liberation- or illusion? 2)how does the film complicate the role of religion in black communities? Good questions. To the first the question is, which faith? What is faith? The problem with faith as a word is people usually think of faith and think of religion. But faith is not about religion. It is about a belief in anything without proof. I argue the twin whose child died had a lose of faith in religions [christianity or hoodoo] but not in humanity or himself, in life, ala their end. He had faith in his love. And believed in that love being forever. So did his wife and of course the child. What is the role of religion in the black populace of the usa? The number of black individuals whose religion is essential to their being has changed from 1865 to 2025. But the role of religion has always been complicated in the black populace of the usa. Did the movie suggest it is more complicated? I argue not enough black people have explained how many various black religious groups existed and exist in the black populace of the usa. Yes many black people are like the blues players father but many black people were like Annie, believed in more than Christianity. Arguably more did. My point is, Black people didn't convey the breadth or width or heritages in the black populace in the usa. again, the black native americans/Seminoles, the black catholics from Haiti with syncretic voodoo, the Gullah or Geechee with a mix of various beliefs including islam, the pre war between the states Christianity which was absent churches as we were enslaved plus mostly through spirituals as most black people couldn't read. We black people in not talking about our heritage in the usa from the 1800s to today , made religion in our community seem simple, when it never was. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16yxBWNW8J/ FORUM POST https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11683-ryan-cooglers-sinners-questions/

Israel has committed a war prompting action against Iran. Shooting all these missiles at Tehran is an act of war. So... who does what is the next question. If Iran does nothing, they could implode from the inside. Iran has to act militarily. From the post below, many in the government in the USA are willing to let Israel and Iran have it out. Saudi Arabia + United Arab Emirates + Qatar + Iraq are between Israel versus Iran so all of them will have to act in one way or another. Netanyahu has put a very dangerous card forward. I know he wants to preserve israel with him at the head of it. This can be a win if the USA/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/United Arab Emirates/Kuwait/Iraq support Israel. The problem is, many in the USA don't want to support Israel. And Saudi Arabia/Qatar/United Arab Emirates/Kuwait/Iraq have populaces that are all in majority anti jewish. So I doubt any of them will risk the internal troubles of siding with Israel even against Iran knowing their domestic populace. A war will be brilliant for USA/Russia/China/European Union as they each will have a place for their various financial activities as well as a place to focus media away from domestic problems. Taiwan + Ukraine may be winners as it may preoccupy china + russia to make deals with their heritage similar neighbors. I am certain Scrumpft doesn't want to go to war, but if he does or if he doesn't will be a key moment going forward for international policy. If the USA isn't going to step in with Israel vs Iran then a bunch of little regional wars can break out and should get a similar response. Forum Post https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11674-israel-strikes-tehran/ TWEETS American patriots are caught in a vice: The Left puts illegals first ... The Right puts Israel first. On one side, there are riots against the deportation of illegals. On the other side, there's a push for yet another war in the Middle East, this time with Iran! The American patriot takes the brunt of it all. "Making America Great Again" is becoming a distant memory ... even though only 6 months have passed in this new Trump Administration. Watch @DanielLMcAdams and @ChrisRossini below: https://x.com/RonPaul/status/1933234736379670886 Netenyahu has spent his entire Political and Personal life trying destroy the entire Middle East. He doesn't care about Hostages, he doesn't care about the young Israelis dying in Gaza, he doesn't care about Palestinians. He cares about Power. https://x.com/BowesChay/status/1933298882298912948 We dont actually need to side with either. Theres a whole ocean between us. The middle east is not our problem. They chose to move in where they dont belong and are not wanted. It shouldn't be our job to babysit them and keep them safe. None of these issues would be a thing if we just broke up with Israel once and for all, including 9/11. America first and only. https://x.com/CassandraRules/status/1933133816375202129 Marco Rubio puts out a strong statement regarding Israel’s strike on Iran tonight. We will NOT be caught up in another Middle East forever war. These two factions have fought for hundreds of years. Neocons will say we should be involved, but it’s NOT our fight. AMERICA FIRST! https://x.com/MikeCrispi/status/1933327417063715067 Don't join the military. If you're in there now, resign. Israel will drag the US and its allies into a war with Iran, and Russia will join Iran, and China will join Russia. ...and World War III will begin. https://x.com/_RogueScholar_/status/1933320490002886738 Not our war!! World War III is here! Get ready! https://x.com/petejonesintx/status/1933341444686659988 Consider this https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIDmg6DNwwh/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link MORE COMMENTS https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11691-us-strikes-iran-nuclear-sites/#findComment-74598 @ProfD Well schrumpft has placed the global order from FDR all on the backs of Iran really. Israel attacked Iran absent provocation, and then the usa helped defend Israel from Iran 's attacks and now has attacked iran absent provocation. ISrael + USA hope Iran will literally accept being bullied and not fight back and acquiesce. If that happens then the FDR global order is dead and SChrumpft has successfully redefined the global order going forward while avoiding a huge war. All the other countries are waiting for what Iran will do. War is not a game, it never was and never will be. And it never exists as I find most people like to speak of it. If Iran goes to war, the FDR global order is dead and who knows where the alliances go. Iran can do something in the middle which will avoid war but also be very challenging for them, though potentially one of the greatest things in modern humanity. I will not speak of it. But I ponder. https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11691-us-strikes-iran-nuclear-sites/#findComment-74653 @Pioneer1 On 6/22/2025 at 6:13 AM, Pioneer1 said: What doesn't make sense to me is why would Iran enter a "deal" with America when America is an unconditional supporter of Israel? There is no "neutrality" in this. IRan has choices, Iran can choose to go to war officially. Iran can choose to acquiesce to the USA. Either choice Schurmpt gets what he wants. If Iran goes to war, Schrumpft get to use iran as a call for more isolationism. If IRan acquiesces then Schrumpft gets to say he makes peace through strength. Comprehend, Israel does not want iran to go to war and Netanyahu i gambling that the government of iran: ayatollah and the clergy+elected officials+financial barons will lead the country to aquiesce. If Iran decides to go to war, Israel will have forced all of its neighbors who are muslim to keep a distance. They will not help or can not help iran because they are to beholden to the usa or don't have the means BUT their populaces are all anti zionist + anti israel for honest reasons so they can't embrace israel if iran decides to go to war. No neutrality ever exist really in intergovernmental affairs. The USA carries the british heritage of saying things are neutral when they are not On 6/22/2025 at 6:13 AM, Pioneer1 said: America and Israel are allies....and America did what allies are supposed to do....help eachother. this is not true , the usa is not an ally of israel nor is israel an ally of the usa, china is not an ally or russia nor is russia an ally of china, canada nor mexico are allies of the usa nor is the usa an ally of canada or mexico, nor is france an ally of england nor is england an ally of france. No two governments in human history have ever been allies. This term allies is a commercialization of the term "convenient + inconvenient partnerships" Rather than see the usa through the lens of allies, look at the usa + israel through the lens of the leading governors. What does NEtanyahu want? NEtanyahu wants a country of jews who feel they have an ancestral right to a bit of land and are willing to kill any for that right to be embraced as (feared+ loved) neighbors by the muslim (governments+ peoples) all around them who have a history of antagony with them. Iran's government is the biggest threat not because iran has the richest muslim government, that is saudi arabia who is another c+i partner of the usa, not because iran has the most religiously zealous people, that is kemet/egypt who made itself another c+i partner of the usa through egypt's military who runs egypt, not the government of egypt. It is because Iran has the most religiously zealous government in the muslim world and because iran is a public enemy of the usa, that adds on to what israel can apply to iran, whether true or not. Now how does israel's strike lead to what netanyahu wants? If Iran acquiesces, it will force a change in iran's tone or a change in their government posture in key ways. You can't say death to israel + death to the usa, while cowtowing to them. And thus israel will have a neighbor who publicly opposes them off the table as it was. But it all depends on what iran does. If Iran holds true to its public opposition to israel + usa, then usa is safe but israel will be long term under worse conditions, because even though most of the governments in the muslim world about israel are satraps to the usa: saudi arabia/qatar/turkey/egypt/morocco/united arab emirates, syria, jordan, the ones who are not: algeria/libya/pakistan. Remember one thing about egpyt. When they had the commonly called arab spring with all the mamluk descendent college students talking about freedom or rights, who won the election that led the usa to back the egyptian military to take over the government. It was the mulism brotherhood. the muslim brotherhood who are arguably far more anti jewish or anti usa than iran or turkey or whomever, won a public election that the west deems even/fair. So the people in that region are anti israel + anti usa, but the governments, like black elected officials in the usa, are the ones who go against the majority in their populace, make deals with the usa or israel with support from usa+ israel in quelling their own people. so, as some jews have said, what netanyahu has done, has placed israel in potentially the worst situation.The saudi royal family, yearly has to quell the religious fanatics. Look who runs syria now that the assad clan is gone. I argue that if Iran holds true, it will be devastating to the region because the common peoples in that region clearly want israel + the usa gone/out /dead. This is fact so netanyahu is gambling. We will see. IT is all in IRan's hands, that is the reality. Iran will dictate how this plays out, which is a poor sign of diplomacy on the part of israel or the usa. What does Schrumpft want? Schrumpft wants one of two things. 1) Proof that isolationism is warranted which he gets if Iran holds true because he can argue that if iran is willing against the militaristic advantage of the usa + israel aside no aid or assistance coming from anyone to hold true to their positions , that country will never be able to be civil with the usa and thus the usa needs to embrace what many whites in rural usa want, which is a return to isolationism, which will end the internatiolization era started by woodrow wilson of the college of new jersey that ended the isolationism of the usa before and after the spanish american war. 2) proof that the usa can make peace through strength aka bullying which he gets if iran acquiesces. And that is not a new type of peace through strength. The napoleonic era, the roman empire, the civil code+ pax romana were all based on the same things. And considering the usa is two hundred and fifty years old, this can arguably with Schrumpft executive order culture be his crossing the rubicon, which is a phrase used when an empire goes from elected officials to military chiefs. I argue the best similarity is the shogun era in japan. were legally, Nippon was still a country led by the lineage of a royal family while functionally it was run by the head general, the shogun. The usa will still have elected officials but the presidency will take on an imperial role until a president does away with being elected in some form or fashion. The problem is either path means an end to the franklin deleanor roosevelt world order led by the usa, an intricate web of financial/governmental/militaristic operations. Iran propelled by Schrumpfts actions will 1) begin an embrace of one to one culture,which schrumft wants, north american treaty oranizationn/united nations/ similar are finished or reduced extremely, many organizations of the FDR era are finished, because they are based on complex inter governmental relations. 2) begin an era of highly covert operation where the image of the global interwoven economy exists but the embrace of secret/private/covert actions are now advanced highly to evade the bully of the usa but also create or maintain partnerships that are not publicly allowed. The cia/fbi/nsa/ similar will be happy because it will be a grand return to the days with the usa battled the ussr and tons of people were murdered in the dark all throughout humanity to manipulate and control things while keeping public faces of peace. On 6/22/2025 at 6:13 AM, Pioneer1 said: I thought Russia and China was suppose to be Iran's allies....lol. So where are they???? just to repeat, russia isn't even an ally to china nor is china even an ally to russia let alone both of them be ally's to iran. Russia+ China are both nuclear powers who have to be respected on the battle field, which is why the usa never once considers attacking russia although ukraine keeps begging for it. The whole point of the non proliferation treaty was to give usa/russia/china/united kingdom/france a status above all other countries. neither can truly fall because their nuclear arsenals can potentially be used to clear the board. But, stopping their rivals from getting nuclear weapons was in all their favor: cuba/mexico/poland/sweden/taiwan/vietnam/india/japan/germany/algeria/libya/ireland all don't have nuclear weapons and all have what I will label gripes, with a nuclear power. Now israel/India/pakistan all achieved nuclear weapons but they never signed the non proliferation treaty. South Sudan is a new country but they didn't sign also, which is interesting for the future... North Korea signed but did that to get technical help and then withdrew and accepted the penalty which is why they get banned from so much. Now to iran, under the shah Iran signed it , but when the ayotollah came in after killing the shah, supported by the majority in iran, the government should had gotten out of the NPT but they stayed so it took over forty years but iran seems to be leaving the NPT which will force more sanctions even though it will also free iran from any further legal scenarios. Russia + China will be happy cause it will force Iran to be partnered with them as only official nuclear powers can make arrangements with non nuclear powers , ala the usa to israel. the usa will be unhappy but the usa will not be able to stop russia or china from doing business with iran. The question is if Iran quits, will that lead to many countries quitting the NPT...and the reality is, when the nuclear weapons came about at the end of the second phase of the white european imperial war, commonly called, world war two, the situation in humanity is no different than now. Yes, countries like the usa are bullies but the reality is, a question holds true. Does any government know how to lose? specifically, does any government know how to accept their army+navy+air force being completely wiped out with the enemy in their borders and not use their nuclear weapons? yes, any one can say of course, but the risk is what if one can not. You have to comprehend, fission based irradiated air /water will travel all over the earth, make everyone sick and the more bombs the more irradiated. No one will escape. Yes, the fiscal aristocracy may have a way out, but are they truly prepared for the time it will take. I doubt it. Remmeber it isn't just radiation levels it is, genetic deformities. It may sound apocalyptic, but nuclear weapons are powerful, their damage is wide and a sky full of them falling down on the earth will not kill the earth but will kill most of her children and it will take a long time for her to produce more. ... On 6/22/2025 at 3:45 PM, Pioneer1 said: I think right now North Korea is probably one of the very few nations that would actually be down to "ride" if a phone call was made to them. no, north korea wouldn't, but north korea hopes iran gets out f the non proliferation. @ProfD On 6/22/2025 at 3:39 PM, ProfD said: where is Russia and China who are supposed allies to Iran. as I told Pioneer I don't know where anyone gets this idea that any two governments in humanity or allies. i have no idea where that , in my opinion true stupidity comes from. so I can't answer your question. But, I can answer the following, what are russia + china doing? Russia + China are both waiting on Iran. In the same way the usa is hiding behind israel , russia + china will hide behind iran, this is the hundred year heritage of the third white european imperial war commonly called the cold war, where the usa+ ussr used others to battle themselves. That heritage lives on strong, sadfully, and I say sadfully because lies never favor true peace. On 6/22/2025 at 2:37 AM, richardmurray said: If Iran goes to war, the FDR global order is dead and who knows where the alliances go. On 6/22/2025 at 3:39 PM, ProfD said: The Iranians do not have enough weapons or men to wage war against Israel backed by the US. I had to first quote myself properly because the way you quoted me suggested I said, Iran would be advantaged in a war against israel backed by the usa or that war was even wise. I didn't say anything of the sort. If Iran goes to war, the global order is dead or at least injured. What i said had nothing to do with militaristic feasibility but the global arrangement of governments in humanity today. Iran has to makes it choice and it is theirs to make. I am not in the prediction business or the assumption business, options others have I treat honestly. On 6/22/2025 at 3:39 PM, ProfD said: The Iranian regime could do the terrorist equivalent of strapping on a bomb and blowing up their own country. That would not be fair to the 90 million Iranian citizens though. War isn't about evenness or what you call fairness. War is about destruction/chaos, what you are willing to give or take in violence. Your suggestion I find insulting. The Iranian government will make its choice. and for the record, for any one outside profd who reads the following, what I was/am thinking is not in his answer. He went another way completely. On 6/22/2025 at 2:37 AM, richardmurray said: Iran can do something in the middle which will avoid war but also be very challenging for them, though potentially one of the greatest things in modern humanity. I will not speak of it. But I ponder. @umbrarchist 16 hours ago, umbrarchist said: Russia is Crumbling internally in its failure to deal with Ukraine. China has internal economic problems because of their insanely corrupt real estate bubble. Supposedly Xi just fell from power so their internal politics may not be in order. China is not crumbling , let me explain to you how the chinese government works. The chinese government which is technically a multiparty states, yes china has minority parties, like the reform party in the usa or the communist party in the usa.. The chinese government has congresses, each congress is where the communist party members vote on everything from who will lead to who will have this or that position to laws to more. But each year between congresses, each year, an annual session occurs where instead of everybody like in the congress, it is the leaders and top folk, think of this like the primaries in the usa. So Xi has many questioning his leadership in china. Again, the myth in the usa is that china is a dictatorship, that isn't true. The chinese government is primarly made of one party but the chinese have philosophical or age based camps. What do I mean? whereas in the usa, you have warhawks and fiscal conservatives in the party of abraham lincoln, the elephants, and you have centrists and liberals in the pary of andrew jackson, the donkeys. If you were to relate china's system to the usa's, in china, no elephants or donkeys exist, but the chinese communist party has wings based on philosophy but also age and they compete whole in the congress or part in the sessions and sway to and from each other and that is what XI is dealing with. People vote in china, the problem is the usa likes the idea of a system where political parties which are not part of the constitution get to be deemed mandatory. The chinese communist party has a militaristic wing, has a financial wing, has a cultural wing and many others. China is not financially where some in china want it to be even though it is an unchallenged second in the world and the real estate bubble is no different than the multiple that happened in the usa in recent memory. China is not militaristically where some in china want it to be , even though they are playing catchup because of obvious reasons. So Xi has those in china who feel he is not doing a good enough job. China is not culturally where some in china want it to be, but south korea/japan/taiwan have those who benefit from china alongside those who benefit from the usa. and all three of those countries want an autonomy that china gives the likes of macau while said three have the condition of hong kong. @aka Contrarian 15 hours ago, aka Contrarian said: Trump publicly announced that he was going to wait 2 weeks to see how things played out between Iran and Israel, then days after this declaration, America launched a secret attack on Iran and destroyed its nuclear facilities. There is "no honor among thieves". That's how Trump rolls. He has no scruples or diplomacy. He's a sneaky liar. Meanwhile, Israel is beside itself with joy and full of praise for Trump who yearns to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize like Obama, who he envies. This is the guy running America. smh. Remember the USA populace earned his leadership, it is not accident or unwarranted. Was it not the white european descent populace in the usa who constantly voted for elected officials who made promises they never kept, and constantly blamed or made actions against non white populaces? Was it not the black populace in the usa from the end of the war between the states who constantly had battles amongst it parts on what they wanted the black experience to be in the usa, never doing what is necessary to force one way, ending up supporting black elected officials who never had a pro black plan and only spoke of unwarranted or dysfunctional dreams while lying about their presence as the desired legacy of black advocates murdered by whites plus agents of whites or the black populace en large who I argue has always disliked whites? Was it not the immigrant populaces of the usa post immigration act 1964 who as the smallest minority populaces benefited off of the woes of indigenous or battles of dos blacks while embracing all the media positions from whites on said historically abused peoples while now as larger populaces wanting the same security they had in the past? the people in the usa earned Schrumpft. The majority of the people in the usa are backstabbers to their own kin in action or words, or liars about their kins condition, who claim they want betterment while they support dysfunctional or inevitably destructive strategies plans or ideas. The people of the usa warrant Schrumpt, earned his tenures. The aspect that amaze me the most is the majority of the people in the usa actually think they warrant better. They don't. https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11691-us-strikes-iran-nuclear-sites/#findComment-74664 @ProfD 6 hours ago, ProfD said: IMO, the global pecking order remains unchanged regardless the outcome of this strike. the global order I refer to isn't the global peckin order @Pioneer1 7 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: What do they expect Russia to actually do? I don't know , iran has this issue in their corner, israel + the usa have done their part but now it is up to iran. All I have read in terms of actions is iran attacked a base in qatar , has blocked a sea route for oil, is not stating it has gone to war with the usa, and is deliberating leaving the non proliferation treaty which based on the precedence of north korea, all they have to do is give a ninety day notice. I imagine the usa will want to make a deal before then as the usa made a deal with north korea on the 89th day but... we will see. All that is for sure is Iran hasn't bowed to the israel+usa nor threw a punch at israel+usa. https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11691-us-strikes-iran-nuclear-sites/#findComment-74665 @umbrarchist Even enough but the usa has had more real estate bubble pops than any other country in the last twenty five years, i count three at least, and the usa government is still going strong. https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11691-us-strikes-iran-nuclear-sites/#findComment-74684 @aka Contrarian one of the most important things human governments need, reboots. Peace has a very great negative, it allows the inefficiencies to live on. Peace never gets rid of inefficiency, merely allows it to mutate into something far worse, albeit even if no one cognizes it at the time. https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11691-us-strikes-iran-nuclear-sites/#findComment-74693 @Troy On 6/24/2025 at 10:10 PM, Troy said: Absolutely nothin'! yeah, lovely song, lovely voice:) all black folks know it .... but the song's message is wrong. War is good for somethings. I argue some songs messages have to be reputed really. @aka Contrarian do you remember when nina simone said this[you have to scroll to the bottom of the following link], i say this is my response to what good war is for? https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11691-us-strikes-iran-nuclear-sites/#findComment-74713 I didn't [at] Troy because I am not commenting to oppose Troy's points as I will reassert in the following, I am not interested in prosyletization but I will publicly oppose positions I see as flawed. Well... good, please keep your position standalone or in context of the vietnam war. I don't want it to change for any reason. But I have to protest this. The Vietnam was was a billion dollar money making machine, the illegal profits alone were grand. Money matters. I always find it funny how many black people in the usa, especially DOSers talk about money making but then want to war has no good when was tends to make more money than most things especially peaceful things. Again, I want it known I do not want Troy's position to change nor am I regaling Troy or anyone else. But, this is false. First, the federal bureau of investigation are suggested by many to have infiltrated every single organization in the usa. Of course, I have no proof, no proof whatsoever. But I can believe it. I know Malcolm x's bodyguard was an agent. So... this goes back to nina simone's point the black people who talk most about peace are willing to exist alongside blacks like malcolm x's former bodyguard, and the horde of others mostly I bet still not publicly known or listed, including in the nation of islam against malcolm who are harming the village. her point is true, if you want to protect your racial populace you have to be willing to kill, those in or out of your racial populace who are enemies, which includes nation of islam members who are agents, bodyguards of leaders who are against as well as kkk non blacks. @ProfD of course, didn't the usa make a deal with north korea on the 89th day of them leaving the non proliferation treaty, which led to north korea pausing it [even though they continued it later]? so I can see schrumpft making a deal as the iranians legislative body is mulling over getting out the non proliferation treaty It seems for now Iran is not playing their hand, every second they wait they put pressure on the usa. https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2025/06/26/3342970/iran-reaffirms-right-to-peaceful-nuclear-energy-within-npt-framework Iran Reaffirms Right to Peaceful Nuclear Energy within NPT Framework June, 26, 2025 TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry reiterated that the country will not yield to pressure or aggression, emphasizing that the right to lawful access to nuclear energy is non-negotiable under international treaties. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ismael Baqaei emphasized that Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy remains unchanged and warned that any future cooperation with the IAEA depends on international recognition of Iran’s legal entitlements and protection of its national security. The following is the full text of the interview: Question: Well, joining us now on Al Jazeera is Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ismael Baqaei. He's live from Tehran. Thank you so much, Baqaei, for being with us on Al Jazeera. So, (US) President (Donald) Trump is insisting that Tehran’s nuclear program has been completely destroyed. He said, quote, "The US strikes were a perfect operation that obliterated Iran's nuclear capabilities." What's your response to that? What's the initial damage assessment at your nuclear sites? Baqaei: I think what matters here—and should not be overshadowed by beautiful words and different positions taken by the United States—is the fact that we witnessed a detrimental blow to international law, to the NPT regime, and to the moral ethics of the international community. So, what matters most here is for the international community to understand that the US military strikes were an act of aggression against Iran's territorial integrity and national sovereignty. That matters most. Question: Okay, understood. But when the US president says that Iran's nuclear program has been completely destroyed, do you reject or accept that? Baqaei: What I have to say is that Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy remains intact. Iran has every right under the NPT, under Article 4 of the NPT, to enjoy using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and Iran is determined to preserve that right under any circumstances. Question: Okay, can you tell us what's left of the Iranian nuclear program and the uranium stockpiles? Has Iran been able to salvage any of the uranium stockpiles before the US bombing? Baqaei: As I said, I think these are secondary issues. The primary concern of the international community has to be to condemn this lawless act by the United States. I think it is really a very bad sign that many people across the globe are trying to underestimate the depth and gravity of the American act of aggression against Iran, and now they are talking about the level of strikes or its effectiveness. The international community has to understand that what was done by the United States against Iran was a horrible blow to international diplomacy, to international law, and to international ethics. Question: Understood, sir. I just want to insist on the fact that the IAEA has called on Iran to allow nuclear inspectors at the site, as this ceasefire with Israel is now in place. But instead, I understand Iran is considering cutting cooperation with the UN nuclear agency. Can you tell us why and why you would not allow inspectors on the ground to verify the facts? Baqaei: Don't you think it is only natural for the representatives of a nation that has come under an egregious act of aggression to reconsider the way they have been dealing with the IAEA? Yes, there has been a draft bill by our parliament today—it has been adopted—and it talks about suspending our cooperation with the IAEA. It talks about suspending, not putting an end to, the cooperation, with two conditions: first, that Iran's inalienable rights under the NPT, under Article 4 of the NPT, must be recognized. The second thing is that the security and safety of our nuclear installations, our scientists, and our people should be preserved. So, I think it's only logical—it's a matter of logic and law—because if we are going to be a responsible member of the NPT, we have to be able to enjoy the rights that are afforded to every member state of this treaty. Question: Speaking of the NPT, sir, you also talked about Iran discussing suspending its participation in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Is that something that's been seriously considered? Will Iran pull out of the NPT after this war? Baqaei: As I said, the draft bill of the parliament talks about suspending our cooperation with the IAEA. It doesn't talk about suspending our participation or membership in the treaty. And I think the bill again is in line with the parameters of the NPT because the bill talks about guaranteeing our rights under the NPT. Question: You're right under the NPT, and you've said this before, sir, that Iran has the right to enrich uranium. Can you tell us—I'm going to insist on this a little bit more—what remains operational today as far as Iran's nuclear program? Baqaei: I have nothing to add on this matter because it's a technical issue. Our Atomic Energy Organization and other relevant agencies are working on that. But yes, our nuclear installations have been badly damaged—that's for sure—because they have come under repeated attacks by Israeli and American aggressors. Again, what matters most for the people in the region and beyond is to really understand the depth of this lawlessness that happened for the past 12 days against Iran. Question: President Trump also said today while he was at the NATO summit that, quote, "We'll end up having somewhat of a relationship with Iran after this conflict." Are you open to that now that your country is no longer under fire—being attacked, as you say? Are you willing to negotiate with the US? Baqaei: We have been hearing all sorts of contradictory remarks for the past two or three months. There have been many contradictions within the American bureaucracy, within the American establishment. While they have been talking about diplomacy, they green light the Israelis to attack Iran only two days before our scheduled meeting in Muscat. My nation came under an act of aggression by Israel. So, has there remained any trust in them? Because they are talking about different things, acting differently, and now they have to be held accountable for the aggression that they have committed against my country in collusion with the Israelis. And that's something that our people want—as the government, they expect the international community to hold the aggressors accountable before anything else. Question: So, are you saying that you're no longer interested in talking to the Americans? Baqaei: What I'm trying to say is that they torpedoed diplomacy. As far as Iran is concerned, we have said diplomacy never ends—even during the height of the imposed war against Iran, we continued talking to different actors in order to save lives and to make sure that our national security is protected. But the point is that the other parties are talking about dialogue and diplomacy while at the same time committing acts of aggression. These contradictions have only created more and more problems. Question: Okay, so what preconditions, if any, would Iran require for any future negotiations? Baqaei: For the time being, we are focused—just one day after the stoppage of the aggression by the Israelis—on our security, on our people, because people are outraged at what happened. So, at this time, I think we have nothing to say about those contradictory remarks regarding diplomacy or negotiations because we have to make sure whether the other parties are really serious when they're talking about diplomacy or if it is again part of their tactics to create more problems for the region and for my country. Question: Okay, let me ask you, sir, about the ceasefire—briefly—between Israel and Iran, which is now in place and is holding. What are the key elements required to maintain this ceasefire, this truce? Are there any active diplomatic channels that are supporting this truce behind the scenes? Baqaei: As you see, we were approached by Qataris to stop this war—this imposed war against Iran. We didn't start this war, and we agreed to stop after they approached us, after the Americans approached Qatar. So, it is very clear: we have been under attack, we have been subjected to an act of aggression. So, we will defend in case there is any act of military strikes, any act of aggression against Iran. Question: Baqaei, one last question if I can. Iranian officials have projected an image of strength and stability—even victory—in the face of this conflict. As you say, Iran was attacked by Israel, but the toll has been significant for Iran: over 600 casualties, widespread destruction of military and civilian sites. We don't yet know the extent of the destruction of the nuclear sites. When Iranian officials claim victory today, what does victory mean? What does victory look like? What did Iran achieve realistically in this conflict? Baqaei: We suffered a lot—that's for sure. Our people were massacred by Israeli aggression; that's war crimes against humanity, and they have to be held accountable. But the point is that our people showed that they are resolute in defense of their national security and sovereignty. And I think, given the fact that this imposed war was orchestrated, planned, and operationalized with the help of Americans, it means that we had to resist against an attack by the United States, by Israelis—by two nuclear-armed actors—and the fact that they were supported by some other actors as well across the Western Hemisphere. So, it means that we were able, as a nation, to defend our identity, our security, and at the end, we had to make them—they had to submit to the will of the Iranian people through resistance—to approach us and ask for this ceasefire. Question: So, they approached you and asked you for the ceasefire—just to confirm? Baqaei: We were approached by our friends from Qatar. And of course, as I said, we have never welcomed war. We are a nation of peace-loving people. No responsible actor, no responsible state in our region welcomes war. It is only one actor in our region that has always been trying to wage war against the people in our region. They are committing, as you know, genocide in Gaza for the past two years. They are occupying the lands of two Muslim countries—Syria and Lebanon—and everyone knows that they are warmongers that have no respect for international law, for international ethics, or morality. So yes, we, as a nation, were able to resist against this unjust war for the past 12 days. Question: Baqaei, just one final question if I may. You mentioned Qatar, and the Qataris have expressed dissatisfaction at the attack on the American base here in Qatar, strongly condemned it, and said that this constitutes a scar in the relationship between Iran and Qatar today. What is Iran going to do to repair this relationship? Baqaei: We have high respect for Qataris, and we attach significant importance to our good relations with Qatar. We have been good friends with Qatar during their difficult times, and Qataris have also been our good friends. We are good friends, basically, with all countries—the littoral states of the Persian Gulf. We have made it clear that the military strikes against Al Udeid had nothing to do with Qatar. We respect the territorial integrity and national security of Qatar. It was in exercise of our right of self-defense against American aggression against our peaceful nuclear installations. So, at the high level, our president talked to Qataris; our minister of foreign affairs did as well. We tried to clarify that what was done was against the American base in exercise of our right of self-defense. So, we are committed to our good-neighborliness policy with Qatar and other countries of the region. And I personally am really unhappy about any inconvenience that has been caused to our Qatari sisters and brothers as a result of this attack. But as we said, this self-defense operation was calibrated in defense of our rights under Article 51 of the Charter, in response to American aggression against our territorial integrity. https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11691-us-strikes-iran-nuclear-sites/#findComment-74772 @ProfD your welcome for the proper reporting:) @aka Contrarian Well this is two wars. the USA+UK started the war between palestineans side zionists, it is a war that has been going on since 1920 between the palestinean muslim and the zionist jew. but it was not started by either, it was started by the usa+uk. uk could have easily blockaded the zionist knowing fully well, the palestineans didn't want them as photos of palestinean protest show. the usa did their part by allowing finances and resources to zionist populations. the rest is inevitability. A war that has gone on for one hundred and five years, like the hundred years war between england and france with various interbellums [moments between the war, some call ceasefires, some falsely call peace] the war between iran and israel was started by the usa when they supported the shah whose governing quality created the ayotollah, but as the jordan current king said, his father warned the shah and the shah didn't heed, so everybody in the region and by some three letter people [ central intelligence agency] of the security industry in the usa knew too but it wasn't heeded for whatever reason and the ayotollah took over and embarrassed the security industry in the usa. And the second the ayotollah took over he opposed iraq/saudi arabia/israel/usa and that was when the war between israel /iran started but it wasn't started by iran or israel, it was started by the usa who was so concerned about oil and having israel + iran as satraps that the condition of the iranian majority was second fiddle and the whitephile or europhile fiscally wealthy iranian minority that was wearing mini skirts or rock and rolling were told to go into gilded shadows or leave. but the usa started the iran+ israel war. You are correct war doesn't breed heroes or villains, good guys or bad guys, that is very wise, but it isn't fanatacism or power hungry leaders. It is more than that. It is about identity. Unlike Black descended of enslaved whom seem to like internal conflict in their populace, some peoples want their populace to have a cohesion that warrants the word community. and that means when others are around who want to challenge that identity you have to fight, you have to kill, to make sure you reach or maintain the identity you want. Iran doesn't want to have usa military bases in their country like saudi arabia/qatar. Iran don't want to have arrangements with israel nor do they want israel in the region. Iran wants palestineans to get palestine back. Iranians want to have the tools to deter the usa from attacking iran cheaply. that is identity and since war is the only way, then war is a good way.

Ok fellow writers, let's have some fun, and answer the most important questions, the most challenging mysteries... Where Are They Now !! First up, a little lady some of you may have heard of , but we all must wonder after her dire predictions. Where Is Elaine from Ghostbusters 2 Now!? https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/journal/Where-Are-They-Now-Elaine-Ghostbusters-2-1205470051 Audio https://www.tumblr.com/richardmurrayhumblr/791591797465956352/where-are-they-now-elaine-ghostbusters-2-by Prose https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Where-is-Elaine-Now-1208602076 The challenge with Ghosbuster gallery art https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/status-update/Ok-fellow-writers-let-s-have-1205775525 aalbc forum post https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11673-where-are-they-now-elaine-ghostbusters-2/ aalbc status post https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2862&type=status https://www.tumblr.com/richardmurrayhumblr/791591797465956352/where-are-they-now-elaine-ghostbusters-2-by